Hanging on by a thread

2 Chronicles 22:10–12 KJV 1900

10 But when Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she arose and destroyed all the seed royal of the house of Judah. 11 But Jehoshabeath, the daughter of the king, took Joash the son of Ahaziah, and stole him from among the king’s sons that were slain, and put him and his nurse in a bedchamber. So Jehoshabeath, the daughter of king Jehoram, the wife of Jehoiada the priest, (for she was the sister of Ahaziah,) hid him from Athaliah, so that she slew him not. 12 And he was with them hid in the house of God six years: and Athaliah reigned over the land.

Introduction

People have strange names for their grandmothers.

All my life, people looked at me weird because we called my Mom’s mom MawMaw.

The passage we are looking at tonight

Background/ Lead up

God had made a promise to David.

In 2 Samuel 7 God had promised David that his throne would be established forever.

God would see to it that David’s lineage would always sit on the throne of Israel.

This was, of course, a reference to the Messiah coming and taking up David’s throne.

Throughout the years there were several times where it seemed like the line of David was being threatened with extinction.

Sometimes this was through infighting; sometimes it was due to outside attack.

Don’t be deceived into thinking that Satan wasn’t against Judah because he knew the Messiah would come from them.

David’s descendants began to drift further and further from the God that David had loved.

There were some good kings in the Davidic line.

One such king was a man named Jehoshaphat.

Jehoshaphat was a godly man, but he had one major fault, he was too friendly with a man named Ahab.

So much so that Jehoshaphat’s son, Jehoram, ended up marrying Ahab’s daughter, Athaliah.

Understanding who Athaliah’s mother was, however, may be more important to understanding her character.

Jezebel as a mom?

Can you imagine anything more frightening.

Athaliah will prove to be just as wicked as her mother was, if not more so.

When Jehoshaphat died, and Jehoram took up his father’s crown, he did something that must have been influenced by his cut-throat wife.

He wants to insure that there is no threat to his reign.

So, he goes and kills all of his brothers.

This makes him not only the only surviving to the throne, but also the only link between David and the Messiah.

The thread is pretty thin here.

But, of course Jehoram has several children and it seems like the line is once again firmly established.

Jehoram, though, is a weak and wicked king.

During his reign, Judah is attacked several times and all of his sons are killed except for the youngest son.

Once again, the line seems incredibly fragile.

Ahaziah eventually becomes the king upon Jehoram’s death.

He is in his early forties when he begins to reign.

He has a family of his own.

His mother, Athaliah, becomes the queen mother, which was a place of honor in Judah.

She would have sat on a throne next to her son and would have been an important figure in the Judean government.

Ahaziah only reigns for one year before he is killed.

Having watched the weakness of her husband and her son, Athaliah views the death of Ahaziah as an opportunity.

She immediately makes a move that makes her mother, Jezebel, look like Mary Poppins.

Athaliah usurps the throne of Judah

She does this by ensuring that there are no other heirs to the throne.

Athaliah, in her bid for power, decides to kill all of her grandchildren.

All of the legitimate heirs to David’s throne are targeted for extermination.

We have already looked at two other times where the line became very thin and fragile, but this is different.

Athaliah is not in David’s lineage.

By wiping out her grandchildren, she is not thinning the line, she is cutting it.

What kind of monster kills her own grandchildren?

Miraculously, Athaliah is not successful in her mission.

Athaliah is thwarted by her step-daughter.

Ahaziah had a sister named Jehoshabeath.

Though some commentators assume that she is Athaliah’s daughter, this is probably not the case.

In fact, Josephus tells us that Jehoshabeath was Jehoram’s daughter but with a different wife from Athaliah.

Princess Jehoshabeath, sister to the king had married a godly man named Jehoiada.

Jehoiada would become the High Priest of Israel.

Somehow Jehoshabeath overheard Athaliah’s plans to kill her nieces and nephews.

These kids would have been spread out all over the place, so it wasn’t like they were all in a room together.

As soon as Jehoshabeath hears about what is going down, she jumps into action.

She goes to rescue as many of the kids as she can.

She is only able to reach one of them in time.

The phrase in the passage says that she stole him from among the kings sons that were slain.

These gives us a glimpse into the urgency of the situation.

Jehoshabeath must move stealthily and quickly to save her nephew.

Other kids are in the process of being killed when she takes the baby, Joash and hides him.

Jehoshabeath hides Joash and his nurse in a bedchamber.

This is not a bed room.

This is a closet where linens and pillows and such could be stored.

She hides them there until the danger has passed.

Then, when it was safe she sneaks them over to the temple where the little prince will be raised, unrecognized by the rest of the population.

Athaliah never notices that she missed one of her grandchildren.

Let’s be honest for a second.

She doesn’t seem like a super-involved grandmother.

She probably didn’t even know how many grandkids she had.

Imagine how sad the people must have been when they heard that the wicked queen mother had been made queen.

Surely there were some in the kingdom that knew of God’s promise to David.

For 6 years Athaliah reigned.

For 6 years it looked like God had failed to keep His promise.

But, God hadn’t failed; His promises were all wrapped up in the little baby prince Joash.

God used to Jehoshabeath to preserve the Davidic line, but more importantly her actions also preserved the Messianic line.

Like Moses before him, and Jesus after him, Joash was saved from death.

When God is watching out for you, it doesn’t matter if Pharaoh, Herod, our your granny is coming after you, you are safe.

Application

All seemed lost.

It didn’t look like any hope remained for God to keep His word.

Evil looked like it was going to triumph.

God was working behind the scenes to raise up a kid named Joash that would restore things to way they should be.

You may have felt this way before too.

You may have been at the point of giving up hope.

You may have felt like things would never be right.

You can either let the circumstances of life defeat you, or you can be like Jehoshabeath,

Jehoshabeath did not respond with fear.

She responded with courage and action.

She certainly had no guarantee that her mission would be successful but she acted anyways.

God blessed her courage and used her to keep His promise.