In last week’s post, I wrote about how Athaliah became the queen of Judah for a brief time. She attempted to murder every one of her heirs so that none of them could become the next ruler, but one child survived – the infant Joash. He was essentially smuggled out by his sister Jehosheba and hidden in the temple for 7 years. When the time was right, the high priest Jehoiada organized a plan to crown Joash as king right under Athaliah’s nose.
Joash became king when he was just 7 years old (2 Kings 11:21). Joash reigned as king of Judah for 40 years. Overall, Joash was a good king and sought to honor God, but he did not remove the high places, which is where the people worshiped idols and false gods. Joash was advised by Jehoiada, the high priest who hid him in the temple before he became the king (2 Kings 12:2-3).
Joash’s first recorded edict as king was to collect money from various offerings and religious taxes and use it to repair any damage to the temple. The money would be given to the priests, and then the priests were to use it to fix the temple. However, after 23 years, King Joash realized that the temple was still not repaired! King Joash asked Jehoiada why the work was not done when the priests had received the money to do it, but no answer is given in the Scriptures as to why that was the case. So, they essentially made a collection box so that the people of Judah could contribute to the temple’s repairs. Men were appointed to supervise the work on the temple, and they were able to pay for the laborers to do the work and the materials needed to fully restore the temple (2 Kings 12:4-16).
It seemed as though things were going pretty well for Joash in his reign as king. The temple was now repaired and everyone was satisfied with it. But, then King Hazael from Aram attacked Judah and set his sights on Jerusalem. King Joash had to figure out what to do to stop this attack, so he took all of the valuables out of the royal temple treasury and gave it all to King Hazael, who then stopped attacking Jerusalem (2 Kings 12:17-18).
But then, things got even worse – Jehoiada died. After his death, the officials of Judah (basically King Joash’s advisors) abandoned worshiping God and instead worshiped false gods and idols, namely Asherah. God sent prophets to the people to try and bring them back to worship Him, but they did not listen (2 Chronicles 24:17-19).
One such prophet was Zechariah, who was Jehoiada’s son. He explained to the people that because they had forsaken God, God would forsake them. King Joash and his officials didn’t like that message, so they stoned him to death in the courtyard of the temple. It is noted in Scripture that King Joash did not remember how Jehoiada, Zechariah’s father, had shown him such kindness by literally saving his life and hiding him in the temple for 7 years. As Zechariah died, he told King Joash, “May the Lord see this and call you to account” (2 Chronicles 24:20-22).
Then, the Arameans came back to finish what they had started. This time, they did invade Judah and took Jerusalem, killing all the leaders. The Arameans had a smaller army than Judah, but God used them to judge Judah since they had turned away from Him. Joash was not killed but only severely wounded in the battle. His officials were mad at him for murdering Jehoiada's son Zechariah the prophet, so while he was wounded, they killed King Joash in his bed (2 Chronicles 24:23-25).
King Joash’s reign in Judah started out great, even though he was just 7 years old. But perhaps his young age influenced that, as he had the wise and Godly counsel of Jehoiada the high priest to guide him in those early years. While he did not do everything according to what God would desire by leaving the high places of idol worship intact, the nation did follow God for the early years of Joash’s reign. But King Joash did organize the repair of the temple, which was done to honor God and the people’s worship of Him.
The high priest Jehoiada’s influence on Joash can be clearly seen when the nation turned to idol worship after his death. God did not just let that slide because the people had repaired the temple and mostly worshiped Him years before. No, King Joash needed to be judged for his change of heart, and he was. Although Judah had sent away the Arameans prior to that by giving them the riches from the temple, this time God allowed the Arameans to inflict much damage on Judah, including wounding King Joash so that his officials could finish the job and kill him.
Who is influencing your life? Do you have a Jehoiada in your life who is helping you stay on the right track of following God? While that is a great thing like it was for King Joash, be careful that you are not only following God because of that person’s influence in your life. Our faith must be our own. While having people to guide us in life is very important, their faith cannot save us. We must learn from them but truly have a changed heart so that we are worshiping and following God because we desire to give Him glory and honor, not because that other person follows God.
Make your faith your own and recommit your life to truly following God today, not because that’s what the people around you are doing but because of who God is and what He has done in your life.
