By now you have probably noticed that God never had a perfect person to work with in the Old Testament. Even the best, most faithful people had their faults. As disappointed as he was, God never erased the people of the earth. He tried again and again to keep his people close to him.

We think of the New Testament as the place where God’s grace was introduced through Jesus Christ, but God’s grace is present throughout the Old Testament, too. It works in conjunction with his perfect justice.

In Exodus 34:6-7 we read that God is compassionate, gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in love. Yet he does not let the guilty go unpunished; he will pursue the guilty through the generations to deal with sin.

The great news is that each person gets to decide if they are going to be the new generation that pursues righteousness and changes everything. Today’s story about Athaliah, Jeohoiada, and Joash is an example of this.

Queen Athaliah

Let’s review how Athaliah came to be queen in Judah. She was actually from Israel and was the daughter of King Ahab and Queen Jezebel. She joined Judah’s royal house when she married King Jehoram, an evil man who turned his back on God. Athaliah encouraged her husband Jehoram to follow the idolatry of her parents, Ahab and Jezebel.

God punished King Jehoram for his unfaithfulness when the Philistines, Arabs, and Cushites invaded Jerusalem. They looted Jehoram’s palace and carried off all but one of his sons. Two years later Jehoram died from a terrible disease and his remaining son Ahaziah succeeded him as king of Judah.

King Jehu of Israel killed Ahaziah after only one year as king in Judah, and his mother Athaliah went on a killing spree to get rid of everyone who might succeed her son to Judah’s throne. When she thought she had no more rivals she crowned herself queen and took over leading Judah.

Athaliah had missed killing one baby grandson, however.  Her stepdaughter Jehosheba who was married to Jehoiada, the chief priest at God’s temple, rescued baby Joash, the son of Ahaziah, and hid him in a secret room. Then she took him to Jehoiada and they raised Joash quietly in the temple for the next six years, while Queen Athaliah ruled the land.

Jehoiada the Priest

Queen Athaliah was a Baal worshiper and she even built a temple to Baal in Jerusalem. Her wicked sons broke into the temple of God and stole sacred objects to use at Baal’s temple.

So Jehoiada, the priest began to protect the temple by organizing priests, Levites and soldiers to guard it day and night. The men were divided into three companies with one company going on duty every Sabbath, while two companies were off duty.

Six years into Athaliah’s reign Jehoiada tripled the guard around the temple and armed everyone with weapons. Then he called the people of Judah to gather in Jerusalem.

“In the seventh year Jehoiada showed his strength. He made a covenant with the commanders of units of a hundred . . . They went throughout Judah and gathered the Levites and the heads of Israelite families from all the towns . . . When they came to Jerusalem, the whole assembly made a covenant with the king at the temple of God. Jehoiada said to them, ‘The king’s son shall reign, as the Lord promised concerning the descendants of David.’” 2 Chronicles 23:1-3

“Jehoiada and his sons brought out the king’s son and put the crown on him; they presented him with a copy of the covenant and proclaimed him king. They anointed him and shouted, ‘Long live the king!’” 2 Chronicles 23:11

The Death of Athaliah

“When Athaliah heard the noise made by the guards and the people, she went to the people at the temple of the Lord. She looked and there was the king, standing by the pillar, as the custom was . . . Then Athaliah tore her robes and called out, ‘Treason! Treason!’” 2 Kings 11:13-14

Jehoiada ordered his troops to surround her and remove her from the temple precincts. She headed toward her palace and was put to death at the gate where horses entered the palace grounds.

King Joash

“Joash was seven years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem forty years . . . Joash did what was right in the eyes of the Lord all the years of Jehoiada the priest. Jehoiada chose two wives for him, and he had sons and daughters.” 2 Chronicles 24:1-3

Young Joash was given a crown and copy of the covenant law when he became king. This was in keeping with Moses’s directive that the king have his own copy of the Law to read. Jehoiada was Joash’s tutor and Joash learned well. He was loyal to the Law, the Lord, and the temple. Some years after he became king Joash ordered that the temple be repaired using the temple taxes that were collected every year from the Israelites.

The Levites collected the taxes, but they failed to do the repairs, so Joash bypassed them and put a box at the temple where the people could put their taxes.

“A proclamation was then issued in Judah and Jerusalem that they should bring to the Lord the tax that Moses the servant of God had required of Israel in the wilderness. All the officials and all the people brought their contributions gladly, dropping them into the chest until it was full.” 2 Chronicles 24:9-10

The money was given to workmen in charge of the temple repairs and they were so diligent that they weren’t even required to turn in their receipts. The temple was completely rebuilt to its original design and reinforced throughout. There was money left over that was used to make articles of silver and gold to furnish the temple.

The Death of Jehoiada

Thanks to the good influence of Jehoiada in King Joash’s life the temple was completely restored and,“As long as Jehoiada lived, burnt offerings were presented continually in the temple of the Lord.” 2 Chronicles 24:14

Jehoiada died at 130 years of age and they buried him among the kings in the City of David, because he had done so much good in Israel for God and his temple.

Jehoiada’s Reforms are Reversed

It’s shocking how quickly the good that Jehoiada did was reversed. Officials in Judah came to King Joash and persuaded him to forsake the God of their ancestors and turn to Baal and Asherah worship.

“Because of their guilt God’s anger came on Judah and Jerusalem. Although the Lord sent prophets to the people to bring them back to him, and though they testified against them, they would not listen.” 2 Chronicles 24:18

The Lord even sent one of Jehoiada’s sons, Zechariah, to Judah.

“‘This is what God says: Why do you disobey the Lord’s commands? You will not prosper. Because you have forsaken the Lord, he has forsaken you.’” 2 Chronicles 24:20

The people plotted against Zechariah and King Joash ordered his death by stoning in the courtyard of the Lord’s temple.

“King Joash did not remember the kindness Zechariah’s father Jehoiada had shown him but killed his son, who said as he lay dying, ‘May the Lord see this and call you to account.’” 2 Chronicles 24:22

The Lord Did See

The Lord saw and remembered what happened to Zechariah. Many centuries later, in the final week of his life before he died on the cross, Jesus rebuked Jerusalem for spilling the blood of the prophets in its streets. His voice echoed the voice of God the Father whose heart had been broken by his people so many times.

“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing. Look, your house is left to you desolate.” Matthew 23:37-38

The Death of King Jehu in Israel

Ominous things were happening in Israel while all of this was going on in Judah. King Jehu was not able to fight off King Hazael who steadily conquered Israel’s land east of the Jordan River. God, who had given Israel the Promised Land, was now taking it away.

“In those days the Lord began to reduce the size of Israel. Hazael overpowered the Israelites throughout their territory east of the Jordan in all the land of Gilead.” 2 Kings 10:32

King Jehu died after twenty-eight years on Israel’s throne, and his son Jehoahaz succeeded him.

We are now less than one hundred years from the fall of the northern tribes of Israel. It’s a sad, sad story, but we are going to learn a lot as we read it.