◄ 2 Chronicles 23:16 ►
Then Jehoiada made a covenant between himself and the king and the people that they would be the LORD's people.
Sermons
The Basis of National ProsperityW. Clarkson 2 Chronicles 23:16
The Close of a RevolutionT. Whitelaw 2 Chronicles 23:16-21














Pulpit Commentary Homiletics
The Basis Of National Prosperity
2 Chronicles 23:16
W. Clarkson
Jehoiada knew that it would be of very little use to be rid of one ruler and to place another on the throne unless the nation itself could be bound in strong bonds to Jehovah, its true and almighty Sovereign. Hence the action he took as here described.

I. THE TRUE BASES OF NATIONAL PROSPERITY. Not a population outgrowing that of all other countries; nor an army and navy such as no other nation can equip; nor a full national exchequer; nor an extensive and extending territory. A country may have any or even all of these things, and yet be declining in strength and on the road to utter weakness and decay. The foundation of a people's strength is in the possession of the Divine favour. And this because:

1. God will grant his Divine blessing to those that seek him.

2. And because God "loves righteousness and hates iniquity," whether in the individual man or in the nation; and it is in "the fear of the Lord" that all moral and spiritual integrity rests as in its very root and source. That people, therefore, which would live and thrive must be a people seeking God's face and acting in accordance with his will. Then will it enjoy his blessing - that favour and succour with which it cannot fail to prosper, without which it is bound to fall.

II. A SOURCE OF SPIRITUAL STRENGTH. Jehoiada took advantage of the dynastic revolution to make it an occasion for entering into a solemn covenant "between all the people and between the king, that they should be the Lord's people. The time was suitable for this renewal of their covenant with God. He himself, a priest of the Lord, had headed, indeed had originated and effected, the overthrow of the old idolatrous regime; the young king was to be placed on the throne as a worshipper of Jehovah, and now they might pledge themselves, in the most solemn and binding form, to be loyal to that Divine Lord whose, indeed, they were by a thousand ties. It was wisely and worthily done. Acts of national acknowledgment of God must need be rare. But it is open to Churches, to families, and especially to individual men, to renew their vows of attachment to their Divine Lord; to affirm to themselves or to declare to their friends and neighbours that they are the Lord's people." It is right and wise to employ any and every favourable opportunity of doing this. Such opportunity is found in:

1. The time when the soul returns to God from the far country of indifference and disloyalty, and realizes that it is admitted to the Father's home.

2. The time when the spirit is recalled from a temporary lapse, and again recognizes the supreme claims of a Divine Redeemer.

3. When we meet one another at the table of the Lord, and there are vividly reminded of the supreme fact that he "gave himself for us" unto shame and death.

4. On the reception of any special, personal, or domestic mercies at the kind hand of our heavenly Father. - C.

Biblical Illustrator
For his mother was his counsellor to do wickedly.
2 Chronicles 22:8
A mother's influence
W. Richter.
Every first thing continues for ever with the child; the first colour, the first music, the first flower paint the foreground of life. Every new educator effects less than his predecessor, until at last, if we regard all life as an educational institute, a circumnavigator of the world is less influenced by all the nations he has seen than by his nurse.

(W. Richter.)

A mother's influence
Great Thoughts.
Mothers, ye are the sculptors of the souls of the coming men; queens of the cradle, humble or high, ye are the queens of the future. In your hands lie the destinies of men. I am not speaking poetry, but plain fact, which history proves. Nero's mother was a murderess; Nero was a murderer, on a gigantic scale. Byron's mother was proud, ill-tempered, and violent; Byron was proud, ill-tempered, and violent. Washington's mother was noble and pure; Washington was noble and pure. Scott's mother loved poetry and painting; you know what Walter Scott was. Carlyle's mother was stern, and full of reverence; Carlyle very much so. Wesley's mother was a God-like woman; Wesley was a God-like man. The prison chaplain will tell you that the last thing forgotten, in all the recklessness of dissolute profligacy, is the prayer or hymn taught by a mother's lips, or uttered at a father's knee. Yes, when all other roads are closed, there is one road open to the heart of the desperate man — the memory of his mother.

(Great Thoughts.)

An unnatural mother
J. Parker, D. D.
"For his mother was his counsellor to do wickedly." There must be a mistranslation! All nature is offended by this tremendous affront. Can we not.find some other word for "mother"? Any other word will do better, even "father" would not be so objectionable. The one word that cannot be tolerated here is the word that is found, namely, "mother"! We might close the Bible here, and say the book that contains this statement was never inspired. But we cannot do so. Then the word "counsellor" is so full of plan, premeditation, arrangement; the mother was a schoolmistress, with one pupil, and she suggested, invented, culminated ends, whispered, threw out hints, advised bad policies; told him when he was halting because the course was evil to "go on!" Napoleon said, "They that rock the cradle rule the world." To have a cradle rocked by such a mother as Athaliah surely were enough to be foredoomed to endless misery! How sweetly the text would have read had it proceeded on the lines of nature! — for his mother was his counsellor to do bravely. Surely the word "wickedly" is a misprint, traceable to some careless copyist! — his mother was his counsellor to do wisely, patiently, hopefully, — these would have been womanly words, words most motherly, the very words with which we build home and Church and heaven. But the word is "wickedly," and we must regard it in its literal significance. What are mothers doing now? They could be God's foremost ministers. No man can pray like a woman; no man has the art of eloquence as a woman has it; no one can come into life so silently, quietly, blessingly as woman, mother, sister. If women would preach surely the world would listen. They ought to preach; they know the secret of love, they have the answer to the Cross, they can solve in some degree the enigma of sacrifice. This is the very reason of the horribleness of the text. If woman had been otherwise, then the word "wickedly" would not have read with such a sense of irony and moral collision as it does in this instance. It is because woman can be so heavenly that she can be so low, and wicked, and bad; it is because she can be so like a saviour that she can be such an engine and agent of ruin.

(J. Parker, D. D.)

People
Adaiah, Athaliah, Azariah, David, Elishaphat, Ishmael, Jehohanan, Jehoiada, Jeroham, Johanan, Levites, Maaseiah, Mattan, Obed, Zichri
Places
Gate of the Foundation, Jerusalem, Samaria
Topics
Agreement, Covenant, Jehoiada, Jehoi'ada, Lord's, Maketh
Outline
1. Jehoiada, having set things in order, makes joash king
12. Athaliah is slain
16. Jehoiada restores the worship of God

Dictionary of Bible Themes
2 Chronicles 23:16-17

     8466   reformation

Library
Jehoiada and Joash
'And when Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she arose and destroyed all the seed royal. 2. But Jehosheba, the daughter of king Joram, sister of Ahaziah, took Joash the son of Ahaziah, and stole him from among the king's sons which were slain; and they hid him, even him and his nurse, in the bedchamber from Athaliah, so that he was not slain. 3. And he was with her hid in the house of the Lord six years. And Athaliah did reign over the land. 4. And the seventh year Jehoiada …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

Chronicles
The comparative indifference with which Chronicles is regarded in modern times by all but professional scholars seems to have been shared by the ancient Jewish church. Though written by the same hand as wrote Ezra-Nehemiah, and forming, together with these books, a continuous history of Judah, it is placed after them in the Hebrew Bible, of which it forms the concluding book; and this no doubt points to the fact that it attained canonical distinction later than they. Nor is this unnatural. The book …
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament

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