Metaphysical Bible Interpretation of II Kings Chapter 12
Metaphysically Interpreting II Kings 12:1-16
12:1In the seventh year of Jehu began Jehoash to reign; and he reigned forty years in Jerusalem: and his mother's name was Zibiah of Beer-sheba. 12:2And Jehoash did that which was right in the eyes of Jehovah all his days wherein Jehoiada the priest instructed him. 12:3Howbeit the high places were not taken away; the people still sacrificed and burnt incense in the high places.
12:4And Jehoash said to the priests, All the money of the hallowed things that is brought into the house of Jehovah, in current money, the money of the persons for whom each man is rated, and all the money that it cometh into any man's heart to bring into the house of Jehovah, 12:5let the priests take it to them, every man from his acquaintance; and they shall repair the breaches of the house, wheresoever any breach shall be found. 12:6But it was so, that in the three and twentieth year of king Jehoash the priests had not repaired the breaches of the house. 12:7Then king Jehoash called for Jehoiada the priest, and for the other priests, and said unto them, Why repair ye not the breaches of the house? now therefore take no more money from your acquaintance, but deliver it for the breaches of the house. 12:8And the priests consented that they should take no more money from the people, neither repair the breaches of the house.
12:9But Jehoiada the priest took a chest, and bored a hole in the lid of it, and set it beside the altar, on the right side as one cometh into the house of Jehovah: and the priests that kept the threshold put therein all the money that was brought into the house of Jehovah. 12:10And it was so, when they saw that there was much money in the chest, that the king's scribe and the high priest came up, and they put up in bags and counted the money that was found in the house of Jehovah. 12:11And they gave the money that was weighed out into the hands of them that did the work, that had the oversight of the house of Jehovah: and they paid it out to the carpenters and the builders, that wrought upon the house of Jehovah, 12:12and to the masons and the hewers of stone, and for buying timber and hewn stone to repair the breaches of the house of Jehovah, and for all that was laid out for the house to repair it. 12:13But there were not made for the house of Jehovah cups of silver, snuffers, basins, trumpets, any vessels of gold, or vessels of silver, of the money that was brought into the house of Jehovah; 12:14for they gave that to them that did the work, and repaired therewith the house of Jehovah. 12:15Moreover they reckoned not with the men, into whose hand they delivered the money to give to them that did the work; for they dealt faithfully. 12:16The money for the trespass-offerings, and the money for the sin-offerings, was not brought into the house of Jehovah: it was the priests'.
September 19, 1915: II Kings 12:4-15
The temple of God is man's body. “Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, which ye have from God?” (I Cor. 6:19). “We are a temple of the living God; even as God said, I will dwell in I them, and walk with them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people” (II Cor. 6:16).
This temple is formed by man. The architect and supplier of all that enters into it is God. Thought does the constructing, and the work is carried forward without sound of hammer. Thought has formed many workmen and [done] much repair. States of mind have been established through thoughts many times repeated; we call these “habits of mind.” Thinking about our relation and duty to God forms a thought habit which centers about some dominant religious idea, and we have what is represented by the priesthood.
Many men think that they have no religious side to their nature, because they have no religious convictions. This is not evidence to the one who sees beyond intellect into soul. In the deep recesses of your soul you have the priesthood; they are the receivers of the supplies that keep the temple alive. If you had no religious thought realm anywhere about you, there would be no contact with the One Mind, and you would have neither life, substance, nor intelligence. Therefore, it is a foregone conclusion that everyone has a religious thought-center somewhere in consciousness.
There is established a priesthood that day and night keeps open the inner sources of life. The fires on this altar within the temple shall never go out, so long as it stands. But the priests are not inviolate. The selfish thoughts that drift in from the outside gradually affect them; they absorb the supplies for keeping up the repairs of the temple and a general deterioration sets in. Then the king (the ruling will) calls them to account. It declares that they shall not directly receive the supplies contributed by the people (all ideas of consciousness), but that these contributions shall be put in a receptacle that is open to public inspection.
Here is a hint for those who are applying the science as taught, yet who have not patched up all the breaches in their body temple. Your religious thoughts may be too selfish to give out what is received. Many people are religiously selfish and do not know it. Heaven to them is for “myself and my wife and my son John and his wife, us four and no more.”
When this religious selfishness pervades the mind it draws as a magnet the thoughts of abundant life and support and absorbs them like a sponge, and they never get out into the needy places in the organism. People who are especially clamorous for health are usually found in this class. They blame the healer and the Lord if they are not at once made well. The law is, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.” If you have been studying and applying this science for years, and yet are not healed, you will do well to investigate your priesthood. Drop the clamor for physical healing for a time, make yourself receptive to the Universal Resource by assuming an impersonal attitude. “Jehoiada the priest took a chest and bored a hole in the lid of it, and set it beside the altar, on the right side as one cometh into the house of Jehovah: and the priests that kept the threshold put therein all the money that was brought into the house of Jehovah.”
The body consciousness is very sensitive to thought, and we should be careful in our desire for its welfare that we do not add to its limitations. The body is not to be denied away, nor counted as error, but its personal limitations are to be erased, and a larger, broader range of ideas substituted. The majority of our bodily ills are caused by some form of selfishness, and most subtle and persistent is this in the religious domain. Our sense sins we deplore and we are usually willing to give up when a better way is shown, but when we have certain religious convictions, we cling to them in the belief that they are virtues. Jesus said that sinners and harlots would get into the kingdom of heaven before those Pharisees.
– UNITY magazine.
September 19, 1915: II Kings 12:4-15
What is the temple of God? Man's body. “Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, which ye have from God?”
Who builds the temple? Man. God is the designer and all the substance used in its building is from him.
How is the body constructed? By thought.
How are states of mind built up? By repeated thinking along a certain line, the thoughts cluster around some certain idea and crystallize into fixed states of consciousness.
What is the priesthood in man? All one's religious thoughts form a state of mind, and these thoughts are the priests because they relate him to God.
What are the fires on the altar of the temple? The Divine Life.
If the religious thoughts become selfish, what is the result? They appropriate the life and the substance needed by the body, and the temple is robbed of its substance.
What form does religious selfishness sometimes take? It may appear as a selfish desire for health or prosperity.
What is the remedy for this form of selfishness? “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.”
Metaphysically Interpreting II Kings 12:17-18
12:17Then Hazael king of Syria went up, and fought against Gath, and took it; and Hazael set his face to go up to Jerusalem. 12:18And Jehoash king of Judah took all the hallowed things that Jehoshaphat and Jehoram and Ahaziah, his fathers, kings of Judah, had dedicated, and his own hallowed things, and all the gold that was found in the treasures of the house of Jehovah, and of the king's house, and sent it to Hazael king of Syria: and he went away from Jerusalem.
Metaphysically Interpreting II Kings 12:19-21
12:19Now the rest of the acts of Joash, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? 12:20And his servants arose, and made a conspiracy, and smote Joash at the house of Millo, on the way that goeth down to Silla. 12:21For Jozacar the son of Shimeath, and Jehozabad the son of Shomer, his servants, smote him, and he died; and they buried him with his fathers in the city of David: and Amaziah his son reigned in his stead.
Transcribed by Lloyd Kinder on 02-07-2014