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From the moment of his creation, man was given dominion over the earth, to subdue it and to bring it into subjection, all the while being fruitful and multiplying. These are the first commandments and responsibilities given to mankind. While many sermons have dealt with Genesis 1:28 in numerous different ways, my church’s primary teaching elder made some statements in a recent sermon that triggered me to write this post.
In most sermons I’ve heard, the message from this verse is about man having control over the animals and the power to do science and create technology. Then man is to be productive and have lots of children. But the past couple months, this verse has been gnawing at me. The whole notion of making the home and the family structure to be productive and little self-sustaining “kingdoms” as opposed to mere places for rest and entertainment has gotten my attention. The comments the teaching elder made about man’s role in having dominion over the earth while also being fruitful have magnified my understanding of Scripture to a new level, and I’ve been chewing on how to put these concepts to practice.
First off, man has dominion over the earth. He has the authority to use and control the earth and life and bring it to order. There are a number of people who suggest that this idea of dominion actually means that life outside the garden was actually a wreck, indistinguishable from what sin actually did, and so man was given instructions to “set it in order.” I have serious problems with such ideas. For one, it teaches that God is a lousy creator and needs man to finish the job because God left it messy. It is another ploy to keep man from being responsible from what is wrong with this world.
That’s actually not what “have dominion” actually means in this context, which is pre-sin. It more accurately means that man is to take the creation and put it to good use, and man has done that. We have created technology and built roads and houses and lakes and mountains and done all sorts of good things.
But man in his sinful hubris tries to play the God-role, too. Man is made to be a steward of the earth, but it is God who actually owns and ultimately controls it all. Man thinks he is both the problem with this world (which both Evolution and Creation teach) but also thinks he is the savior of the world (which only Evolution teaches). Just watch the Sci-Fi channel. How many disaster movies are out there that pits man against this insanely big disaster, and yet with our modern technology we have the great ability to solve this disaster that wipes out cities and continents? It’s actually comical when you think about it. Man thinks he can solve the “climate change” issue and as I watch the weather completely confound our “experts,” I can picture God up there saying, “Oh, you think you can control that? Well, try this.” Yes, man has dominion over the earth, but only as stewards or managers, not as owners. Let us not forget our place. While we are indeed the pinnacle of creation, we are still a mere creation. We are not gods and we’ll never be like God.
But in light of my elder’s teachings, namely on how the home turned from a place of production into a place of consumption, he made a comment that I had heard many times but never in the context of this verse. In our day of technology, we are not controlling or having dominion over the technology. Instead, it is having control over us. I have heard many preachers address this issue regarding money and treasures here on earth. John Piper says, “I don’t think it’s wrong to have a lot of money. I just think it’s wrong to want to keep a lot of money.” Voddie Baucham says, “I’m not against you having things. I’m against things having you.” It’s the same issue, but I had never heard it in context of Genesis 1:28. Instead of man having dominion over technology and science, the sinful results we face is this technology and science has us.
It is easy to see this in the context of our TV, games, social media, internet, cell phones, etc. We are addicted to technology, and our lives simply will shut down if we go without it for long. That is one aspect, but the general trend is to overreact to that and want to throw out all technology. Some preachers have thrown out their TVs, smashed their games, and limited their phones to the bare minimum. I won’t say that is wrong, but I won’t say it is right either. That is between each person and God. The issue is not technology; the issue is who has control. If we are ruled by sin and self, technology and science will control us quickly and easily. But if we are ruled by the Holy Spirit, we will be able to use technology to its fullest.
But an angle I will take to this teaching even further is the studies of science itself. I am a physics teacher, and I have seen so many people actually deify science. Where did man come from? Science has the answer. Where are we going? Science has the answer. Why are we here? Science has the answer. Who are we? Science has the answer. Who has the authority? Science does. This is not what God designed us to do. I love science. Don’t read what I am not saying; science is an awesome tool. But it is a tool. So many have made science their entire epistemology. They don’t do science, nor do they have any dominion over science. Science rules them. Nature is their god, and it has led to some of the most stupid and deadly decisions ever made. When science and nature and technology control us, we are actually practicing a form of pantheism, the worship of nature.
