JOASH- THE KING WHO WOULD NOT DIE
JOASH
– THE KING WHO WOULD NOT DIE
By
Robert Allen
CHAPTER
ELEVEN
Queen Athaliah ran like a madwoman
along the stone pavement which led from the palace to the temple. Hundreds of people crowded the street, those
who had already visited the temple, those who had heard the shout of the
Levites and those who simply wondered about the commotion. Twelve guards who stood at the door of the
palace and heard Athaliah’s screaming dogged her heels. As they ran the crowd opened to let them
through and then closed again behind them like the Red Sea at the command of
Moses.
When the queen and her guards
arrived at the triple gates they met the Levites who Jehoiada had posted at the
south entrance of the temple. Athaliah
pushed past them so quickly that she didn’t notice what happened next. The Levites stepped aside to let her through and
then stepped immediately back into rank and clasped hands like children do when
they play “Red Rover.” The guards,
caught by surprise, ran into the long line of Levite guards and suddenly found
themselves sitting on the ground. The
next thing they knew their swords disappeared and in the hands of their captors
had been turned against them. They found
themselves suddenly willing to cooperate.
Something about the pointy end of a sword encourages that.
The queen didn’t even turn to see if
they still followed her. Tearing up the
king’s ascent into the courtyard she resembled a bear charging after someone
who stole one of her cubs. Emerging out
of the tunnel and into the bright sunlight she finally stopped to survey the
scene which greeted her.
The temple courtyard overflowed with
people. Every gate into the temple from
every direction stood wide open and even more people crowded in until it seemed
as if they must be standing on each other’s shoulders to find room. On the far side of the courtyard stood three
rows of Levite soldiers, shoulder to shoulder, extending from the west side to
the east side of the temple. Every man
carried a sword by his side and a shield in front of him. And they all stared directly at the queen.
Behind the Levites, at the very top
of the stairs, stood Jehoiada the high priest.
Beside him a very small looking Joash wearing a big crown remained
motionless. The people throughout the
temple waved their hands and shouted repeatedly, “God save the king.” Trumpeters blew their ram’s horns. Sackbuts and lutes and drums added to the
cacophony and a choir shouted praise to God.
If they saw the queen it didn’t matter.
Nothing could prevent their enthusiastic celebration that day.
Suddenly Athaliah reached up with
both hands and grabbed the front of her beautiful royal scarlet robe. Summoning all her strength she ripped it
apart, shrieking at the top of her lungs.
“Treason! Treason!”
Fully expecting her palace guards to
follow, she plunged into the crowd, fighting desperately to cross the courtyard
and get her hands on the neck of the little boy in the crown. Hatred gave her strength like that of ten
women and no one even tried to stop her as she fought her way closer and closer
to Joash. When she came to the first row
of temple guards Joash stood less than ten feet away. Spit shot from her mouth as she screamed
again in that terrible, shrieking voice, “Treason! Treason!”
Joash wanting nothing more than to
run and hide. But kings didn’t run. Instead of hiding he stepped forward, raised
his hand in the air and called out with a clear command, “Stop her!”
Immediately the guards obeyed. Dropping their swords, four of the men
grabbed the queen by her arms to prevent her from approaching any closer to the
king. Then they turned to him for
further directions while her feet just kept running in the air. Joash had no idea what to do next. What do you do with a wicked queen you have
just deposed from the throne? He kept
his arms raised, the guards continued to hold her, she kept on fighting, and
the crowd grew silent. Finally Priest
Jehoiada came to his aid.
“Guards. Let her not be killed in the house of the
Lord. Take her out to the archery range
where she must die for all the trouble she had brought upon Judah and the many
innocents who have died at her command.
If anyone tries to follow or protect her, let them face the same
punishment.”
Still the guards looked at Joash,
after all, he was the king.
“Do as he said,” Joash commanded in
the most kingly tone he could muster. “Do
what the high priest Jehoiada has told you to do.”
At the king’s command the guards
hoisted the queen up onto their shoulders like a bag of flour and set off
across the courtyard toward the archery range.
All the way through the crowd Athaliah continued to kick at the guards,
spit at the people and yell “Treason!
Treason!”
The guards carried the wicked queen
out of the temple, down past the palace where her soldiers had yielded to the
troops loyal to Jehovah and outside the wall through the Horse Gate. In the archery range, where the palace guards
so often trained, Queen Athaliah met the sharp end of a sword at the command of
the one son of David she had failed to kill.
Justice had been served for all the death and destruction she had
brought upon the royal family and the nation.
