《The Pulpit Commentaries – 2 Chronicles (Vol. 2)》(Joseph S. Exell) 13 Chapter 13

PART OF THE LEADER (OR LEADERS). Jehoiada had made up his mind that the thing was now to be done; "The king's son shall reign," he said. And he went about the work of the restoration of the royal house of David with the firmness of fearlessness. He took a commanding tone, knowing that the moment of revolution is not the time for divided counsels. "This is the thing that ye shall do," he said (2 Chronicles 23:4); they did "according to all things Jehoiada … commanded" (2 Chronicles 23:8). Had there been any hesitancy on his part, any lack of decision or resolution, the attempt might have broken down. In perilous times, when great issues are at stake, we must not object to, but rather admire and sustain, the vigour and the determination of our leader.

III. THE GREATEST POSSIBLE CO-OPERATION. Jehoiada called to his aid the military (2 Chronicles 23:1), the ecclesiastics (2 Chronicles 23:2), the people (2 Chronicles 23:3). We should invite all to help on whose willingness and fidelity we can depend.

IV. A CONSCIENTIOUS REGARD FOR WHAT IS RIGHT. Jeboiada wanted to make the most effective arrangement of those who were to act at the critical moment, but he would not have any violation of sacred law under any circumstances (2 Chronicles 23:6). It is our bounden duty to neglect no measures that are likely to work toward the desired end; but in all our arrangements, with this in view, we must stop at the point of disobedience to the Divine Word. Even success itself, however ardently we may desire it, and however devotedly we may have been pursuing it, must be renounced if it cannot be won without the sacrifice of conscience. It is often bought too dearly; and the price is always too high when it includes even the small change of conscientious scruples.

V. THE GREATEST POSSIBLE WISDOM IN CONTRIVANCE. The outworking and execution of the most sagacious measures (2 Chronicles 23:3-10).

VI. OLDNESS AT THE MOMENT OF EXECUTION. (2 Chronicles 23:11.) Caution, perhaps secrecy, up to a certain hour; then openness and even daring will win the prize.

VII. A REVERENT ATTITUDE TOWARD THE GREAT DISPOSER OF EVENTS.—C.

2 Chronicles 23:11-15

Sin surprised at its rapture.

The success of this revolution, so long prepared and so admirably accomplished by Jehoiada, involved the ruin of one "wicked woman" (2 Chronicles 24:7). It was inevitable that Athaliah must perish; here we have the account of her fall. We have before us—

I. SIN SURPRISED AT ITS OWN FAILURE. This coup d'etat evidently came upon Athaliah with surprise. The twelfth verse describes the action of one that is both astonished and alarmed, who takes hasty measures to learn what is happening, and to provide for her own interests. Suddenly and unexpectedly the blow fell upon her head. She was pursuing her evil course, reckoning on future years of power and possession, and in the very midst of her iniquity judgment overtook and overthrew her. How continually does this happen, though it may be on a smaller scale and in humbler spheres! Sin appears to succeed, holds up its head in triumph for a while, defies all justice, human and Divine; then suddenly the ground opens beneath its feet, and it is swallowed up. Its temporary success is only an incident in its abort-lived career; it is a stage on its way to failure and humiliation. The foolish man does not understand this; he thinks it is a proof that God is afar off or is quite indifferent; he takes it as a sign that he may safely disregard the solemn warnings of God's Word. But he is foolish; he does not understand the course of things. "When the wicked spring as the grass, and when all the workers of iniquity do flourish; it is that they shall be destroyed for ever" (Psalms 92:7; see also Psalms 73:2-20). We may be surprised and pained at the prosperity of the wicked, at the enthronement of the sanguinary and the selfish. Where is God's righteousness? where is the penalty of sin, we ask. Wait, and we shall see. The end will come before long. The shameless usurper, man or woman, will perish; the guilty empire will be overthrown. Suddenly or gradually their fate will fall upon them. "How are they brought into desolation, as in a moment!" Nor is it only the man or woman that rises to eminence and to a great estate who will prove the truth of this. Any one who hardens himself against God stands in the most serious danger of being "suddenly destroyed, and that without remedy," like the guilty woman at Jerusalem.