Be careful. We are to control science, not let science control us. And science can only be under control when we are under the control of God, submitted and yielded to Him. God will not unlock the deepest secrets of the creation to those who despise His name and seek to steal His glory. He’ll give them to those who love Him, seek to honor Him, and keep both God and nature in their rightful places. May we learn how to put technology under our control as we submit to the rightful rule of God our Master. Next week, I’ll look at the other half of this verse in how to be fruitful and multiply.
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This series I’ve been writing for the last few months has been on the kings of the divided nation of Israel and Judah. But today, we’re switching that up just a bit and taking a look at a queen of Judah. This is definitely unusual for the nation, and you’ll see as we dig into Athaliah’s life how it all played out.
The previous king of Judah chronologically that I wrote about two weeks ago was Ahaziah. You may recall from that blog post that Ahaziah was killed by King Jehu of Israel while Ahaziah was visiting King Joram of Israel, who also happened to be Ahaziah’s first cousin.
Athaliah was Ahaziah’s mother, and she had been married to King Jehoram of Judah (Ahaziah’s father). But, Athaliah was also the daughter of King Ahab of Israel! That’s definitely quite the complicated family tree (I actually had to draw a picture to figure it out for myself). Athaliah was widowed when her husband Jehoram was killed and Ahaziah became king.
So, when Athaliah heard that her son Ahaziah was dead, she stopped at nothing to seize the throne and put herself in charge (2 Kings 11:1). She literally murdered every member of the royal family so that there would be no biological heir to claim the throne instead of her. She even murdered her own grandchildren! With no one else remaining alive to begin ruling, she made herself the queen of Judah.
But, Athaliah had a daughter who survived, named Jehosheba. Jehosheba managed to hide Ahaziah’s son Joash from her mother. Joash was among all the royal family’s princes who Athaliah was going to murder, but Jehosheba snatched him away and hid him with a nurse so he would not be killed (2 Kings 11:2).
Amazingly, Jehosheba was able to sneak Joash away to the temple, where she undoubtedly conspired with the priests to keep the young boy hidden. It probably helped that Jehosheba was married to the high priest at the time, Jehoiada (2 Chronicles 22:11). They managed to hide him for an entire 6 years while Athaliah was ruling as queen (2 Kings 11:3)!
The people of Judah were not happy with Athaliah's ruling as queen since she ascended to the throne in such an awful way. That likely contributed to those involved desiring to hide Joash from her, so that he could become the rightful king when he was old enough. Jehoiada the high priest worked up a plan to get Joash on the throne and depose Queen Athaliah, which is spelled out in 2 Kings 11:4-12.
First, Jehoiada got all those in charge in the temple and in the military on board with the plan. Next, he got the Levites (the priestly class) on board and had them swear their allegiance to Joash, who was the rightful king. Then, he got certain royal guards into the right places at the right times and had them appropriately armed for the situation. The palace needed to be defended should anyone who supported Athaliah try to thwart the plan.
Finally, Jehoiada led young king Joash into the right spot to put everything into action: “Jehoiada brought out the king’s son and put the crown on him; he presented him with a copy of the covenant and proclaimed him king. They anointed him, and the people clapped their hands and shouted, ‘Long live the king!’” (2 Kings 11:12).
Athaliah, of course, heard all the commotion and was quite mad. She knew exactly what was happening when she saw the situation – that Joash was being made the king, while she was still reining as queen. She proclaimed it treason, but that did not matter as Joash was technically the rightful king, and everything had been done to make him so (2 Kings 11:13-14).
This is where it was key that Jehoiada had the right guards in place; he commanded them to seize Athaliah and to put to death anyone who proclaimed allegiance to her. They dragged Athaliah out of the palace in order to put her to death as well, thus ending her 7-year reign (2 Kings 11:15-16).
But wait, there’s more! “Jehoiada then made a covenant between the LORD and the king and people that they would be the LORD’s people. He also made a covenant between the king and the people. All the people of the land went to the temple of Baal and tore it down. They smashed the altars and idols to pieces and killed Mattan the priest of Baal in front of the altars” (2 Kings 11:17-18). Joash was only 7 years old at the time, but Jehoiada the high priest got him off to a great start in his reign by declaring that the people of Judah would follow the one true God. They removed all the altars to idols and pagan gods and put the proper covenants in place for Judah, and the new king Joash, to follow God.
