2 Chronicles 23:12-15 - Homilies By T. Whitelaw

The fall of Athaliah.

I. A STARTLED QUEEN . ( 2 Chronicles 23:12 , 2 Chronicles 23:13 .)

1 . An unusual sound. Secretly as the coronation of Joash had been conducted, Athaliah's quick ear caught the noise of trampling feet, clapping hands, and shouting voices that issued from the temple on the other side of the Tyropoean valley. Guilty consciences, of sovereigns, as of common sinners, are prone to be startled by strange sounds ( Job 18:11 , Job 18:12 ); cf. 'Macbeth' (act 2. sc. 2), "I have done the deed: didst thou not hear a noise?"

2 . An unexpected sight . Mustering her guards, Athahah proceeded from her palace across the bridge that spanned the valley, and entered the temple court, when a most unwelcome spectacle met her gaze-a boy standing on a raised platform in front of the inner court, probably the brazen scaffold of Solomon ( 2 Chronicles 6:13 ), his head encircled with a diadem, his hand grasping a roll of parchment as if it were a sceptre; beside him Jehoiada the priest, the princes of the people, and the Levitical trumpeters; around him all the people of the land, rejoicing and singing.

3 . An unrestrained cry. Whether or not Athaliah recognized in Joash one of Ahaziah's sons, whom she fancied she had murdered six years before, she had no difficulty in comprehending the situation. A usurper herself, she perfectly understood the scene she beheld to mean revolution. Rending her garments in horror at the spectacle ( 2 Kings 6:30 ; Ezra 9:3 ), and perhaps in involuntary acknowledgment that the hour of her overthrow had struck ( 1 Samuel 15:27 , 1 Samuel 15:28 ; 1 Kings 11:30 ), she likewise rent the air with a shriek of "Treason! treason!" (cf. 2 Kings 9:23 ).

II. AN AVENGING PRIEST . ( 2 Chronicles 23:14 , 2 Chronicles 23:15 .)

1 . A charge to the captains.

2 . Its execution by the captains.

Learn:

1 . That the way of transgressors is hard.

2 . That the wages of sin is death.

3 . That they who take the sword shall perish with the sword.

4 . That verily there is a God who judgeth in the earth.

5 . That with what measure one metes it shall be measured to him again.—W.