When Spiritual Disaster Strikes

The People’s Bible: 2 Chronicles Jehoshaphat Makes an Alliance with Evil—But Escapes with His Life

In Jehoshaphat’s case it seemed to be only a marriage matter. Didn’t kings often make alliances through marriage? Hadn’t there been enough conflict already between Israel and Judah? Why not make peace and seal the deal by marrying off his eldest son, Jehoram, to Athaliah, Ahab’s daughter?

The People’s Bible: 2 Chronicles Jehoshaphat Makes an Alliance with Evil—But Escapes with His Life

In Jehoshaphat’s case it seemed to be only a marriage matter. Didn’t kings often make alliances through marriage? Hadn’t there been enough conflict already between Israel and Judah? Why not make peace and seal the deal by marrying off his eldest son, Jehoram, to Athaliah, Ahab’s daughter?

Sermon delivered by Pastor Finn on Sunday, September 8, 2019 PENT 13 Text: , “When Spiritual Disaster Strikes”

The New International Version Chapter 11

When Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she proceeded to destroy the whole royal family. 2

Ever since I started conducting worship as a pastor, from day one, I’ve always welcomed people to church the same way. The bell rings, I turn around and say, “Good morning and welcome to God’s House.”

Now if you think of God’s house this way, in terms of these four walls, the place we come to gather for worship every Sunday, that’s one thing. It’s special. What I’m thinking of when I say this is what Jacob was thinking when God appeared to him at Bethel in a vision, and afterwards, Jacob praised God from that spot the vision occured saying, () “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I was not aware of it.” 17 He was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven.”

Jacob recognized that God actually met with him in that holy place, as he does with us here in word and sacrament. Paul gets at something similar when he wrote to the Ephesians, saying, () “Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household.”

(Eph.2:19) “Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household.”

(1 Tm.3:15) “You will know how people ought to conduct themselves in God’s household, which is the church of the living God.”

“Moses was faithful as a servant in all God’s house...But Christ is faithful as the Son over God’s house. And we are his house, if indeed we hold firmly to our confidence and the hope in which we glory.”

When you think of

In the Bible the a frequent way of referring to

Not sure if you caught this in the news, but Sean Connery has revealed he was “lucky” to survive after his Bahamas mansion escaped the worst of Hurricane Dorian. He was there though. His mansion in the Bahamas is about 90 miles away from where the eye of the hurricane hit. “We are both fine,” Connery said about he and his wife, “We were lucky compared to many others here.”

Text: , “Time to Clean House!”

Many others weren’t nearly as fortunate. Not everyone lives in a brick mansion. Not everyone had the means to go somewhere else safe. They simply hunkered down and hoped for the best.

Now that Dorian has passed, maybe you’ve seen the aerial footage over some places in the Bahamas where the eye of Dorian hit, you’ve seen the absolute devastation. It’s obvious everywhere that the sustained winds of 180 miles per hour with gusts up to 225 miles per hour, took more lives than the 30 that were reported as of Friday.

What we have before us today from is obvious devastation of another sort.

isn’t a familiar story to you at all.

We’re in 2 Kings chapter 11. You can follow along on the insert and the inside of the service folder today. Talk about your ominous beginnings! The Bible is clear when it says that, () “When Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she proceeded to destroy the whole royal family.”

You wouldn’t have been exposed to it in Sunday School. You probably never had a Bible class on the Book of Kings. So unless you’ve spent any time in the OT reading through the Bible this is an altogether unfamiliar story to you. That’s why people give up on the OT a lot—it records events and arises out of a time and culture far removed from our own.

Athaliah ends up trying to kill the entire family line of David. And if I could help you a little bit today…that’s exactly what Satan wants to do with you and the entire family of God—Peter says, () “Be alert! Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.”

The devil never stops in looking to help you; he wants to hurt you. We should never underestimate him. He’s an evil angel, which means that he’s like one of God’s mighty ones, his fiery ones, the angels who are powerful, wise and swift and roam the earth to do God’s bidding. Satan’s like that—he’s mighty, he’s swift, he’s wise—although he’s a created being that had a beginning—he’s eternal in the sense that he can never die—which means he’s had all of history to study people’s weaknesses and sin and knows how to use that against you. At the same time we shouldn’t over-estimate Satan’s abilities either—although he’s powerful—he isn’t God—he’s one of God’s creations gone bad by a choice of his own, and now that he’s been cast down and destined for judgment, he’s mad as hell and he’s doing everything in his power to take people down with him there, where there will weeping and gnashing of teeth forever.

The characters are (probably) unfamiliar. The backstory is (likely) unknown. It took me hours to review this account in both Kings and Chronicles just to sort out the dynasty of kings in the north and south in Israel and Judah. Some of the kings in the north and south have the same names, so that’s confusing too. Some of them married daughters and sons of the other to form alliances and so on. So at least I know the back story now, but we don’t have hours to unravel all that.

So when it says in our text that wicked Athaliah was seeking to destroy the royal family of David, you know who (Satan) was only too glad to facilitate that. He, too, sought the death and downfall of the royal house of Ahaziah, because he was in the royal line of David, and therefore the Savior’s line.

So, again, if I can help you to see this one thing in God’s Word this morning—it’s that Satan is seeking to do the same thing to true Church of God in the world today—he wants to kill them off—in these verses it was a literal killing off of David’s royal family—in our lives it’s a spiritual death that Satan’s after with us—as he gets us to drop our faith in Jesus, our entire Christian belief system, and instead to chase after the things the devil holds dear, all his false ideas, and his false teachings, and the pleasures of this world--instead of serving God and following his light in his Word, and experiencing his grace and peace that comes through His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

But by the time we are done, I will help you see and take home a couple things.

“But,” the Bible says, (v.2) “Jehoshiba, the daughter of King Ahaziah, took Joash son of Ahaziah (who’s just an infant at the time and not even weaned yet) and stole him away from among the royal princes, who were about to be murdered,” (because God has a way of protecting and preserving that which the enemy is trying to destroy—BTW--is any of this starting to sound familiar to you?) “She put him (the baby) and his nurse (the one protecting and feeding him) in a bedroom to hide him from Athaliah; so he was not killed.” Again, sounding familiar? Any babies in Scripture that you know were protected by God like this—you’re thinking of babies like Moses now who was kept safe from Pharaoh’s wicked plot to kill all the infants of the Hebrew slaves in Egypt—Here’s another one now in Joash--but then, too, most of all, we look even further ahead to think of the Baby Jesus, the Christ Child, and Mary and Joseph, the Holy Family, whom God preserved from the deadly plot of King Herod.