To sum it all up, “All the people of the land rejoiced, and the city was calm, because Athaliah had been slain with the sword at the palace” (2 Kings 11:20).
Athaliah’s brief reign as the only recorded queen of Judah (or Israel) definitely does not shed a great light on the female gender as leaders. But to be fair, the sample size is pretty small! She started off her reign with anger at her son’s death which led to her murdering many more of her own family members. If not for the bravery of her daughter Jehosheba who snuck away baby Joash, Athaliah may have had many more years of an idol-worshiping reign, leading the people of Judah further away from following God. Athaliah is not a great example to follow, but Jehosheba’s courageous actions in the face of her murderous mother are inspiring.
Which one of these ladies are you like? Are you acting like Athaliah and taking over what may not be rightfully yours? Or are you acting like Jehosheba and standing courageously for what’s right in the face of danger?
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Two years ago, I wrote on how we have a compartmentalized life. I would recommend reading that post before continuing on here. Over the past few months, one of the elders at my church and I have been feeding off each other as we are wrestling with different issues. He has been wrestling with God over what he needs to do in his family life to prevent little things from going downhill, even asking God, “What seeds am I planting that I will not like when they bear fruit?” God has been doing an amazing work in him, and it’s been stirring me up as well. That is what triggered me to write my current blog posts.
As mentioned last week, the American home has been a center of consumption in the last 100-150 years, mostly triggered by the Industrial Revolution. The home today is for eating, sleeping, consuming, and little else. With few exceptions, I think only farmers maintain the old lifestyle, where all the kids were seen as assets and were productive to the family job. Today, they are viewed as liabilities, and they produce suffering for those who want to consume and be entertained. These are significant issues that we have to face, and this has produced another side effect: the compartmentalization of the family, the church, and the areas of life.
The Industrial Revolution brought something to the home that had never been done before other than with military service: taken the father away from the home. The typical “work dad” in the family leave home early, works for a corporation, and comes home in the evening. His job is completely irrelevant to the family. The typical mom, because dad’s job is independent of the home, now only has housekeeping to do and gets bored. Due to rising costs, mom also has to work (which was catalyzed by World War II). Kids are now bored because mom and dad are working and are now sent to school. Public schools were birthed in this industry, and for several decades now, we have “compulsory” education – children MUST be in school or they are sent to court (yes, that is a real thing).
While much can be said about the effects this has, one key thing to point out is that dad, mom, and kids each have completely separate lives and only spend time with each other for a few hours each day and on weekends/holidays. In fact, parents have to be encouraged to spend “quality time” with their kids. They are advised to take from the few hours you have to make quality time. That is not what used to be. Prior to the Industrial Revolution, parents had “quality time” with their kids every day, because everything they did revolved around the home from their farming, blacksmithing, tailoring, etc.
But as goes the home, so goes the church. Regarding elders, Paul told Timothy that if a man cannot rule his own household, how can he rule the church? Paul was not talking about totalitarian dictatorship nor was he talking about having completely submissive children. He was talking about how a man manages the home. Was he leading the family appropriately? That letter was written in a context when the whole family was truly a unit, and the wife and children were all part of what dad was doing. If dad led a dysfunctional home, how could he functionally lead the church?
What is going on in the church today? Total segregation. Adult service, children’s ministries, youth ministries, woman’s studies, black studies, white studies, division, division, division. While youth group was formed as an answer to the bored children who were segregated from their families due to jobs, it has since become an institutionalized part of the church and has actually usurped the parents’ role and job. There are pastors who will tear children away from their parents to take them to Sunday School when parents wanted their kids with them for the main service. There are even pastors who didn’t know their own kids were not going to church because they were part of the youth ministry and went to separate services and different buildings. See Voddie Baucham’s Q&A on youth ministry for more details. What is going on? Compartmentalization of the home led to compartmentalization of the church, and the enemy is having a heyday with it. Parents no longer know who their own kids are because they are rarely with them.
