Second Kings 11. When Athaliah, the mother of Ahaziah, saw that her son was dead, she arose and destroyed all the royal heirs. But Jehoshabah, daughter of King Joram, sister of Ahaziah, took Joash, the son of Ahaziah, and stole him away from among the king's sons who were being murdered. And they hid him and his nurse in the bedroom from Athaliah so that he was not killed. So he was hidden with her in the house of the Lord for six years while Athaliah reigned over the land. In the seventh year, Jehoiada sent and brought the captains of hundreds of the bodyguard and the escorts and brought them into the house of the Lord to him. And he made a covenant with them and took an oath from them in the house of the Lord and showed them the king's son. Then he commanded them, saying, This is what you shall do. One third of you who come on duty on the Sabbath shall be keeping watch over the king's house. One third shall be at the gate of Sir, and one third at the gate behind the escorts. You shall keep the watch of the house, lest it be broken down. The two contingents of you who go off duty on the Sabbath shall keep the watch of the house of the Lord for the king. But you shall surround the king on all sides, every man with his weapons in his hand, and whoever comes within range, let him be put to death. You are to be with the king as he goes out, and as he comes in." So the captains of the hundreds did according to all that Jehoiada the priest commanded. Each of them took his men who were to be on duty on the Sabbath with those who were going off duty on the Sabbath, and came to Jehoiada the priest. And the priest gave the captains of hundreds the spears and shields which had belonged to King David, that were in the temple of the Lord. And the escort stood, every man with his weapons in his hand, all around the king, from the right side of the temple to the left side of the temple, by the altar and the temple. And he brought out the king's son, put the crown on him, and gave him the testimony. They made him king and anointed him, and they clapped their hands and said, long live the king. Now when Athaliah heard the noise of the escorts and the people, she came to the people and to the temple of the Lord. When she looked, there was the king standing by a pillar according to custom. And the leaders and the trumpeters were by the king, and all the people of the land were rejoicing and blowing trumpets. And Athaliah tore her clothes and cried out, Treason! Treason! Then Jehoiada the priest commanded the captains of the hundred, the officers of the army, and said to them, Take her outside under guard and slay her with the sword, whoever follows her. For the priest had said, Do not let her be killed in the house of the Lord. So they seized her and she went by way of the horse's entrance to the king's house, and there she was killed. Then Jehoiada made a covenant between the Lord, the king, and the people, that they should be the Lord's people, and also between the king and the people. And all the people of the land went to the temple of Baal and tore it down. They thoroughly broke in pieces its altars and images, and killed Matan, the priest of Baal, before the altars. And the priest appointed officers over the house of the Lord. Then he took the captains of hundreds, the bodyguards, the escorts, and all the people of the land And they brought the king down from the house of the Lord, and went by way of the gate of the escorts to the king's house. And he sat on the throne of the kings. So all the people of the land rejoiced, and the city was quiet, for they had slain Athaliah with the sword in the king's house. Jehoash was seven years old when he became king. Thus far the reading of God's word. Let's pray. Almighty Father, please illumine our hearts by your spirit. Holy Spirit, please come to us as the spirit of wisdom and revelation. Help us to understand this text. Help us to long to remain under the rule of David's son. Help us to see the benefits and blessings that come from his rule. the peace that he brings as Prince of Peace. We pray these things, Father, in the name of your beloved Son. And all God's people said, Amen." Well, the previous two chapters detailed Jehu's coup in Israel, and tonight's chapter records an even more exciting coup. The action sequences may not be as perfectly choreographed in this one, But the results are far better because Johash rules better than Jehu. In fact, does right in the eyes of the Lord all the days that Jehoiada instructs him. So we can rejoice in this coup, and we can especially rejoice because it's not just a general seizing power, which is what Jehu was. In this chapter, we see all three pillars of Judean society, that is the people, the religious, temple establishment, and the military coming together to restore the rule of David's son. Athaliah has usurped. She's sitting on the throne. We talked about that last week. But God is not finished with David's line. His promise stands. His kingdom is still there. And so, Joash does become king. Basically, what does this chapter have to tell us about our God? Well, it tells us that the restoration of Davidic rule in Judah in 836 BC shows us what our submission to Christ's rule should look like today. How should we come under Christ's rule? What should it look like when we say, yes, I profess faith in Christ and obedience to him? How will we behave? We see several different things in this text. So first is the event, the coup itself, and then the results of the event. What happens once you are back under the rule of David's son? Well, the event itself, a