Day 130. 2 Chronicles 23-25

Remember that our reading for yesterday left off with the evil queen-mother Athaliah in the driver's seat. This daughter of Ahab and Jezebel is worthy of her parents, both wicked and able. She rules over the kingdom of Judah for six years (22:10). But in the seventh year, Jehoiada, the high priest, takes courage and goes to the barracks for support to overthrow her (23:1). But it is actually the Levites, not the soldiers, who spearhead the rebellion (23:2). Jehoiada produces the boy Joash, who has been hidden all this time in the temple, and tells the Levites not to allow anyone except "priests and ministering Levites" into the house of the LORD (23:6). They are to surround the boy-king with weapons drawn to protect him (23:7). This Jehoiada is a new kind of high priest in the history of Israel—he resembles the redoubtable high priests of the period following the exile when the chronicler is writing. Jehoiada is a powerbroker and political force in his own right. He arms the Levites and "all the people," appropriately enough with the weapons that had belonged to King David that had been stored in the temple (23:9). Then he brings out Joash, about seven years of age at the time, puts the crown on his head, gives him "the covenant" and proclaims him king of Judah. The high priest and his sons then anoint Joash and raise the shout, "Long live the king!" (23:11) This acclamation is accompanied by the sound of trumpets and "singers with their musical instruments leading in the celebration" (23:13). Important occasions in the Books of Chronicles are always accompanied with music and worship, as we noted before. Hearing all this hubbub, Athaliah arrives, sees what is going on, and tears her clothes, crying—"Treason! Treason!" (23:13).  At the order of Jehoiada, she is hustled out of the temple and put to the sword. It is clear who is in the driver's seat now. Then Jehoiada makes "a covenant between himself and all the people and the king that they should be the LORD's people" (23:16). The high priest is functioning as regent for the child Joash on equal terms of power with the king. He supervises the destruction of the sanctuary dedicated to Baal (23:17) and regularizes the offering of sacrifices in the temple of the LORD, "according to the order of David" (23:18). All the people rejoice at this new dispensation and the city is quiet "after Athaliah had been killed with the sword" (23:21).  During the early part of his reign, while he was under the influence of Jehoiada, Joash is a good king. He orders the refurbishment and repair of the temple, which by this time is over  130 years old and in need of it (24:12). The people donate willingly and generously to this project, we are told (24:10).  All is going well enough. Then Jehoiada dies. He is given the signal honor of being buried "in the city of David among the kings, because he had done good in Israel, and for God and his house" (24:17). In fact, he virtually rules as a king. But after his death Joash comes under the influence of bad advisors, who with their king abandon "the house of the LORD, the God of their ancestors, and [serve] the sacred poles and the idols" (24:18). God sends prophets to bring them back, but they do not listen (24:14). The prophet Zechariah, the son of Jehoiada, denounces the king's transgressions openly, but Joash, without regard to his illustrious parent, has Zechariah stoned to death in the court of the house of LORD. He dies crying out, "May the LORD see and avenge" (24:22). And the LORD does avenge his prophet. The army of Aram sacks Jerusalem, leaving king Joash wounded and bedfast. His servants take advantage of their opportunity and kill him "on his bed" (24:25). Joash is buried in Jerusalem, but significantly not among the kings, and his son Amaziah succeeds to the throne.   Amaziah's fault is a lack of consistency; he is not "single-minded," to use a favorite term of the chronicler.  He does "what is right in the sight of the LORD, yet not with a true heart" (25:2). He kills his father's murderers, and he shows leniency to their families in respect for the Law of Moses (25:4). All is well and good. Then he raises an army to subdue the rebellious vassal state of Edom, and now he makes a mistake--he hires mercenaries from the northern kingdom to help in the campaign. An unnamed prophet of the LORD rebukes him for this because "the LORD is not with Israel" (25:6). Amaziah duly dismisses the Ephraimite soldiers, but they are furious at their treatment and revenge the insult on their way home by falling on certain Judean cities and sacking them (25:13).   Amaziah, however, takes courage and leads his army to a bloody, decisive victory in Edom. But having won the day, he brings home the captured gods "of Seir" and worships them. And for that reason another unnamed prophet is sent to tell Amaziah that for his idolatry the LORD is now "determined to destroy" him (25:16) The instrument of that destruction is Israel. The king there—another monarch named Joash—declines Amaziah's challenge (25:17). But in an act of supreme arrogance, Amaziah attacks the more powerful northern kingdom—it is God's doing, the chronicler tells us, in order to destroy him, "because he had sought the god's of Edom" (25:20). The Judean army is routed. Amaziah is captured and brought back to Jerusalem as a prisoner. The Israelite king then breaks down part of the wall of the city and sacks it, carrying off the treasures of the king's house together with royal hostages to insure Amaziah's future good behavior (25:24). The king does not long outlive the disaster, however. He is assassinated by palace conspiracy, and another descendent of David, this time a better one, Uzziah, ascends the throne. Though often nearly extinguished, Lamp of David is still burning.