Church aspects themselves are also compartmentalized. How often have you heard the claim that the “worship” was just the singing part of a service? This is not so. The reading of Scripture, the preaching, the singing, the testimony – all of it (when done appropriately) is worship. My church has a “beadle,” which in our case is someone who presents the Bible to the pulpit (a job I often do). It was done with John Calvin’s churches too, which I didn’t know until just recently, so it has history. It is meant to showcase that the Bible is not just some book but the holy Word of God. Even that practice can become mundane and trivialized. But that is worship too; it is not worship of a book but worship of its Author. Yet we have compartmentalized that also.
The worst part of it, though, is the compartmentalization of our faith and the rest of life. It is so strong that people believe literal contradictions at the same time. I know a guy who is an “Old Earth Creationist.” He professes to believe in a literal Adam and whom was the originator of sin and that all death to mankind came through Adam. He proclaims animal death prior to sin because “the Bible is silent on it,” but he believes human death was only after Adam. I asked him how he handles his dating methods that put human fossils and human DNA long before Adam lived, and he avoids this like the plague. He thinks he’s escaped it with “I don’t know.” At that point, I cite the very theologians he cites as defense for his Old Earth position who adamantly stand on the doctrine of Adam’s original sin as being fundamental to the Gospel and that they reject any teaching that violates that doctrine. His compartmentalization is so strong that he does not see the inconsistency in his beliefs.
We need to return to holistic faith again, where our faith is holistic and central to every aspect of our lives. We let science separate our doctrine from the real world, and with that line of thinking came separation of the family and separation of the church. This is why we cannot mess with origins or any other part of the Bible. We cannot have the Bible in one category and academia in another. Abner Chao wrote a masterpiece article on getting theology back in its rightful position as the Queen of the Sciences. I have been preaching that message for years, and it is great to hear others give the same message. We need God to reunite our families, reunite our churches, and reunite our thinking/academia and all under one banner: the banner of Jesus Christ. That means kicking out anything that would usurp and take a place that it is not supposed to have. Satan is a master of division, but Jesus’ prayer was that we would be united. Never at the expense of truth, but under truth.
Next week, I’ll take a closer look at science and its proper place, based on an intriguing statement made by an elder at my church.
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We learned a little about Jehu, king of Israel, in last week’s post about King Ahaziah of Judah, but today we’re going to dig into Jehu’s story a bit more. We read about Jehu in 2 Kings 9-10, and his story intersects with King Ahaziah of Judah and King Joram of Israel.
The prophet Elisha was the one who initially singled out Jehu. He summoned a young man from his company of prophets and sent him to where the battle was taking place at Ramoth Gilead. That prophet was then supposed to locate Jehu son of Jehoshaphat and anoint him as king. Elisha told him, “Then take the flask and pour the oil on his head and declare, ‘This is what the LORD says: I anoint you king over Israel.’ Then open the door and run; don’t delay!” (2 Kings 9:3). It was an anoint and run!
The prophet did exactly as Elisha told him. He gave the following prophecy to Jehu during the anointing: “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘I anoint you king over the LORD’s people Israel. You are to destroy the house of Ahab your master, and I will avenge the blood of my servants the prophets and the blood of all the LORD’s servants shed by Jezebel. The whole house of Ahab will perish. I will cut off from Ahab every last male in Israel—slave or free. I will make the house of Ahab like the house of Jeroboam son of Nebat and like the house of Baasha son of Ahijah. As for Jezebel, dogs will devour her on the plot of ground at Jezreel, and no one will bury her” (2 Kings 9:6b-10a) And then he ran away, just as instructed.
All that was done inside a house, in secret from the rest of the officers at the battle. When Jehu emerged and the other officers were curious what that was all about, Jehu simply told them that he had been anointed king of Israel! The officers immediately honored Jehu as their new king. Jehu conveniently left out the part about being told to assassinate Joram, the current king of Israel at the time!
By that point, Joram had been injured and had gone to Jezreel to recover from the battle with the Arameans at Ramoth Gilead. Jehu told the other officers that if they wanted him to be king, they should keep it quiet that he was leaving and going to Jezreel. He didn’t want news of the conspiracy and assassination leaking out to thwart his plans.
When Jehu arrived at Jezreel, Joram’s lookout saw the person on horseback approaching, and a messenger was sent out to ask if he was coming in peace. Jehu commanded the messenger to fall in behind him. When that messenger didn’t return, they sent another out, and the same thing happened again. By that time, the lookout recognized Jehu based on his chariot driving style, which was “like a maniac”! (2 Kings 9:20).