coup, we have the co-conspirators. This was Jehoiada's, the priest, and the Judean army. Verse four, right? In the seventh year, Athaliah has been reigning over the land for six years. In the seventh year, Jehoiada the high priest gathers these army units who are assigned to guard the temple. They're apparently more or less under his direct command. He gathers them and he sets things up such that either double or triple the number of guards will be on duty. The text is a little unclear on that point. The point is that there are a lot more guards than usual that are going to be present at this coronation. Jehoiada says, can I trust you? Will you agree to be loyal to me? And they agree. Then he makes a covenant with them, takes an oath from them, and then he shows them Joash. There's a true king. David's line is not dead. God's promise has not failed. We aren't stuck with Athaliah forever so that it'll be always winter and never Christmas. Here's Joash, hidden away in an inner room of the temple. So says Jehoiada. And what does he issue the troops? Kind of interesting. He gives them these detailed instructions. Surround the king. Kill anybody who comes too close. We're not going to take the chance on Joash being assassinated before he can even be crowned. And then in verse 10, he gives them the shields and spears that had belonged to King David. As if to say, here's what we're doing. We are restoring the line of David and we're symbolically using David's weapons to put David's son back on the throne. These items were stored in the temple. which seems kind of odd to us. We don't usually store weapons in our houses of worship. Remember Goliath's sword was in the tabernacle and David got it from the priest back in 1st Samuel and here David's weapons are in the temple. The priest issues them out to the military men who guard the temple and everything works. The escorts stand exactly where they should all around the king with drawn swords to prevent anyone from coming to assassinate the king. Jehoiada crowns him, gives him the testimony, verse 12, even the son of David should not rule without the word of God. This testimony is most likely a copy of the book of Deuteronomy. Some translations have the royal insignia, but testimony, the Hebrew word, most likely refers to a copy of the scriptures. And to this day, in fact, when a monarch of Britain is crowned, the Bible is handed to them and said with the words, this book is the most precious thing the world affords. Same idea comes to us all the way from 9th century BC Judah. So here's Joash. He's crowned. He's standing by the pillar. The people are rejoicing and shouting, long live the king. The coronation is complete. and Athaliah is not happy. So what happens as soon as this event is complete? What happens when the people return under the rule of David's son? Well, the first thing that happens is joy. Verse 14, Athaliah's here, we're seeing things from her perspective. Verses 13 and 14, but what does she see? She sees everyone ecstatic. The leaders, the trumpeters, the people of the land were rejoicing and blowing trumpets. Judah can't get over how happy they are to have David's son back on the throne. There is joy in moving from the rule of a vile usurper, moving to a righteous Davidic king who rightfully belongs on the throne. You want to think about parallels, you can think about the rejoicing in the streets of Iraq when Saddam was executed, you can think about the rejoicing in the streets of Italy when Mussolini was killed, but neither of those men really had somebody good to replace them. This is not just joy that Athaliah is gone, it's positive joy that we have a king. We have a real king. I think there were many in this congregation who woke up on a morning last November and found themselves really lighthearted over the results of a particular American election. Maybe unexpectedly so. Well, that was a pale shadow of how the people of Judah felt when they saw David's son back on the throne. there is joy first and foremost coming under the rule of David's son. Of course that should be the case for us. We talked in Sunday school this morning about enjoying God forever. Part of that joy is simply the knowledge that Jesus is my Lord. I have the best Lord anybody could have. He's mine, and I'm his, and he's my king, and I get to live under the rule of this one. Best king ever. Right? Some of you are probably going to get a world's best grandpa mug for Christmas this year. But only of Jesus is it really true, right? World's best reigning monarch. Always and forever. So let me just say that if you've lived under Christ's rule so long that you've forgotten how joyful it is, remind yourself of what it was like to be under Athaliah's rule. Read some gritty books. Watch some gritty films. Obviously don't do something sinful, but talk to some gritty people. Familiarize yourself once again with what it's like to live under Satan's rule. Just so you can contrast and say, wait, I don't live there anymore. I don't think like that anymore. I don't suffer like that under that kind of rule anymore. I have the joy of being under the rule of Jesus Christ. And that's some pretty amazing joy. Well that's the first result. Joash is crowned and all the people are rejoicing, blowing trumpets, doing their best to indicate how thrilled they are that David's line is back on the throne. And then what happens? Well, the death of the usurping queen. Athaliah, of course, has to interrupt the show. Treason! Treason! Hey, everybody, this shouldn't be happening. This is my kingdom. And Jehoiada was ready for