2 Kings 11:1-21

2 Kings 11. I've wrestled with how to preach this.! I ain't going to lie to y'all. This is a long chapter.

And this evening we're going to read the entire chapter. I'm afraid that if I don't read the whole chapter, there's going to be a lot left out that needs to be known.

So, what I'd like to do is read the entire chapter. All 21 verses. Some of the verses are lengthy. But read all 21 verses and then preach a few verses at a time.

We'll probably leave out a small middle section. But that's okay. So, there's a lot that goes on in the book of 2 Kings.

And just to give you a quick rundown of where we are in chapter 11, there's a woman here named Athalia. And Athalia, just so you know, is the daughter of Ahab and Jezebel.

And that should give you an indication of what kind of person that we're dealing with as far as Athalia goes. But we'll get more into that here shortly as we go through the Scripture and with the Lord's help preach this evening.

Ahab and Jezebel had this daughter named Athalia. Athalia marries a man named Jehoram. And Jehoram and Athalia have a son named Ahaziah.

Ahaziah is the king over Judah at one point in the Scripture. Just as Jehoram was. Just as Ahab. Ahaziah.

But he was king. And he got killed. You can flip back over to 2 Kings 9 to see how he got killed. He really and truly was assassinated. But anyway, he's dead.

And that's where this begins. 2 Kings 11. And I said you've got to flip back 2 chapters to chapter 9 to see his death. But Athalia again being the daughter of Ahab and Jezebel.

So I said that so that you wouldn't be real surprised when we read the first verse here. All that being said, 1 Kings 11 beginning at verse 1. It says, And when Athalia, the mother of Ahaziah, saw that her son was dead, she arose and destroyed all the seed royal.

But Jehoshabah, 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 from Athalia, so that he was not slain. And he was with her hid in the house of the Lord six years.

And Athalia did reign over the land. And the seventh year Jehoiada sent and fetched the rulers over the 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 shewed them the king's son.

And he commanded them, saying, This is the thing that you shall do. A third part of you that enter in on the Sabbath shall even be keepers of the watch of the king's house.

And a third part shall be at the gate of Sir, and a third part shall be at the gate behind the guard. So shall you 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 watch of the house of the Lord about the king. And you 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 priests give King David spears and shields that were in the temple of the Lord. And the guards 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 people, she came to the people in 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, the 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 priest 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, 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 the hundreds, and the captains of 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 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 Athaliah with the sword beside the king's house. Seven years old was Jehoash, when he began to reign.

A lot of reading there, but I'm not going to apologize for it. It's the word of the Lord. Back to chapter number 11, verse 1, it says, And when Athaliah, the mother of Ahaziah, saw that her son was dead, she arose and destroyed the seed royal.

And you might say this was a common practice, and it was. It was a common practice in this day. For when someone, when a throne was vacant, or when someone ascended to the throne, whether they were voted in, whether they usurped the throne, whether they won it by military mind, it was a common thing for the rest of the family to be killed off.

Anyone that was a threat to that throne could be killed off. They could be murdered. They could be slain. They could be in prison. Any number of things could happen to these people. And here it says that when she heard that Ahaziah, her son was dead, she arose and destroyed all the seed royal.

And again, you might say, this was a common practice. Why is this so important, folks? This is of utmost importance that we understand. We understand the gravity of what was happening here.

Ahaziah was dead. Her son was dead. She was the one that wanted the throne. She is the one that essentially usurped the throne.

And she killed off the seed royal. Folks, what is being said in the scripture here is that the line of David was being exterminated by this woman, Athaliah.

Like I said, Athaliah was the daughter of Ahab and Jezebel. Ahab being one of the most wicked kings that you can read about in the scripture. And we're all familiar with Jezebel, his wicked wife.

And here is their daughter trying to exterminate the line of David. Folks, but God, praise God, but God in 2 Samuel in chapter 7, He made a promise unto His man David that the throne would be established, that David's throne would be established, that it would not just fade off into the distance, that it would not go away, but that it would be established forever.

But here we have this woman, Athaliah, trying to do exactly that, being influenced by pagan people, being influenced by pagan gods who were dead, being influenced by her pagan culture, being influenced by the Baalites, being influenced by all of these people.

She is trying to exterminate the line of David in doing this. But God made a promise to David and God was going to come through on His promise. God did come through on His promise with this little baby named Joash here in the scriptures.