II. ENTHUSIASM UNDER A WISE CONTROL. There must have been the greatest excitement raised and felt on this occasion. Everything contributed to kindle popular feeling and to raise it to its highest point. When they surrounded the little child and anointed him with the sacred oil, and put the crown on his young head and cried, "God save the king!" we may be sure that the emotion which on some supreme occasions fills and fires a multitude of people, was then as intense as it could be (see 2 Chronicles 23:13); but Jehoiada held it under a wise control. And when Athaliah appeared, and when they looked at her, and remembered what she had done and what a blight and a curse she had been to the land, they might well have slain her on the spot. But the priest of Jehovah would not have the sacred place profaned with her blood, and he stayed their hand; they conducted her beyond the sacred precincts, and not till then did they inflict justice upon her. Feeling should never rise too high to be controlled by our judgment, especially strong feeling against any individual, man or woman. If we let our feelings carry our judgment along with them, we shall be sure to do that which we shall afterwards regret and which may be quite irreparable. Nor is any man at liberty to say that he is constitutionally impulsive and cannot control himself. It may be a more difficult duty in some natures than it is in others; but it is every man's serious and sacred obligation to rule his own spirit, to maintain a mastery over his affections and his impulses and his resentments. This is to be the excellent result of daily discipline, cf strenuous endeavour, of constant prayer.

III. THE SERVICE OF DESTRUCTION. "Then all the people went to the house of Baal, and brake it down," etc. (2 Chronicles 23:17). As a rule, the way in which we serve Christ wisely and permanently is the act of construction, of building up. Better to sow a seed than to pluck up a root; better to raise a Christian sanctuary than to knock down a heathen temple; better to implant thoughts of reverence and love than to rebuke and wither the profane word or the evil habit. But there is a time to plant and also to pluck up; a time to kill as well as to heal; a time to break down as well as to build up (Ecclesiastes 3:2, Ecclesiastes 3:3). There are evil and hurtful people to be put out of the room, pernicious books and papers to be put into the fire, ruinous institutions to be suppressed by the strong hand of law, deadly practices to be sternly forbidden. There is a time when "slaughter is God's daughter," when the destructive hand is the organ of the will of Jesus Christ.—C.

2 Chronicles 23:16

The basis of national prosperity.

Jehoiada knew that it would be of very little use to be rid of one ruler and to place another on the throne unless the nation itself could be bound in strong bonds to Jehovah, its true and almighty Sovereign. Hence the action he took as here described.

I. THE TRUE BASES OF NATIONAL PROSPERITY. Not a population outgrowing that of all other countries; nor an army and navy such as no other nation can equip; nor a full national exchequer; nor an extensive and extending territory. A country may have any or even all of these things, and yet be declining in strength and on the road to utter weakness and decay. The foundation of a people's strength is in the possession of the Divine favour. And this because:

1. God will grant his Divine blessing to those that seek him.

2. And because God "loves righteousness and hates iniquity," whether in the individual man or in the nation; and it is in "the fear of the Lord" that all moral and spiritual integrity rests as in its very root and source. That people, therefore, which would live and thrive must be a people seeking God's face and acting in accordance with his will. Then will it enjoy his blessing—that favour and succour with which it cannot fail to prosper, without which it is bound to fall.

II. A SOURCE OF SPIRITUAL STRENGTH. Jehoiada took advantage of the dynastic revolution to make it an occasion for entering into a solemn covenant "between all the people and between the king, that they should be the Lord's people." The time was suitable for this renewal of their covenant with God. He himself, a priest of the Lord, had headed, indeed had originated and effected, the overthrow of the old idolatrous regime; the young king was to be placed on the throne as a worshipper of Jehovah, and now they might pledge themselves, in the most solemn and binding form, to be loyal to that Divine Lord whose, indeed, they were by a thousand ties. It was wisely and worthily done. Acts of national acknowledgment of God must need be rare. But it is open to Churches, to families, and especially to individual men, to renew their vows of attachment to their Divine Lord; to affirm to themselves or to declare to their friends and neighbours that they are "the Lord's people." It is right and wise to employ any and every favourable opportunity of doing this. Such opportunity is found in:

1. The time when the soul returns to God from the far country of indifference and disloyalty, and realizes that it is admitted to the Father's home.

