God’s Word for You

2 Chronicles 23:12-15 Treason, treason!

by Pastor Timothy Smith on Wednesday, April 23, 2025

12 When Athaliah heard the noise of the people who were running and cheering the king, she approached the people who were at the house of the LORD. 13 She looked, and there was the king, standing by his pillar at the entrance. The captains and the trumpeters were beside the king, and all the people of the land were rejoicing and blowing trumpets, and singers with their musical instruments were leading the celebration.

Athaliah made “a hurried but rare visit to the Lord’s Temple,” Even if one of the festivals was taking place, the sound of singing and cheering was unusual, so she came outside to look. The word translated “cheering” is a form of the word “hallel,” from which we get our word Hallelujah. There were a lot of people to see. Some were soldiers. Some were priests or Levites. There were musicians, too (also Levites), and even the singers had instruments such as hand drums and tambourines.

But there in the center of it all was a little boy in a crown. To say that he was standing by “his pillar” (‘amodo) with an emphasis on “his” is fascinating. Did the king have a “spot” in the temple, next to one of the two big pillars, where he was welcome to stand or sit? One can well imagine Solomon, who was so very enthusiastic about the temple ceremonies, asking the priests if it would be acceptable for him to have a “usual chair.” The two pillars at the entrance of the sanctuary, to the west of the altar, were named Jakin and Boaz (2 Chronicles 3:17). “Jakin” means “He will establish” and “Boaz” means “strength” (see Micah 5:4). Either name would fit the context and the idea of a place for the king to stand so that he could witness, for example, the morning and evening sacrifices. The left-hand pillar, Jakin, would have been closer to the palace, but that might not really matter. At any rate, there was the boy. He was wearing a crown, and it’s likely that he resembled not only his father, but also all of those uncles and cousins that Athaliah had murdered. She didn’t have to be told what was going on. She knew exactly what was going on.

Then Athaliah tore her robes and shouted, “Treason! Treason!”

Athaliah’s cry of “Treason!” is of course hypocritical. She herself had murdered a great many people, including members of her own family and her own grandchildren, “the whole royal family of the house of Judah” (2 Chronicles 22:10), in order to seize power in Judah. The difference between her and the boy who was now king was that he had a legitimate claim to the throne; she did not. He was descended from King David. She was not a Jew at all, but the granddaughter of King Omri of Israel, whose policies were condemned by the prophet Micah (Micah 6:16). The boy king had a claim to the throne of Judah through his father Ahaziah, his grandfather Jehoram, and all of his ancestors back to Rehoboam, Solomon, and David himself. Athaliah, however, had no claim to the throne of Judah whatsoever. None at all.

14 Jehoiada the priest brought out the commanders of hundreds, who were in charge of their forces, and said to them: “Bring her out between the ranks. Put anyone who follows her to death with the sword.” The priest had said, “Do not put her to death in the house of the LORD.” 15 They laid hands on her when she approached the entrance of the Horse Gate (at the king’s house), and they put her to death there.

The death march of Athaliah is in some ways a type or foreshadowing of the condemnation of unbelievers on judgment day. It pictures the march of the damned down to hell. It is described in four parts:

First, that woman was brought out between the ranks. This means that she was marched out from where she thought she was safe and secure—the palace of the kings—and she was made to walk with rank upon rank of guards on every side. In the same way, the damned will be brought up out of their graves, where in their unbelief they thought that they had escaped from God’s wrath and judgment, and will be brought without hope of escape before the judgment throne of Christ himself, the same one that they had rejected, taunted, spat upon, crucified, and turned away from in life.

Second, the guards were commanded: anyone who follows her will be put to death with the sword. For Athaliah, that meant that she was to be abandoned by her courtiers, her toadies, her informants, her lickspittles, and all of those she had bullied and threatened and blackmailed into supporting her illicit revolution and reign of blood. In the same way, those who are condemned by Christ will be separated from everyone that they knew, loved, bullied, enslaved, or in any way depended upon in life. They will face eternal punishment alone. For not only is hell the place “where their worm will not die nor will their fire be quenched” (Isaiah 66:24) and “a place of darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 25:30), but will be also be a place where those who are punished will be “lonely and afflicted” (Psalm 25:16), “in deep anguish” (Job 26:5), facing constant “terrors” all around (Psalm 55:4), and a place where the cries of the afflicted will “echo” and go unanswered (Zephaniah 2:14). Those who suffer in hell will suffer without help, without support, without anyone at all. For just as Jesus suffered the pain of hell with no one to help (“Why have you forsaken me?” Matthew 27:46), so also will the damned suffer without help of any kind.

Third, just as that woman’s followers, if any, were to be put to death, so also the followers of those who are condemned on Judgment Day will also be condemned. This is how entire generations and in some cases whole nations fell into unbelief and judgment, because one single ancestor turned the family away from Christ, dragging down hundreds, thousands, or millions of souls into hatred of the true God and ignorance of Christ. And while the judgment and punishment of some of those might be to a lesser degree of severity (Matthew 11:21-22), they will still fall under the punishment of eternal damnation.

Fourth, that woman was seized at the horse gate of the city and put to death there. The horse gate was a large gate on the eastern wall of the city not far from the southeastern corner of the temple (Nehemiah 3:28). It was also the place where the slope of the hill fell away into the Kidron Valley more deeply than anyplace else near the temple, therefore was the “highest point of the temple” where the devil urged Jesus to throw himself down from, to test the Lord (Matthew 4:5-6; Luke 4:9-11). It might well also be the spot Solomon had in mind when he warned his son about the wicked woman, saying: “She sits at the door of her house, on a seat at the highest point of the city, calling out to those who pass by, who go straight on their way, ‘Let all those who are simple come in here!’ she says to those who lack judgment… But little do they know that the dead are there, that her guests are in the depths of the grave” (Proverbs 9:14-18). Therefore, the point of judgment of the damned will be in many respects their many different sins, without question. But the reason that they are not saved from those sins as the believers are will be only one matter: their unbelief. They tested God, tempted others to follow them in their wickedness, and turned away from Christ. They invited their punishment, they asked for their sins to be placed back on their own heads and into their own laps, and God will oblige them. They died in their sins, and they will be raised in those same sins; raised to restless, eternal, and everlasting punishment.

That woman’s execution was not the worst thing she would ever experience. The worst is yet to come, waiting for her on the other side of the grave. But for you and me, what awaits us on the other side of the grave is nothing but victory, healing, joy, peace, and everlasting life. This is the gift of God through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. We are like Abraham, who believed in God, and God credited his faith to him as righteousness (Genesis 15:6). We, too, believe in the Lord our God, our Savior Jesus—the very same God that Abraham put his faith in—and God credits our faith as righteousness. For the righteous will live by faith (Galatians 3:11).

In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith

 

Browse Devotion Archive