Study passage: 2 Kings 11, 2 Chronicles 22
We all know the story of baby Moses hidden in a basket among the bullrushes in the river Nile by his mother and sister, and how their determined action rescued him from the genocide of Hebrew male babies by the ruthless Egyptian Pharoah. We love the courage and defiance of these amazing women and millions of mothers have shared the story with their children. Yet I suspect very few of us know the story of another Hebrew baby, Joash, who was also hidden by a brave woman to escape a brutal and terrible danger. This time it was his aunt who quietly secreted her infant nephew in a bedroom, so that he wouldn’t be murdered along with all his brothers and cousins. Their story is found in 2 Kings 11 and 2 Chronicles 22 and it punctuates a very dark period in the history of Israel and Judah.
A legacy of evil
Israel was living under the terrible legacy of King Ahab, whom the Bible describes as the most evil king of Israel (1 Kings 16:33). The 22 years of his reign were marked with bloodshed and destruction, as he rejected God’s ways and waged wars. He allowed his idolatrous wife Jezebel to kill God’s prophets and build altars and shrines to the Baal gods of her nation. Even when the prophet Elijah stood alone against 450 prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel and overcame them with prayer, Jezebel didn’t change her attitude. Furious at the death of her prophets she ordered Elijah’s execution (1 Kings 18-19) but he escaped.
A decade after Ahab’s death, the impact of his reign was still felt in both Israel and Judah. Young King Ahaziah, who inherited the throne of Judah at the age of 22, was not good news. He “followed the ways of the house of Ahab, for his mother encouraged him to act wickedly” (2 Chronicles 22:3). Ahaziah had become king only because all his brothers had been slaughtered by the Philistines. Had he listened to the prophets, he could have broken with idolatry. Instead, he was dominated by his mother, Athaliah, who was alarmingly similar to Jezebel. His rule was precarious because of her bad counsel and wrong guidance.
We must take seriously God’s heart for justice and the need to restrain power
One of the worst pieces of advice from his mother was to seek alliances with the house of Ahab. It proved fatal. He went to Ahab’s followers to get their support, but instead he was drawn into their wars and conflicts. In only a few months the chief men and all who remained of the house of Ahab were assassinated, including Ahaziah. His reign in Judah had lasted only one year.
Kings Ahaziah’s mother did not react like most mothers to the death of her son. Rather than mourning his loss, Athaliah decided to seize the opportunity to assume power herself and take control of Judah. One significant problem stood in her way, however. Ahaziah had male heirs – both sons and nephews. So, Athaliah calmly organised the slaughter of all those who could possibly be in the line of succession in the royal family of Judah (2 Chronicles 22:10). It meant killing her own grandsons and wiping out two generations of young princes. Without any apparent qualm, she carried out this callous act of inhumanity, and became Judah’s leader.
Courage to do the right thing
In this horrible history, one point of light began to get stronger. Ahaziah’s sister, Jehosheba, was a god-fearing, faithful woman. She was the step-daughter of Athaliah but couldn’t have been more different. Married to Jehoiada, a priest who served God in the temple, she knew God’s commandments and shunned Baal worship. She and her husband longed to restore Judah to godly faith and practices, but the legacy of Ahab had been powerful and their own safety was undermined. During all the carnage and plotting by Athaliah, Jehosheba stayed quietly in the background; she knew she couldn’t prevent the slaughter. But she knew, too, that she had to act to save one of her precious nephews for God’s eventual anointing.
Her apprehension must have been enormous when she witnessed, no doubt with grief and horror, her young male relatives being lined up to be murdered. Then quietly she lifted the youngest, baby Joash, and removed him from danger. The text gives us only the bare details: she “stole him away” (2 Chronicles 22:11), but we can imagine her fear. If she was detected, Athaliah would have had no scruples about ordering her death. But if she did nothing, Athaliah’s long reign would be disastrous. So, she acted, trusting in God who ensured that her bravery went undetected. She took not only Joash, but also the nurse on whom his life depended, quietly into a bedroom and hid them from the executioners.
We don’t know how long they were held there. But the narrative recalls that the royal survivor needed a more secure place for long-term security. So, when the coast was clear, Joash and his nurse were moved into the temple by Jehosheba’s priestly husband, and God’s house of worship became their home for the next six years (2 Kings 11:3).
Those six years of Athaliah’s reign were dark ones indeed, both for Judah and Israel. Each nation was led far from God and lay under the shadow of evil cast by the destructive and merciless leader. But Jehosheba and her husband never lost faith. They taught Joash God’s ways and prepared him to be a godly king. When he was seven years old, Johoiada the priest made a covenant with the other leaders and commanders of the nations and anointed Joash as king. Athaliah was put to death, and the altars and shrines of Baal torn down. Jehosheba and Johoaida would be the king’s counsellors for the rest of their lives. And for the bulk of Joash’s 40-year reign, justice was upheld, truth replaced falsehood and people worshipped God. The courage of a faithful, loving aunt had made sure that God’s name would be upheld in the life of their nation.
How does this story speak into our lives today?
In our world today, democracies and laws define what is just. We have law-abiding kings and queens, governments elected by the people, judges and courts where justice is decided. And yet, in this supposedly mature and civilised age, we still have rulers who are committed to self-interest and prepared to annihilate their opponents. None of this surprises us. Abuse of power has been repeated in hundreds of nations across the centuries and history witnesses to the many autocratic rulers who have imperilled the lives of others. The difference today is simply one of scale.
Yet scale is important. Decisions that affect the whole world are increasingly made by a small number of powerful people. Whether their power has come from money, weapons, political corruption, oppression or unfair taxation they can pose a threat to those who oppose them. Global alliances of the rich and powerful can distort justice on local, national or international scales. And we have seen in the wars of the last few years that when power is concentrated in the hands of people who are ruthless, any group who gets on the wrong side of such power faces danger and even elimination. Very often these groups are Christian minorities.
Christian women have often witnessed to Jesus through their defiance of the powerful. In the 19th century, Harriet Tubman helped to hide enslaved people in the American South and led 70 of them to freedom through the ‘underground railroad’. During the Second World War, Corrie Ten Boom hid Jewish escapees from arrest and deportation to extermination camps. Our witness today needs both evangelism and courage. We must take seriously God’s heart for justice and the need to restrain power.
Sometimes the witness is straightforward, like signing petitions, joining peace movements, taking ecological initiatives or eliminating waste. Sometimes it might mean calling on governments to change unfair policies, or closing tax havens that allow wealthy individuals and corporation to avoid paying their fair share of taxes. It might lead us to support organisations that combat trafficking, enforced marriage or sex-selected abortion. We could read Open Door’s World Watch List 2025 and pray about supporting Christians across the world who face persecution.
Sometimes, however, God calls us simply to reflect on our own attitudes to power and not just follow the crowd. What I find alarming in the history of Israel was the ease with which God’s people were led astray by persuasive leaders or false prophets to begin worshipping idols. Today, gullibility is a big danger where political slogans win against deeper knowledge and repetition replaces serious prayerful thought. Yet God’s rule still applies to the whole earth. In our current social climate, we urgently need the bravery of women like Jehosheba, who refuse to be taken in or intimidated by the powerful but are brave enough to act against evil
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