2. The time when the spirit is recalled from a temporary lapse, and again recognizes the supreme claims of a Divine Redeemer.

3. When we meet one another at the table of the Lord, and there are vividly reminded of the supreme fact that he "gave himself for us" unto shame and death.

4. On the reception of any special, personal, or domestic mercies at the kind hand of our heavenly Father.—C.

2 Chronicles 23:21

First purity, then peace.

"And the city was quiet, after that they had slain Athaliah with the sword." We can conceive of many occasions when the "slaying of a woman with the sword" should not and would not lead to quietude, but to unrest, to turbulence, and to strife. But this "wicked woman," Athaliah, was the impersonation of usurpation and of idolatry. To slay her was to "put away the evil thing" from above and from the midst of the people of God. It was an act of purgation, of cleansing of the nation's conscience. It was a spiritual upheaval, throwing off a heavy weight that rested on the spirit of obedience. It was an act of excision, cutting off the guilty "right hand" that the "whole body" might be saved. If there be in the way of our conscientious adhesion to the cause, and engagement in the service, of Christ any such obstacle as was this Athaliah to the people of Judah, then no half-measures will suffice. The evil, whatever it be, must be slain with the sword, must be "done to death," must be relentlessly rooted out; then, and net till then, will there be quiet through all the region of the soul. We may find this Athaliah of ours in—

I. AN INSINCERE PROFESSION OF FAITH we no longer hold, and consequently a disloyal practice in which we do not believe.

II. AN IMMORAL OR INJURIOUS HABIT, which may be secretly cherished, but which we know to be guilty.

III. AN UNLAWFUL GAIN, which our conscience condemns.

IV. A COMPANIONSHIP (or companionships), which cannot be retained while Jesus Christ is honoured and obeyed.—C.

HOMILIES BY T. WHITELAW

2 Chronicles 23:1-11

The coronation of Joash.

I. PREPARATIONS FOR THE CEREMONY. (2 Chronicles 23:1-10.)

1. Jehoiada's covenant with the captains. (2 Chronicles 23:1.)

2. The nation's covenant with the king.

3. The arrangements for the coup d'etat.

II. PROCEEDINGS IN THE CEREMONY. (Verses 8-11.)

1. The carrying out of the above arrangements. When the sabbath fixed for the execution of the plot arrived, "the Levites and all the men of Judah did according to all things that Jehoiada had commanded." Each priest, with his assistant Levites, went to his appointed place—those that entered on their temple duties to their different guards, as above explained; those that retired from service, instead of departing to their homes—"for Jehoiada dismissed not the courses"—to the new work of guarding the king's person, also as above explained. The former mounted guard at the temple gates, the latter assumed their places inside the temple (inner) court, "from the right side of the house to the left side of the house, along by the altar and the temple," so as to be "by the king round about." The people generally stood in the outer court, the centurions and their hundreds forming a circle round the inner court, between it and the people, so as to prevent any unauthorized person from passing within the house.

2. The arming of the captains. "Jehoiada delivered to them the spears, bucklers, and shields, that had been King David's, which were in the house of God" (verse 9). These were intended for themselves and their men (Berthean), either because they had come into the temple unarmed (Keil), having left their weapons in the palace on leaving duty (Bahr), or because Jehoiada wished David's crown to be won back by David's weapons (Ewald, Stanley), or perhaps he judged that, as the work they were about to be employed in was God's, so the weapons they should use should also be God's.

3. The production of the boy-prince. When everything was ready, Joash, encompassed by armed Levites, marched from the priest's house into the temple court, and took up his station at one of the pillars leading into the inner court (2 Chronicles 23:13; 2 Kings 11:14), so as to be seen by the priests and Levites in the inner, and the captains and people in the outer court.

