Context No. 3042 of 4322 · 2 Kings

2 Kings 11:15-21: in context

15Jehoiada the priest commanded the captains of hundreds who were set over the army, and said to them, “Bring her out between the ranks. Kill anyone who follows her with the sword.” For the priest said, “Don’t let her be slain in the LORD’s house.” 16So they seized her; and she went by the way of the horses’ entry to the king’s house, and she was slain there. 17Jehoiada made a covenant between the LORD and the king and the people, that they should be the LORD’s people; also between the king and the people. 18All the people of the land went to the house of Baal, and broke it down. They broke his altars and his images in pieces thoroughly, and killed Mattan the priest of Baal before the altars. The priest appointed officers over the LORD’s house. 19He took the captains over hundreds, and the Carites, and the guard, and all the people of the land; and they brought down the king from the LORD’s house, and came by the way of the gate of the guard to the king’s house. He sat on the throne of the kings. 20So all the people of the land rejoiced, and the city was quiet. They had slain Athaliah with the sword at the king’s house. 21Jehoash was seven years old when he began to reign.

The priest Jehoiada moves to end the reign of the usurping queen Athaliah, having her taken out of the temple and executed. Then he makes a covenant that the king and the people will be the LORD's, and the people go to the temple of Baal, tear it down, smash its altars and images, and kill its priest. Young Joash is placed on the throne, and the city is at peace.

This is a hard chapter of coup and killing, and there is no glossing the bloodshed. But what the text highlights is the restoration of true worship. Jehoiada leads the people to renew their covenant to belong to the LORD, and they cleanse the land of Baal-worship, pulling down the idol's temple. A wicked, idolatrous reign ends, and a covenant with God is renewed. The removal of the false is joined to a fresh commitment to the true; it was not enough to depose Athaliah, they bound themselves again to the LORD. Real reformation both clears away the idols and renews the covenant.

When God clears something false out of my life, do I also renew my commitment to him, or leave a vacuum for new idols to fill?

Sources

2 Kings 11:17: "Jehoiada made a covenant between the LORD and the king and the people, that they should be the LORD's people."
2 Kings 11:18: "All the people of the land went to the house of Baal, and broke it down."
Matthew 12:44: "He finds it empty, swept, and put in order... and the last state of that man becomes worse than the first."