Athaliah And Joash

Q: What does the Bible say about the importance of God's covenant promises?

God's covenant promises are crucial as they show His faithfulness and the preservation of His people throughout history. The Bible emphasizes the significance of God's covenant promises, particularly demonstrated in the way He preserved King David's lineage through faithfulness to His word. In the case of Joash, his survival was imperative for maintaining the royal line that would eventually lead to Christ. God had made a covenant with David to ensure that his lineage would endure, and He continues to keep those promises across generations, reminding us that His grace and faithfulness remain unbroken despite human sinfulness.

Q: How do we know that God keeps His promises?

We know God keeps His promises through His unwavering faithfulness to His covenants and the fulfillment of His word over generations. In historic Reformed theology, the reliability of God's promises is directly linked to His character—He is faithful and just. The narrative of Joash illustrates this when God preserving him from death fulfills the promise made to David regarding his lineage. Throughout Scripture, we see God maintaining His covenants even when circumstances seem dire. This teaches us that God is actively working in history to bring about His divine purposes, and His promises can be trusted as we see them fulfilled through His providential actions.

Q: Why is the story of Athaliah and Joash important for Christians?

The story highlights God's sovereignty in preserving His covenant and foreshadows Christ's kingship. The account of Athaliah and Joash serves as a powerful reminder of God's sovereignty and His ability to fulfill His promises, even amidst chaos and evil. Athaliah's ruthless attempt to extinguish David's line exemplifies the struggle against God's plan, yet His providence triumphs through Jehoshibah's brave actions and Jehoiada's leadership in anointing Joash. This narrative is significant for Christians as it reveals the assurance we have in Christ, our King, who, like Joash, was anointed to rule but in a far more everlasting and spiritual capacity. It illustrates the necessity of faith in God's plan for redemption, culminating in Jesus Christ.

Q: What can we learn about the role of faith in God's plan from Jehoshibah’s actions?

Jehoshibah's faith highlights the courage believers must have in trusting God's deliverance and acting on that trust. Jehoshibah's bold action in hiding Joash during Athaliah's reign exemplifies the critical role of faith in God's planning. Her decision to risk her life to protect the royal line showcases the belief that God would act according to His promises. This parallel encourages Christians to have faith amid adversity, trusting God to fulfill His purpose even when circumstances seem dire. Jehoshibah’s faith serves as a reminder that believers are often called to act courageously, knowing that God may use their actions to accomplish His redemptive purposes.

Q: Why is the anointing of Joash a picture of Christ?

Joash's anointing foreshadows Christ’s kingship and His role in redemption for His people. The anointing of Joash symbolizes the coming of a greater king, Jesus Christ, whose understanding extends far beyond a mere earthly reign. Just as Joash was anointed in the temple to restore the rightful kingship and lead the people back to God, Christ’s anointing signifies His divine authority as the eternal King, fulfilling the covenant promises made to David. Through Christ’s death and resurrection, believers are assured of their place in His kingdom, reminding us that the kingship established by Joash ultimately points to the spiritual reign of Christ over His church.

2nd Kings chapter 11. 2nd Kings chapter 11, and we're going to read the whole chapter. Again, as I mentioned before, these are long chapters, but they do give us a sense of the whole story. And I trust we can be patient and read these passages together. This is the word of the Lord.

And when Athaliah, the mother of Ahaziah, saw that her son was dead, Ahaziah had been the king of Judah. We'll explain a little bit more about that in a moment. And when Athaliah, the mother of Ahaziah, saw that her son was dead, she arose and destroyed all the seed royal. But Jehoshibah, 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 bedchamber of Athaliah, so that he was not slain. and he was with her hid in the house of the Lord six years. And Athaliah did reign over the land. And the seventh year Jehoiada sent and fetched the rulers of hundreds with the captains and the guard, and brought them to him into the house of the Lord, and made a covenant with them, and took an oath of them in the house of the Lord, and showed them the king's son.

