But by the twenty-third year of King Joash the priests still had not repaired the temple.
In a Globalist paper written early this year by U.S. chief economist Bernard Wasow, his first paragraphs compared the damage difference between the 2010 Haiti earthquake and 13 other countries combined. Chile’s magnitude 8.8 was harder than Haiti’s 7.0, but the question is, how come Chile’s death toll was less than a thousand while the latter was three hundred thousand? And if we add the other 12 countries, their sum total of 165 thousand is still a little half than that of Haiti’s. Poverty was the obvious reason. But the not-so-obvious reason? Researches pointed to corruption. When buildings stand on bribery, it will fall. The 1998-2010 Perceived Corruption chart issued by Transparency International showed Haiti on the top quintile column. Guess where we stand? Second line :<
On the twenty-third year of Joash rule, he recalled giving an order years ago for the rebuilding of God’s temple. This project was close to his heart because the temple became his home and refuge for six years. He may have played hide and seek with the young priests in every room there. Now living in a luxurious palace, it probably grieves his heart to see his former home in poor condition whenever he comes for a sacrifice. And so he ordered the priests to collect dues throughout all Judah to finance the repairs. But after a long time, he just realized nothing’s happening. When he inquired, there was no black and white explanation. We can only guess that the people weren’t giving because priests weren’t zealously collecting or the people stopped giving because the priests kept it in other pockets. We don’t want to say corruption, so let’s just call it mismanagement. Joash pulled out the priests from that project and assigned the royal secretary and Jehoida his mentor to man the giving. Instead of house to house collection, they placed a chest in the temple entrance for everyone to see. Amazingly, the people started giving. Whenever the chest was full, the two assigned will do the counting, give it to the supervisors who in turn will pay the workers and purchase the repair materials. It was noted that even the temple articles weren’t bought from that chest. The people gave for the building, they made sure it was for that allotment alone. Soon they were able to meet all the expenses even without touching the offerings belonging to the priests. God rewarded their faithfulness and blessed them with much.
In verse 15, we read: ‘They did not require an accounting from those to whom they gave the money to pay the workers, because they acted with complete honesty’. Now that’s a long, lost art. Those books are our only way to make people accountable to us. But even with those in print, corruption can still log in. Not even family businesses or churches can survive without that system now. So how was that possible in Joash time? Remember that chest at the entrance? They were completely transparent with the people. Judah visibly saw who were directly incharge and knowing they were trustworthy men, they cheerfully supported the project ‘til its completion. Honesty and hardwork should be in every project’s blueprint, every building’s foundation. Without those, God will not sign in as capstone. No one builds a house on sand. It’s foolish and it will fall. Don’t take chances. Make that change.
No comments:
Post a Comment