This text from 2 Kings really brings home the danger Jesus warns about in the Gospel Lesson when it comes to our house of faith. It also helps us see how God works through his servants and his Word to help keep his house of believers safe and sound in faith. Protected and preserved for today because it’s such obvious example of what Jesus warns about in the Gospel Lesson today when he warns about The reason there cannot be any compromising with Satan and our sinful nature, is

First, when it comes to your house of faith, and the ones you love,

Back up again to Athaliah and her wicked plot to kill Joash. In (v.3) it says that Jehoshiba took Joash and stole him away, right from under Athaliah’s nose while she’s trying to kill off the royal line and, “He remained hidden with his nurse at the temple of the LORD for six years while Athaliah ruled the land.”

points out the danger Jesus warned about in the Gospel Lesson. And then second, let’s see how God helped his Church fight against the enemies that were assailing his family of believers and come out safe and sound in faith. protected and preserved for today because it’s such obvious example of what Jesus warns about in the Gospel Lesson today when he warns about The reason there cannot be any compromising with Satan and our sinful nature, is

The Bible is clear when it says that, () “When Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she proceeded to destroy the whole royal family.”

() “When Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she proceeded to destroy the whole royal family.”

Why would you think she wants to kill off everyone in the royal line of Ahaziah? To answer that you need to know a little more of the backstory here in Kings. to help with that there’s a little timeline in your bulletin today (See bulletin). If you’ll notice there a split view of history in the showing the royal line of kings in the North (Israel) and the kings in the south (Judah). If you can Athaliah’s name there in the box, and then follow the direct line from her to a couple other characters—and I do mean characters, in a bad way, in Ahab and Jezebel down below. They were a husband and wife pair, so king and queen over the northern kingdom in Israel. Here’s the one thing King Ahab is known for in () it says, “Ahab son of Omri became king of Israel, and he reigned in Samaria over Israel twenty-two years. Ahab son of Omri did more evil in the eyes of the LORD than any of those before him. He not only considered it trivial to commit the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, but he also married Jezebel daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and began to serve Baal and worship him. He set up an altar for Baal in the temple of Baal that he built in Samaria. Ahab also made an Asherah pole and did more to provoke the LORD, the God of Israel, to anger than did all the kings of Israel before him.”

I’ll make special mention of Jezebel here, too, because it will help you to know about her, too—she’s the mother here—Jezebel was originally the daughter of pagan, Philistine dude by the name of Ethbaal. (BTW--For all you new parents out there looking through baby books and trying to find a name for your baby—Ethbaal isn’t a suggestion I’d recommend—Ethbaal is derived from the name of the Philistine false God by the name of Baal. Here’s the explanation the People’s Bible on the Book of Kings gives for Baal: “The word baal simply means “lord.” The Baal mentioned here was considered to be the god who sent the storm and the rain and caused crops to grow. Baal worshipers engaged in a kind of sacred fornication at the temple to praise him as the source of life. At times the people would even offer their children to Baal as burnt sacrifices (). This is called sympathetic ritual—worship that has as its chief aim to get the gods to sympathize (feel the same way) about you as you mimic what you want them to do. In this case, the worshippers desired that Baal, the god of the storm, intimately engage with another goddess by the name Asherah, who was considered to be a goddess of fertility—she was considered to be the sister of Baal, as well as his wife—she was a fertility goddess, a goddess of the earth and a goddess of passion—she was also worshiped by a kind of sacred prostitution as well—and again the desire is that the gods mimic their motions so that the result is fertility on earth, in the form of bounteous crops, and herds, and large families to manage all their flock and herds and crops.”

Make sense? Don’t knock as ridiculous that fast. Imagine if you lived in those times, and you didn’t have God’s revelation in his holy Word, and you sat down to think up and dream up your own religion. Left to the devices of your own sinful and pleasure-seeking imagination your religion would likely be just as immoral and twisted as the Philistines and Canaannites and Egyptians.

So that’s the backstory with Athaliah—you can imagine how nothing good is going to come out of a household like this—your dad is the most wicked and evil King Israel has ever known, and your mom with your dad’s help take Baal worship to a whole new level among God’s people!

Athaliah marries the King of Judah in the south by the name of Jehoram and they have a son who succeeds him, by the name of Ahaziah. Jehoram, the father, gets killed in battle, and Ahaziah succeeds him. Completely under his mother, Athaliah’s sway, Ahaziah () “walked in the ways of the house of Ahab” and not in the ways of the LORD. He is eventually executed by () “Jehu son of Nimshi, whom the Lord had anointed to destroy the house of Ahab.”

God decided it was time to clean house in Judah and Israel. The only one left now, at least as far as she thought, was Athaliah. What would you do if you were her? Her son the king was dead. Jehu had been wiping out her family in the North, so there was little hope of finding refuge up there. Her only hope was to carve out a political safe-space in the south for herself while she still could. The greatest threat to her staying in power were any sons in the line of David who might be around yet and could be considered heirs to his throne. Before the people of Judea could rally around them, Athaliah seeks to destroy them all before they could destroy her.

So Athaliah went out and started to find every last one of King David’s family line and to kill them all. Which brings us back to where we started at the very beginning today: Just like Athaliah arose to destroy the whole royal family, Satan’s looking to destroy God’s house, too! If he succeeds in that, he cuts off the line of the Savior Jesus, and in doing so severs that golden thread of promise in the OT that finds fulfillment in the coming Savior, Jesus, the Babe of Bethlehem. It was only God’s love for lost souls and his zeal for our salvation that foiled Satan’s plans through Athaliah to bring Christ’s royal line to an end.

Since God didn’t let him do that, Satan moves on to the next task at hand--He’s seeking to kill every single one of us off, too.We’re in 2 Kings chapter 11. You can follow along on the insert and the inside of the service folder today. Talk about your ominous beginnings! The Bible is clear when it says that, () “When Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she proceeded to destroy the whole royal family.”

Athaliah ends up trying to kill the entire family line of David. And if I could help you a little bit today…that’s exactly what Satan wants to do with you and the entire family of God—Peter says, () “Be alert! Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” The devil never stops in looking to help you; he wants to hurt you. We should never underestimate him. He’s an evil angel, which means that he’s like one of God’s mighty ones, his fiery ones, the angels who are powerful, wise and swift and roam the earth to do God’s bidding. Satan’s like that—he’s mighty, he’s swift, he’s wise—although he’s a created being that had a beginning—he’s eternal in the sense that he can never die—which means he’s had all of history to study people’s weaknesses and sin and knows how to use that against you. At the same time we shouldn’t over-estimate Satan’s abilities either—although he’s powerful—he isn’t God—he’s one of God’s creations gone bad by a choice of his own, and now that he’s been cast down and destined for judgment, he’s mad as hell and he’s doing everything in his power to take people down with him there, where there will weeping and gnashing of teeth forever.

So when it says in our text that wicked Athaliah was seeking to destroy the royal family of David, you know who (Satan) was only too glad to facilitate that. He, too, sought the death and downfall of the royal house of Ahaziah, because he was in the royal line of David, and therefore the Savior’s line.

