Athaliah was a king’s daughter and a king’s wife. She had a son whose
name was Ahaziah, but, as he was an invalid, he did not occupy the throne
longer than about twelve months.
As soon as his mother saw that he was dead a fierce and most murderous
passion seized her heart. She then resolved to be queen herself.
In order to carry out this nefarious purpose, she slew all the seed
royal, so that, there being no successor to the throne, she ascended it
and reigned as queen.
It is very wonderful that some of the most cruel and startling things in
the world have been done by women. One called Laodice poisoned her six
sons one by one, that she might be empress of Constantinople. Another,
ironically named Irene, took the eyes out of her own boy, that he might
be incapable of empire, and that she might reign alone.
These things were done in the ancient time. Is any of the cruelty of
heart left still? The accident may be changed--what about the passion and
purpose of the heart? Let every one answer the question individually.
Athaliah made her heap of corpses and laughed in her mad heart, saying
that now she was queen. But always some Fleance escapes the murderer’s
clutch. In that heap of corpses there was an infant boy, hardly twelve
months old; he was spared. The sword had not taken his little life, but
the queen knew not that the child Joash had escaped. He was taken and
with his nurse was hidden in the Temple, and there he was trained by the
good priest, Jehoiada, for some six years. All the while the queen was
reigning and doing evil.
The little boy was saved by his aunt, Jehosheba, and when six years had
passed and the boy was seven years of age, being twelve months old when
he was snatched from impending ruin, Jehoiada called the rulers together
and all the chief and mighty men of Israel. He then revealed the secret
to them.
Having disposed these dignitaries in military order and with military
precision around the person of the young king, Jehoiada brought the
crown and put it upon his head, and he gave him the testimony or Book
of Leviticus; and, having gone through all this ceremonial process, the
young king stood upright by the pillar of inauguration in the Temple, and
all that great throng then clapped their hands and shouted: “God save the
king!” Louder the shout rang till the queen heard it in her own house,
which was not far off.
“The nearer the church, the farther from God,” has been wittily said.
Athaliah hastened to the sacred place to know the reason of this
hilarious tumult, and when the case was made clear to her she shrieked
and cried:
“Treason! Treason!”
But her voice found no echo in the hearts of men. Not a soul
fluttered--not a heart started up in the royal defense. The woman--the
evil daughter of an evil mother--was taken out by the way along which the
horses came into the king’s house, and the sword which she had thrust
into the throats of others drank her own blood.
In an event of this kind there must be some great lessons for all time.
These are not merely momentary ebullitions of wrath or malice. They have
history in them; they are red with the common blood of the whole race.
Very few men stand out in ancient history with so fair and honorable
a fame as good Jehoshaphat. It is like a tonic, intellectual and
spiritual, to read his vivid history. He was a grand king--long-headed,
good-hearted, honest and healthy in purpose of doing wondrous things for
his kingdom and for the chosen of God.
But is there not a weak point in every man? Does not the strongest man
stoop? Does not great Homer sometimes nod?
Jehoshaphat had this weakness, that he hankered after some kind of
connection with the wicked house of Ahab. He had a son, whose name was
Jehoram (or Joram), and he wanted his son married. He must look around
for royal blood. Explain it as we may--no man has explained it fully
yet--Jehoshaphat wanted to be connected with the evil house of Ahab. To
that house he looked for a wife for his son, Jehoram. His son married
Athaliah, and she brought into the kingdom all the idolatry of Ahab
and the fierce blood-thirstiness of Jezebel. That was the root of the
mischief. Some roots lie a long time before they begin to germinate.
There may be roots in our lives which will take ten years or forty years
to develop, but the root will bring forth according to its kind. Let us
take care what roots we plant in our lives--what connections we form.
Jehoram, the son of good Jehoshaphat, walked in the evil ways of the
kings of Israel, and he wrought that which was evil in the sight of
the Lord. Mark the reason given by the inspired historian: “He had the
daughter of Ahab to wife.”
What secrets were indicated by that one reason! What a whole volume of
tragedy is wrapped up in that brief sentence!
The responsibility seems to a large extent transferred from Jehoram and
placed upon his wife, who was a more subtle thinker, a more desperate
character, with a larger brain and a firmer will, with more accent and
force of personality. Jehoram played the evil trick, repeated the foul
habit, went in the wrong direction, bowed down to forbidden altars,
for--“he had the daughter of Ahab to wife.” She lured him; the seduction
was hers; she won the conquest. When he would have bowed the knee to the
God of Heaven, she laughed at him and mocked him into Baal worship. He
fell as a victim into her industrious and cruel hands.
“Be not unequally yoked together.” Do not look upon marriage lightly;
do not suppose that it is a game for the passing day, a flash and
gone, a hilarious excitement, a wine-bibbing, a passing around of
kind salutations, then dying away like a trembling echo. Beware what
connections you form, and do not suppose that the laws of God can be set
aside with impunity. Get out of your heads the infinite mistake that
you can do as you like and escape the operation of divine law. Deliver
yourselves from the cruel delusion that you can sow tares and reap wheat.