We've got to understand though, what was at stake. This wife, she may have just seen it as eradicating political rivals. But folks, Satan was at work in the background, trying to destroy the promise of God, trying to destroy the very lineage that would be crossed into the world after all of this happened.

This is what was going on in this scripture. It wasn't just a political stunt. This was spiritual battle that was taking place here. We must understand that.

Verse number 2. But Jehoshaphat, now, this lady Jehoshaphat here, you don't read about it here in 2 Kings.

But you do read about it in 2 Chronicles. We read this verse, it says, Jehoshaphat, the daughter of King Joerim, 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 from Ahaziah, so that he was not slain. And you might read this. And you might say, how could this woman, how could this Jehoshaphat, how could she just take a baby and go to the temple and put the baby in the temple in the bedchamber of the temple?

The bedchamber is where the high priest would have stayed there at the temple. I'll tell you why. Because you read in 2 Chronicles 22 that she was married to Jehoiada.

This was Jehoiada, the high priest. This was his wife. Folks, God was at work here. God was at work in every bit of this. This didn't just happen by happenstance.

It didn't come across by chance. It came across because God is sovereign. Because God cannot lie. Because God made a promise. And God intended to keep that promise all throughout the Scripture.

That's why these things here happen. This woman, Jehoshaphat, she took Joash, the only descendant that was left of David's. The only male descendant that could have possibly ascended to the throne that would have kept the Davidic line going.

This woman, the wife of the high priest Jehoiada, took this baby, went to the temple, and placed him and his nurse in the bedchamber. And then we read on.

And he was with her head in the house of the Lord six years. And Athaliah did reign over the land. She took the baby. She took the baby's nurse. She hid them in the temple in the bedchamber.

And they hid there six years. But folks, what we've got to understand, this was six years just as verse three years says. He was with her head in the house of the Lord six years. And Athaliah did reign over the land.

Athaliah did reign over the land. This wicked woman that had all the one of her male descendants slaughtered because she wanted the throne, because she wanted power, because she wanted it all, because she wanted to have the last say in the goings-on of this kingdom.

She ruled the land for six years. What does this make us think about? I'll tell you what it makes me think about. Sometimes. Sometimes it's for a week.

Sometimes it might be for a month. Sometimes it might be a year or six years. Sometimes it may have seemed like it was going on for a half a century. But sometimes, in the life of a Christian, there are dark seasons that come along.

There is blackness that comes along. There are times when it seems like God is a blue billion miles from everywhere or anywhere that I am. But God is always at work in the silence.

God is always at work in the darkness just as Daniel in Daniel chapter 2. He says, God knows what is in the darkness. He knew what Athaliah was.

He knew what she was doing. But the entire time, praise God, He was keeping His eye upon the promise. The promise was hid in the bedchamber.

The promise was hid in the bedchamber with His nurse. God had not forgotten Joash. God had not forgotten His promise to David. God had not forgotten everything in the Scripture that leads up to Jesus Christ.

God knows the end from the beginning and the beginning from the end. He knew the lineage that Christ would come from and He knew that it must be preserved and He knew that He would preserve it.

Dear Christian, let me encourage you. You might be in a dark time now. You might be in a dark season of your life. But that does not mean God has forgotten you. That does not mean that you are on the back burner.

That does not mean that you are any less significant now in God's eyes than you were the day that you got saved. God is working in the background and He works in the silence.

He works in the dark places. He works in the places that we cannot see. We are so guilty as Christians. We want to see the miracles. We want to see the open eyes.

We want to see the open doors. We want to see it all. But sometimes God does things that we don't see until years later. I've said many times, I don't know outside of this Word, outside of this Word, I don't know God's will for my life.

But I can look in hindsight and as they say, hindsight is 20-20. I can see it plain as day behind me from what I've already come from, from where I've already been to, from what God has already brought me through.

I can see God's will and God's purpose and God's workings in my life constantly in the history of my life. And if you're born again, you can see this as well.

You can see God moving in times that you didn't think that He was. That you thought that you've been left out in the cold, that you've been left naked, you've been left out there for the wolves, you've been left out there, for the coyotes, you've been left out there, for man to have his way with you.

Whatever the case was, you may have felt this way, but God has brought you from that and you are here tonight, still a born-again child of God, still able to call Him Father and He still calls you His children.