So, again, if I can help you to see this one thing in God’s Word this morning—it’s that Satan is seeking to do the same thing to true Church of God in the world today—he wants to kill them off—in these verses it was a literal killing off of David’s royal family—in our lives it’s a spiritual death that Satan’s after with us—as he gets us to drop our faith in Jesus, our entire Christian belief system, and instead to chase after the things the devil holds dear, all his false ideas, and his false teachings, and the pleasures of this world--instead of serving God and following his light in his Word, and experiencing his grace and peace that comes through His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

“But,” the Bible says, (v.2) “Jehoshiba, the daughter of King Ahaziah, took Joash son of Ahaziah (who’s just an infant at the time and not even weaned yet) and stole him away from among the royal princes, who were about to be murdered,” (because God has a way of protecting and preserving that which the enemy is trying to destroy—BTW--is any of this starting to sound familiar to you?) “She put him (the baby) and his nurse (the one protecting and feeding him) in a bedroom to hide him from Athaliah; so he was not killed.” Again, sounding familiar? Any babies in Scripture that you know were protected by God like this—you’re thinking of babies like Moses now who was kept safe from Pharaoh’s wicked plot to kill all the infants of the Hebrew slaves in Egypt—Here’s another one now in Joash--but then, too, most of all, we look even further ahead to think of the Baby Jesus, the Christ Child, and Mary and Joseph, the Holy Family, whom God preserved from the deadly plot of King Herod.

Back up again to Athaliah and her wicked plot to kill Joash. In (v.3) it says that Jehoshiba took Joash and stole him away, right from under Athaliah’s nose while she’s trying to kill off the royal line and, “He remained hidden with his nurse at the temple of the LORD for six years while Athaliah ruled the land.”

Why would you think she wants to kill off everyone in the royal line of Ahaziah? To answer that you need to know a little more of the backstory here in Kings. to help with that there’s a little timeline in your bulletin today (See bulletin). If you’ll notice there a split view of history in the showing the royal line of kings in the North (Israel) and the kings in the south (Judah). If you can Athaliah’s name there in the box, and then follow the direct line from her to a couple other characters—and I do mean characters, in a bad way, in Ahab and Jezebel down below. They were a husband and wife pair, so king and queen over the northern kingdom in Israel. Here’s the one thing King Ahab is known for in () it says, “Ahab son of Omri became king of Israel, and he reigned in Samaria over Israel twenty-two years. Ahab son of Omri did more evil in the eyes of the LORD than any of those before him. He not only considered it trivial to commit the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, but he also married Jezebel daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and began to serve Baal and worship him. He set up an altar for Baal in the temple of Baal that he built in Samaria. Ahab also made an Asherah pole and did more to provoke the LORD, the God of Israel, to anger than did all the kings of Israel before him.”

-- 3 He remained hidden with his nurse at the temple of the LORD for six years while Athaliah ruled the land.

(v.3) “He remained hidden with his nurse at the temple of the LORD for six years while Athaliah ruled the land.

I’ll make special mention of Jezebel here, too, because it will help you to know about her, too—she’s the mother here—Jezebel was originally the daughter of pagan, Philistine dude by the name of Ethbaal.

For all you new parents out there looking through baby books and trying to find a name for your baby—Ethbaal isn’t a suggestion I’d recommend—Ethbaal is derived from the name of the Philistine false God by the name of Baal. Here’s the explanation the People’s Bible on the Book of Kings gives for Baal:

“The word baal simply means “lord.” The Baal mentioned here was considered to be the god who sent the storm and the rain and caused crops to grow. Baal worshipers engaged in a kind of sacred fornication at the temple to praise him as the source of life. At times the people would even offer their children to Baal as burnt sacrifices (). This is called sympathetic ritual—worship that has as its chief aim to get the gods to sympathize (feel the same way) about you as you mimic what you want them to do. In this case, the worshippers desired that Baal, the god of the storm, intimately engage with another goddess by the name Asherah, who was considered to be a goddess of fertility—she was considered to be the sister of Baal, as well as his wife—she was a fertility goddess, a goddess of the earth and a goddess of passion—she was also worshiped by a kind of sacred prostitution as well—and again the desire is that the gods mimic their motions so that the result is fertility on earth, in the form of bounteous crops, and herds, and large families to manage all their flock and herds and crops.”

Make sense? Don’t knock as ridiculous that fast. Imagine if you lived in those times, and you didn’t have God’s revelation in his holy Word, and you sat down to think up and dream up your own religion. Left to the devices of your own sinful and pleasure-seeking imagination your religion would likely be just as immoral and twisted as the Philistines and Canaannites and Egyptians.

Another goddess was Asherah. Although the King James Bible regularly translates this word as “grove,” an Asherah was actually a wooden post on which was carved the symbol of a female goddess. Asherah was considered to be the sister of Baal, as well as his wife. She was a fertility goddess, the goddess of passion, who was also worshiped by a kind of sacred prostitution.”

The People’s Bible: Kings Ahab Becomes King of Israel

The word baal simply means “lord.” But the Baal mentioned here was considered the god who sent rain and caused the crops to grow. Baal worshipers engaged in a kind of sacred fornication at the temple to praise him as the source of life. At times the people would even offer their children to Baal as burnt sacrifices (Jeremiah 19:5).

Another goddess was Asherah. Although the King James Bible regularly translates this word as “grove,” an Asherah was actually a wooden post on which was carved the symbol of a female goddess. Asherah was considered to be the sister of Baal, as well as his wife. She was a fertility goddess, the goddess of passion, who was also worshiped by a kind of sacred prostitution.

So that’s the backstory with Athaliah—you can imagine how nothing good is going to come out of a household like this!

The People’s Bible: Kings Ahab Becomes King of Israel

Ahab son of Omri became king of Israel, and he reigned in Samaria over Israel twenty-two years. 30Ahab son of Omri did more evil in the eyes of the LORD than any of those before him. 31He not only considered it trivial to commit the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, but he also married Jezebel daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and began to serve Baal and worship him. 32He set up an altar for Baal in the temple of Baal that he built in Samaria. 33Ahab also made an Asherah pole and did more to provoke the LORD, the God of Israel, to anger than did all the kings of Israel before him.

—but I really don’t want you to miss Satan’s evil design in all this--

There’s a backstory here—but I really don’t want you to miss Satan’s evil design in all this--

The New International Version Chapter 11

Jehosheba, the daughter of King Jehoram and sister of Ahaziah, took Joash son of Ahaziah and stole him away from among the royal princes, who were about to be murdered. She put him and his nurse in a bedroom to hide him from Athaliah; so he was not killed. 3 He remained hidden with his nurse at the temple of the LORD for six years while Athaliah ruled the land.

gave Didn’t kings often make alliances through marriage? Hadn’t there been enough conflict already between Israel and Judah? Why not make peace and seal the deal by marrying off his eldest son, Jehoram, to Athaliah, Ahab’s daughter

just like Athaliah arose to destroy the whole royal family, Satan’s looking to kill us all off, too.

