II Chronicles
Chapter 16
Lessons from the Reign of Athaliah
II Chronicles 22:10
Like Mother Like Daughter
It is hard to witness how bad society becomes when wicked people are leading the nation. Unless God intervenes, wicked mothers will produce wicked daughters! Can you imagine a grandmother killing her grandchildren? That is how bad Athaliah was! She probably got the idea from her husband King Jehoram, who slew all his brothers when he became king! (see II Chronicles 21:4!)
Do you see how bad the friendship King Jehoshaphat made with King Ahab has ruined the kingdom!
II Chronicles 22:10 “But when Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she arose and destroyed all the seed royal of the house of Judah.”
Athaliah is the daughter of Jezebel and King Ahab. Wicked mothers generally produce wicked daughters! She was the wife of King Jehoram.
II Chronicles 21:6 “And he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, like as did the house of Ahab: for he had the daughter of Ahab to wife: and he wrought that which was evil in the eyes of the LORD.”
Fortunately for this kingdom and for society, when it looks like everything good has been perverted into evil and there is no hope, God is still at work!
While her mother was killing all her grandchildren, Jehoshabeath, took and hid one of the grand babies, which was her nephew, so that the wicked grandmother (her mother!) wouldn’t kill him.
II Chronicles 22:11, 12 “But Jehoshabeath, the daughter of the king, took Joash the son of Ahaziah, and stole him from among the king's sons that were slain, and put him and his nurse in a bedchamber. So Jehoshabeath, the daughter of king Jehoram, the wife of Jehoiada the priest, (for she was the sister of Ahaziah,) hid him from Athaliah, so that she slew him not.
And he was with them hid in the house of God six years: and Athaliah reigned over the land.”
The contrast that God has presented between these two women leaders shows the amazing things that a good woman leader can accomplish versus the damage that a bad woman tyrant can destroy!
Women make amazingly good leaders! They also can be the worst tyrants the world has ever seen!
While Athaliah is a terrible tyrant leader that follows her husband and the devil’s way of “…steal, kill, and destroy…”, Jehoshabeath follows Jesus way of giving life more abundantly!
John 10:10 “The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.”
I am not sure why I have never met a woman with the name of Jehoshabeath, while I have met many with the name Jael! Probably because the name is so hard to pronounce!
Both Jael and Jehoshabeath, were great woman leaders that became heroes when necessary and then went back to being servants when the crisis was averted. Not much else is mentioned about these two women. Real women servants always do their best work in the background!
I am sure that Jehoshabeath’s marriage to Jehoiada the priest had much to do with the difference between her and her mother, Athaliah. Great women leaders usually have great husbands that encourage and help them in times of crisis!