4. The coronation of the heir to the throne. Jehoiada (with the people assenting) placed upon the brow of Joash the royal diadem, "probably a band studded with jewels—the first direct example of a coronation" (Stanley).

5. The delivering to him of the testimony. Not the insignia regia, i.e. the regalia of the kingdom (Clericus), or the phylacteries of Deuteronomy 6:8 (Grotius), or Samuel's laws of the kingdom (1 Samuel 8:10); but the Law of Moses, often called the "testimony" (Exodus 25:16; Exodus 27:21; Numbers 9:15; Numbers 10:11; Numbers 17:4), which was now presented to the young king in the form of a roll, to indicate that his life and government both should be regulated by its precepts (Deuteronomy 17:18-20).

6. The anointing of the new sovereign. Done by Jehoiada and his sons, this symbolized Joash's consecration to a theocratic or holy office, that of ruling over Jehovah's people. So Saul (1 Samuel 10:1) and David (1 Samuel 16:11) were anointed by Samuel, Solomon by Zadok the priest (1 Kings 1:39), and Jehu by Elisha's messenger (2 Kings 9:6).

7. The acclamation of the people. When the coronation ceremony ended, the people clapped their hands (2 Kings 11:12) in expression of their joy (Psalms 47:1), and shouted, as their wont was at coronations, "God save the king!" or, "Let the king live!" (1 Samuel 10:24; 2 Samuel 16:16).

Learn:

1. It is not always wrong for ministers of religion to take part in politics.

2. There are times when rebellion against the powers that be is a solemn duty.

3. Neither God's house nor God's day can be put to a better use than to set a crown upon the head of God's anointed.

4. In Church and state alike each man has his own place and work.

5. Kings may expect their thrones to be stable if these are erected on the good will of their subjects.

6. No sovereign can rule well who takes not the Law of God for his guide.

7. A great and good man in troubled times invaluable to Church or state. What could Judah have done without Jehoiada?

8. No man can miss the destiny God has in store for him.—W.

2 Chronicles 23:12-15

The fall of Athaliah.

I. A STARTLED QUEEN. (2 Chronicles 23:12, 2 Chronicles 23:13.)

1. An unusual sound. Secretly as the coronation of Joash had been conducted, Athaliah's quick ear caught the noise of trampling feet, clapping hands, and shouting voices that issued from the temple on the other side of the Tyropoean valley. Guilty consciences, of sovereigns, as of common sinners, are prone to be startled by strange sounds (Job 18:11, Job 18:12); cf. 'Macbeth' (act 2. sc. 2), "I have done the deed: didst thou not hear a noise?"

2. An unexpected sight. Mustering her guards, Athahah proceeded from her palace across the bridge that spanned the valley, and entered the temple court, when a most unwelcome spectacle met her gaze-a boy standing on a raised platform in front of the inner court, probably the brazen scaffold of Solomon (2 Chronicles 6:13), his head encircled with a diadem, his hand grasping a roll of parchment as if it were a sceptre; beside him Jehoiada the priest, the princes of the people, and the Levitical trumpeters; around him all the people of the land, rejoicing and singing.

3. An unrestrained cry. Whether or not Athaliah recognized in Joash one of Ahaziah's sons, whom she fancied she had murdered six years before, she had no difficulty in comprehending the situation. A usurper herself, she perfectly understood the scene she beheld to mean revolution. Rending her garments in horror at the spectacle (2 Kings 6:30; Ezra 9:3), and perhaps in involuntary acknowledgment that the hour of her overthrow had struck (1 Samuel 15:27, 1 Samuel 15:28; 1 Kings 11:30), she likewise rent the air with a shriek of "Treason! treason!" (cf. 2 Kings 9:23).

II. AN AVENGING PRIEST. (2 Chronicles 23:14, 2 Chronicles 23:15.)

1. A charge to the captains.

2. Its execution by the captains.

Learn:

1. That the way of transgressors is hard.

2. That the wages of sin is death.

3. That they who take the sword shall perish with the sword.

4. That verily there is a God who judgeth in the earth.

5. That with what measure one metes it shall be measured to him again.—W.

2 Chronicles 23:16-21

The close of a revolution.