In our text it happened quite literally. Athaliah went out and started to find every last one of King David’s family line and to kill them all.

That’s the Athaliah is thta’s mentioned in our text for today, when it says:

It might have seemed like a good move at the time. A King in Judah by the name of Jehoshaphat encouraged his oldest son to marry the daughter of King Ahab in the north (Israel). It was typical thing to do in those days if you wanted to forge an alliance in those days between nations with similar political interests. Kings often make alliances through marriage. The kings and the people they served probably thought it was a good idea, too. After all, hadn’t there been enough conflict already between Israel and Judah? Why not make peace and seal the deal with a royal wedding? And so it was that Jehoshaphat’s son, Jehoram, was married to Athaliah, Ahab’s daughter.

This is the same Athaliah, by the way, that’s mentioned in verse one of our text for today, when it says:

Text: , “When Spiritual Disaster Strikes”

Do you know what FEMA is and what they do. (Federal Emergency Management Agency) mission is to support the citizens and first responders to promote that as a nation we work together to build, sustain, and improve our capability to prepare for, protect against, respond to, recover from, and mitigate all hazards.

Ever since I started conducting worship as a pastor, from day one, I’ve always welcomed people to church the same way. The bell rings, I turn around and say, “Good morning and welcome to God’s House.”

Now if you think of God’s house this way, in terms of these four walls, the place we come to gather for worship every Sunday, that’s one thing. It’s special. What I’m thinking of when I say this is what Jacob was thinking when God appeared to him at Bethel in a vision, and afterwards, Jacob praised God from that spot the vision occured saying, () “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I was not aware of it.” 17 He was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven.”

Jacob recognized that God actually met with him in that holy place, as he does with us here in word and sacrament. Paul gets at something similar when he wrote to the Ephesians, saying, () “Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household.”

(1 Tm.3:15) “You will know how people ought to conduct themselves in God’s household, which is the church of the living God.”

“Moses was faithful as a servant in all God’s house...But Christ is faithful as the Son over God’s house. And we are his house, if indeed we hold firmly to our confidence and the hope in which we glory.”

When you think of

In the Bible the a frequent way of referring to

Not sure if you caught this in the news, but Sean Connery has revealed he was “lucky” to survive after his Bahamas mansion escaped the worst of Hurricane Dorian. He was there though. His mansion in the Bahamas is about 90 miles away from where the eye of the hurricane hit. “We are both fine,” Connery said about he and his wife, “We were lucky compared to many others here.”

Many others weren’t nearly as fortunate. Not everyone lives in a brick mansion. Not everyone had the means to go somewhere else safe. They simply hunkered down and hoped for the best.

Now that Dorian has passed, maybe you’ve seen the aerial footage over some places in the Bahamas where the eye of Dorian hit, you’ve seen the absolute devastation. It’s obvious everywhere that the sustained winds of 180 miles per hour with gusts up to 225 miles per hour, took more lives than the 30 that were reported as of Friday.

What we have before us today from is obvious devastation of another sort.

isn’t a familiar story to you at all.

You wouldn’t have been exposed to it in Sunday School. You probably never had a Bible class on the Book of Kings. So unless you’ve spent any time in the OT reading through the Bible this is an altogether unfamiliar story to you. That’s why people give up on the OT a lot—it records events and arises out of a time and culture far removed from our own.

The characters are (probably) unfamiliar. The backstory is (likely) unknown. It took me hours to review this account in both Kings and Chronicles just to sort out the dynasty of kings in the north and south in Israel and Judah. Some of the kings in the north and south have the same names, so that’s confusing too. Some of them married daughters and sons of the other to form alliances and so on. So at least I know the back story now, but we don’t have hours to unravel all that.

But by the time we are done, I will help you see and take home a couple things.

This text from 2 Kings really brings home the danger Jesus warns about in the Gospel Lesson when it comes to our house of faith. It also helps us see how God works through his servants and his Word to help keep his house of believers safe and sound in faith. Protected and preserved for today because it’s such obvious example of what Jesus warns about in the Gospel Lesson today when he warns about The reason there cannot be any compromising with Satan and our sinful nature, is

The People’s Bible: 2 Chronicles Listening to the Counsel of the Ungodly, Sitting in the Seat of the Scornful

2Ahaziah was twenty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem one year. His mother’s name was Athaliah, a granddaughter of Omri.

The People’s Bible: 2 Chronicles Listening to the Counsel of the Ungodly, Sitting in the Seat of the Scornful

Only 22 years old, Ahaziah was heavily influenced by the counsel of Ahab’s family. Because of his mother, Athaliah, and his cousins from Ahab’s side of the family, it seemed as if little Judah’s spiritual and political fortunes were to become more and more intertwined with those of the North.

() “When Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she proceeded to destroy the whole royal family.”

The People’s Bible: 2 Chronicles Becoming Like Chaff that the Wind Drives Away

The Chronicler also lays great emphasis on the point that Ahaziah’s ruin was the Lord’s doing. “God brought about Ahaziah’s downfall,” he says, and continues by declaring that Jehu, in destroying Ahab’s house, was the Lord’s anointed. In other words, Jehu did what he did under the Lord’s direction and with the Lord’s blessing. Finally, Jehu’s actions are described as “executing judgment.”

The People’s Bible: 2 Chronicles A Direct Assault on the Kingdom

On the one hand, what queen mother Athaliah did was perfectly normal, if considered only within the context of power politics in the ancient world. Her son the king was dead. Jehu had been wiping out her family in the North, so there was little hope of refuge for her there. Her only hope was to consolidate power for herself in the South while she still possessed some control over events. The greatest threat to her staying in power were any sons in the line of David who might be considered legitimate claimants to the throne. They could easily serve as focal points around which opposition could rally. Under the circumstances the only hope left for her was to destroy them before they could destroy her.

The People’s Bible: 2 Chronicles A Direct Assault on the Kingdom

Faith in God, however, views this as a direct assault on God’s ruling power and on the kingdom of God itself. It was God, after all, who had decreed that David and his successors were to occupy the throne. The promise made to David in 1 Chronicles chapter 17 was not only his way of ensuring stable rule over his people but was also his means of saving the entire world.