And he commanded them, saying, This is the thing that ye shall do. A third part of you that enter in on the Sabbath shall keep, shall even be keepers of the watch of the king's house. And a third part shall be at the gate of Sur, and a third part at the gate behind the guard. So shall ye keep the watch of the house, that it be not broken down. And two parts of all you that go forth on the Sabbath, even they shall keep the watch of the house of the Lord about the king. And ye shall compass the king round about, every man with his weapons in his hand, and he that cometh within the ranges, let him be slain. And be ye with the king as he goeth out and as he cometh in.

And the captains over the hundreds did according to all things that Jehoiada the priest commanded. And they took every man, his men that were to come in on the Sabbath, with them that should go out on the Sabbath, and came to Jehoiada the priest. And to the captains over hundreds did the priest give King David's spears and shields that were in the temple of the Lord. And the guard stood, every man with his weapons in his hand, round about the king, from the right corner of the temple to the left corner of the temple, along by the altar and the temple.

And he brought forth the king's son, and put the crown upon him, and gave him the testimony, and they made him king, and anointed him, and they clapped their hands, and said, God save the king! And when Athaliah heard the noise of the guard and of the priest, she came to the people into the temple of the Lord. And when she looked, behold, the king stood by a pillar, as the manor was, and the princes and the trumpeters by the king. And all the people of the land rejoiced and blew with trumpets. And Athaliah rent her clothes and cried, Treason, treason!

But Jehoiada the priest commanded the captains of the hundreds and officers of the host, and said unto them, have her forth without the ranges, and him that followeth her, kill with the sword. For the priests had said, let her not be slain in the house of the Lord. And they laid hands on her, and she went by the way and she went by the way by the which the horses came into the king's house and there was she slain. And Jehoiada made a covenant between the Lord and the king and the people that they should be the Lord's people between the king also and the people.

And all the people of the land went into the house of Baal and break it down. His altars and his images break they in pieces thoroughly. and slew Matan the priest of Baal before the altars, and the priest appointed officers over the house of the Lord. And he took the rulers over hundreds, and the captains, and the guard, and all the people of the land, and they brought down the king from the house of the Lord, and came by the way of the gate of the guard to the king's house, and he sat on the throne of the kings. And all the people of the land rejoiced, and the city was in quiet. And they slew Athelia with the sword beside the king's house. Seven years old was Jehoash when he began to reign. Amen. May the Lord bless to us this reading from his word. Just a brief recap, if I may. You'll remember we've been speaking about a man called Jehu in the land of Israel.

So that's Israel that was the northern 10 tribes. And Judah now is the southern tribe, and Judah with with Benjamin, and we're moving our gaze, as it were, we're moving our view away from Israel, the northern tribes, where Jehu was now firmly established on the throne of Israel.

You'll remember that he had slain Jehoram, who had been the king, and he had also slain Jezebel, the queen mother, and all the priests and worshippers of Baal in Israel. But I wonder if you remember, he had killed someone else as well. The day that he slew Jehoram, king of Israel, he also slew Ahaziah, king of Judah. These two men had been together as Jehoram was recovering from wounds received in a battle. And they had both come out of the city of Jezreel to meet with Jehu as he came after being anointed by Elisha, or by Elisha's prophet, the prophet that Elisha had sent.

And both Jehoram and Ahaziah had been slain that day. A short time later, Jehu had also slain 42 members of Ahaziah's family at a shearing house on the way to Samaria. Now I don't know how many more relatives Ahaziah had in Jerusalem. But what I do know is that when news of these deaths, the death of Ahaziah the king and the death of all his brethren, reached the city of Jerusalem back in Judah, Athaliah, the mother of Ahaziah, decided to seize the throne for herself. Now it's possible that Ahaziah had left her in charge when he went to visit Jehoram.

But now that her son was dead, she saw no reason to give up the throne. And we're told that she arose and destroyed, that is she killed, all the royal seed. Now these were her own grandchildren. She slew them and anyone else that might have had a claim to the throne. What a cruel, unnatural woman this was.

