This month we are returning to the Old Testament book of 2 Kings, which continues the history of the divided kingdom of Israel and Judah.
But first, I’ll give a recap. God had delivered the people of Israel from slavery and brought them to the land he promised them. He then set a faithful king over them – King David – to save them from their enemies. In 2 Samuel 7, God made a covenant with David, that David’s kingdom would be established forever and his descendants would always sit on the throne. However, there was a condition: David’s descendants must continue to obey the Lord’s commands faithfully and not worship other gods.
David’s son Solomon foolishly turned away from the Lord. As a result, God tore the kingdom in two. Ten tribes broke away to become the independent northern kingdom of Israel. Only the southern tribes of Judah and Benjamin remained loyal to David’s line. They became the kingdom of Judah.
However, the northern kingdom turned out to be even worse than Judah. In the south, at least some of the kings were faithful to the Lord, and the line of David continued. In the north, all the kings without exception led the people to worship idols.
The Lord began to raise up prophets in both kingdoms to call the kings and the people back to the covenant. The two most famous were Elijah and his successor Elisha, whom God raised up in the north to combat the most dangerous and unfaithful dynasty of kings: the dynasty of Omri. Omri’s son Abah and his wife Jezebel promoted the worship of the Canaanite storm god Baal.
Ahab’s pagan revolution was especially dangerous, because his dynasty infiltrated King David’s line in Judah. Ahab’s daughter Athaliah – who we will meet in today’s passage – married Jehoram the king of Judah, and that link threatened to bring Baal worship south.
For that reason, God raised up a man called Jehu in the north to end Ahab’s dynasty. Jehu not only wiped out Ahab’s line and seized the throne of Israel, he also killed the king of Judah in the south – Ahaziah, the son of Jehoram and Athaliah. That potentially ended the threat, except that the queen mother Athaliah was still alive in Jerusalem, and she saw an opportunity to seize power.
That was where we ended our last series in 2 Kings.
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1 When Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she proceeded to annihilate all the royal heirs. 2 But Jehoshebaa daughter of King Joram,b the sister of Ahaziah, took Joash son of Ahaziah and stole him away from among the sons of the king who were being murdered. She put him and his nurse in a bedroom to hide him from Athaliah, and he was not killed.
And Joash remained hidden with his nurse in the house of the LORD for six years while Athaliah ruled the land.
REFLECTIONS
Written by Stephen Shead
When our kids were little, Rebecca and I used to comment that one of the least loving things we could do would be to try to turn them into child actors or make them famous. Child mega-stars never seem to turn out happy, well-balanced and stable.
But that would still be a far better fate than the children in today’s passage – royal heirs at a time of political conspiracy and an evil, murderous usurper trying to seize power.
As I thought about that, it dawned on me: God sent his Son, born as a man, into a place where people would plot to kill him because he is the rightful heir to God’s kingdom (Matthew 21:38). God didn’t hide his Son in a bedroom; he allowed him to be publicly exposed, humiliated and murdered, so that we can be spared from judgment and find life with him forever.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Stephen is our senior minister.