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aspect which would have given permanency to these movements, neither the military
party in the north nor the majority in the south were in any real sympathy.
And still deeper lessons come to us. There is not a more common, nor can there be a
more fatal mistake in religion or in religious movements than to put confidence in mere
negations, or to expect from them lasting results for good. A negation without a
corresponding affirmation - indeed, if it is not the outcome of it - is of no avail for
spiritual purposes. We must speak, because we believe; we deny that which is false only
because we affirm and cherish the opposite truth. Otherwise we may resist, and enlist
unspiritual men, but we shall not work any deliverance in the land. "Jehu destroyed Baal
out of Israel" (2 Kings 10:28), but "he departed not from the sins of Jeroboam, which
made Israel to sin."
"And Joash did that which was right in the sight of Jehovah all the days of Jehoiada the
priest" (2 Chronicles 24:2).
But "after the death of Jehoiada," "he and his people left the house of Jehovah, God of
their fathers, and served groves and idols: and wrath came upon Judah and Jerusalem for
this their trespass" (vers. 17, 18). And as if to mark this lesson the more clearly, the
judgments alike upon Israel and upon Judah came to them through one and the same
instrumentality - that of Hazael, king of Syria (2 Kings 10:32; 12:17, 18).
As regards the movement in the southern kingdom of Judah, Old Testament history does
not present a nobler figure than that of Jehoiada, whether viewed as priest or patriot.
Faithful to his religion, despite his connection with the house of Jehoram and the
temptations which it would involve, he dared to rescue the infant prince and to conceal
him for six years at the risk of his life. At that time he must have been upwards of a
hundred years of age.*
- According to 2 Chronicles 24:15, Jehoiada died at the age of 130. And as, according to
2 Kings 12:6, the restoration of the Temple under Jehoiada took place in the twenty-third
year of Joash, the high-priest must have been about 107 years old at the accession of
Joash.
Even after six years of misrule, Jehoiada still seems most reluctantly to have taken the
initiative against Athaliah, although from his custody of the infant-prince, no less than
from his age and dignity, it naturally devolved upon him. In the language of the Book of
Chronicles, he had to "take courage" for it. And when at last he acted, it was, to use a
modern expression, in the most "constitutional" manner, as well as in the most earnest
religious spirit. There cannot be doubt that the occupancy of the throne by Athaliah was
not only an usurpation and a crime, but contrary to the law and constitution of the land.
Yet in bringing about a change which was strictly legal, Jehoiada acted in the most
careful manner, having first consulted with, and secured the co-operation of, all the
(^)