The People’s Bible: 2 Chronicles A Direct Assault on the Kingdom

It is probably worth the time to pause here and note the exact nature of Athaliah’s other spiritual crimes. In addition to her direct assault on the promise of the Savior, she also took an active role in promoting Baal worship among her southern subjects. A true daughter of Jezebel and a worthy offspring of Ahab! In the city of God itself, she had enthroned Baal as lord, complete with his own temple, altars, and high priest (see 23:17). As if this weren’t bad enough, she and her sons (or perhaps better, her followers) had broken into the temple of God itself so that, in honor of Baal, they could make unholy use of those holy objects set apart for the worship of the Lord (24:7). What could be worse than this? The throne of God’s kingdom had been taken over by a usurper, and the temple where God’s glory dwelt had been desecrated. Satan seemed to have triumphed in the land.

The People’s Bible: 2 Chronicles God Preserves His Kingdom by the Decisive Actions of Jehoiada and Jehosheba

Jehosheba, one of Jehoram’s daughters and the wife of Jehoiada, a priest about whom we will be hearing more shortly. This brave woman took young prince Joash from the group of children whom Athaliah had marked for slaughter, right out from under her nose. The child was still nursing, so Jehosheba hid him away in one of the inner bed chambers of the temple complex, along with his wet nurse. What she did took considerable courage, since palace and temple were located side by side, and no doubt there were few people she could trust, at least in the beginning. For the six long and terrible years of Athaliah’s reign, Jehosheba and her husband protected the little prince from harm, until the time was right for declaring themselves.

The People’s Bible: 2 Chronicles God Preserves His Kingdom by the Decisive Actions of Jehoiada and Jehosheba

Jehoiada the priest had been in full agreement with what his wife had done. Along with her, he must have spent many anxious days and nights concealing the growing young prince from prying eyes. After seven years the time came at last to restore God’s order. Jehoiada moved swiftly and decisively. First he secured the allegiance of the military by entering into a pact with five key leaders of the palace guard. Their names are supplied in verse 1 as a roll call of honor. These men were to go out on a secret mission and secure the support of the Levites and the heads of families throughout the kingdom of Judah. At an agreed-upon time, all were to present themselves at the temple of the Lord.

The People’s Bible: 2 Chronicles God Preserves His Kingdom by the Decisive Actions of Jehoiada and Jehosheba

Jehoiada demonstrated a remarkable shrewdness in his plan. He was, as we shall see, able to time the little boy’s acclamation as king in such a way as to provide him with maximum protection. No doubt he was also able to plan the exact date of the coup d’etat so that it coincided with one of the three great festivals of God’s people. At a time like this, when all Israel was required to present itself before the Lord, the influx of great numbers of people into Jerusalem would have been nothing remarkable. Athaliah must have assumed that they were simply there to worship their God as he had commanded.

The People’s Bible: 2 Chronicles God Preserves His Kingdom by the Decisive Actions of Jehoiada and Jehosheba

Particularly confusing is the task of sorting out all the various groupings of men along with their various stations as described for us both here and in 2 Kings.

The People’s Bible: 2 Chronicles God Preserves His Kingdom by the Decisive Actions of Jehoiada and Jehosheba

Armed Levites and armed soldiers stood side by side to protect the king. Since the group guarding the boy in the temple precincts was a mixture of Levites and regular soldiers, Jehoiada hastened to add the instruction, “No one is to enter the temple of the LORD except the priests and Levites.” No matter how the situation played itself out, Jehoiada did not want anyone not a priest, in an excess of zeal, running into the Lord’s temple itself.

The People’s Bible: 2 Chronicles God Preserves His Kingdom by the Decisive Actions of Jehoiada and Jehosheba

We dare not miss the remark that “they presented him with a copy of the covenant.” Judah was not a kingdom like all the other nations of the world, where the king ruled alone and where his word was law. It was the kingdom where God’s Word was paramount. The copy of the covenant, therefore, was most likely a copy of Deuteronomy, where God had clearly spelled out what it meant for a people to be chosen as his very own. In that same book, God had instructed his people on what basis any future king of theirs had to rule: “When he takes the throne of his kingdom, he is to write for himself on a scroll a copy of this law, taken from that of the priests” (Deuteronomy 17:18).

The People’s Bible: 2 Chronicles God Preserves His Kingdom by the Decisive Actions of Jehoiada and Jehosheba

Part of the appeal of idolatry is its easy tolerance of other religious points of view. “Oh, so you’re a follower of the Lord? That’s great! I’m a devotee of Baal myself, but there have been times when I’ve offered a sacrifice or two to the Lord, I don’t mind telling you.” Athaliah had not destroyed the temple of the true God. She had just built a temple of Baal alongside it. We see this same principle in operation in much of what passes for spirituality in America today. Religion is seen to be this vast tent under which there should be many displays, enough to suit anyone’s taste. Jehoiada had no such tolerance. There was no middle ground. Baal worship was destructive to the exclusive relationship that the Lord wanted to enjoy with his people. Similarly we are not to be fooled whenever a tolerance of evil masquerades as a broad-minded and compassionate love. God’s people can have no fellowship with what is false and with that which, if clung to, will destroy spiritual life.

Don’t ever compromise with evil. Athaliah ends up trying to kill the entire family line of David. And if I could help you a little bit today, based on these words of the Lord before us today…that’s exactly what Satan wants to do with you and the entire family of God, too—just like Athaliah arose to destroy the whole royal family, Satan’s looking to kill us all off, too.

We’re in 2 Kings chapter 11 today. Disaster strikes. The Bible is clear when it says that, () “When Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she proceeded to destroy the whole royal family.”

In our text it happened quite literally. Athaliah went out and started to find every last one of King David’s family line and to kill them all.

Jezebel

The People’s Bible: 2 Chronicles A Bleak Summary of His Reign: “He Walked in the Ways … Of Ahab”

Judah up to this time had been largely shielded by its kings from the gross idolatry that had so thoroughly corrupted the Northern Kingdom. Asa and Jehoshaphat had made it their official policy to root out high place worship from their land (14:3; 17:6). While

Judah up to this time had been largely shielded by its kings from the gross idolatry that had so thoroughly corrupted the Northern Kingdom. Asa and Jehoshaphat had made it their official policy to root out high place worship from their land (14:3; 17:6).

Jehoshaphat would’ve

The People’s Bible: 2 Chronicles A Bleak Summary of His Reign: “He Walked in the Ways … Of Ahab”

Judah up to this time had been largely shielded by its kings from the gross idolatry that had so thoroughly corrupted the Northern Kingdom.

Athaliah ends up trying to kill the entire royal line of David, and if I could help you a little bit here today…Satan is trying to do the exact same thing with your spiritual house of faith and mine, too! In these verses it was a literal killing off of David’s royal house—in our lives it’s a spiritual death that Satan’s after with us--he tries to get us to drop our faith in Jesus and our entire Christian belief system so that instead we chase after the things the devil holds dear--all his false ideas and the pleasures of this world.