She was the daughter of Ahaz and Jezebel. And like her mother, she was a worshipper of Baal. Baal worship had now been rooted out of Israel by Jehu in Samaria, a delicious prompting, but it was still alive and well in Judah and in Jerusalem because of this woman, Athaliah. And the Bible calls Athaliah, the Bible calls Athaliah that wicked woman. And we can well understand why. And now we meet another woman. So we have Athaliah, and we have this woman Jehoshibah. And she was Ahaziah's half-sister. So the king, Ahaziah, had a half-sister called Jehoshibah. And Jehoshibah was married to a priest, probably the high priest. And his name was Jehoiada.

Some of these names are a little bit complicated when you keep having to say them. But bear with me. And if I mispronounce them, you can point that out to me later. When Athaliah began killing Ahaziah's children, Jehoshabah took Ahaziah's infant son. He was called Joash. And she hid him with his nurse in a secret room in the temple. Now, this was a dangerous time in Jerusalem. And this was a daring act that Jehoshabah endeavoured to perform. One that might easily have cost Jehoshaba her life.

How she accomplished this feat, this act of delivering this young child is hard to explain. I don't know how she did this. One writer suggests it's likely that she would be required to substitute a child's corpse for the body of the infant child. The baby was only one year old.

But otherwise, Athaliah would have searched for him until she found him. Josh, as I say, was only a year at this time and he was hidden away by Jehoshabah for six years in the Temple precincts. rooms that were set aside in the temple for the use of the priests and that was where he was hidden with his nurse.

And then in the seventh year of Joash, Jehoiada, the high priest, assembled a number of trusted leaders and captains from amongst the priesthood. These appear to be priests and Levites over whom Jehoiada probably had some authority. The Levites were that group of the tribes of Israel that had religious duties. They cared for the temple and they lived in various cities throughout the land and they performed religious duties.

They were divided into courses. Let me just mention this, a little bit technical. But there were 24 courses, each of 1,000 Levites. And each course, or each group of men, served one week in the temple twice a year. Now, Jehoiada waited until the courses were swapping over. So there were 1,000 men coming to Jerusalem to work in the temple this week and 1,000 leaving Jerusalem because they had worked for their week and now they were going back to their homes.

And he waited until these 2,000 men were together in that changeover And Jehoiada made a covenant with them, and they took an oath to defend the king and fight to overthrow Athelia. And then Jehoiada brought out Joshua, just seven years of age, having been hidden in the temple for these six years, and he showed him to the people. At once he organised the priests to defend the gates of the temple in case Athaliah's supporters should try to rush the temple precincts and reach the young prince and do him harm. and some were chosen to be bodyguards to Joash within the temple. Jehoiada gave weapons to the Levites that had been put in the temple at the time of David, weapons that he had captured in battle. These he gave to the Levites so that instead of attending to their temple duties and worship as they had planned, suddenly they were employed in guarding and protecting the new king.

As soon as Joash was revealed, Jehoiada quickly placed a crown on his head, placed the book of the law into his hands by which he was to rule the people, and Jehoiada and his sons anointed the young Joash with oil as the rightful and true king of Judah. And at once those present in the temple clapped and cheered for joy and shouted, God save the king.

Well, you can't do something like that without creating a bit of an attraction and a bit of a scene. And all the cheering soon attracted a crowd who came running to see what the noise was all about. And the queen, Athalia, heard the noise as well. And she made her way to the temple. She seems to have been allowed access to the building. perhaps because she came alone. And on entering the temple, she saw Joi standing on an elevated platform surrounded by the leading men of the Levites and the temple trumpeters.

And realising what was happening, Athaliah tore her clothes in a rage and cried, "'Treason! Treason!' Maybe she hoped that someone would come to her aid. but that was not to be. Ruthless leaders are not loyally loved. Treason was what she had committed and the act of Jehoiada in anointing Joash King was simply justice restored. Jehoiada commanded Athalia to be detained. He did not want her blood spilled in the temple.

And if any supporter did come to her aid, they were to be put to death. No one did, although she did have sons. Not one sword was drawn by another man, it must be assumed. But not one sword was drawn in her defense. justice would be served. She was taken from the temple, and just like her wicked mother, Jezebel, she was slain in the street. There were few who mourned her, and the coup was successful.

