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Context No. 1468 of 4322 · 2 Chronicles

Context · Reflection

2 Chronicles 23:8-13: in context

8So the Levites and all Judah did according to all that Jehoiada the priest commanded. They each took his men, those who were to come in on the Sabbath, with those who were to go out on the Sabbath, for Jehoiada the priest didn’t dismiss the shift. 9Jehoiada the priest delivered to the captains of hundreds the spears, bucklers, and shields that had been king David’s, which were in God’s house. 10He set all the people, every man with his weapon in his hand, from the right side of the house to the left side of the house, near the altar and the house, around the king. 11Then they brought out the king’s son, put the crown on him, gave him the covenant, and made him king. Jehoiada and his sons anointed him, and they said, “Long live the king!” 12When Athaliah heard the noise of the people running and praising the king, she came to the people into the LORD’s house. 13Then she looked, and behold, the king stood by his pillar at the entrance, with the captains and the trumpeters by the king. All the people of the land rejoiced and blew trumpets. The singers also played musical instruments, and led the singing of praise. Then Athaliah tore her clothes, and said, “Treason! treason!”

Jehoiada the priest carries out his plan to restore the rightful heir. The Levites and all Judah arm themselves and surround the young king's son; Jehoiada gives them the spears and shields that had been King David's, kept in God's house; and they station themselves around the boy. Then they bring out the king's son, put the crown on him, give him the covenant, anoint him, and shout, Long live the king! Athaliah, the usurping queen who had murdered the royal family and seized the throne, hears the noise and comes into the temple, and seeing the rightful king standing crowned by his pillar, she tears her clothes and cries out: Treason! Treason!

There is a sharp irony in Athaliah's cry. She had murdered her way to the throne, wiped out the royal house, and reigned as a usurper for six years; and now, when the true and rightful king is finally crowned, it is she who cries treason. To the one who has wrongly seized the throne, the coming of its rightful owner looks like rebellion; the restoration of the true king is denounced as the crime. The usurper, so used to her stolen position that she takes it for the rightful order, sees the return of the true king as an attack on her, and calls it treason. There is a picture in this worth pondering. Whatever has wrongly seized the throne of a life, whatever false ruler we have let usurp the place that belongs to God, will resist his rightful claim as though he were the intruder. When the true King comes to take his proper place, the usurper in us cries treason, treating the rightful reign of God as a hostile invasion of what it has come to regard as its own. Our sins, our idols, the false selves that have taken command, do not yield the throne graciously; they denounce the coming of the true King as rebellion against them. But the cry of treason from a usurper is only the noise of a false claim being exposed. Athaliah's reign was the treason; the crowning of the true king was justice. The rightful King's coming to claim his throne is not the crime; the usurper's holding of it was.

What has wrongly seized the throne of my life that would cry treason at the rightful claim of God, and can I see that his coming to take his proper place is not the intrusion but the restoration, whatever the usurper in me protests?

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