Bible Commentaries
2 Chronicles 23

Verses 1-21

The story of Jehoida is one of devotion and courage. Doubtless he had known of the hiding place of Joash and his nurse. After six years of terrible experience, he took means to bring about the death of Athaliah, and the crowning of the boy, who was the true representative of the house of David.

There is dramatic power in one statement here concerning Athaliah, "She looked, and behold, the king stood by his pillar at the entrance." The boy king was brought out, anointed, and crowned amid the plaudits of the people. Athaliah, hearing the shoutings, came to the Temple, and "she looked, and, behold, the king stood by his pillar at the entrance." Then she knew the powerlessness of evil. In vain she cried, "Treason! Treason!" Her own treason against the true and abiding King of the nation was defeated.

Thus, sooner or later, and in ways equally dramatic, the moment arrives when those who plot and plan against heaven and righteousness find themselves looking at the evidences of the triumph of God and of goodness over all their wickedness.

Jehoiada commenced the reformation which followed during the forty years of the reign of Joash. Thus, in one way or another, God, in unceasing fidelity to His own purposes of love, moved forward toward ultimate realization in spite of the failure of His people.