Providential Preservation of Jehoash

    Notwithstanding the transgressions of the house of David, God remembered his covenant given to him; and his Providence took care that his seed should not fail him on his throne. On the death of Ahaziah, his mother destroyed the seed royal, yet Providence saved one of them to sit in the seat of David. "And when Athaliah, the mother of Ahaziah, saw that her son was dead, she arose and destroyed all the seed royal. But Jehosheba, the daughter of king Joram, sister of Ahaziah, took Joash the son of Ahaziah, and stole him from among the king's sons which were slain; and they hid him, even him and his nurse, in the bed-chamber from Athaliah, so that he was not slain."—2 Kings xi. 1, 2. In due time the true heir to the kingdom was manifested and invested with royal authority. Conspiracies may take place in kingdoms, but their success or failure is of the Lord. It would be as easy to dethrone the sun in the firmament, as the greatest of the tyrants of the earth, unless the thing is of the Lord. "The powers that be are ordained of God." In any other kingdom under heaven, it would have been rebellion against God to resist Athaliah. God for the time had put her into power. But his express authority gave the throne to the house of David, and made it duty to put Jehoash on the throne. Even in Israel a similar thing would have been rebellion against God, except when God had expressed his will. In Judah the throne was at all times exclusively confined to the heirs of David's house.

    In the catastrophe of royal houses, how many providential escapes do we find similar to that of Jehoash! The deepest counsels, the most subtile contrivances of statesmen, are often providentially defeated, or, when they succeed for a time, are ultimately frustrated.