READING: 2 Kings 11:1-3, 2 Chronicles 22:10-12, 2 Kings 11:4-12, 2 Chronicles 23:1-11, 2 Kings 11:13-16, 2 Chronicles 23:12-15, 2 Kings 11:17-21, 2 Chronicles 23:16-21, 2 Kings 12:1-16, 2 Chronicles 24:1-22, 2 Kings 10:32-36
I am convinced that accountability is a necessary and fruitful effort in the lives of all believers. None of us is immune from the enemy’s attacks, and not one of us is designed to walk the Christian journey alone. No matter how old we get, we still need others who help us guard our lives for God’s glory. At the same time, in today’s world where the real need for increased accountability and transparency is in the headlines, the story of the workers repairing the Temple in Joash’s day is almost hard to believe.
The men set apart to supervise the work of Temple repair were given money to pay the workers, but the inspired text tells us that the leaders “did not require an accounting from those to whom they gave the money to pay the workers, because they acted with complete honesty” (2 Kgs 12:15). The men were so filled with integrity, so trustworthy, so dependable—and apparently, they had a track record of such—that no one felt a need to hold them accountable. They could be trusted even with money, an area about which one commentator notes, “Our use of money is always a test of faithfulness.”*
While I still argue that accountability truly does matter, all of us should live in such a way that others sense no need to question our hearts. We must work to be people of integrity.
PERSONAL REFLECTION: Would others say today that you operate with complete honesty in all matters?
DAILY PRAYER: “God, fill me with integrity.”
TOMORROW’S READING: 2 Kings 13:1-11, 2 Kings 12:17-21, 2 Chronicles 24:23-27, 2 Kings 13:14-25
* Wiseman, D. J. (1993). 1 and 2 Kings: an introduction and commentary (Vol. 9, p. 253). InterVarsity Press.
