2 Kings 11

I’ve been reading through 2 Kings recently and over the past couple of days have been looking at king J(eh)oash. There’s an interesting pattern in his life:

• There’s someone who wants the throne of the nation and murders to remove any threat to their rule (v. 1)
• As a child, he has to go into hiding to save his life (vv. 2-3)
• A number of years later, he is proclaimed king and his enemies are defeated and false worship is destroyed, bringing peace to the land (vv. 4-20)

This of course echoes the pattern of Moses’ life - Pharoah, concerned that the multiplying Israelites would prove a threat ordered that all the baby boys be killed (Exodus 1, 9-10; 22), but as a baby, Moses’ life is preserved (Exodus 2, 2) and he later emerges as the ruler of God’s people, leading them in triumph over Pharaoh and his hosts (Exodus 3-14)

Ultimately, this adumbrates the life of the Lord Jesus. Herod hears that one is born who will be king of the Jews (Matthew 2, 2) and he orders the slaughter of all the baby boys in the region of Bethlehem (Matthew 2, 16). Jesus and his family seek refuge in Egypt (Matthew 2, 14). He defeats his enemies through his death on the cross (Colossians 2, 15), a victory that will finally be consummated when he returns, and when all false worship is destroyed.

This is the shape of our experience as those who are in Christ. We may be attacked and threatened by the ruler of this world, the devil, through human agents just as he worked through Athaliah and Herod. Or it may be through circumstances. God’s kingdom may appear to be under threat, about to be destroyed. But God’s people are protected - note how Joash was hidden in the house of YHWH. God preserves his kingdom against all that would oppose it. Christ will return and bring final victory. We must recognize what our experience as Christian belivers will be like, yet nevertheless keep trusting and looking forward.

But there is further application for the present. Christ is king now. And the people of Judah in 2 Kings 11 are, I think, held forth as a good example. There is glorious iconoclasm. Baal worship is destroyed. The people rejoice and there is peace. Even if there is no explicit comment from the narrator, the tone is positive, this is all in the context of a reign that pleases YHWH (2 Kings 12, 2) and the Mosaic law tells us that the worship of false gods is wrong. We’re meant to approve of what happens in vv. 17-20. And with Christ as Lord of the Church, we are directed to put aside all that is not worship (in the widest sense of the word!) of the one true God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and all its associated apparatus.