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2 Kings chapter 11, as we consider 
a seasonal message. The title is, The Lady Who Saved 
Christmas. And I must confess, I took the 
title right out of Ralph Davis' commentary on 2 Kings, The Power 
and The Fury. the lady who saved Christmas. 
While there are many in the history of redemption that have intervened 
to make sure, by God's grace and power, that the messianic 
line would be preserved, tonight we'll notice specifically a woman 
by the name of Jehoshabat. She is the lady in our text who 
saved Christmas. I do want to read 2 Kings 11 
in its entirety, and then we'll make four observations by way 
of exposition. When Atalia, the mother of Ahaziah, 
saw that her son was dead, she arose and destroyed all the royal 
heirs. But Jehoshabah, the daughter 
of King Joram, sister of Ahaziah, took Joash, the son of Ahaziah, 
and stole him away from among the king's sons who were being 
murdered. And they hid him and his nurse 
in the bedroom from Atalia so that he was not killed. So he 
was hidden with her in the house of the Lord for six years while 
Atalia reigned over the land. In the seventh year, Jehoiada 
sent and brought the captains of hundreds. of the bodyguards 
and the escorts, and brought them into the house of the Lord 
to him. And he made a covenant with them, and took an oath from 
them in the house of the Lord, and showed them the king's son. 
Then he commanded them, saying, This is what you shall do. One 
third of you who come on duty on the Sabbath shall be keeping 
watch over the king's house. One-third shall be at the gate 
of Shur, and one-third at the gate behind the escorts. You 
shall keep the watch of the house, lest it be broken down. The two 
contingents of you who go off duty on the Sabbath shall keep 
the watch of the house of the Lord for the king. But you shall 
surround the king on all sides, every man with his weapons in 
his hand. And whoever comes within range, 
let him be put to death. You are to be with the king as 
he goes out and as he comes in. So the captains of the hundreds 
did according to all that Jehoiada the priest commanded. Each of 
them took his men who were to be on duty on the Sabbath with 
those who were going off duty on the Sabbath and came to Jehoiada 
the priest. And the priest gave the captains 
of hundreds the spears and shields which had belonged to King David 
that were in the temple of the Lord. Then the escorts stood, 
every man with his weapons in his hand, all around the king 
from the right side of the temple to the left side of the temple 
by the altar in the house. And he brought out the king's 
son, put the crown on him and gave him the testimony. They 
made him king and anointed him. And they clapped their hands 
and said, Long live the king. Now when Atalia heard the noise 
of the escorts and the people, She came to the people in the 
temple of the Lord. When she looked, there was the 
king standing by a pillar according to custom. And the leaders and 
the trumpeters were by the king. All the people of the land were 
rejoicing and blowing trumpets. So Talia tore her clothes and 
cried out, Treason! Treason! And Jehoiada the priest 
commanded the captains of the hundreds, the officers of the 
army, and said to them, take her outside under guard, and 
slay with the sword whoever follows her. For the priest had said, 
do not let her be killed in the house of the Lord. So they seized 
her, and she went by way of the horse's entrance into the king's 
house, and there she was killed. Then Jehoiada made a covenant 
between the Lord, the king, and the people. that they should 
be the Lord's people, and also between the king and the people. 
