“And Jehoash did what was right in the eyes of the Lord all his days, because Jehoiada, the priest, instructed him.”
– 2 Kings 12:2
What a picture here 2 Kings 12:2 of the king and the priest working together in the leadership of God’s people. The king, as administrator among God’s people, as the one who is leading them, needed to be spiritually in tune with the state of the people before God. And so the priest instructs the king and teaches him, and the king listens. And as a result, the people are led well. Jehoash does what is right in the eyes of the Lord all his days.
The king, as the leader among God’s people, needed to be spiritually in tune with the state of the people before God.
There’s so much I think about when I read this simple verse. One, just for this need in all of our lives to listen well to instruction from the Lord, specifically when we have influence in others’ lives and we have leadership in other people’s lives, whether that’s in our homes, in work, in the church, or just the influence we have in day-to-day relationships with other people, that we would be in touch with the spiritual state of the people we are leading, that we’d be praying for them and hearing God’s Word on their behalf, instructing them in God’s Word and leading others well, influencing others with the grace of God that comes from His Word, with the wisdom of God that comes from his Word.
And then at the same time, when I read this verse, 2 Kings 12:2, I think about Jesus, who is the perfect priest-king. When we come to the picture of Jesus in the New Testament, we see these different offices in the Old Testament, priest, king, and prophet, perfectly exemplified in Jesus, that he is the ruler, the leader, the king, who is perfectly in touch with the state of God’s people and perfectly reveals the Word of God to his people.
There is no one like Jesus. He is the leader we need, all of us need in our lives. He is the leader that the people we influence need, which is why, when it comes to influencing others, the whole picture of First Corinthians 11:1 is so critical. Follow me as I follow Christ. He is the leader the people around us need, which means the people around us who we influence need to see, more than anything else, Jesus in us.
Oh, so we pray, oh God, based on 2 Kings 12:2, that you would help us to do what is right in your eyes all of our days.
God, I just pray that over my life. I pray for every single person listening right now. I pray that over us today. Help us to do what is right in your eyes today and tomorrow and the next day and the next day, as we listen to instruction from your Word.
God, we praise you for your Word. We pray that we would meditate on it day and night and be careful to do according to all that is written in it. We pray that with the influence you give us in others’ lives, in any way that we have an opportunity to lead or influence others, God, help us to do so with your Word in our mouth. And God, we pray that you would help us to do this in touch with the spiritual state of people around us. Give us sensitivity to how we can best encourage them spiritually.
Follow After Jesus
And God, we pray for your help to do this well, knowing, Lord Jesus, that you have put your Spirit inside of us, you, the perfect priest and king and prophet, you, the revelation of God’s Word, the leader who we need. We praise you for all of your perfections and we pray more than anything you’d help us to follow you today, that you’d help us to follow your leadership in our lives, that your Spirit in us would lead, guide, direct, prompt everything in us.
God, we pray you’d make us each look more like Jesus today and in this, to help us to lead others to Jesus, to say to others, “Follow me as I am following Jesus.” We pray for that kind of influence in other people’s lives, that we would be more like Jesus and that as a result of our lives today, people around us would be more like Jesus. In his name, we pray, amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
