“About this time Hazael king of Aram went up and attacked Gath and captured it. Then he turned to attack Jerusalem. But Joash king of Judah took all the sacred objects dedicated by his predecessors—Jehoshaphat, Jehoram and Ahaziah, the kings of Judah—and the gifts he himself had dedicated and all the gold found in the treasuries of the temple of the Lord and of the royal palace, and he sent them to Hazael king of Aram, who then withdrew from Jerusalem.” – 2 Kings 12:17-18 NIV

This story reminded me a lot of the story of another set of kings that are both a king of Aram and a king from Israel as well:

“He sent messengers into the city to Ahab king of Israel, saying, “This is what Ben-Hadad says: ‘Your silver and gold are mine, and the best of your wives and children are mine.’ ” The king of Israel answered, “Just as you say, my Lord the king. I and all I have are yours.” The messengers came again and said, “This is what Ben-Hadad says: ‘I sent to demand your silver and gold, your wives and your children. But about this time tomorrow I am going to send my officials to search your palace and the houses of your officials. They will seize everything you value and carry it away.’ ”” – 1 Kings 20:2-6 NIV

Both sets of kings from Israel were insecure in their faith with God and didn’t trust that he would be able to save them from the attacking king and instead turned to material things to try to save them. Ultimately the issue is trusting in material things which will not always work as seen in the second case where it doesn’t end up actually being successful. The issue with the first case also is that Joash is giving things dedicated to the Lord specifically to help bring peace which doesn’t work since they are only to be used for the Lord and that isn’t what his intent is here. There would be consequences for this. He was eventually assassinated probably as a result of this:

“His officials conspired against him and assassinated him at Beth Millo, on the road down to Silla.” – 2 Kings 12:20 NIV