Joram king of Israel and Ahaziah king of Judah who was visiting both hitched up their chariots and went out to meet Jehu. Joram asks if Jehu comes in peace, and Jehu replies, “How can there be peace as long as all the idolatry and witchcraft of your mother Jezebel abound?” (2 Kings 9:22b). Jezebel was actually Joram’s and Ahaziah’s grandmother, but she still had great influence over these two kings and their wicked ways.
Joram tries to flee, warning Ahaziah of the treachery that Jehu was committing, and Jehu shot Joram between the shoulders, piercing his heart with the arrow. Jehu commanded his chariot officer to pick up the body and throw it on the field that belonged to Naboth the Jezreelite, which he did. Ahaziah fled but Jehu chased him. Jehu’s men wounded Ahaziah but he escaped, though he didn’t get terribly far when he died from that injury.
Jehu wasn’t done with his murderous rampage just yet! Next, he went for Jezebel – his wicked grandmother. Hearing that he was coming, Jezebel puts her makeup on, fixes her hair, and waits for him by a window. When Jehu arrives, Jezebel asks if he comes in peace. A few of her eunuchs looked out the window at him, and Jehu commands them to throw Jezebel down out the window – which they do! And then Jehu trampled her with his horses to finish her murder.
Jehu went inside and got some food and drink, then he ordered some servants to bury Jezebel. But when they went out, all that was left was her skull, feet, and hands. This fulfilled the prophecy from 1 Kings 21:23: “And also concerning Jezebel the Lord says: ‘Dogs will devour Jezebel by the wall of Jezreel.’”
However, Ahab still had 70 sons who could try and take the throne from Jehu. So Jehu wrote them all letters to challenge them to a fight. But all of Ahab’s sons were terrified; if King Ahaziah and King Joram couldn’t stand up to Jehu, how could they? So the administrators in the palace gave in and told Jehu they would do whatever he wanted. Jehu asked for the heads of Ahab’s sons and to meet him in Jezreel. All 70 of them were beheaded, and their heads were brought to Jehu who asked for them to be put into two piles by the city gate at Jezreel.
The next morning, Jehu announced to all the people that the house of Ahab fell, according to the word of the Lord through Elijah. And then Jehu killed the entire rest of the house of Ahab who remained in Jezreel, including all his close friends, priests, leaders, etc. Jehu continued his murderous rampage of everyone in the house of Ahab in Samaria, and he left no survivors (2 Kings 10:17).
But wait – there’s more! Jehu summoned all the prophets of Baal under the guise of holding a great sacrifice to the false god. Once Jehu and his sidekick Jehonadab (who he picked up in Samaria) made sure that everyone there was a servant of Baal, all the prophets of Baal were murdered. Jehu and his men then demolished the temple and everything to do with Baal worship. That sounds like a great move, except Jehu did not stop all idolatry; he still worshiped the golden calves at Bethel and Dan that Jeroboam had set up.
What did God think of all of Jehu’s actions? “The LORD said to Jehu, ‘Because you have done well in accomplishing what is right in my eyes and have done to the house of Ahab all I had in mind to do, your descendants will sit on the throne of Israel to the fourth generation.’ Yet Jehu was not careful to keep the law of the LORD, the God of Israel, with all his heart. He did not turn away from the sins of Jeroboam, which he had caused Israel to commit” (2 Kings 10:30-31).
Jehu is an example of a king who was “close but not quite” with following God. He followed God in some aspects – in spite of all the murder he committed – but he also did not make a great effort to be obedient to God. He still allowed some idolatry to happen, though he did get rid of a large part of it through destroying the temple of Baal and all his prophets.
In what ways in your life are you “close but not quite”? Are you following God with all that you are, or are you just being obedient to parts of what God asks you to do?
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What I am writing today is something that I started chewing on as a result of recent teachings by one of my church elders. As the Lord has been dealing with him, he has been investigating what is going on in the American home. What he’s been finding is something I believe we have all known all along, but we have struggled to put our finger on it.