Take heart in that, dear Christians. Take heart in that, that God works in the dark places. Verse 4, in the seventh year, what's seven in Scripture?

That's perfection. That's completion. In the seventh year, six years, this woman had ruled the land. And evidently, with no opposition from anyone, no one was doing anything about it except for God.

Except for God. God was doing us something about it. But we read nothing. Nothing in 2 Kings. We read nothing in the Chronicler's accounts. We read nothing else in Scripture where anyone came against Athaliah.

They just let her do her thing. What does that tell you? That tells you, hey, they've done given up hope. They thought that the promised line was dead.

They thought that the promised line, the line that God had promised, they thought that it had been exterminated. So they said, we might as well just let her do her thing. Even on through the Scripture, we read it just a little while ago, on through the Scripture, where we read that Jehoiada said, take her out, take her out of the temple, don't slay her in here.

And any man that follows her, you slay him. I read nothing about anyone following her. She had no, she had no backup, she had no support, but she was allowed, she was allowed to rule for six years.

Verse number four, in the seventh year, Jehoiada sent and fetched the rulers over the 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 shewed them the king's son.

He showed them, Joash, He showed them what God had been hiding in the temple for six years. And in the seventh year, the year of perfection, the year of completeness, the year, the sabbatical year, in the seventh year, Jehoiada shows him to these people that are listed here, the leaders.

He shows them, hey, we've got a king. We've got Ahaziah's son in here. We have, we have this ruler, this woman, Athaliah, while she has the throne, she has no right to the throne.

While she has power, she has no legitimate right to the power. Yet we have allowed her to do this. And He shows them the king. He shows them who should be on the throne.

Imagine these people surprised. Imagine these people's reaction when they saw it. Imagine when they said, we have a king. Not this woman that's calling herself a queen.

Not this wicked woman. Not this, not this descendant of the worshipers of Baal. We have a king. But Jehoiada, Jehoiada, the high priest, one of the greatest high priests that you'll ever read about in the Scripture.

Jehoiada is the only high priest. As a matter of fact, you can read about 2 Chronicles 24. Jehoiada was the only high priest that was buried amongst the kings.

It says he was buried when he died and he lived to be 130 years old. When he died, it says he was buried in the city of David amongst the kings. That wasn't the place for high priests.

No, royalty was buried with royalty. But folks, what Jehoiada was doing here, and I'm not inserting anything into the Scripture that's not there, but what Jehoiada was doing here was not only protecting the Davidic line, but in the background, not only was he protecting it, but he was protecting the future of this nation.

He was protecting the future of Judah. And in the broader scheme of things, he was protecting the future of Israel as a whole. He was acting as king in the background.

I'm not saying that's why he was buried amongst the kings. But really and truly, he was doing a kingly duty. He was protecting the people. For six years, that woman reigned.

The seventh year came, Jehoiada shows him to the leaders. He says, this is your king. This is your king. Your ruler. And the one with power is not that woman that usurped the throne.

This is your king. Now let's skip several verses here and skip on to verse number 12. In the midst of all those verses, we read it earlier, he's given instruction to them how they're to guard the king, how they're to guard the king's house, how they're to slay any man that comes within the ranges as the Scripture says.

That just means anybody comes close to him. That looks questionable. You kill him. You kill him because this was the last Davidic descendant that there was.

That was the gravity of the situation. Verse 12, it says, 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.

He brings this young seven-year-old boy forth. Brings this young boy forth. Brings this kid forth. And he places the crown upon his head and it says he gave him the testimony.

Now, according to Deuteronomy in chapter 17, any king that took the throne was to make his own copy of the law of God. He was to make his own copy of the testimony.

But folks, we are talking about a seven-year-old young in here. Probably not capable of making his own copy of that. Probably not capable of writing down that much.

But you know what? Jehoiada used some discernment and he said, instead of sticking to this stringent Levitical law, there's a king that is here and he is seven years old and I'm going to give him a copy of the testimony.

I will give him a copy of the commands and the laws of the Lord. Why would Jehoiada have done that? Because he wanted Joash to go forth in the ways of the Lord.

He wanted him to know the ways of the Lord. He wanted him to be able to read daily in his later years what the ways of the Lord were so that he could lead the people in the ways of the Lord.