this. Take her outside and kill whoever wants to go with her. You know, kind of sad when It's still a sign that Judah is not as it should be when the king's grandma has to be cut down with the sword at his coronation. And did you notice where she was killed, verse 16, in the horse gate? Just like her mommy, right? Trampled by Jehu's horses at the end of chapter 10 or the end of chapter 9. Well, so Athaliah's death too is associated with horses. Kind of interesting. Well, what does this mean for us? Basically, that when you come under the dominion of Christ, you pass out of the dominion of sin. You are dead to sin, or as Paul also puts it, sin lies dead. Sin gets stabbed with that stake through the heart when you come under the rule of Christ. And the people didn't have to obey Athaliah anymore. She could sing and dance on the side and yell about treason and flail her arms. And a couple of Judean commandos were just as happy to run over there and put a sword through her and make her be quiet. Well, that's our position in respect to sin. Jesus rules me, sin. I don't have to do what you say. You can throw a fit. You can go berserk. You can tell me I'm missing out. I don't care. You're dead as far as I'm concerned. We don't have to listen to sin once we come under the rule of David's son. So Athaliah was put to death and then verse 17, Jehoiada made a covenant between the Lord, the king, and the people that they should be the Lord's people. So when you come under the rule of David's son, you enter into this covenant relationship with God. Jehoiada led the people in covenant renewal. Now the New King James and the other translations I looked at have the indefinite article. Jehoiada made a covenant between the Lord, the King, and the people. The Hebrew actually has a definite article. Jehoiada made the covenant. Which covenant is that? We would say the well-known covenant that we call the covenant of grace. Covenant whereby God promised salvation. The same covenant that's referenced in 2 Timothy 1 where Paul says that he is there. He's writing to Timothy because of the salvation that God promised before times eternal. Well, how could God promise salvation before times eternal? Well, he promised it to his son in the covenant of grace. Only Jesus, only the son of God was around before times eternal. God promised salvation to him. And that covenant is the same covenant that God made with Israel in Abraham. In your seed, all the families of the earth shall be blessed. Really, it's the same covenant God made with Adam in the garden. I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your seed and her seed. He shall bruise your head, you shall bruise his heel. This promise of salvation through Jesus Christ comes to us by way of covenant. When we come under the rule of David's son, we come into covenant with God. And the content of that covenant is that they should be the Lord's people. Now the master promise of the covenant that God reiterates over and over and over throughout the Bible, Old and New Testaments, is I will be your God, you will be my people. It's that possessive pronoun, or possessive noun in this case. To be the Lord's people, or the people of the Lord, means that He has chosen us, that we are His, that we belong to Him. That was the covenant that Jehoiada made. The people of the land came before God and said, God, we will be Yours. We will belong to You. And from that language of belonging, Jesus deduced every benefit of redemption right up to the resurrection of the dead. Remember Matthew 22, the Pharisees came to him and said, we don't believe in the resurrection, show us your stuff. Why should we believe in the resurrection? Well, he didn't say that. They gave him that story about the woman who had had seven husbands and who all's wife is she going to be in the resurrection. And what did Jesus say? He said, well, remember in the passage about the bush back in Exodus 3 where God said to Moses, I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And then Jesus says, he is not God of the dead, but God of the living, for all live to him. Therefore, you're wrong. And we usually read that and say, what, Jesus? How does the argument go? Well, Jesus left out a few premises because the Sadducees were biblical scholars who knew what he meant. The premises that he left out is that God, what did he say? He said, God is God of the living. God told Moses, I am, not I was, I am God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And God said that to Moses approximately 400 years after the death of Jacob. So in God's mind, Jacob has been dead 400 years and yet God is still his God. God is still God of Jacob. 400 years after Jacob's death. Therefore, Jesus says, God can't be God of the dead because to be God of is to be God in relationship with. It's to be God who's bound himself to by promise. So what is Jesus saying? Well, quite simply, Jacob is still alive. Isaac is still alive. Abraham is still alive. They've been dead 400 years, but God is still in covenant with them. And if God is in covenant with you such that he is God of you, then you will rise from the dead bodily. So the Sadducees were saying, Jesus, see, resurrection is silly. Moses didn't believe in the resurrection. And Jesus says, no. Moses knew the resurrection was real because God said to him, I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And God is not the God of the dead. He's only the God of the living. Back to 2nd Kings 11, Jehoiada made a covenant between the Lord the King and the people that they should be the Lord's people. We call this covenant today