It is difficult to have any remote knowledge of today’s culture and not acknowledge that something is seriously wrong with the nuclear family unit in our culture. More children are raised in broken or non-traditional homes (traditional being a mother and father in proper marriage) than ever before. It seems that the government and the media are seeking and pushing to put the final nails in the coffin of “traditional marriage” with all this LGBT+, transgenderism, gender fluidity, etc. But how did this happen? We are recognizing this is a problem now, but what enabled this madness and insanity to even be thinkable? It’s not just the failure of morality. It is the failure of a proper view of the nuclear family and the home.
The role and function of the home drastically changed in the last 150 years, and this can be traced directly to the Industrial Revolution. The Industrial Revolution initiated factory production, the explosion and initiation of modern technology, and all but ended the United States being an agrarian society. With the advent of factories, fathers no longer merely operated their own farms but instead left the home to go work at the factories. Initially, the families traveled with the fathers, but soon labor laws and such separated the children and wives from the husbands, and this changed everything.
Fathers were no longer home most of the day, and they worked in factories instead of farms. In fact, many of the factory owners would buy large pieces of land to build homes for the workers. Families not longer had work to do at home, and children were now bored. Schools were not very common at this time. Kids were educated at home and despite a lack of “formal” education as we know it today, they were not uneducated. They could do far more than read and write – Greek and Latin, not just English. But during this time, parents were starting to gather together to hire teachers to educate their kids while they did their jobs. The public school system was birthed out of this situation.
This situation also developed a lot of technology which would quickly and rapidly replace manual labor. Children would go to school and come home where there was little to do because the homes were built for the mere purpose of housing workers for the factories. As technology increased, radio and television entered the picture. So did professional sports as transportation options increased from your typical horse. What did this do? It made entertainment the main activity when not at work or school. It has been that way every since.
Prior to the Industrial Revolution, the home was a center of production. The entire home – the parents and the kids – were all involved in not merely working the farm but producing things that could be shared with society. Here, having a lot of children was important not only for mere survival for more hands to do the jobs, but each were viewed as an asset. This is one of the reasons why Scripture tells us that children are a blessing, and a quiver of children is a father’s crown.
But now, what has happened is children are seen as a liability, as an expense, and worse, as stealing from the enjoyment and pleasure that you could have without them. Today, parents long to get their kids out of the home and into schools or sports. Teachers long for the breaks to be rid of the kids, too. But the home is no longer a place of production and is instead a place of consumption. The home is used for ultimately three things: eating, sleeping, and consuming.
A side effect of the transformation of the home as being a place of production to a place of consumption is a total breakdown the family. Dad is at work, and when he is at home, he is there to consume sports and beer and rest. Don’t believe me? Watch any sitcom or commercial in the last 30 years. The man’s job is to work, then drink and do sports. Provide for society and do nothing in the home. Take notice that all these factory jobs did something else: make work to provide for society out there and have no value to the home itself. Most of our jobs today are completely irrelevant to our home life.
So, with dad always out away from home and with home being nothing more than just a place to eat and sleep, dad gets tired of home and his wife and kids. Being away from home most of the time and with home being only a place for consumption, the wife is no longer satisfactory, and thus adultery is now an option. But with the home being a center of consumption and pleasure, that also turned and made marriage just about sex and pleasure.
It gets worse because this culture has carried into the church. As the home goes, so goes the church. As the home became a center of pleasure, so became the church. Most people look for a church that meet their needs, and by needs we are talking about the American culture of pleasure and consumption. What can this church offer me? Music, preaching, youth program, etc. Many complain about their pastors because they “are not getting fed,” despite doing weekly small groups and daily Bible reading. What is the problem? Consumption and pleasure instead of productivity and offering your skills and gifts to edify and build the church.
What my church elder is challenging us to do is to examine our lives and our homes. We can’t throw away all the technology, but what steps could we take to move our home from a place of pleasure and consumption into a place of productivity? This is not limited to those who are married with kids. I am single, and I am chewing on this. How can I as a single man without a family make my home to be a place of productivity, for a place where I can edify and build the church? Part of what I can do is the writing I have been doing. But I know that is not enough. So I am chewing on what else I can be doing to be productive and to make the most use of my time. However, we need to be watchful for the notion of being too busy serving God that we completely ignore being with God. That is for another discussion.