My goodness, what could we learn from that, parents? What could we learn from that, parents? Put a copy of the testimony in your kids' hands. Grandparents, put a copy of the testimony in your grandkids' hands.

He gave them the testimony and they made him king. Folks, he was already king. He was already king in God's eyes. It's just like David. Hey, Saul may have stayed on the throne for a long time, but David had already been anointed king.

Saul may have been on the throne, but David was king in God's eyes. In man's eyes, Saul was king, but in God's eyes, David's work.

In man's eyes, Joash was not king until he had that crown placed upon his head, until he had been given a copy of the testimony, until he had been anointed, until these things happened.

He could not have been king in man's eyes. But in God's eyes, God knew who Joash was. He knew where Joash was. And He knew the purpose that Joash would have in redemptive history.

God knew these things. And when Athaliah, verse 13, And when Athaliah heard the noise of the guard and of the people, she came to the people into the temple of the Lord.

You know what's the saddest part about this verse? This is the only time in Scripture that you read about Athaliah entering into the temple of God. It's the only time.

Now, the chronicler, he notes that she sent some of her people in there to loot the temple, but she herself was not amongst them. What brought her here? Because she heard a ruckus going on.

She wanted to go see what the commotion was. She wanted to go investigate for herself. How would she have heard it, you might say. Hey folks, she was in the king's house. She saw herself as queen and the king's house was right next door to the temple on Mount Moriah.

That's how she would have heard it. She heard everything that was going on and she went to investigate. Verse 14, 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!

What irony is in this? This woman who seized the throne unrightfully, this woman who had her entire family, all the male descendants had been killed, this woman cries treason.

Some of the other English translations say that she cried treachery. Either way, she saw it as treason. Folks, this is ever the way that rebellion will look at things.

Rebellion will look at righteousness. and see it as a hindrance. Rebellion will look at holiness and see it as unneeded. Rebellion looks at things the opposite way that God looks at things.

And this was rebellion against God. Not only her taking the throne. Not only her having her descendants killed. But this whole passage here, this entire situation was rebellion against the plan of Almighty God.

And that is exactly what the world is guilty of now. That is exactly what you were once upon a time guilty of. And it is what I was once upon a time guilty of.

We were guilty of rebellion against God. God has put in our minds and God has put in our hearts the difference between right and wrong.

And if you had decent parents, if you had decent grandparents, you had aunts and uncles, you had somebody to lead you in those ways, to guide you in those ways, to help you in those ways, to say, no, you don't lie.

No, you don't steal. No, you don't murder. No, you don't covet. You don't do any of these things. And God has it in our minds and our hearts, what is right and what is wrong.

This woman knew. This woman knew it was wrong to kill. And yet, she had her own family killed off. She had her own descendants killed off.

And we look at her and we say, shame on her. Shame on her. And you and I have been guilty of the same types of things. It all boils down to rebellion against God.

Rebellion against holiness. Rebellion against righteousness. Rebellion against goodness. That's what God saved us all from, people. He saved us from sin. And sin is simply missing the mark that God has put out there for each one of us.

We miss the mark when we sin. But God sent His Son Jesus Christ who came from the lineage of Joash and it continued on.

It continued on until Christ was born. He was born of a virgin in a manger in Bethlehem. He lived a perfect and sinless life. He was crucified upon a cross.

He was buried in a burrow tomb and the third day He rose from the dead. That is the gospel. Hallelujah. And that's why saving this baby was so important and it was so imperative because the promise would continue on.

It wasn't made with this baby. But had Joash died, folks, that would have made God a liar. And God is not a liar. God is not a liar.

But that's what was at stake in all of this. She cried, treason, treason. Then we'll skip verses 15 and 16. Go on down to verse 17.

Verses 15 and 16 is just Jehoiada come and take the queen out. We read all that earlier. They took her out and they slew her at the gate where the horses come into the king's house.

Verse 17, 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.

Jehoiada done this. Who was Jehoiada again? He was the high priest. He was the mediator between God and the people. He is the one that made mediation.

He's the one that made intercession. He's the one and he and the other priests are the ones that offered the sacrifices. They're the ones that offered the incense. They're the ones that took care of the temple.

They're the ones that served the house of the Lord. And Jehoiada here makes covenant. This is essentially renewing the covenant. between God and His people.

Jehoiada made a covenant between the Lord and the king Joash and the people. Between everybody. Jehoiada made this covenant.

