Thursday, September 11, 2025
Scripture Readings
- Primary Reading: 2 Kings 11-16
- Secondary Reading: Psalms 105
Key Verse
2 Kings 14:11 — “But Amaziah would not hear. Therefore Jehoash king of Israel went up; and he and Amaziah king of Judah looked one another in the face at Bethshemesh, which belongeth to Judah.”
Devotional Thought
Athaliah, the queen mother, heard that her son Ahaziah was dead and did what desperate ambition always does—she tried to erase the future. She destroyed all the seed royal, every heir of David’s line, so that no one would remain to challenge her throne. But God’s covenant with David was not so easily undone. Jehosheba, the king’s daughter, took the infant Joash and hid him in a bedchamber of the LORD’s house, and for six years the true king grew up in secret while a usurper reigned. Then in the seventh year Jehoiada the priest gathered the captains, armed them with David’s spears and shields from the temple, set the boy by the pillar with the crown on his head and the testimony in his hand, and the people clapped and shouted, “God save the king.” Athaliah tore her clothes and cried treason, but it was her own treason being judged, and she was led out by the horse gate and slain. Jehoiada made a covenant between the LORD and the king and the people, and they went and broke down the house of Baal.
That is the shape of the whole passage, and indeed of the whole book of Kings: a faithful remnant, a hidden heir, a covenant renewed, and idolatry torn down. And yet the chapters that follow are heartbreakingly mixed. Joash does right all his days *wherein Jehoiada instructed him*, but when the priest is gone the high places remain, and he ends by stripping the temple gold to buy off Hazael of Syria, and is murdered by his own servants. His son Amaziah does right, yet not like David, and his pride over Edom leads him to pick a fight with Israel that ends with Jerusalem’s wall broken down. Elisha dies, and even his bones raise a dead man—but Israel still will not depart from the sins of Jeroboam. Grace keeps showing up; hearts keep drifting.
We are reading this in September, when the year’s light is already shortening, and the news of our own day often reads like Athaliah’s: someone in power deciding that the future must be erased to secure the present. But the psalm appointed for today tells the other side of the story. “He hath remembered his covenant for ever, the word which he commanded to a thousand generations.” God remembered Joseph in the iron, remembered Israel in Egypt, remembered Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob even when His people forgot Him. He remembered David’s line when a queen thought she had ended it. He remembered us when we were hidden in the bedchamber of His mercy, and He brought us out and set a crown on the true King.
So the question this passage presses on us is not whether God is faithful—the six years in the temple, the boy on the pillar, the bones of Elisha all answer that. The question is whether we will be like Jehoiada, who spent his strength preparing a generation he would not live to see reign, or like Joash, who did right only as long as someone stood beside him. The covenant is everlasting. Our obedience is not automatic. But even our wandering cannot cancel His promise, and He is still able to raise up, from the most hidden place, the very deliverance we thought was lost.
Reflection
- Joash did right only “wherein Jehoiada the priest instructed him.” What in your own life depends on a person standing beside you—and how would you prepare now to remain faithful when that support is gone?
- Jehoiada hid a king for six years and armed the guard with David’s old spears before he ever saw the throne restored. Where is God asking you to keep a long, quiet faithfulness for a harvest you may not live to see?
Prayer
O Lord our God, who remembers Your covenant to a thousand generations, we thank You that no Athaliah, no power, and no grave can erase the King You have appointed. You hid Joash in Your house and brought him out in Your time; You remembered Joseph in the iron and Israel in Egypt. Teach us to be faithful in the hidden years, to guard the truth when it seems small and forgotten, and to trust Your promises when the throne looks empty. Keep us from doing right only while others watch. Renew Your covenant in our hearts, tear down every idol we have cherished, and let our lives declare Your wondrous works until the King comes in His glory. Amen.
Psalm Verse
Psalms 105:1 — “O give thanks unto the LORD; call upon his name: make known his deeds among the people.”