I. COVENANT-MAKING. (2 Chronicles 23:16.) Read in connection with 2 Kings 11:17, this verse points to two covenant transactions.

1. Between Jehovah and the king and people.

2. Between the king and the people.

II. IDOL-PURGING. In a fit of reforming zeal the excited people entered without delay on a crusade against the false worship which had been introduced and patronized by Athaliah.

1. The temple of Baal wrecked. This idolatrous shrine had probably been erected by Jehoram to please Athaliah (2 Chronicles 21:11; Josephus, 'Ant.,' 9.7. 4), as a similar edifice had been constructed in Samaria by Ahab, under the influence of Jezebel (1 Kings 16:32). Most likely it stood on Mount Moriah, alongside of the temple, if not within its outer court (Thenius, Bertheau), rather than on a different elevation (Bahr). Its proximity to the temple would account for its having become so soon a prey to popular fury, as when building its vicinity to the temple suggested the idea of tearing down the temple walls for stones to construct it (2 Chronicles 24:7). Now a day of Nemesis had dawned for it, as similar days had already overtaken its builders. Its walls and pillars, altars and imagos, were shattered in pieces. Compare the destruction of the Roman Catholic edifices in Perth on May 11,1559, after a sermon by Knox. "The congregation [in the church of St. John's] was still undispersed, when a priest came in, went up to the altar, opened the tabernacle, and prepared to say Mass. A boy who was present said something insolent. The priest struck him; and the boy, snatching up a stone, flung it at the crucifix, which fell broken to the ground. The common instinct shot through the gathered crowd; altar, ornaments, images, in a few moments lay in ruins on the chancel floor. The saints were flung from their niches, the storied windows dashed in atoms. Then the cry rose,' To the Greyfriars!' and in an hour or two the poor monks, started from their noonday dinner, were adrift upon the world, and their homes going up in smoke and flame into the sky". "For a day or two after Knox preached his famous sermon, the besom of destruction was exceedingly busy in and about the fair city. Somebody—perhaps Knox himself—had remarked that 'if the nests were pulled down the rooks would fly away;' and so all hands were laid to the nests. Popular fury raged uncontrollably. The monasteries and chapels which had given stately adornment to the city and its environs were reduced to ruins, only the bare and broken walls remaining, and most of these gaunt wrecks speedily disappeared".

2. The priest of Baal slain. Marian the "priestling" (the Targum), having attempted to lead the people astray, had incurred the penalty of death (Deuteronomy 13:9), which was summarily inflicted, perhaps as Moses had directed, by stoning him beside the altars at which he had served. Compare the murder of Zechariah by Joash's minions in the later years of his reign (2 Chronicles 24:20).

III. WORSHIP-REFORMING. (Verses 18, 19.)

1. Irregularities corrected. The offices of the house of the Lord with reference to burnt offerings were arranged in accordance with the prescriptions of the Law of Moses. No worship was acceptable under the Hebrew economy that did not adhere to the regulations of that divinely inspired ritual; no worship is acceptable under the gospel dispensation that departs from the rubric laid clown by Jesus in his sermon at the well (John 4:24).

2. Impurities prevented. Watchers were established at the temple gates, that none should enter in who were in any respect unclean, i.e. ceremonially defiled. Under the Law such persons were separated from the congregation (Numbers 19:20; Le Numbers 11:24; Numbers 22:5), and, until they were purified, could take no part in the solemnities of Divine worship. The truth therein symbolized was that worship derives its quality from the character of the worshipper. An unclean Israelite could not render acceptable worship to a God holy as Jehovah was. ]got until an atonement had been offered for his trespass by the officiating priest, and his body had been washed in pure water, could he take his place in the congregation of them who had a right to draw near to Jehovah. And neither can any render acceptable worship under the gospel who do not do so on the basis of an atonement offered for them by the great High Priest over the house of God, and with the Heaven-inspired emotions of a renewed life, "with hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and bodies washed with pure water" (Hebrews 10:19-22).