Be not deceived. God is not mocked, for whatever a man sows that shall he
also reap.
Our family life explains our public attitude and influence. What we are
at home we are really abroad.
Wives, do not destroy your husbands. When they would do good, help them.
When they propose to give to the cause of charity, suggest that the
donation be doubled, not divided. When they would help in any good and
noble work, give them sympathy, prayer and blessing. We never knew a
man yet of any enduring public power that was not made by his wife, and
we never knew a public man yet that fully appreciated the value of that
ministry. It is secret; it is at home; it does not show. It is chalked on
a black-board, and not gilded on a high ceiling; it is silent, but vital.
We have seen a man go down in his church life, and we have wondered why.
It was his wife--the daughter of Ahab--who was degrading him, narrowing
him and dwarfing him in his thinking and sympathy.
We have seen a man go up in his public influence, and we have found that
it was his wife who was encouraging him, helping him, telling him that he
was on the right way, and wishing him good luck in the name of the Lord.
See to it that your home is right. Have a beautiful home--morally and
religiously; a sacred house, a sanctuary where joy is the singing angel.
And then, when you come abroad into the market-place, into the pulpit,
into parliament, into trade and commerce or into any of the social
relations of life, you will bring with you all the inspiration which
comes from a home that blooms like a garden or glows like a Summer sun.
Do not suppose that the divine purpose can be set aside by Athaliahs,
Irenes, Laodices or any false, furious or desperate characters of any
kind.
The Lord promised David that he should always have a candle in Jerusalem.
The light was very low sometimes--it was reduced to a spark in young
Joash; but it was God’s candle, and Athaliah’s wild breath could not blow
out that light. The word of the Lord abideth for ever.
Observe a very strong peculiarity in human nature, as shown in the
conduct of Athaliah. She went into the Temple and saw the young Joash
with a crown upon his head, and she shrieked out: “Treason! Treason!”
Poor innocent Athaliah! Who would not pity so gentle a dove, with a
breast of feathers and a cruel dart rankling in it? Sweet woman--gentle
and loving creature--injured queen! Her hands were perfectly clean; she
was the victim of a cruel stratagem. She was outwitted by heads longer
than hers. She, poor unsuspecting soul, had been brought into this
condition, and all she could do was to cry in injured helplessness:
“Treason! Treason!”
How moral we become under some circumstances! How very righteous we may
stand up to be under certain provocations! Who could but pity poor
Athaliah, who had nursed her grandchildren with a wolf’s care? We do this
very self-same thing very often in our own lives. Where is the man who
does not suppose that he has a right to do wrong? But let other people do
wrong, and then hear him!
Given a religious sect of any name whatsoever, that has the domination
of any neighborhood, and the probability is that that religious sect
will use its supremacy somewhat mischievously in certain circumstances.
It will not let anybody who opposes its tenets have an acre of ground
in that neighborhood, nor will it allow any sect that opposes its
principles to build a church there. No! It takes a righteous view of the
circumstances; it will not trifle with its responsibilities; it can allow
no encroachment. It is charged with the spirit of stewardship, and must
be faithful to its sacred obligations.
So it cants and whines, whatever its name be. If it be the name we bear
religiously, so much the worse. We speak of no particular sect, but of
any sect that may be placed in such peculiar circumstances as to claim
the domination and supremacy in any neighborhood.
Now, let any member of that sect leave that particular locality and go
to live under a wholly different set of circumstances, and apply for a
furlong of ground, or for a house that he may occupy as tenant. Then let
it be found that his religious convictions are a bar to his enjoyment
of local properties and liberties. He will cry out: “Persecution!
Persecution!” How well it befits his lips! The very man who in one
district persecuted to the death those who opposed him removes to
another locality, where a screw is applied to his own joints, and he
raises the cry of persecution. It is Athaliah’s old trick, and will have
Athaliah’s poor reward.
See how the cry of the wicked is unheeded. Athaliah was a woman, and by
so much had a claim upon the sympathy of the strong. Yet no man’s heart
went out to her in loyal reverence.
Jehoash (or Joash, as the name was shortened) was trained in the Temple,
under the good Jehoiada. He was blessed in his aunt--for it was his
aunt who took him, the daughter of Ahab, but not by the mother of
Athaliah--and Joash did good all the days of Jehoiada, the priest. See
the influence of a noble life. See how religion may help royalty, and
how that which is morally true lifts up patriotism to a higher level.
No country is sound at heart--through and through good and likely to
endure--that draws not the inspiration of its patriotism from the
loftiness and purity of its religion.
All these tragedies are making the Earth reek with abomination today.
Athaliah lives in a vigorous progeny.