58. Judah from B.C. 889 to 809

Judah from B.C. 889 to 809

Chapter IV

Timeline View:

l. In the kingdom of Judah, Jehoshaphat was succeeded by his son Jehoram or Joram, who has before been mentioned as having married Ahab’s daughter, Athaliah. He was thirty-eight years of age when he began to reign, and proved a very degenerate son of an excellent father. The first act of his reign was the murder of his six brothers, and some of the chief persons of the nation. He was also persuaded by Athaliah to subvert the worship of the Lord, and to introduce the corruptions which prevailed in the sister kingdom. For this, the prophet Elisha, by letter, denounced the Divine vengeance upon him and upon his house. This was speedily executed. The Edomites threw off the yoke, as had long before been foretold (Gen 27:40), and Libnah, on his southern frontier, revolted. The Philistines harassed him on the west; and he was invaded from the south by the Arabians, who plundered his country and palaces, carrying into captivity all his wives except, Athaliah, and all his sons except Ahaziah, the youngest. Lastly, to fill up the measure of his punishments, he was afflicted with a horrible disease in his bowels, of which he died after a torturing illness of two years and a reign of eight.

2. Ahaziah, called also Jehoahaz, who then ascended the throne, was twenty-two years old. He was as had as his father, and associated as much by character as by birth with the house of Ahab. He joined his uncle Jehoram, the reigning king of Israel, in another effort to recover Ramoth-Gilead from the Syrians. After they had returned to Jezreel, in consequence of a wound which Jehoram received, both the kings were slain in the conspiracy of Jehu, who was commissioned to exterminate the house of Ahab. The servants of Ahaziah were allowed to convey his body to Jerusalem, for burial in the royal sepulcher. He reigned only one year.

3. When Athaliah saw that her son was dead, she resolved to take the sovereign power into her own hands. She therefore destroyed all of the royal family whose present or prospective claims stood in the way of her ambition. No one escaped, except her grandson Joash, the son of Ahaziah, an infant of a year old. He was hidden from her rage, with his nurse, in the chambers of the temple, by his aunt Jehosheba, the wife of the high-priest. Athaliah now ruled Judah with a high hand. She established the worship of Baal through the land, and persecuted the faithful few who still adhered to the worship of Jehovah. Thus six years passed; when Jehoiada, the high-priest, resolved to endure her usurpation and profligacy no longer, but to produce Joash, then seven years old, to the people as their king. Having engaged the Levites to support the design, a time was fixed for its execution. On that day the avenues and gates of the temple being strictly guarded by well-armed Levites, the young prince was carried into the inner court of the temple, under a strong escort of priests, and was there anointed and proclaimed king of Judah.

Ancient Egyptian Trumpets

4. The blast of the trumpets, and the shouts and acclamations of the people, attracted the attention of Athaliah, who repaired in haste to the temple. A glance revealed to her the hateful truth, and she turned away with a cry of “Treason!” But no one moved in her favor, not even when, by order of Jehoiada, the guards seized her and led her forth to inevitable death. The high priest now solemnly charged the king and people to renew the national covenant with God, and to serve and worship him only. He then led the willing people to destroy the temple and idols of Baal, whose priests and prophets were also slain. In reading the account of these transactions, we must bear in mind that, under the theocracy, idolatry was not merely a religious error, but high treason against the Supreme Head of the commonwealth.

5. While the young king acted under the direction of Jehoiada, he reigned well, and order was restored to the kingdom. But after the death of that eminent person, he fell under the influence of had advisers—idolaters at heart—by whom he was seduced from the worship of the true God to those abominations through which the nation had already suffered so deeply. This provoked the Divine anger, of which he was repeatedly warned by the prophets. At length, when the king and people were celebrating a festival in the temple, Zechariah, the son and successor of Jehoiada, remonstrated so strongly against his conduct, that the indignant king commanded Zechariah, his cousin, and the son of his benefactor, to be stoned, even in that sacred place; and his cruel and unjust command was but too readily obeyed by the apostate multitude. Many evils fell upon Judah for these iniquities. The land was invaded by the Syrians, who ravaged the country and plundered Jerusalem. Many of the inhabitants, as well as of the king’s court and household, were put to the sword, and the invaders withdrew with immense booty to Damascus. Shortly after this, Joash, being afflicted with grievous diseases, was assassinated by two of his attendants, after a reign ct forty and a life of forty-seven years.

6. Amaziah, the son of Joash, was twenty-five years old when he succeeded his father. He began his reign well, and re-established the worship of Jehovah; but he, like all his predecessors, continued the unsanctioned practice of offering sacrifices in the high places. When he was settled in the throne, he brought the murderers of his father to condign punishment; but he showed his respect for the law (Deu 24:16) by sparing their children, contrary to the general practice of the East. Afterwards, about the twelfth year of hit reign (b.c. 827), he undertook to reduce to obedience the Edomites, who had revolted in the reign of his father. He got together 300,000 men for this expedition; and not deeming this a sufficient number, hired 100,000 warriors from the king of Israel, for 100 talents of silver. This was displeasing to God, who ordered him, by a prophet, to send them back again; and he manifested a just sense of his position, as the viceroy of the Divine King, by his compliance, which involved the loss of the money he had advanced.

Ruined Temple, Petra

Petra, from above Amphitheater

The Israelites were very far from being pleased at their dismissal, and testified their resentment by the ravages and barbarities which they committed on their way home. Amaziah was rewarded For his obedience by a complete victory over the Edomites, of whom he slew ten thousand in battle; and ten thousand more whom be had taken prisoners, he unjustifiably destroyed, by casting them down from the cliffs of their native mountains. He took the metropolis, Selah, and changed its name to Joktheel. This is, in all probability, the lately discovered Petra, whose marvellous excavations have been regarded with much admiration.

7. The savage cruelty of Amaziah to the captive Edomites was not the only evil connected with this expedition; for, having brought away with him the idols of Edom, he, with wonderful infatuation, set them up as objects of religious homage at Jerusalem; and the services of God’s temple were once more forsaken or eclipsed. After repeated warnings, his doom went forth from God, and its execution speedily followed. Puffed up with his victory, over Edom, he formed the wild project of bringing the ten tribes under obedience to the house of David, and provoked Joash, the king of Israel, to hostilities, notwithstanding his endeavour to avoid them. In the first action the army of Amaziah was completely routed; be was himself taken prisoner and carried in triumph to his own capital, which was taken, and the fortifications demolished. The rapacious conqueror stript even the temple of its treasures; but at his departure he left Amaziah in possession of his dishonored crown. The disgrace which Amaziah had brought upon the nation was so intolerable to his own subjects, that a powerful conspiracy was formed against him, and he was killed at Lachish, to which place he had fled for safety (b.c. 809). He reigned twenty-nine years.