Athaliah ends up trying to kill the entire royal line of David, and if I could help you a little bit here today…Satan is trying to do the exact to you, to me and everyone. In these verses it was a literal killing off of David’s royal house—in our lives it’s a spiritual death that Satan’s after with us--he tries to get us to drop our faith in Jesus and our entire belief system so that instead we chase after the things he holds dear--all his false ideas and the pleasures of this world.

The People’s Bible: 2 Chronicles A Bleak Summary of His Reign: “He Walked in the Ways … Of Ahab”

Jehoram reversed this policy and instead adopted his father-in-law’s procedure of establishing high places among his people that were dedicated to the worship of the Tyrian god Baal. “He walked in the ways of the kings of Israel, as the house of Ahab had done.” It is likely that such practices were part of a larger policy of close cooperation with the idolatrous kingdom to the north. When Jehoshaphat’s other sons spoke out against what was happening, they were killed for their trouble, along with their supporters.

(v.2) “But,” the Bible says, “Jehoshiba, the daughter of King Ahaziah, took Joash son of Ahaziah (who’s just an infant at the time and not even weaned yet) and stole him away from among the royal princes, who were about to be murdered,” (because God has a way of protecting and preserving his people from the evil one and getting his will done in our lives.

(v.2) “But,” the Bible says, “Jehoshiba, the daughter of King Ahaziah, took Joash son of Ahaziah (who’s just an infant at the time and not even weaned yet) and stole him away from among the royal princes, who were about to be murdered,” (because God has a way of protecting and preserving his people from the evil one).

Jehoram reversed this policy and instead adopted his father-in-law’s procedure of establishing high places among his people that were dedicated to the worship of the Tyrian god Baal. “He walked in the ways of the kings of Israel, as the house of Ahab had done.” It is likely that such practices were part of a larger policy of close cooperation with the idolatrous kingdom to the north. When Jehoshaphat’s other sons spoke out against what was happening, they were killed for their trouble, along with their supporters

BTW--is any of this sounding familiar here yet? (Still in v.2) “She put him (the baby) and his nurse (the one protecting and feeding him) in a bedroom to hide him from Athaliah; so he was not killed.” Does that sound familiar from other places in Scripture? Any other babies who were protected by God like this—you’re thinking of baby Moses now who was kept safe from Pharaoh’s wicked plot to kill all the infant Hebrew boys in Egypt—Here’s another one now in Joash—and then, too, most of all, we think of the Baby Jesus, the Christ Child, who God preserved from King Herod’s wicked plot. Of course, working behind the scenes in all of this is the evil one, Satan, who’s constantly trying to undermine God’s saving plans for his people. Whether we’re talking about the baby Moses, Joash, the Baby Jesus, or your life in Christ, Satan is constantly working to bring spiritual disaster down on your house.

BTW--is any of this sounding familiar to you yet? (Still in v.2) “She put him (the baby) and his nurse (the one protecting and feeding him) in a bedroom to hide him from Athaliah; so he was not killed.” Sound familiar? Any babies in Scripture that you know were protected by God like this—you’re thinking of babies like Moses now who was kept safe from Pharaoh’s wicked plot to kill all the infants of the Hebrew slaves in Egypt—Here’s another one now in Joash--but then, too, most of all, we look even further ahead to think of the Baby Jesus, the Christ Child, and Mary and Joseph, the Holy Family, whom God preserved from the deadly plot of King Herod. In each case like that and this one, spiritual disaster hit God’s people and hit it hard. Whether you’re talking about Pharaoh’s murderous scheme, or that of King Herod or wicked Athaliah, the one working behind the scenes in all of it is the evil one, Satan, who constantly is trying to undermine God’s saving plans for people and the destruction of souls.

The People’s Bible: 2 Chronicles God Whittles Jehoram Down to Size

By introducing such gross idolatry and Baal worship into his kingdom, he had “caused the people of Jerusalem to prostitute themselves and had led Judah astray.” The only other time our writer uses the expression “to prostitute themselves” is in his first book. There he chose it as the best way to characterize the sin of the northern tribes and gave it as the reason why God had abandoned them to their enemies (1 Chronicles 5:25, 26).

What’s your level of disaster preparedness when spiritual disaster hits? Are you even aware when it hits your house of faith and the faith of those you love? Who’s the first responder when that happens, in the church, in the home? Who gets involved and knows what to do? Who’s even aware there’s a problem?!

By introducing such gross idolatry and Baal worship into his kingdom, he had “caused the people of Jerusalem to prostitute themselves and had led Judah astray.” The only other time our writer uses the expression “to prostitute themselves” is in his first book. There he chose it as the best way to characterize the sin of the northern tribes and gave it as the reason why God had abandoned them to their enemies (, )

Everyone was aware when Hurricane Dorian was making her way through the Atlantic and coming our way. Nearly 16,000 workers, including out-of-state utilities and contractors, were available to assist days before the hurricane hit the Florida coast. We could see it coming and people prepared. Friends we know down there were sandbagging almost a week ahead of time.

For example, almost everyone was aware days ahead of time that Hurricane Dorian was making her way through the Atlantic toward FLA. Nearly 16,000 workers, including out-of-state utilities and contractors, lined up on the highways into the state, ready and waiting to respond to the disaster. It was obvious that disaster was coming. We could see it coming. So people prepared. Friends we know down there were sandbagging almost a week ahead of time.

The People’s Bible: 2 Chronicles God Pronounces Judgment on Jehoram Through Elijah

12Jehoram received a letter from Elijah the prophet, which said:

“This is what the LORD, the God of your father David, says: ‘You have not walked in the ways of your father Jehoshaphat or of Asa king of Judah. 13But you have walked in the ways of the kings of Israel, and you have led Judah and the people of Jerusalem to prostitute themselves, just as the house of Ahab did. You have also murdered your own brothers, members of your father’s house, men who were better than you. 14So now the LORD is about to strike your people, your sons, your wives and everything that is yours, with a heavy blow. 15You yourself will be very ill with a lingering disease of the bowels, until the disease causes your bowels to come out.’ ”

A remarkable letter from a remarkable man! Elijah, as we know from 1 Kings, conducted his ministry among the northern tribes of Israel. The Lord had used him to prevent his people from sliding into complete apostasy under Ahab and Jezebel. As one of the last acts of Elijah’s career, the Lord used him to render his verdict over Jehoram.