And all the people of the land went to the temple of Baal and 
tore it down. They thoroughly broke in pieces 
its altars and images, and killed Mattan, the priest of Baal, before 
the altars. And the priest appointed officers 
over the house of the Lord. Then he took the captains of 
hundreds, the bodyguards, the escorts, and all the people of 
the land. And they brought the king down 
from the house of the Lord, and went by way of the gate of the 
escorts to the king's house. Then he sat on the throne of 
the kings. So all the people of the land rejoiced, and the 
city was quiet, for they had slain Italia with the sword in 
the king's house. Jehoash was seven years old when 
he became king." Amen. Let us pray. Father, we thank 
You for Your Word and we thank You for Your protection of the 
Messianic line. We thank You that You used even 
unsung heroes in the preservation of Your holy seed. And we pray, 
Lord God, that these things would cause us to rejoice, that we 
would see the background to what we celebrate in terms of Christ's 
incarnation. Help us, Lord God, to truly praise 
You, our Lord. for all of Your kindness and 
all of Your mercy and Your fulfillment of promises made even way back 
in the Garden of Eden. And we pray through Jesus Christ 
our Lord, Amen. Well, as I said, the title and 
the points are basically from Ralph Davis' commentary. I thought 
it was very interesting to consider this passage at this particular 
time of the year. If we look at 2 Kings chapter 
11, the time frame is the 9th century BC in the kingdom of 
Judah. It's 841 to 835 BC to be exact. The reigning queen of Judah is 
Ataliah. We run into the same difficulty 
with that name as we do with Habakkuk. Some might pronounce 
it Athaliah. Some might be Adaliah. The Hebrew 
pronunciation sounds similar to Ataliah, something to that 
effect. So any of those three, if I mention 
them, difference, it's the same woman that's in view here. She 
was the granddaughter of Omri. and the daughter of Ahab and 
possibly of Jezebel. Ahab had several wives. She definitely 
exhibits something of Jezebelian genes, so it's probably not a 
stretch to consider that she was in fact the daughter of Ahab 
and the daughter of Jezebel. There's four observations we 
want to make this evening. The first is the wicked fury 
of God's enemies. Secondly, the wonderful significance 
of God's unsung servants. Thirdly, the subversive presence 
of God's kingdom. And fourthly, the installation 
of the rightful king. I believe there are some good 
lessons and some good instruction here for us in the 21st century 
in North America. But as we consider, first of 
all, the wicked fury of God's enemies, We read in verse 1, 
when Atalia, the mother of Ahaziah, saw that her son was dead, she 
arose and destroyed all the royal heirs. Now, just a bit of background. As we said, she was the daughter 
of Israel's Ahab. She became the wife of Jehoram, 
who was the son of Jehoshaphat. Jehoshaphat was a good king, 
but he was somewhat simple when it came to covenantal dealings. Davis says he was covenantally 
stupid. Jehoshaphat wanted to make an 
alliance with the northern kingdom, so he gave his son to Atalia 
to be married. Jehoram was her husband. He was, of course, in the kingdom. He was the king, rather. He killed 
all his brothers when he gained sole power, according to 2 Chronicles 
21. And this was a time of a lot 
of bloodshed, people jockeying for position. So, Jehoram, Athaliah's 
husband, killed all his brothers when he gained sole power. Shortly 
after that, Philistines and Arabs invaded Judah and carried off 
and killed all of Jehoram's son, except the youngest, Ahaziah. And it was Ahaziah that was caught 
with Joram of Israel in Jehu's purge. So he was destroyed. When we get to this point, there's 
all these people that are dead. Now, Ahaziah is dead, and so 
Atalia begins to commit this slaughter of the remaining heirs. As Davis says, one wonders who 
could possibly be left for Atalia's ministry of murder aside from 
her own grandchildren. Those would be the ones that 
were, verse 1, the royal seed or the royal heir. It was Italia's 
hour of power and she rose up and destroyed the royal seed. And we see that there in verse 
1 and of course the net result is given to us in verse 3 at 
the very end, while Italia reigned over the land. So she, by this 
act of treachery, by this act of murdering her own grandchildren, 
succeeded the kingdom of Judah. She became the queen in the nation 
of Judah. And I believe that the lesson 
here for us is simply this, that when that promise was made in 
Genesis 3.15, that there would be enmity between the seed of 
the woman and the seed of the serpent, we see it all throughout 
redemptive history. It's almost as if this promise 
was exposed and it was under attack. Various times in the 
history of redemption, it almost looked like the Davidic line 
was going to be wiped out, that it would be obliterated, that 
the promises of God would fail. And this is one of those instances 
where it came within a hairbreadth of being exterminated. Had she 
been successful in wiping out all of the royal heir, that would 
have stopped the line of David and there would have been failure 
in terms of God's promise. Atalia's enmity against the kingdom 
of Jesus Christ is typical of godless rulers. Remember Herod 
in Matthew chapter 2 and the murder of the innocents. Remember 
Psalm 2 that tells us that the kings and the rulers of our world 
take their stand against the Lord and against His Christ. This is not anything new under 
the sun. And that brings us secondly to 
consider the wonderful significance of God's unsung servants. Be honest. I asked Tony the other 
day, or I mentioned it was going to be a message on the lady who 
saved Christmas. And he said, Rahab. Good guess. 
