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Context No. 774 of 4322 · 2 Chronicles

Context · Reflection

2 Chronicles 22:7-12: in context

7Now the destruction of Ahaziah was of God, in that he went to Joram; for when he had come, he went out with Jehoram against Jehu the son of Nimshi, whom the LORD had anointed to cut off Ahab’s house. 8When Jehu was executing judgment on Ahab’s house, he found the princes of Judah and the sons of the brothers of Ahaziah serving Ahaziah, and killed them. 9He sought Ahaziah, and they caught him (now he was hiding in Samaria), and they brought him to Jehu and killed him; and they buried him, for they said, “He is the son of Jehoshaphat, who sought the LORD with all his heart.” The house of Ahaziah had no power to hold the kingdom. 10Now when Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she arose and destroyed all the royal offspring of the house of Judah. 11But Jehoshabeath, the king’s daughter, took Joash the son of Ahaziah, and stealthily rescued him from among the king’s sons who were slain, and put him and his nurse in the bedroom. So Jehoshabeath, the daughter of King Jehoram, the wife of Jehoiada the priest (for she was the sister of Ahaziah), hid him from Athaliah, so that she didn’t kill him. 12He was with them hidden in God’s house six years while Athaliah reigned over the land.

This is one of the darkest hours in the story of David's line, and it turns on a single hidden child. King Ahaziah of Judah is killed, and when his mother Athaliah sees that her son is dead, she makes a bid for the throne by murdering the entire royal family, all the heirs of the house of Judah, her own grandchildren among them. In the space of a few verses the line of David, the family through which every promise of a coming king ran, is all but wiped out. It looks like the end of the covenant itself.

But one baby survives. Jehoshabeath, a princess and the wife of Jehoiada the priest, snatches the infant Joash out from among the princes being killed, and hides him and his nurse, first in a bedroom, then in the house of God, for six years while Athaliah reigns. The whole future of the promise is reduced to one child, hidden in the temple, kept alive by a woman brave enough to steal him out of a massacre. When everything visible said the line was dead, God's purpose was still breathing, in secret, in the dark, guarded by a single act of courage. The lamp of David was down to one flame, cupped in one woman's hands.

God's whole promise was reduced to one hidden infant, kept alive by one brave woman when all seemed lost. When the future I care about is down to a thread, do I trust that God can keep his purpose alive in the dark, and will I be the one who guards it?

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