The People’s Bible: 2 Chronicles God Pronounces Judgment on Jehoram Through Elijah

12Jehoram received a letter from Elijah the prophet, which said:

“This is what the LORD, the God of your father David, says: ‘You have not walked in the ways of your father Jehoshaphat or of Asa king of Judah. 13But you have walked in the ways of the kings of Israel, and you have led Judah and the people of Jerusalem to prostitute themselves, just as the house of Ahab did. You have also murdered your own brothers, members of your father’s house, men who were better than you. 14So now the LORD is about to strike your people, your sons, your wives and everything that is yours, with a heavy blow. 15You yourself will be very ill with a lingering disease of the bowels, until the disease causes your bowels to come out.’ ”

A remarkable letter from a remarkable man! Elijah, as we know from 1 Kings, conducted his ministry among the northern tribes of Israel. The Lord had used him to prevent his people from sliding into complete apostasy under Ahab and Jezebel. As one of the last acts of Elijah’s career, the Lord used him to render his verdict over Jehoram.

The People’s Bible: 2 Chronicles God Pronounces Judgment on Jehoram Through Elijah

12Jehoram received a letter from Elijah the prophet, which said:

“This is what the LORD, the God of your father David, says: ‘You have not walked in the ways of your father Jehoshaphat or of Asa king of Judah. 13But you have walked in the ways of the kings of Israel, and you have led Judah and the people of Jerusalem to prostitute themselves, just as the house of Ahab did. You have also murdered your own brothers, members of your father’s house, men who were better than you. 14So now the LORD is about to strike your people, your sons, your wives and everything that is yours, with a heavy blow. 15You yourself will be very ill with a lingering disease of the bowels, until the disease causes your bowels to come out.’ ”

A remarkable letter from a remarkable man! Elijah, as we know from 1 Kings, conducted his ministry among the northern tribes of Israel. The Lord had used him to prevent his people from sliding into complete apostasy under Ahab and Jezebel. As one of the last acts of Elijah’s career, the Lord used him to render his verdict over Jehoram.

Are we as aware, are we ready and on the look out when spiritual disaster is imminent in our lives and the people around us? Do you see the warning signs? With the weather, the barometric pressure drops. What about your faith? You can’t measure it with a gauge or chart it on a graph, but here are some of the warning signs:

Are we as aware, are we as ready when it comes to averting spiritual disaster in the hearts and lives of us and the people around us? Do you see the warning signs? A change in the weather brings a drop in the barometric pressure. What about your faith? How do you measure a change in that? Here are some warning signs:

The People’s Bible: 2 Chronicles God Carries Out His Verdict

20Jehoram was thirty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem eight years. He passed away, to no one’s regret, and was buried in the City of David, but not in the tombs of the kings.

· Your interest and desire to worship God and his Word drops

· You start compromising with sin by what you look at one your phone, or watch on television, or do with your friends, thereby completely undoing the positive things God might be trying to do through his Word and your time in his House

· Or let’s say that you do go to God’s House regularly and you do study the Bible, but the rest of the time you still let sin reign in your life by what you look at one your phone, or watch on television, or do with your friends, thereby completely undoing the positive things God was doing through his Word in the first place

· Spiritual disaster isn’t far away when pastors and elders stop visiting their members at church and parents stop having spiritual conversations in the home with their children

· Disaster strikes when pastors and elders stop visiting their members at church and parents tune out from the spiritual state of things in the home

· The threat level rises as you cut yourself off from God and his Word so that the pleasures of this world and the worries and cares and stress of work and finances and your health beat like hurricane force winds at your house of faith until it’s ready to come crashing down and we wonder how it all happened, as if it came out of nowhere!

· The threat level rises any time you cut yourself off from God and his Word so that the pleasures and philosophies of this world have a chance to put chink after chink in your armor of faith. Or it’s the stress and anxiety of work and finances and health that beat against your house of faith like hurricane force winds until your house of faith comes crashing down, and then we wonder how it all happened, as if it came out of nowhere!

Take a look at the timeline I provided in your bulletin for the royal family for Judah in the south and Israel in the north. The story in our text for today takes place during the time of the divided kingdom in Israel and Judah. The spiritual disaster we see here in had been brewing for centuries already. Back in () it says, “Ahab son of Omri became king of Israel, and he reigned in Samaria over Israel twenty-two years. Ahab son of Omri did more evil in the eyes of the LORD than any of those before him. He not only considered it trivial to commit the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, but he also married Jezebel daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and began to serve Baal and worship him. He set up an altar for Baal in the temple of Baal that he built in Samaria. Ahab also made an Asherah pole and did more to provoke the LORD, the God of Israel, to anger than did all the kings of Israel before him.”

Spiritually speaking, here in , the royal house of Judah and Israel was a train wreck and it was a situation that like ours in many cases, was building for years. Take a look at the timeline I provided in your bulletin for the royal family for Judah in the south and Israel in the north. This is during the time of the divided kingdom in the OT. Back a couple generations already in () it says, “Ahab son of Omri became king of Israel, and he reigned in Samaria over Israel twenty-two years. Ahab son of Omri did more evil in the eyes of the LORD than any of those before him. He not only considered it trivial to commit the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, but he also married Jezebel daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and began to serve Baal and worship him. He set up an altar for Baal in the temple of Baal that he built in Samaria. Ahab also made an Asherah pole and did more to provoke the LORD, the God of Israel, to anger than did all the kings of Israel before him.”

That’s at least some of the backstory with wicked Athaliah—you can imagine how nothing good is going to come out of a household like this—your dad is the most wicked and evil King Israel has ever known, and your mom with your dad’s help takes Baal worship (which is another sordid affair I don’t have time to describe here, with temple prostitutes and what have you)—at any rate—it’s King Ahab & Jezebel who take idolatry and immorality to a whole new level among God’s people—it starts with their royal house in the north and then spreads to the south in Judah through inter-marriage. See on the timeline how Athaliah is married to the King Jehoram in the south. He and Athaliah have a son and heir to the throne named Ahaziah. Jehoram, the father, gets killed in battle, and Ahaziah succeeds him. And under the complete sway of his mother, Athaliah, Ahaziah we’re told, () “walked in the ways of the house of Ahab” and not in the ways of the LORD. Eventually Ahaziah is executed by () “Jehu son of Nimshi, whom the Lord had anointed to destroy the house of Ahab.”

This provides at least some of the backstory to what we see happening here in with wicked Athaliah—you know that nothing good’s going to come out of a household like hers when your dad is the most wicked and evil King Israel has ever known, and your mom with your dad’s help takes Baal worship (which is another sordid affair I don’t have time to describe here, with temple prostitutes and what have you)—at any rate—it’s King Ahab & Jezebel who take idolatry and immorality to a whole new level among God’s people—it starts with the royal house of Israel in the north and then spreads to the south in Judah through inter-marriage. See on the timeline how Athaliah is married to the King Jehoram in the south. He and Athaliah have a son and heir to the throne named Ahaziah. Jehoram, the father, gets killed in battle, and Ahaziah succeeds him. And under the complete sway of his mother, Athaliah, Ahaziah we’re told, () “walked in the ways of the house of Ahab” and not in the ways of the LORD. Eventually Ahaziah is executed by () “Jehu son of Nimshi, whom the Lord had anointed to destroy the house of Ahab.”