By this time nearly everyone in the
city seemed to be crowding into the temple to catch a glimpse of the new
king. The porches had filled, the
balconies overflowed and the courtyard looked like one vast sea of heads. Jehoiada decided the time had come to
re-establish the authority of Jehovah God over His people.
“Listen to the Word of the Lord
today,” he shouted to the crowds. “This
day is the day of new beginnings for the land of Judah. Your new king worships Jehovah God.”
“Hooray,” shouted the people. “Hooray for Joash. God save the king.”
Jehoiada held up his hands for
silence before continuing. “This morning
very early your new king entered into a covenant with Jehovah. King Joash offered a sacrifice to God and
promised to worship and obey Him all the days of his reign.”
“Yeah! Hooray! Hallelujah!” rang
through the crowd. Even many of them who
had never worshipped God themselves felt happy to see the end of Queen
Athaliah. Anyone who promised a change
from her wicked ways deserved to be cheered.
“Now your turn has come to make a
covenant with God,” the high priest continued.
“Join with your new king in a promise to serve the Lord God and Him
only. As the smoke of the daily sacrifice
ascends to heaven, accompany that smoke with your solemn promise to serve God
as a nation and be His people once again.”
“We promise,” shouted the Levites
and all the people echoed their cry, “we promise.”
“Do you promise to keep God’s holy
assemblies and feast days and to stop observing the feast days of Baal?”
“We promise,” shouted the crowd.
“Do you promise to bring the
first-fruits of all your crops to the temple as an offering to God and refuse
to offer your sons on the false altars of Baal and Molech?”
“We promise!” Each cry from the people grew louder as more
and more of those in the crowded temple took up the cry.
“Do you promise to train your
children in the law of Moses and keep his commandments before you in rising up
and sitting down, when in your house and when walking by the way? Do you promise to bind them upon your hand
and keep them as frontlets between your eyes?
Do you promise to write them on the posts of your house and on the
gates?”
“We promise!”
“Then beware lest you forget the
Lord. You shall fear the Lord your God
and serve Him and swear by His name. You
shall not go after other gods, of the gods of the nations which surround us. For the Lord our God is a jealous God among
us. You shall diligently keep the
commandments of the Lord your God and His testimonies and His statues which He
has commanded us. You will do that which
is right in the sight of the Lord, that it may be well with you.”
And all the people shouted, “Amen!”
The excitement of the crowd in the
temple spread out through the gates and across the entire city of
Jerusalem. When a small group of men
suggested they do something about the temple of Baal built by Athaliah the idea
spread like wildfire. Men poured out of
the Western Gate, over the bridge which led to the Southwest Hill and quickly
turned from a crowd to a mob. Queen
Athaliah compelled them to worship Baal but her reign had ended and they
decided Baal needed to go as well.
“Death to Baal,” someone shouted and
the cry echoed throughout the city.
“Death to the Lord of the Flies.”
Sanchuniathan, the doorkeeper, heard
the crowd swarming up the hill with their cries of “Death to Baal,” and decided
it would be best to shut the doors. The
heavy doors, however, never moved quickly even under the best of circumstances
and he still hadn’t had time to slide the metal lock into place when the first
of the mob arrived. They didn’t even
bother to knock. Shoving their shoulders
against the door their combined weight quickly overpowered the doorkeeper. Slowly the heavy doors re-opened, trapping
Sanchuniathan between the door and the wall.
As more men crowded through, rushing into the temple of Baal the
doorkeeper found himself crushed to death behind the very doors he had opened
and closed for so many years.
Once inside the temple the mob
mentality removed all sense from the crowd.
Wall coverings ripped from their place littered the floor. Doors lifted from their hinges became
battering rams. Oil lamps
shattered. Anything made from gold
suffered a similar fate with the broken pieces passed around so everyone could
share the wealth.
Priest Mattan heard the noise from
within the inner sanctuary but had no idea what transpired until the doors
opened and the mob entered the altar room.
When he realized the danger he sought escape by climbing on to the base
of the large image of Baal which dominated the room. Grasping the rim of the altar he pulled
himself out of the reach of the angry crowd.
One of the invaders grabbed a knife used in the sacrifices to the false
idol and threw it right at the red-robed priest, knocking him off his
feet. With a terrible cry he fell
backward into the flames consuming the sacrifices he had just been offering to
Baal. Quickly the fire destroyed him in
the same manner as they had destroyed so many who had been offered to his god.
A dozen men crowded behind the large
statue of Baal and tipped it over onto its face where it shattered into a
thousand pieces. With the doors they had
removed from their hinges they battered the walls, breaking them apart piece by
piece. Before the mob had been satisfied
the entire temple of Baal lay in ruins on the Southwest hill of Jerusalem.
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