I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on 2 Chronicles 23-25.

    Athaliah, King Ahab of Israel’s daughter and King Jehoshaphat’s daughter-in-law, took over the throne of Judah when her son was killed. She attempted to ensure her power by killing all of the males of the Judean royal family. However, her daughter, or step-daughter (we are told that she was Ahaziah’s sister) took Athaliah’s grandson from the nursery and hid him in the Temple. When the boy Joash turned seven, the priest under whose care he was raised staged a coup to overthrow Athaliah and place him on the throne. This story reveals a lot about the politics in Jerusalem at this time, and probably throughout the period of the Divided Kingdom. The priests and Levites were a separate power base from the secular leadership.

    In many ways we see this even more clearly in Joash’s later years, after the death of Jehoiada, and in Amaziah’s reign. As long as Joash’s stepfather Jehoida was alive, Joash enthusiastically served God. However, after Jehoiada’s death the secular nobles were able to convince Joash that he needed to stand up to the priests and the Levites. When Jehoida’s son, who was in effect Joash’s stepbrother, dared to confront Joash for worshiping idols, Joash had him killed. After Joash was killed his son Amaziah took the throe. When Amaziah first took the throne the passage tells us that he was faithful to God, but unenthusiastically. This suggests that Amaziah “learned” from his father’s assassination that he needed to placate the priesthood. I would even say that Amaziah set up the worship of the gods of Edom after he conquered Edom as a competing religion to the worship of God to weaken the political power of the priests and Levites. Time and again we see various people attempt to use religion for political ends. It usually ends badly for them. Our religion should serve God, not our political agenda.