2 Kings 11:1—“When Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she proceeded to destroy the whole royal family.” Treacherous! It is really hard for me to write about women like Athaliah. In fact, if I were doing this chronological study by myself rather than on my public blog, I probably would have read this passage and then moved on without processing it too much. I don’t understand women like Athaliah who seek fame and success at the cost of their families. I cannot relate to the idea of a woman who would have her children and grandchildren killed so that she could ascend to the throne. You and I would never annihilate our families. Would we? Do we ever devastate our families with our harsh words? Do we ever slay our husbands or children with an evil stare? Do our nasty attitudes tear down the spiritual protection we should be providing for our families? God is reminding me that there is a little bit of Athaliah in each one of us. Let’s pray for God’s strength to allow the Holy Spirit to rule our lives instead.
Hurray for Jehosheba, the aunt of Joash! She took the risk to hide her nephew from the wrath of the queen mother. I was wondering how Athaliah didn’t find Joash. I guess she must not have gone to worship at the Lord’s temple too often. I also wonder if she even knew she had a grandson named Joash. Verse 3 says they hid him for six years, and verse 21 says Joash was seven years old when he began to reign. He was a newborn when Jehosheba took him into hiding. Wow! Can you imagine having a seven-year-old rule your country?
Hurray for Jehoiada the priest! He took the risk to bring Joash to the throne. If God told you to anoint a seven-year-old as king to overthrow his grandmother, would you be obedient?? And I always pictured priests as being meek and mild. Ha! Not Jehoiada. He was a warrior priest. Hurray for Jehoiada! He took the risk of being a mentor to Joash. “Joash did what was right in the eyes of the LORD all the years Jehoiada the priest instructed him.” (2 Kings 12:2) Who are you mentoring?
Joash decided to have the priests repair the temple. They collected money, but they didn’t do any repairs. Ha! That sounds like me. I like to save money, but I don’t like to spend it. Anyway, when Joash turned 30, he finally confronted Jehoiada and told him to quit hoarding and start putting the money to good use. So Jehoiada used the money to hire carpenters and builders. I thought 2 Kings 12:15 was really interesting—“They did not require an accounting from those to whom they gave the money to pay the workers, because they acted with complete honesty.” Wow! I wish we all acted with complete honesty today. Let’s make a pact to be people of our word.
The Scriptures do not tell us any other accomplishments of Joash except that he repaired the temple. 2 Chronicles 24 tells the rest of the story concerning the assassination of Joash. Joash turned against God’s law after his mentor Jehoiada passed away. That is so sad. Once again we have an example of a king who did not stay close to God as he grew older. I don’t want us to repeat that pattern in our lives. Let’s hold one another accountable to staying true to our faith in the Living God.
How as mothers do we keep from wanting to be more then we are required by God to be, or even worse, more then we want to be for ourselves in a world that says you are not a woman unless you can do it all. Or as a mother, let our children grow in God's will for them not our own? To step out of the way when God is calling them or try not to let our natural sin nature become jealous and try to discourage them from what God has called them to do? Even at the age of 7 God has plans for us!?
ReplyDeleteYou pray, pray, pray! It helps to remember that God loves our children even more than we do and that His plans for them are far beyond what we could ever dream up on our own.
ReplyDeleteMy mom gave me a book to read by Joe McGee called 8 Things No Kid Should Leave Home Without. It is really good about preparing our kids to be independent and successful. It takes involvement of the parents, but it includes setting healthy boundaries so the child takes responsibility for their own decisions. Good book.
Thank you for the reference I will look into that!
ReplyDeleteThat has been one of the hardest lessons God has been pressing on me right now about allowing Him to do His will in Riley's life. Some parents don't have to deal with that until their children leave home for college. But I have had to leave Riley in God's hands now at his age of 13. I just pray that I built a solid enough Christian influence in his life his first 13 years that he will return to God's ways and His will for Riley's life. I have to trust and have faith that God has Riley's life in His hands and it will be ok. That is easier said than done. But good thought, Hilary, about God has a plan for us even at a very young age! The more I think about it, even when our children are still at home, we have to leave them in God's hands. It is our responsibility to teach them God's ways, but then the rest is up to Him. And sometimes we can get in the way of God's plan for our children's lives. I pray that I will allow God to work in my children's lives and not get in the way of it. Wow, how things would be if we didn't get in the way of God's plans? It is tough to totally surrender it all to Him, but we have to. We wouldn't stress over so much stuff if we would just trust God to take care of it. He does anyways, so what's our problem with letting go!? Someone told me something while I was in the hospital that has just kept on my mind. Is it going with me when I die? Then it's probably not enough to be worrying about or wanting to have. I've asked myself that ? is it going to matter after I die? Our children and what we pass on to them, that is going to matter after we die! A lot of the other stuff we consume ourselves with isn't going to matter after we die. It's all in God's hands, whew, AMEN!
ReplyDeleteA former music minister of mine would ask this question when his family wanted to start an argument, "Tell me how does that affect my eternity?" If the issue was not eternal, then it was not worth fighting about. Great words of wisdom.
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