Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Adult Sunday School Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/bb/bb20070422.htm

1 AND 2 CHRONICLES: GAINING DIRECTION OUT OF THE AIMLESSNESS OF APOSTASY
Part V: Gaining Direction From God's Work In The Rest Of Judah's Davidic Dynasty, 2 Chronicles 13-36
F. Trusting God To Keep His Word Amid Powerful Apostasy To The Contrary
(2 Chronicles 22:1-12 et al.)
  1. Introduction
    1. Sometimes the strength of God's foes and the spiritual defection of His people toward the side of God's foes make the few remaining godly people tempted to be discouraged and to give up hope for blessing.
    2. However, God is greater than even powerful apostasy, and He always fulfills His promises in Scripture, a truth clearly illustrated in the events of 2 Chronicles 22:1-12 in their wider Biblical context (as follows):
  2. Trusting God To Keep His Word Amid Powerful Apostasy To The Contrary.
    1. The strength of God's foes became so great, and the defection of past good leaders to the side of such foes so extensive, God's promise to provide an eternal Davidic reign seemed doomed, 2 Chron. 22:1-10 et al.:
      1. By way of review, we know the foes of God had become as intensely strong as they had become evil:
        1. The throne of the Northern Kingdom of Israel eventually came to wicked Ahab, and he married Jezebel, an avidly idolatrous pagan promoter of Canaanite Baal worship, cf. 1 Kings 16:29-34.
        2. Jezebel proved to be a heartless, godless influence on Ahab, signified in her malicious slander of innocent Naboth to get him executed so that Ahab might seize his property, 1 Kings 21:1-29.
      2. However, to add to the problem, Judah's good king Jehoshaphat allied himself first with evil Ahab and then with his wicked son, Ahaziah, alliances that God condemned, 2 Chronicles 18:3; 19:2; 20:35-37.
      3. These ungodly alliances influenced Jehoshaphat's son, Jehoram actually to marry the evil daughter of Ahab and Jezebel, a marriage that led him into deep apostasy, 2 Chronicles 21:1, 4-6.
      4. Then, at Jehoram's death, Ahaziah, the son of Athaliah who was that daughter of Ahab and Jezebel, came to Judah's throne and lived much like wicked Ahab due to Athaliah's influence, 22:1-3, 4!
      5. God thus arranged for Ahaziah to be slain along with Israel's wicked Jehoram, Ahab's son when Ahaziah visited Jehoram and Jehoram was slain by Jehu, 2 Chron. 22:5-9 with 2 Kings 9:16-26, 27-28.
      6. However, at the death Ahaziah, wicked Athaliah who then gained the throne "by default" killed the royal seed of David to secure Judah's throne for herself, 22:10; Bible Knowledge Com., O. T., p. 636.
    2. Regardless of Athaliah's effort, in accord with His promise to preserve David's kingdom as eternal under Christ (cf. Luke 1:30-33), God wonderfully saved a descendant to David's throne, 2 Chronicles 22:11-12:
      1. God had promised David, the ancestor of Judah's kings, to make of him an eternal kingdom through his line, 2 Samuel 7:8-16. This promise is fulfilled in Christ's messianic kingdom, cf. Luke 1:30-33.
      2. Thus, even after David's descendants had departed from God and He had judged ten of Israel's twelve tribes to be torn from his grandson, Rehoboam (1 Kings 11:29-40; 2 Chron. 10:1-19), God promised to keep "a light" for David's line to fulfill that unconditional divine promise and purpose, 2 Chron. 21:7.
      3. For this reason, when Athaliah tried to annihilate David's royal line, God arranged for Jehoshabeath, daughter of Ahaziah and granddaughter of Athaliah secretly to take the lone surviving royal male infant of the purge, the infant Joash, along with his nurse, and to hide them in a "bedroom" in the temple, 2 Chron. 22:11a,b; 24:1 KJV. Ryrie notes this was "a room where mattresses and couches were stored", a soundproof room that hid the cries of the infant Josiah and that enabled him to survive and develop without Athaliah's knowledge, Ryrie Study Bible, KJV, 1978 ed., ftn. to 2 Kings 11:2.
      4. Lest we wonder how this granddaughter of Athaliah would oppose her rule, we note Jehoshabeath was wed to the high priest, Jehoiada, a godly man who influenced her for God like he later impacted Joash (2 Chron. 23:1-3; 24:2, 15-16); she thus protected her infant brother in accord with God's will opposite what her grandfather, Jehoram had done in slaying his brothers, cf. 2 Chronicles 21:4 with 22:2!
Lesson: Though the rise of strong, evil parties coupled with the defection of good leaders to their side nearly led to the annihilation of David's royal line and the destruction of God's Davidic Covenant and eternal plan, God used a godly high priest so that Scripture and God's purposes might be fulfilled!

Application: (1) Regardless how strong the wicked or how polluted the godly become, God is greater, and will keep His Word and fulfill His plan so that may we always trust Him and His Word! (2) May we like Jehoiada and Jehoshabeath heed the Lord that He might use us to keep His eternal plan going!