Joash did what was right in the eyes of the Lord all the years Jehoiada the priest instructed him.” — 2 Kings 12:2 (NIV)
The phrase that commends Joash is also the phrase that qualifies him, and the qualification deserves a long, honest look. Joash did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, all the years Jehoiada the priest instructed him. Not all the years he reigned. All the years Jehoiada instructed him. The integrity of this king was inseparable from the presence of his mentor. Remove Jehoiada and you remove the scaffolding that was holding the building upright.
Joash’s story begins with one of the most dramatic rescues in royal history. As an infant, he was hidden in the temple for six years while his grandmother Athaliah, having murdered the rest of the royal family, ruled illegitimately over Judah. Jehoiada the priest had smuggled him out and concealed him, at enormous personal risk, until the moment was right. Then he orchestrated the coup, installed the seven-year-old Joash on the throne, and spent the rest of his life guiding, protecting, and forming this young king he had saved. The mentorship was not incidental to Joash’s reign. It was the reason the reign was possible at all.
There is something genuinely moving about what Jehoiada gave Joash: not just instruction, but proximity. He did not disciple from a distance. He stayed close, remained present, and maintained influence not through position but through relationship. And because of that sustained, personal investment, Joash was able to accomplish significant things, including the restoration of the temple that had fallen into disrepair under Athaliah’s reign. It was a good chapter of leadership, producing tangible results for the kingdom.
But the phrase “all the years Jehoiada instructed him” carries a hidden warning: what about the years after? Every mentored leader must eventually move from dependence on the mentor’s presence to ownership of the mentor’s values. The goal of good mentorship is not to create a follower who cannot function without the leader. It is to shape someone who has so thoroughly internalized what they were taught that the teaching continues to govern them even in the teacher’s absence. Joash, as we will see tomorrow, never made that transition.
For now, the lesson of this chapter of Joash’s life is the gift and the necessity of mentorship itself. The quality of a leader’s inner circle, and especially the presence of a Jehoiada figure, someone older, wiser, and genuinely invested in your formation rather than your performance, is one of the most significant determinants of whether a reign will be faithful. Who is your Jehoiada? Who has the access and the authority to instruct you, not just advise you?
Today, take stock of the mentorship relationships in your life. Who is currently speaking into your governance of your sphere, not as a consultant or a peer, but as someone with enough closeness and enough wisdom to instruct? If that seat is empty, make it a matter of prayer and intentional pursuit. No leader is too experienced to need a Jehoiada.
Prayer
Father, send me a Jehoiada. Someone with the wisdom, the closeness, and the courage to instruct me rather than merely advise me. And where that person is already in my life, give me the humility to actually receive what they offer. In Jesus’ name, amen.
