2 Chronicles 23 – 24, John 15 • Key Verses: 2 Chronicles 24:17-19
The last time someone said to me, “How many times do I need to remind you?” I replied, “At
least one more time.” Some lessons seem to stick easier than others—and if repetition really does
aid learning, we ought to be geniuses by now.
Occasionally we have opportunity to learn from the mistakes of others. Perhaps you are trying to
get to another part of town and know that construction is affecting traffic, so you ask someone
who recently drove through it. A quick call might alert you to potential problems, and you can
avoid making the same mistake.
The Bible is filled with mistakes—not errors, but the mistakes of people. A recurring one is
starting well but finishing poorly. Joash is yet another example of that. He started well under the
tutelage of Jehoiada the priest, who made a covenant that “he and the people and the king would
be the Lords people” (23:16). As king, Joash ordered the repair of the temple. He started well.
But then the day came that “they abandoned the temple of the Lord,” who sent prophets “to bring
them back to him, and though they testified against them, they would not listen” (vv. 18-19).
The result was judgment. Joash was lying in bed, recovering from wounds suffered in battle,
when he was murdered. Another account of one who started well but ended poorly.
How will your account be written? Determine to finish well.

It’s a morbid thought, but if your obituary were written today, would it say that you finished
well? Ask God to help you stay true to His Word and finish well.

Woodrow Kroll & Tony Beckett
www.backtothebible.in