salvation. To be saved, to be someone whom God will raise from the dead at the last day and bring into heaven is the same as to be one of God's people. That's the covenant that Jehoiada made. He made the covenant. So basically the people after seven long years under Athaliah were renewing their commitment to be God's people. Coming back to God and saying, yes Lord, we want to be your people. We want to submit to you. We want every spiritual benefit and blessing that comes from being in relationship with you. We want the resurrection from the dead. And we want to be your people. But why is this a three-way covenant? Why couldn't it have been a covenant between the Lord and the people? Why a covenant between the Lord, the King, and the people? Well, the point is exactly what we've been seeing in Ephesians 1. That in Christ we have every spiritual benefit and blessing. God is only our God insofar as we are in Jesus Christ. It's only because of our relationship to Jesus that we are related to the Father. And in the same way, it was only because of their relationship symbolically to the King that the people of Israel of old, the people of Judah in this era, were related to God. Obviously, God saved his individuals then just as he does now. Typologically, Jehoiada made this covenant between the Lord, the king, and the people to say, people, you don't know God without David's son. Without David's son, there is no salvation for Israel. Of course, without Christ as David's Son, there is no salvation for us either. Hence the three-way covenant. Lord, King, People. We could say we are in covenant with God only and exclusively through Jesus Christ. So that's the covenant the Jehoiada made. We will belong to You, God. You will be our God. We will be Your people. And that promise is repeated from Genesis all the way to Revelation. On Sunday we read it this morning in Revelation 21 in Sunday School. Behold the tabernacle of God is with men. He will walk with them and dwell with them. God himself will be with them and be their God. That's the other half of the promise that's in 2 Kings 11. God, we will be your people. And in heaven, God will be our God. Now that isn't the only covenant Jehoiada made. He made another one between the king and the people. As if, again, to highlight, if you're not in covenant with Jesus Christ, then you haven't come under the rule of David's son. If you don't participate in a binding, sworn relationship between you and Jesus, you're not a believer. Just as, in a sense, if these Israelites, these Judeans, didn't recognize Joash as their king, as far as everyone was concerned, they were still part of Athaliah's party. You need to be in covenant with Christ, meaning you need to have taken Him as your King, as the ruler of your heart and your life, as the one to whom you submit. That's, in a sense, the positive things that happen. There's a negative thing that happens as well. Verse 18, the destruction of the idols. When you come under the rule of David's son, when you submit to Jesus Christ, You have to throw the idols out of your life. What did they do? Verse 18, all the people of the land went to the temple of Baal. And just to note, this is the only time that a temple of Baal is mentioned in Judah. But Athaliah apparently, like her daddy Ahab, had brought Baalism to Judah and had built a temple to Baal right somewhere in Judah. So what did the people do? Well, they went and they tore down this entire idolatrous institution. they said we belong to David's son and therefore we don't host idolatrous institutions in our land anymore. Obviously it's not our call when we come under Christ's rule to go and find every idolatrous institution in our neighborhood and rip it brick from brick. The point is rather that personally we need to withdraw from those institutions and the most obvious thing here are formal non-christian religious organizations You shouldn't be a member of a Buddhist congregation, or be a dues-paying Buddhist temple, I don't know what they call them, members, something like that, and claim to be a servant of Jesus at the same time. It doesn't work. You can't be a formal member of a mosque and a formally a Christian simultaneously. If you come under the rule of David's son, You need to withdraw from idolatrous institutions. And obviously, different Christians are convicted in their conscience different ways about other institutions. Some people say, well, that institution is idolatrous. I can't participate. And other believers say, well, I think I can participate in the good without being idolatrous. And in some sense that has to be up to your conscience, but if you know in your heart of hearts that an institution is idolatrous and is your participation and it requires you to worship an idol, you have to back out. I'm sorry, I can't participate in this institution if you're under the rule of David's son. And then they also destroyed the idolatrous apparatus. They thoroughly broke in pieces its altars and images. They got rid of all the things that were used to worship this false god Baal. And we in the same way need to get rid of the idolatrous apparatus in our own lives. If you worship the entertainment god, what's the apparatus for that? Well, a huge TV and a powerful sound system. Or if you worship the money god, the apparatus for that might be a bank account, or a credit card, or something like that. If you worship the god of human relationships, what's the apparatus for that? Well, maybe some tools to make yourself look nice, or the way you talk and entrance people with your words, the way people