The future lay with the young king, for which everyone was thankful, and only the priests and prophets of Baal had reason to be afraid. Jehoiada rededicated Judah to the service and worship of God. Jehoash promised to rule with justice and govern the people according to the law of God. And what began as a revolt by a few religious leaders became a popular uprising. The people went to Baal's temple. They destroyed it with its idols and they slew its priests. And although Joash was very young, he had Jehoiada, a godly man, and his wife, Jehoshibah, to steer and guide him in the ways of the Lord.

And for the first time in many years, there was renewed interest in the true worship of the Lord in Jerusalem and Judah, leading to peace in the city and joy in the land. I want to draw a couple of things to your attention by way of application from this chapter. And I want us to remember God's covenant purpose. We speak about covenant a lot, and we should remember that God made a covenant with David to keep his royal line as long as there was a king in Israel, as long as there was a throne in the land. And David's royal line was typical of the Lord Jesus Christ, whose kingly rule is spiritual and eternal for the church.

Had Athaliah successfully slain all the children of Ahaziah, she would have destroyed David's line. But that couldn't be. The Lord did not forget his servant David. nor indeed his own promises, as he never will. In preserving Joash from death, Jehoshaba continued David's lineage as God had promised, and she preserved the line from which the Lord Jesus Christ would someday be born. And we should consider this act of Jehoshabah as a great act of faith on the part of this brave lady and her husband. I don't think we often think of Jehoshabah as a heroine of the faith, but perhaps we need to begin doing so. And yet God had also promised And this is what we see in this situation as well, that the sword would not be removed from David's house. And how brutal and bloody had been the slaying of Ahaziah's family. Every male member slain, except one little infant child.

David's history teaches us much, but one sure lesson is this, that while sin will be punished, God does not forget his promise of grace towards those who are the beneficiaries of his covenant. Our Lord Jesus Christ covenanted with his Father that God would deliver all for whom the Saviour died and God keeps his promises. He kept his promise to David and he will keep it to his own son.

We, you and I, who trust in the Lord, we can rely upon that promise when we come by faith to trust in Jesus Christ. God tells us in 1 John 1, verse 9, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

But did you notice as well how the promises of God are fulfilled by the providences of God? Even in the very worst of times, our God has his servants ready to accomplish his purpose. He has a Jehoshibah and a Jehoiada to bring to pass the counsel of his will. And this is still the way God works, his will and brings to pass his purposes. Let none of us fail to trace the Lord's hand in all our ways. in all your ways. If we are his and he is ours, by his love and by his mercy, he will lead and guide and direct us in all our paths.

And then just finally, Joash was anointed king by Jehoiada. The crown was placed on his head. The testimony was placed into his hand and oil was poured upon him. And this is a picture of Jesus Christ. He is king in his kingdom, the church. An everlasting crown of glory is upon his head. And in Christ's hand is the gospel testimony of all His accomplishments. He died for us and He rose again. He is in heaven, but He is coming again to receive us unto Himself.

He will take His people to His Father's house in heaven. And until then, Christ gives us his Holy Spirit with which he was anointed without measure and with which he now anoints his church and his people. Joash was just a child of seven. Most of you who are listening today are older than that. But through Christ, You too will reign as a king in heaven by trusting in him for eternal life. May we do so for his name's sake. Amen.

Athaliah And Joash

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about the importance of God's covenant promises?

How do we know that God keeps His promises?

Why is the story of Athaliah and Joash important for Christians?

What can we learn about the role of faith in God's plan from Jehoshibah’s actions?

Why is the anointing of Joash a picture of Christ?

Sermon Transcript

About Peter L. Meney

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Athaliah And Joash

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about the importance of God's covenant promises?

How do we know that God keeps His promises?

Why is the story of Athaliah and Joash important for Christians?

What can we learn about the role of faith in God's plan from Jehoshibah’s actions?

Why is the anointing of Joash a picture of Christ?

Sermon Transcript

About Peter L. Meney

Comments

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