Jehu Murders Princes of Judah
8 It came about when Jehu was executing judgment on the house of Ahab, he found the princes of Judah and the sons of Ahaziah’s brothers ministering to Ahaziah, and slew them. 9 He also sought Ahaziah, and they caught him while he was hiding in Samaria; they brought him to Jehu, put him to death and buried him. For they said, “He is the son of Jehoshaphat, who sought the Lord with all his heart.” So there was no one of the house of Ahaziah to retain the power of the kingdom.
10 Now when Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she rose and destroyed all the royal [j]offspring of the house of Judah. 11 But Jehoshabeath the king’s daughter took Joash the son of Ahaziah, and stole him from among the king’s sons who were being put to death, and placed him and his nurse in the bedroom. So Jehoshabeath, the daughter of King Jehoram, the wife of Jehoiada the priest (for she was the sister of Ahaziah), hid him from Athaliah so that she would not put him to death. 12 He was hidden with them in the house of God six years while Athaliah reigned over the land.
If you read the previous post, there was a bit of a spoiler, that things were about to get even worse, and here it is. Jehu goes on a rampage in Israel as the hand of God’s judgment on Ahab’s wicked family. He finds the royal family of Judah visiting their wicked relatives (Ahaziah and his family weren’t any better), and so he kills all of them too.
Things get worse, because Ahaziah’s mother seizes control of Judah and kills all the royal children who were left behind. Athaliah was of Ahab’s house, and her judgment would come later. But we have a ray of hope, when we see Ahaziah’s sister, who was married to the priest Jehoiada, rescue Joash and his nurse.
God has a plan, even when things are darkest. It can be really hard to trust God in the middle of this kind of storm. I’m sure Jehoshabeath and Jehoiada felt like the odds were stacked against them, but they held out hope that God would come through. Would He would use their bravery to restore the kingdom? Or would it get even worse for Judah?
All they could do was trust God at this moment, and in the storm, that may be all we have left. But hope in God is a powerful thing, and if we hold on to Him, He will see us through to the light in the end.