The divided monarchy of Israel was at a low ebb.
The evil dynasty of King Omri had ruled the northern tribes for nearly half a century. Now it had extended its power over the southern kingdom of Judah. Queen Athaliah, daughter of King Ahab, widow of King Jehoram and mother of King Ahaziah, had seized power following the death of her son, destroying in the process all of Judah’s remaining royal princes (II Chron. 22:10). Or so she thought.
This was the family, of course, through whom the Savior of the world was to come (Matt. 1:1-16). Judah’s King Jehoram, called Joram in Matthew 1, is mentioned by name in the lineage of Jesus (verse 8). Through Athaliah it was obviously Satan’s plan to exterminate the Messianic line and thus prevent the Savior’s eventual coming to earth.
But one got away. Jehoshabeath, daughter of King Jehoram and wife of high priest Jehoiada, sneaked the infant Prince Joash away from his brothers and hid him in the Temple (II Chron. 22:11-12). During the six years of his concealment, “Athaliah reigned over the land” (verse 12).
The Sabbath Morning Conspiracy
Second Chronicles 23 gives a detailed account of the high priest’s conspiracy against this wicked queen, the resulting overthrow of idolatry in Judah, and the destruction of the last member of the house of Ahab. In the first three verses we read how carefully this conspiracy was crafted:
And in the seventh year Jehoiada strengthened himself, and took the captains of hundreds, Azariah the son of Jeroham, and Ishmael the son of Jehohanan, and Azariah the son of Obed, and Maaseah the son of Adaiah, and Elishaphat the son of Zachri, into covenant with him.
And they went about in Judah, and gathered the Levites out of all the cities of Judah, and the chief of the fathers of Israel, and they came to Jerusalem.
And all the congregation made a covenant with the king in the house of God. And he said to them, Behold, the king’s son shall reign, as the Lord hath said of the sons of David (II Chron. 23:1-3).
We aren’t told how many were present in the Temple when this covenant was made, but obviously they all were persons in whom the high priest reposed great trust. Great care needed to be exercised, of course, lest their plans get to the ears of the queen. From the way the story ended, it appears the plot stayed secret until it was carried out.
Jehoiada assembled his strategy with care. The chapter continues with his instructions to his fellow conspirators:
This is the thing that ye shall do: A third part of you entering on the Sabbath, of the priests and of the Levites, shall be porters of the doors:
And a third part shall be at the king’s house, and a third part at the gate of the foundation: and all the people shall be in the courts of the house of the Lord.
But let none come into the house of the Lord, save the priests, and they that minister of the Levites; they shall go in, for they are holy: but all the people shall keep the watch of the Lord.
And the Levites shall compass the king round about, every man with his weapons in his hand; and whosoever else cometh into the house, he shall be put to death: but be ye with the king when he cometh in, and when he goeth out (verses 4-7).
It would appear the high priest set the time for the conspiracy for Sabbath morning because more of the priests, the Levites, and those remaining faithful to God would be present at that time. What is more, the queen would likely consider Sabbath services to be routine; any significant gathering at the Temple on some other day would probably have aroused her suspicion. (One wonders how the “third part . . . at the king’s house” kept themselves inconspicuous to the extent that the queen didn’t notice.)
Jehoiada made certain both of the sanctity of God’s house (verse 6) and of the safety of the new king’s person (verse 7). One notes with interest that in the Israelite theocracy the priests were not forbidden to bear arms. When we read of King David’s coronation at Hebron and the armies of the twelve tribes that attended him there, we find 4,600 armed Levites (II Chron. 12:26), 3,700 armed descendants of Aaron (verse 27), and Zadok, “a young man mighty of valor,” of whose father’s house were “twenty and two captains” (verse 28). Thus it shouldn’t surprise us to find armed Levites surrounding the young King Joash at his coronation, “every man with his weapons in his hand” (II Chron. 23:7), with no unauthorized person allowed near the king on pain of death (verse 7). Any relaxing of this security could have resulted in the boy king’s assassination.
Transfer of Power
The conspiracy worked. The Bible tells us that “the Levites and all Judah did according to all things that Jehoida the priest had commanded” (verse 8). King David’s spears, bucklers, and shields were taken out of the armory (verse 9), obviously still in good condition. Armed men filled the Lord’s house, “from the right side of the temple to the left side of the temple, along by the altar and the temple, by the king round about” (verse 10). The high priest clearly wasn’t taking any chances.