Like I said, disaster struck in the house of Israel and Judah. Think of God as being like a first responder of sorts. He steps in and works through his Word and through his people to stop Athaliah’s wicked plot to save her own life by trying to kill off any possible remaining heirs to the throne of Judah so she can become queen herself. “Athaliah therefore joins the ranks of people like Caiaphas, Judas, Pontius Pilate, and others, all those who—whether motivated by fear, greed, or cynicism—set themselves up against the Lord and against his anointed. In short, she was an antichrist, one of the many that must come as signs of the end (People’s Bible Commentary, ; see also ).

Like I said, the spiritual house of Israel and Judah is a train wreck. Think of God as being like a first responder of sorts. He steps in and works through his Word and through his people to stop Athaliah’s wicked plot to save her own life by trying to kill any possible remaining heirs to the throne of Judah by killing all the sons in David’s royal line so she can become queen herself. “Athaliah therefore joins the ranks of people like Caiaphas, Judas, Pontius Pilate, and others, all those who—whether motivated by fear, greed, or cynicism—set themselves up against the Lord and against his anointed. In short, she was an antichrist, one of the many that must come as signs of the end (People’s Bible Commentary, ; see also ).

The spiritual disaster that was befalling the royal house of Judah was obvious. What might not be so obvious to us is the spiritual darkness that slowly is falling upon us or those we love. How important to not only recognize the disaster, but then also to have the knowledge and conviction to step in and do what needs to be done!

Back to our story with Joash, the infant heir to the throne of David. God stepped in to stem the tide of spiritual disaster befalling the house of Judah by using faithful believers like Jehosheba, the wife of Jehoiada the priest, who stole little Joash right out from under Athaliah’s nose, along with his wet nurse, and kept the little prince safe from harm for six long years until the time came for him to assume his rightful place on the throne as the Lord’s anointed. At the same time her husband, Jehoiada the priest, gathered other faithful soldiers from the temple and palace guard, and devised a wise plan to thwart Athaliah’s wicked scheme. All this took considerable courage on their part, since the palace of Athaliah and the temple were located side by side and there were likely few people they could trust, at least in the beginning. When the time was right, it says, (vv.15-16) “Jehoiada the priest ordered the commanders of units of a hundred, who were in charge of the troops: “Bring [Athaliah] out between the ranks and put to the sword anyone who follows her…So they seized her as she reached the place where the horses enter the palace grounds, and there she was put to death.” The main takeaway for us here is the way these OT believers not only recognized the spiritual disaster coming on them, but they acted decisively to stop it.

The last thing we want to do is turn a blind eye to sin or compromise with it in any way. There are some ways we need to have civilized conversations and make compromises in life. It’s one thing if the husband wants a Dodge Ram and the wife wants a Prius. Compromises can be made. You want to watch an action movie; she wants to watch a love story. Sometimes we have to make compromises to keep the peace. But there are some things in life that we don’t ever want to compromise or make peace with. And right at the very top of that list of things that calls for zero compromise and decisive action...is sin! And let's face it—we live in a world that makes compromises with sin all the time! It compromises with sin instead of calling it out for what it is—oh, not all sin of course—there are many sins we have chosen to detest, to resist and overcome. Even the most ungodly among us have a list of things they "just will not tolerate." We have all turned away from certain kinds of sins at times.

But that's not where the danger lies, is it--with the big sins that are obvious—many times the danger is in the few little things: think of that one sinful thing that you’re maybe still "at peace with." We can live with this common misconception that, if we're pretty good at resisting lots of sin, it doesn't matter if we have some sin. You do know what the Scriptures say about this, don't you? Jesus said, “Watch and pray so that you do not enter into temptation.” James wrote, "Whoever stumbles at just one point of the law is guilty of breaking it all." () The Apostle Paul said, “Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires.” Jesus says, () “Be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness and the anxieties of life, and that day will close on you suddenly like a trap.” And finally, the writer to the Hebrews warns us saying that, "without holiness, no one will see the Lord." ()

Thank God, that when the disaster of our daily sin fell upon us, that Jesus willingly stepped like a divine first responder and took our place; in the midst of God’s wrath Jesus bore our sin in his own body to rescue us from the eternal torment of hell.

It’s this good news of forgiveness, life and salvation that equips us now to do something similar each day in our lives with each other. We know that Satan is never far away and that he’s just waiting for opportunities to attack us in our faith. The unbelieving world around us brings the heat non-stop. We, too, all by ourselves with our sinful nature, are our own worst enemy most of the time. We need to recommit ourselves to fighting the good fight of faith and remain vigilant in this fight every single day. Remember what the Apostle said in the Second Lesson today: (,) “Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground.”

Look at the decisive stand God’s OT people took against evil in our lesson today: (vv.17-20) “Jehoiada then made a covenant between the Lord and the king and people that they would be the Lord’s people. He also made a covenant between the king and the people. 18 All the people of the land went to the temple of Baal and tore it down. They smashed the altars and idols to pieces and killed Mattan the priest of Baal in front of the altars. Then Jehoiada the priest posted guards at the temple of the Lord. 19 He took with him the commanders of hundreds, the Carites, the guards and all the people of the land, and together they brought the king down from the temple of the Lord and went into the palace, entering by way of the gate of the guards. The king then took his place on the royal throne. 20 All the people of the land rejoiced, and the city was calm, because Athaliah had been slain with the sword at the palace.”

Jehoiada’s leadership and conviction was obvious by the way he smashed evil and sin when it was rearing it’s ugly head among the people of Judah. We’ll want to take the same approach. What for the warning signs of a spiritual slide in your life and the lives of those you love. Don’t wait for tomorrow to take some kind of action. Have a wise plan to deal with it now because tomorrow isn’t a guarantee for any of us. () “Be alert!” and remember that, “your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.”

Don’t let that happen. Don’t let sin get a foothold in your life. Let God show you the way to avert spiritual disaster and walk in his ways. says, “Blessed is the one who does not walk in the way of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners.”

It almost sounds cliché, doesn’t it—to “walk in the way of the LORD.” It’s an even more common mistake to assume that we know how to do that on our own. But even as believers we don’t know our own way—we can’t see where we’re going because we travel on an unseen journey of faith with an unseen guide. But the LORD knows our way. Invisibly he guides us step-by-step along the way through his Word and sacraments. As we meditate on his Word each morning and evening, he opens that way for us, as he continues to show us his grace and helps us discern what is right and good for us. God promises to keep sending us his Spirit so that we can avoid spiritual disaster in life as we continue on that unseen path and journey heaven-ward to Christ.

God grant this for Jesus’ sake, Amen.

When Spiritual Disaster Strikes

This was a godly family, united in their ambition to do the Lord’s will.