Bible Commentaries

Jehoram was immediately succeeded by Ahaziah, his youngest son, His reign was brief, lasting only one year, and was influenced for evil by Athaliah, his mother. The story of his death is a solemn warning. It occurred directly through his friendship for the evil house of Ahab. Jehu, acting as the instrument of God's judgment on that house, found princes of Judah, and among them the king, and slew them all.

Then followed dark and terrible days in which the dead king's mother, Athaliah, reigned over the land. Her first act was a revelation of her character. It was the destruction of all the seed royal of the house of Judah. However, no evil anger is sufficient to frustrate divine purpose, and against the wickedness of one woman God set the compassion of another. Jehoshabeath rescued Joash, and for six years with patient persistence nursed him under the shelter of the Temple.

There are hours in human history when it seems as though evil were almost all powerful. It entrenches itself in great strength; it builds up great ramparts; it inaugurates policies of the utmost craft and cleverness. It seems to be able to bind together a kingdom which is invincible. All this is false seeming. There is no finality, no security, in the apparent might of iniquity. Sooner or later, irrevocably, inevitably, the trenches are broken through, the ramparts are flung down, the policies fail, and the kingdom which seemed so secure is dashed to pieces like a potter's vessel by the strength of God, which is ever the strength of righteousness and goodness. Neither powerful autocrat nor mighty confederacy of statesmen can establish a kingdom or an empire by fraud, by violence, by corruption. Other than truth and justice and purity, the things of goodness, which are the things of God, nothing will hold a kingdom or an empire or a commonwealth together in strength.