AN UNGRATEFUL TRAITOR 2 CHRONICLES 23-24

A good story needs a couple of things. 

•It needs a good plot line

•It needs some intriguing characters

•It needs some heroes and villains

•It needs a good resolution

Tonight, we are going to look at a great story that has all of these things, except perhaps for the happy ending.

It’s a story of kings and queens, betrayals and loyalty, and ultimately a story that we can learn from.

The story begins around the 800s BC.

Let me give you the backstory before we jump into our text and to do that I need to give you a family history of the kings of Judah.

You’ve probably heard of King Jehoshaphat of Judah. He was a good king. He was a good king, but he had some unlikely alliances. He allied himself with the wicked King of Israel that is the most notorious villain of Israel’s kings, Ahab. The same Ahab that married Jezebel.

Background:

Jehoash family tree

Great-Grandfather was Jehoshaphat (godly king)

Grandfather was Jehoram, Jehoshaphat’s son

Jehoshaphat had made an alliance with Ahab (Israel’s wicked king)

He took Ahab’s daughter (Athaliah) to be Jehoram’s wife - it is likely her mother was Jezebel because she was just like her

Jehoram had all of his brothers assassinated

He then lost all of his sons but the youngest (Jehoahaz) in a raids by the Philistines and Arabs

He was so wicked that God struck him with a bowel disease so that his bowels came out and he died a painful death

Father was Ahaziah (wicked king)

Another name for Ahaziah was Jehoahaz

His mother Athaliah (Ahab’s daughter) was his counselor, so he was a wicked king as well

He goes to visit the king of Israel and is killed by Jehu who had assassinated the King of Israel

no one was left able to rule

Athaliah seeks to kill all of the royal family to retain her power and influence, but Jehoshabeath (one of Ahaziah’s daughters) hides Joash in a room until he is older and able to take the throne

Jehoshabeath marries Jehoiada the priest who eventually has the temple guards protect Joash and install him as king and then has Athaliah executed

So the main character that we want to look at tonight is King Joash. He is the picture of someone that was spared by God’s providential hand but became an ungrateful traitor in the end. He’s the picture of how we ought not to finish our race.

We are going to read a good bit tonight so let’s start in 2 Chron. 24.