Others have said, you know, a name here or there. Sarah, I heard 
tonight as well. Would you have ever said Jehoshabah? 
Would you have ever said, yeah, I know who spared the royal line. It was Jehoshabah. Jehoshabah, 
notice here in verse 2, the daughter of King Joram, sister of Ahaziah, 
took Joash, the son of Ahaziah, and stole him away from among 
the king's sons who were being murdered. And they hid him and 
his nurse in the bedroom from Athaliah so that he was not killed. What we have is Ahaziah's sister 
is the savior of Ahaziah's baby son against Ahaziah's mother. Ahaziah's mother wants blood 
and Ahaziah's sister spares this baby boy, Joash. And of course, the background. 
We realize in Genesis 3, I've already alluded to that, God 
promised a deliverer. And when we look at that promise, 
there are three things we notice. The deliverer would be a man. 
He would not be an angelic being. He would not be some other power 
structure. He would be a man. He would be 
the seed of the woman. This is why abortion was absolutely 
unheard of or unthought of in Old Covenant Israel. They were 
looking for the seed of a woman. They simply would not have murdered 
babies in their mother's wombs because they were expecting a 
Messiah to come. A second implication is that 
the Deliverer would achieve victory through suffering. He would have 
His heel bruised. He would have some sort of suffering 
involved in the mission that the Lord had given Him to bring 
victory. But the Deliverer would achieve 
a glorious conquest. He shall bruise your head. The faithful in Israel, the faithful 
in Judah, were looking for this promise. And praise God for Jehoshaphat 
that she took this boy and hid him from the murderous rage of 
Ataliah. And of course, the covenantal 
context, the 2 Samuel 7, the Davidic covenant. When the Lord 
God had promised David, when your days are fulfilled and you 
rest with your fathers, I will set up your seed after you, who 
will come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. 
He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the 
throne of his kingdom forever. I will be his father, and he 
shall be my son. If He commits iniquity, I will 
chasten Him with the rod of men and with the blows of the sons 
of men. But My mercy shall not depart from Him, as I took it 
from Saul, whom I removed from before you. And your house and 
your kingdom shall be established forever before you. Your throne 
shall be established forever." So, if young Joash had not been 
hidden away, if he had not been spared from this murderous rage, 
we would see the decline or the ultimate breaking of this promise 
of 2 Samuel 7. And of course, the Lord God doesn't 
make promises, He doesn't keep. He is good on His Word and He 
uses Jehoshabah here in order to spare this young boy, Joash. She is, incidentally, according 
to a parallel in 2 Chronicles 22, the wife of Jehoiada, the 
priest. The Jehoiada that we read of 
here in verse 4, who begins privately to make sure that Joash is recognized 
for the kingdom. This Jehoiada was married to 
Jehoshabah. So, they had a godly family there. So that's the wicked fury of 
God's enemies, the wonderful significance of God's unsung 
servants. Notice, thirdly, the subversive 
presence of God's kingdom. Verse 3, So he was hidden with 
her in the house of the Lord for six years, while Italia reigned 
over the land. So you have the visible illegitimate 
kingdom of Italia. And then you have the invisible 
or the secret reign of the rightful king. What does this sound like? Hopefully it sounds like the 
day and age in which we live. Listen to Davis. You must see 
this as your anchor, not the secret reign of Joash, for there 
is a far greater than Joash who reigns now. David's descendant 
and Joash's descendant, Jesus the Lord. And the rulers of this 
age and the pagans around you don't know this secret. But you 
do, if you've swallowed Ephesians 1, 20-22. This is what puts iron 
in your guts and makes you able to resist any other power that 
tries to control you. knowing there is a legitimate 
King who secretly reigns, keeps you from despair while the pretenders 
carry on. Amen. One of the things that 
concerns me in the trial-filled age in which we live is when 
Christians get so anxious and get so caught up in the political 
machine. And I'm not against all that. I believe we ought to. Watch 
and see and pray and be involved and all that stuff. But there's 
a fine line between watching and praying and being involved 
and being unnecessarily paralyzed by the prevalence of wickedness. By forgetting that Jesus Christ 
is on His throne, that He is King of kings, that He is Lord 
of lords. At this particular time in Judah's 
history, we'll notice later, in just a moment, there was a 