compliment you on your appearance, or your skills, or your abilities, anything along those lines. If you worship the God of prosperity, you might worship your job or your bank account or your stuff, your material possessions. Those things might need to go, as Jesus told the rich young ruler. If you worship the God of convenience, You're going to have all these little things set up in your life to save you time, to make sure everything goes your way, to make sure you aren't inconvenienced. Again, nothing wrong with most of these things per se, but insofar as they become the apparatus of idolatry, they're bad and they're wrong and you need to get rid of them. Some of us worship the god of food. The apparatus for that might be a giant refrigerator or an $18,000 oven or a vast collection of cookbooks. You may have to get rid of that. If that's your idol, throw those things out. Sell them and start worshiping the God of prosperity. Kidding. When you come under the rule of David's son, you have to get rid of idolatrous apparatus. Or even idolatrous apparatus for the biblical God. Something like the golden calf. Something like a picture of Jesus. Something that takes the God of the Bible and cuts him down to a size you can control. Anything that might be along those lines. But often some kind of object, some kind of good luck charm, some kind of image, any of these things can be idolatrous apparatus. And then there's the idolatrous leader. They killed Matan, the priest of Baal, before the altars. Now again, our call is not to kill idolatrous people. That fit with the civil law of Israel in that time. It doesn't fit with our civil law today. But we need to withdraw from following idolatrous leaders. If you have an idolatrous leader that you used to follow, you need to delete his podcasts, throw away his CDs, throw his books into the round file, or give them to the goodwill, depending on how bad they are. Stop supporting them financially. Don't be a participant in institutionalized idolatry. That includes by your support of the leaders of institutional idolatry. But conversely, what did they do then? The priest appointed officers over the house of the Lord. When you come under the rule of Christ, you participate in the institutional renewal of true religion. This wasn't just me and Jesus for the people of Judah. It was the Lord, the King, and the people all making a covenant together, this three-way covenant. And here we see the temple being renewed. The priest appointed officers over the house of the Lord. There were people in charge of making sure that the temple ran the way the temple was supposed to run. And that applies to us as well. If you are truly under the rule of David's son, You need to be committed to Christ, not just personally, but even institutionally. Say, how can I help my church? Where can I serve? Either officially or unofficially. There are things for all of us to do in this church. That's part of institutional renewal of true religion. The text mentions officers, but of course there are many many other ways to participate in that institutional renewal. Then we see in verse 19 another result was simply the rule of David's son. All the captains escort Joash from the house of the Lord right into the palace and he sat on the throne of the kings. When Christ rules your life, He actually rules. He isn't a figurehead monarch who never tells you what to do. He's a real monarch who has instructions for you every day of your life. So coming under the rule of David's son is not just, okay, I'm in the club, I paid my dues and I'll hear from Jesus once a month. No. Submitting to his rule every day, every moment. Well then, finally, we have the joy of Yahweh's people and the peace of Yahweh's city. The account, once again, goes out of its way to highlight both of these things in verse 20. The people of the land rejoiced. Begins the account and ends the account. When you come under the rule of David's son, you rejoice. You're happier than ever before. You have that joy and submission to Christ. And God's city is full of peace. Why? Well, they had slain Athaliah with the sword in the king's house. A bloody corpse may not look like peace to you. But according to the narrator, that's exactly what it is. The carcass of the dragon may not look like peace, but it is. the dead carcass of Satan, of our old sins, of our enemies, the things that tried to turn us away from the rule of Jesus, those bring peace. When you join this church, you promise to study its purity and peace. How do we have peace in the church? By coming under the rule of David's son. by submitting to the rule of Jesus Christ. That's what brings us joy. That's what brings us peace. Obviously, all these things are important. Destruction of idols, coming into covenant with God, joy, the death of sin, the peace of the church. This is what happens when you come under the rule of David's son. Let's not only come under that rule, but stay under it. Let's pray. Father God, we thank you so much for giving your son rule. We thank you that you have made him both Lord and Christ, that you have anointed him as the anointed one over your church, over your people. Indeed, that you have plans to sum up all things under one heading, in Christ. We pray, Father, that you would help us to live as people in covenant with you, that you would help us to be free, that you would help us to be joyful, that you would grant us peace in this church and in the broader church at large because we submit to the rule of David's son. We pray these things in his blessed name. And all God's people said, Amen.