What can you do? How can you make your home no longer a center for consumption (though there is nothing wrong with enjoying the fruit of your labor) and into a place that wisely uses the resources we have been given? I am processing what I need to be doing or what I can do better. Let us all pursue this.
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After Jehoram king of Judah died, his son Ahaziah took over as king. Joram was still the king of Israel when Ahaziah began his reign. Ahaziah was only 22 when he became the king, and his reign only lasted a year! But his short reign is still significant. Ahaziah became king in the midst of tragedy. His father Jehoram was killed in battle, and so were Ahaziah’s older brothers, leaving him as the only one left to take over the throne (2 Chronicles 22:1).
One important piece of Ahaziah’s reign is who he’s related to and how that affected his reign. 2 Kings 8:26-27 tells us, “His mother’s name was Athaliah, a granddaughter of Omri king of Israel. He followed the ways of the house of Ahab and did evil in the eyes of the LORD, as the house of Ahab had done, for he was related by marriage to Ahab’s family.” Omri was one of the evil kings of Israel, and Ahab is generally considered the evilest king to ever reign in Israel (or Judah).
Ahaziah’s father Jehoram was also considered an evil king of Judah, so the deck was definitely stacked against him simply because of his family. This point is further emphasized in 2 Chronicles 22:3-4: “He too followed the ways of the house of Ahab, for his mother encouraged him to act wickedly. He did evil in the eyes of the LORD, as the house of Ahab had done, for after his father’s death they became his advisers, to his undoing.”
The major event of Ahaziah’s reign was what happened surrounding the battle at Ramoth-Gilead. Ahaziah and Judah joined forces with Joram and Israel to fight against the Arameans there. Joram was wounded in that battle, and went to Jezreel to recuperate, where Ahaziah went to visit him (2 Chronicles 22:5-6). While Joram was wounded, Jehu was anointed as the next king of Israel (more about him next week). Jehu goes to Jezreel with the intent to kill Joram and thus stop the line of Ahab from reining on the throne of Israel.
While Jehu is there executing those in Joram’s household, he finds Ahaziah and his people there. Jehu kills Ahaziah’s officials and relatives, but Ahaziah escaped and fled to Samaria. But, Jehu’s men tracked down Ahaziah, captured him, and brought him back to Jehu, who killed him (2 Chronicles 22:7-9).
Why did Ahaziah go visit the wounded Joram? That’s a great question, and one that Scripture does not give us a clear answer for. But Ahaziah’s mother was Athalia daughter of Ahab, and Joram’s father was Ahaziah son of Ahab (yes, they share the same name), so that means this King Ahaziah and King Joram were first cousins. It’s likely that Ahaziah went to visit Joram simply because they were related and as a gesture of goodwill.
However, again this is a case of who you surround yourself with can do great harm. Jehu’s primary mission was to kill Joram, but since Ahaziah was evil as well and he was in the vicinity, he was killed as well, thus ending his very short reign over Judah.
It all goes back to the alliance between Judah and Israel through the marriage of Jehoram of Judah to Athalia, Ahab of Israel’s daughter. If not for that marriage, then Ahaziah would not have had such close ties to the royal family of Israel, and he likely would not have gone to visit Joram and thus been killed. While Azahiah did not make that mistake, his father Jehoram did, and Ahaziah continued to reap the negative consequences of that action.
Ahaziah’s grandfather was Jehoshaphat who was one of the good kings in Judah, but the legacy of evil from Ahab and the ruling family of Israel easily overpowered the good that Jehoshaphat did for Judah, through Jehoshaphat’s son Jehoram and his son Ahaziah.
What kind of legacy are you leaving? Whether you’re old or young, every person is leaving a legacy in some way. Even a good legacy can quickly go bad, so what are you doing to maintain a lifestyle of following God and to encourage that in those around you? A history of obedience to God is great, but we must keep listening to God and following His ways in the present for the sake of our future and for those around us.
This forum is meant to foster discussion and allow for differing viewpoints to be explored with equal and respectful consideration. All comments are moderated and any foul language or threatening/abusive comments will not be approved. Users who engage in threatening or abusive comments which are physically harmful in nature will be reported to the authorities.