And all the people of the Lamb went into the house of Baal and break it down. His altars and His images break day in pieces thoroughly and slew Matan the priests of Baal before the altars and the priests appointed officers over the house of the Lord.

folks when the rightful king is placed upon the throne when the rightful king is placed in His rightful place this is what should happen.

The altars of Baal were tore down. The idols of Baal were tore down. All the idolatry and all the false worship all these things that Athaliah had looted the king's house again you can read about that in 2nd Chronicles.

She had looted not the king's house but the temple and she had taken all these vessels out of it. And she did what with them? She promoted Baal worship with the things that belonged to the Lord.

But when the rightful king when King Jesus is placed upon the throne of your heart which is His rightful place by way of Christmanship by way of making by way of God looking down getting His hands full of the clay of the earth forming Adam from the dust of the ground and breathing the very life into Him by that way everyone on earth whether they lay claim to Christ or not everyone on earth belongs to God because He is their maker.

But each heart has a throne and when the right king is placed upon that throne the idols come down the idolatry comes down the false worship comes down folks sometimes we have to sacrifice relationships that we've been in sometimes we need to reprioritize some things in our lives but either way the idols come down and the king takes precedence read what happens here verse 19 and He took the rulers over the hundreds and the captains of 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 king's hey folks He was in the temple up to this point and they brought him down into the king's house like I said the king's house was right next door the palace was next door basically to the temple it was walking distance and then we read and all the people of the land rejoiced they rejoiced they rejoiced why?

folks the enemy was out of the way Athalia had been slain Athalia had been killed and the king was on the throne how can we apply this to the New Testament church?

I shouldn't even have to explain this folks Satan himself was defeated at Calvary and he was defeated ultimately at the resurrection of Jesus Christ when Christ came out of the grave Satan evil demon hell darkness blackness wickedness all of it was defeated hallelujah and the people should rejoice because of that these were God's people specifically here that were rejoicing because the enemy was out of the way the enemy had been killed now I know Satan's not dead nor will he ever be dead Satan is immortal Satan is eternal but I praise God I praise God one day one day I get to watch him be cast into the lake of fire along with death and hell where he deserves where he nor any of his little minions will be able to tempt me they will not be able to try me they will not be able to bring negative things in my life there will be no more death there will be no more sin there will be no more sorrow none of those things because the enemy will be out of the way but Christ

Christ has already defeated those things that's just the very end result what I was talking about when Satan will be cast into the lake of fire folks we can rejoice in that and we should rejoice in that not only is the enemy out of the way but Christ is on his throne and he will be on his throne for all of eternity and those of us which are saved those of us which have been redeemed we will gather around his throne to worship him for all of eternity hallelujah we will be rejoicing because of the enemy being put out of the way and because the king Jesus is on the throne and all the people of the land rejoiced and the city was in quiet there was peace again for the exact same reasons because the enemy had been done away with the enemy had been slain Athali had been slain but not only that the king was in his rightful place there was peace in the sea there should be peace in your heart there should be peace in your life regardless of what comes and I'm as guilty of anybody when something bad happens when sickness comes when death comes whatever the case is to thank God where are you but there should be peace in the life of one that is born again at all times because the enemy is defeated and the king is still on the throne the city was in quiet and they slew Athaliah with a sword beside the king's house seven years old was Jehoash when he began to reign

Jehoash is the same as Joash that you read about in other scriptures seven years old was he when he began to reign you know what that tells me God's promises God's promises do not depend on the strength of man this was a seven year old child but God came through on his promise regardless if he'd been seven regardless if he'd been four regardless if he'd been forty God came through on his promise and he does not rely on man's cooperation he does not rely on man's strength he does not rely on man's intellect he relies on man none to accomplish what he has said he will do and if God says he will redeem any sinner that comes to him in faith and repentance and he will wash him clean in the blood of Jesus Christ if God says that will happen it doesn't take a preacher to do it it doesn't take a deacon to do it it doesn't take any lay member in the church to do it it don't take mommy or daddy or grandma or grandpa it takes God washing you clean in the blood of his only begotten son and I invite you now if that hasn't happened

God is not dependent on the strength of anybody that you know but your salvation is dependent wholly on the blood of Jesus Christ and your belief in his gospel and the repentance of your ways and your sin and your unbelief God bless you all that's the message for this evening I appreciate your attention may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may