temple of Baal in the land of Judah. Now things were bleak, 
brethren. Ataliah had about a six or seven 
year reign that began with a murderous rage against little children. But you see that God is not marked. God is not gone. God is active. God is in control 
and His true King is in hiding in a small room being tended 
to for several years because Jehoshabah, by God's grace, was 
faithful. We need to make sure that we 
guard against the temptation to look out among us and to get 
paralyzed with fear and to forget that Jesus Christ truly does 
reign over all things. Whether the economy collapses 
or not, Jesus is on His throne. Whether good men or bad men are 
in high places, Jesus is on His throne. This is one of the big 
messages in the book of Revelation. The book of Revelation is about 
the enthronement of Jesus Christ. Over and over and over again, 
we see what's going on in the world, but our gaze is always 
directed back to the throne, that place of control, that place 
of calm dignity, that place of sovereign power. And this is 
my burden for us as Christians. is that we would not take our 
eyes off of the fact that King Jesus rules and He reigns over 
all things for the good of His church. The subversive presence 
of God's kingdom. The visible reign of the illegitimate 
kingdom was contrasted here with the secret existence of the true 
King. And then that brings us fourthly 
to consider the installation of the rightful King. Jehoiada. goes, calls all these several 
persons together. The long and the short of it 
is, he is crowned and he is given the testimony according to verse 
12. The testimony probably refers 
to the law of God. This was the possession of the 
king. When the king took office, he 
was to copy for himself the law of the Lord. So, he is crowned, 
he is given this testimony, and then everybody cries out, Long 
live the king. And then Atalia comes and sees 
this. This is an amazing scene here. 
Verse 13. Now when Atalia heard the noise 
of the escorts and the people, she came to the people in the 
temple of the Lord. When she looked, there was the 
king standing by a pillar according to custom, and the leaders and 
the trumpeters were by the king. You'd pay to see that. Here's 
this wicked, horrible person. This woman who has usurped the 
crown. This woman who has shed blood 
to get to where she's at. She hears some commotion. She 
hears some celebratory praise. She runs over the temple to see 
what's going on. And there's the king. Now notice 
what Italia does. All the people of the land were 
rejoicing and blowing trumpets. So Italia tore her clothes and 
cried out, treason, treason. How'd she get to the throne? 
By murder. She's the last one in the world 
that should ever take the word treason to her lips in condemnation 
of another. Davis said, one marvels that 
a usurper could use that word with a straight face. How dare her? But she's going 
to get hers. She is removed from the temple 
and summarily executed. They didn't play games back then. They dealt the law. They dealt the justice out. Verse 15, Joahetta the priest 
commanded the captains of the hundreds, the officers of the 
army, and said to them, take her outside under guard and slay 
with the sword whoever follows her. For the priest had said, 
do not let her be killed in the house of the Lord. So they seized 
her, and she went by way of the horse's entrance into the king's 
house, and there she was killed. So the rightful king has been 
recognized, the rightful king has been crowned, the rightful 
king has been given the testimony, and the usurper, the one who 
really was guilty of treason, has been summarily executed. Now notice, notice verses 17 
to 20, what Davis calls the high price of covenant restoration. The covenant is renewed in verse 
17. But it says Jehoiada made a covenant between the Lord, 
the King, and the people. This wasn't something entirely 
new. Probably a reconfirmation of the covenant as found in the 
books of Moses. So he makes a covenant between 
the Lord, the King, and the people, that they should be the Lord's 
people, and also between the King and the people. The sequence, 
notice, between verses 17 and 18 is important. We have this 
renewal of covenant in verse 17, and then we have destruction 
in verse 18. That's conspicuous. We need to 
understand this. Covenant leads to destruction. If there is fidelity to God, 
verse 17, all that attempts to sap and seduce that fidelity 
must be thrown down. That's verse 18. Notice in verse 
18, and all the people of the land went to the temple of Baal 
and tore it down. Again, these are dark days in 
Judah when there's a temple of Baal sitting in their town. I mean, we would probably raise 
an eyebrow if they started to build a mosque in downtown Chilliwack. Hopefully, we'd raise an eyebrow. 