Then they brought out the king’s son, and put upon him the crown, and gave him the testimony, and made him king. And Jehoiada and his sons anointed him, and said, God save the king (verse 11).
But the drama didn’t end there. This transfer of power was not to be peaceful.
Now when Athaliah heard the noise of the people running and praising the king, she came to the people into the house of the Lord.
And she looked, and, behold, the king stood at his pillar at the entering in, and the princes and the trumpets by the king: and all the people of the land rejoiced, and sounded with trumpets, also the singers with instruments of music, and such as taught to sing praise. Then Athaliah rent her clothes, and said, Treason, Treason (verses 12-13).
One can’t help wondering who was advising the queen, if anyone. Why didn’t she send a servant to the Temple to find out what was going on, when the noise grew so loud that it was clear something out of the ordinary was afoot? Couldn’t someone have informed her of the armed coup then in progress, and then advised her to take whatever treasure could be sneaked out of the palace inconspicuously, put on a disguise, and get out of town as fast as possible? Commandeering a few fast Egyptian horses, then getting to the port of Joppa and taking the first ship to Tyre or Sidon, would have made excellent sense!
But either Athaliah didn’t have the advice, didn’t ask for it, or fooled herself into thinking she could bluff her way through an encounter with a fully-armed cabal of adversaries. (Hubris is an all-too-common trait among tyrants—and not just ancient ones!) Once the queen made her presence known in the Temple, the high priest ordered his men to arrest her (verse 14), to execute anyone who supported her or came to her defense (verse 14), while admonishing the guards to “slay her not in the house of the Lord” (verse 14). “And when she was come to the entering of the horse gate by the king’s house, they slew her there” (verse 15).
Aftermath
The reformation didn’t stop with the death of the usurper. Now that the wicked queen was gone, it was imperative that the people renew their vows of faithfulness to God and His commandments. The Bible says that “Jehoiada made a covenant between him, and between all the people, and between the king, that they should be the Lord’s people” (verse 16). And even though it was the Sabbath, the people knew they had work to do that couldn’t wait:
Then all the people went to the house of Baal, and brake it down, and brake his altars and his images in pieces, and slew Mattan the priest of Baal before the altars (verse 17).
The Temple services and the offering of sacrifices, as commanded in the law of Moses and reaffirmed by David, were then fully restored (verse 18), and all that was unclean was forbidden within the sanctuary (verse 19). Then, protected by the armed forces and acclaimed by the nobles, governors, and all the people, the new monarch was officially enthroned in the royal residence (verse 20). “And all the people of the land rejoiced, and the city was quiet” (verse 21).
Conclusion
Unlike Old Testament Israel, the Seventh-day Adventist Church is not a political theocracy, in which recalcitrant apostates receive capital punishment. But we are an ecclesiastical theocracy, as the Word of God is our supreme authority. In one statement Ellen White declares of us: “We are sacredly denominated by God, and are under His theocracy” [##1|Ellen G. White, Testimonies, vol. 7, p. 109.##].
Leaders at every level in God’s church must be held accountable. When the inspired text is violated, when falsehood is upheld in the place of truth, when popular culture—whatever label it wears—is permitted to supplement or supplant the written counsel of God, disciplinary consequences become necessary. The parallels are not exact, to be sure, but much can be learned by Seventh-day Adventists today from the record of that Sabbath morning conspiracy over two and a half millennia ago.
REFERENCES
1. Ellen G. White, Testimonies, vol. 7, p. 109.
Pastor Kevin Paulson holds a Bachelor’s degree in theology from Pacific Union College, a Master of Arts in systematic theology from Loma Linda University, and a Master of Divinity from the SDA Theological Seminary at Andrews University. He served the Greater New York Conference of Seventh-day Adventists for ten years as a Bible instructor, evangelist, and local pastor. He writes regularly for Liberty magazine and does script writing for various evangelistic ministries within the denomination. He continues to hold evangelistic and revival meetings throughout the North American Division and beyond, and is a sought-after seminar speaker relative to current issues in the Seventh-day Adventist Church. He presently resides in Berrien Springs, Michigan