SUBJECT EXCELLENT IN MANAGEMENT
2 Kings (28) Excellence in self-management
(2 Kings 12:1-16)
<Reforms for the Temple Repair of Joash>
It was in the seventh year of Jehu, the tenth king of northern Israel, when 7-year-old Joash became the 8th king of southern Judah with the help of Jehoiada the priest (verse 1). Joash received the instructions of Jehoiada the priest and did what was right in the sight of the Lord, but the high places were not removed, so the people still performed the high places (verses 2-3). Although the high-place sacrifice was a sacrifice to worship Jehovah, it had to be removed because it had many shamanistic, mixed, and heretical elements.
One day, King Joash ordered the priests to repair the temple and collected three kinds of offerings (verses 4-5). First, it was 'silver used by people'. The donation was a resident's or capitation tax levied on men over the age of 20. Second, it was “silver offered as a ransom for each person.” The donation was received according to the priest's evaluation from those who made a vow to serve God, and the amount differed according to age and gender. Third, it was “silver that is voluntarily offered to the temple.” The offering is silver voluntarily offered to the sanctuary.
He told them to repair the temple with the offering. At that time, Solomon's Temple was about 140 years old, so there were many places to repair it. Nevertheless, it was neglected, and it shows the indolent faith of the time. Such indolent faith continued until the 23rd year of King Joash, and the priests refused to repair the temple (verse 6). The reason is that the priests used the offerings for purposes other than repairing the temple or for their own livelihood.
As the repairs of the temple continued to be delayed, King Joash eventually summoned the high priest Jehoiada and the priests, and the priests did not directly accept the offering, but those who donated to the temple made a separate donation for the repair of the temple (verse 7). In other words, the priests were not allowed to accept donations for the repair of the temple, and they also eased the burden of repairing the temple (verse 8). And instead of the priest, a separate finance officer received the money for temple repair and had the money paid directly to the person who repaired it.
At the king's command, Jehoiada the priest took an ark and made a hole in its lid, and put it on the right side of the entrance hall of the temple, right next to the altar of burnt offering. At that time, silver was used instead of money, so it can be said that the ark was the first treasury box in history to contain silver for the purpose of repairing the temple.
King Joash set up a separate treasury so that the donations for temple repairs and the offerings of the priests would not mix. Prior to that, there was no such traffic arrangement, so the temple repairs were delayed as the donations were used more for the priests' livelihood than the temple repair costs. In the end, the silver put in the treasury was used only for the repair of the temple, but so that the repair of the temple would not be delayed further, the donations were not used to prepare the various temple equipment (verse 13).
He gave the silver to the workers for the repair of the temple, but did not make an account with the cashiers, because they worked diligently (verses 14-15). This means that you have completely trusted and entrusted your financial matters to the person in charge. As such, the financier should hire the most trustworthy people and, once established, trust them as much as possible. Then, the finance person must follow the principles of community management and the guidance of the spiritual leader so that the spiritual leader does not care about the finances, and use the finances as wisely as possible according to their priorities.
<Excellent in self-care >
The silver collected from the ark of the temple was used only for the repair of the temple, and the silver from the trespass offering and the silver from the sin offering were used for the priests' living expenses (verse 16). The reason that King Joash's first order to repair the temple did not go well is because there was no institutional support for the priest's life problems. So, when we went to the second temple repair, we made up for the problem and returned the silver from the guilt offering and the silver from the sin offering to the priests to solve the problems of the priests' lives.
'Silver of guilt offering' refers to additional compensation paid to the temple in addition to the compensation for victims when they commit a crime, and 'silver of sin offering' is a festival to thank God for extending life to sinful people with original sins. It refers to the compulsory offering at a time when you are moved by yourself or a voluntary offering when you have a prayer topic. The silver from the trespass offering and the silver from the sin offering were returned to the priests to use for their livelihood.
Some might say this. “If you are a servant of God, you must transcend the issue of livelihood, so why are you obsessed with such a problem? At first glance, this may sound like a very spiritual word, but in reality, it is not gracious to ignore the priests' livelihood issue because the priests also have to eat. On the other hand, if the priests are obsessed with the issue of livelihood, they will not receive more grace. The most gracious aspect is the thoughtful creation and implementation of a system in which the community cares for the priests' livelihood issues at an average level of the community, neither too little nor too much, so that the priests do not care about their livelihood issues.
In any society, over time, vested interests are formed. If there is no reform at that time, the vested interests will become fixed, and the ‘phenomena of the rich, the poor, the poor’ and the ‘phenomena of injustice where power becomes justice’ deepen, eventually leading to a radical and tragic ruin of the society. Therefore, reforms are always necessary, and it is natural that reforms must proceed in a direction that partially sacrifices or weakens the rights of the established elite. Under that circumstance, successful reform requires political power to handle opposition from the established elite.
What is good politics? To put it simply, it is ‘to share the vested interests wisely’. Conservatives that thoroughly represent vested interests are not true conservatives, and conversely, progressives that completely abolish vested interests are not true progressives. True conservatives and true progressives share the same mind in the necessity of reforming the system and rearranging the system to better share the vested interests, but it is the most ideal view that true conservatives and true progressives are divided according to the speed and scope of the reform.
The most important thing is to prepare the social and spiritual ground for correct politics by voluntarily sharing the vested interests with the recognition and sense of duty as a self-politician who manages and supervises himself well. Saints must excel in such self-government and self-management. At that moment, God's justice will be expanded, and God's praise, grace, and blessings for him will abound.