You know, one of the things about England is that there are so 
many mosques, so many moslems. throughout that land, a land 
that produced the Puritans. Now has Charles Darwin on their 
10-pound note and mosques dotted all over their landscape. Well, 
that's kind of how it was in Judah. There was a temple of 
Baal in Judah. So they renew the covenant, then 
what do they do? They go and tear down the temple 
of Baal. And not only do they tear down 
the temple, but they destroy all of the idols. They destroy 
anything and everything that would sap that fidelity to Jehovah. And there's Matan, the high priest, 
well, they kill him too. You cannot miss this, brethren. 
Restoration or covenant leads to destruction. Davis says, when 
truth reigns, the false must be eliminated. The king is established 
on the throne of the kings, according to verse 20, and all the people 
of the land rejoice. The city was quiet, for they 
had slain Italia with the sword in the king's house. Now what 
do we learn from this passage? The first, and we've seen it, 
we must rehearse it, is the enmity that exists against the kingdom 
of Christ. Jesus promised His followers 
that if the world hates you, know that it hated me first. The Bible tells us that people, 
apart from God, hate Him. They don't seek Him. They don't 
fear Him. They don't love Him. They don't 
honor Him. And they don't worship Him. We 
ought not to be surprised by that. Now, we should never get 
comfortable with sin. We should never be desensitized 
to just how heinous sin is. But we ought not to just be so 
perplexed. If we are rooted in the soil 
of biblical theology, we'll realize that this is simply application 
of Genesis 3. There is enmity that exists between 
the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent. Now, it 
culminated at Calvary when the seed of the woman crushed the 
head of the seed of the serpent. But there is that enmity that 
continues on today. We need to see that. We need 
to understand that. We need to realize that. We need to know that so that 
we'll pray effectively. so that we'll be on our guard, 
so that we'll be watchful. People don't want you to be happy 
in Jesus. People don't want you to have 
a good relationship with Christ. Young people, people don't want 
you to resist their drugs, or to resist their foul language, 
or to resist those things that hopefully, by God's grace, you 
are resisting. There are a whole host of people 
that want you to join in their wickedness with them. You need 
to resist. You need to guard. You need to 
realize that that enmity exists and you will certainly not fight 
against it by going along with it. A second lesson. Jehoshaphat, mentioned briefly, 
is an unsung hero of the Christian faith. I mean, again, would we 
have said tonight, coming in here, yeah, Jehoshabah. Do we 
ever talk about her? Do we ever think about her? Have 
you ever thought about Jehoshabah? Have you ever in your life said, 
kids, I want to teach you about someone that's very important 
in redemptive history? Someone that, by their courage 
and by their strength, preserve the messianic line. Now, we know 
God is sovereign. God, however, uses means. And 
we want to learn about Jehoshabat tonight. More than likely, brethren, 
that is not what we're about. Listen to what Davis says. This 
is a lengthy quote, but I think it's so beautiful. He says, Yahweh's 
promise to David was one infant away from proving false and falling 
to the ground. What a crucial moment. Jehoshabah 
is the human agent responsible for preserving the kingdom of 
God in this world. It's amazing, isn't it? That's 
really what's happening in this passage. If it weren't for Jehoshabah, 
there wouldn't be any Christmas. The Davidic pipeline would have 
been broken. Here is the lady who saved Christmas. She is God's role-aid in what 
sometimes seems the soap opera of history. Because of her initiative 
in verse 2, all of verses 4 to 18 can take place. You see how 
strategic Jehoshapah's act is? Yahweh's promise hung by a frazzled 
thread in 840 BC, and she kept it from snapping. You see Yahweh's 
method, don't you? No spectacular intervention. Get this. Oh, he could have caused 
Italia's hiatal hernia to make her choke on her granola one 
morning before she ever started her bloodbath. But he didn't. 
He had his servant Jehoshabah in place. He didn't just, you 
know, cast her down dead. into some miraculous, stupendous 
act of judgment. Now, she gets hers to be sure, 
but all things being equal, it is the normal execution of covenant 
justice. He goes on to say, you may draw 
an erroneous inference at this point. You may think that your 
service for Yahweh is not crucial like Jehoshabah's. I am, you 
might say, seldom or never thrust into dramatic scenarios like 
the one she faced. Are you sure? If you are a Christian 
parent, you have responsibility over the church in your house, 
where you are meant to serve as prophet, priest, and king. 
As prophet, you teach the Word of God to your children. As priest, 
you intercede and wrestle in prayer for them. And as king, 
you rule over them with proper discipline and protection. It's 
because my parents understood that that I am in the kingdom 
of God. Don't tell me your kingdom service 
doesn't matter. He goes on. And it's interesting, 
isn't it, that Jehoshabah's name is not exactly a household word. Daughter of a king, wife of a 
priest, she had some status. But we don't hear of her again. 
You yourself probably didn't think of her all this week until 
you happened to read this chapter. She may well have been relatively 
obscure in her own time. Folks, after all, we're still 
talking about the Battle of Karkar in 853, and Shalmaneser III was 
Time Magazine's Man of the Year. John Bright, in his History of 
Israel, doesn't refer to Jehoshapah by name in his narrative, nor 
even list her in the index. But isn't this the glory of God? That He does not need powerful 
or prominent people? So we will be wrong if we become 
fixated on Jehoshabah. We could too easily do that. 
Then we'd start marketing Jehoshabah mugs, Jehoshabah sweatshirts, 
Jehoiada Jehoshabah coffee table books, a la the Charles and Diana 
genre, and we'd try to get her on a Christian TV network. Sometimes 
the Bible doesn't say something directly because it expects you 
to be smart enough to pick it up. Don't you catch what verse 
2 wants you to say? God wasn't napping, was He? He 
had just the servant He wanted in just the right place at that 
very time. Your only response should be 
to stand and sing the doxology. Praise God, from whom gutsy women 
come. Amen. Isn't that awesome? That's our God. I mean, if you get five books 
in your life, get His commentaries. He makes the former prophets 
alive, or six books. Judges, Joshua, 1st and 2nd Samuel, 
actually what, 2, 4, 6, yeah, 1st, 2nd Kings. That's the kind 
of stuff I need. That's the kind of stuff you 
need. We may forget Jehoshabat tonight when we go out of here, 
but we all live in Christ because she was God's instrument to preserve 
Joash. It's an amazing God we have. 
God of attention to detail. And He's right. We would, you 
know, the prayer of Jabez. Do you think that's actually 
in the Bible? So there could be that huge marketing campaign 
promoting the prayer of Jabez? If what He's saying is right 
and people caught on, there would be. That's the day we live in. 
Jehoshabamugs. Jehoshaba.com. That's not what 
we're supposed to do. We're supposed to praise the 
God who used Jehoshabba in a very wonderful way. And then the third 
and final observation in terms of application is the necessity 
for covenant restoration. In the 9th century BC in Judah, 
it was manifested as we have seen through the destruction 
of the temple of Baal, through the casting down and destroying 
of idols, and through the killing of Matan, the priest of Baal. 
Now, it won't look that way for you and I. We're not going to 
go downtown and rip down Baal's temple, start destroying idols, 
and start killing priests who serve a false god. But there 
must be covenant restoration. There must be fidelity to the 
Lord God. There must be what we have been 
learning. Hopefully we're learning in the 
book of Colossians. That's Paul's letter. calling 
the church to covenant faithfulness, to living in terms of who Jesus 
is and what He has done on our behalf. This whole idea of being 
encouraged or strengthened in heart, of being united in love, 
of growing in our understanding of theology and learning more 
and more about the mystery of the Gospel. Those are the means 
or those are the ways by which we will walk faithfully to our 
God. That we will walk faithfully 
in terms of the new covenant. So, whether it's the 9th century 
B.C. and where to go out and rip down 
the temple of Baal, or it's in the 21st century here in North 
America, ripping out the temples of Baal in our own hearts, or 
destroying the idols that we hold near and dear, destroying 
those things that get between us and our God, covenant restoration 
or covenant renewal is absolutely crucial in the New Covenant Christian. Walking in the New Covenant means 
resisting the pull of the competitors and drawing blood if necessary. Not the blood of Matan the priest, 
but our own blood. In fact, that's the implication 
in Hebrews 12. You have not resisted to the 
point of shedding blood. The implication certainly is, 
but you should. You should be willing to resist 
to that degree. You should be willing to lay 
down your life. You should be willing to crucify 
those desires. You should be willing to sacrifice 
all those things for the Lord Jesus Christ. We learned something. The lady who saved Christmas.