Treason, Treason!

2 Chronicles 23:11 “Then they brought out the king’s son, and put upon him the crown, and gave him the testimony, and made him king. And Jehoiada and his sons anointed him, and said, God save the king.”

2 Chronicles 23:12 “Now when Athaliah heard the noise of the people running and praising the king, she came to the people into the house of the Lord:”

2 Chronicles 23:13 “And she looked, and, behold, the king stood at his pillar at the entering in, and the princes and the trumpets by the king: and all the people of the land rejoiced, and sounded with trumpets, also the singers with instruments of musick, and such as taught to sing praise. Then Athaliah rent her clothes, and said, Treason, Treason.”

Treason, Treason!!! …What does that word mean?

Webster’s 1828 dictionary says “In general, it is the offense of attempting to overthrow the government of the state to which the offender owes allegiance, or of betraying the state into the hands of a foreign power. In monarchies, the killing of the king, or an attempt to take his life, is treason”

Oh yeah, it’s an “offense” to get saved these days! Treason, treason!

… but treason is a pretty serious word, it is used to describe high crime, ultimate betrayal. And today we will be considering the claim that this woman Athaliah made when she cried out “Treason, Treason” …having come into the temple to see what all the noise was about… to then find out to her utter dismay that Joash had been rightfully crowned king… and the power of her reign was over! When Satan loses control, when his power is broken, he’s not over the moon about it.

For today, just as they brought out the king’s son to crown him, it’s my pleasure to bring out Jesus Christ for you today to consider, and hopefully maybe even this day, for you to crown as your Lord and your God in your life. I can’t testify of myself, other that I’m a sinner saved by grace, so I will give him the testimony as they did! Only one testimony matters… his! … You should believe in Jesus Christ! he can and will change your life, he can transform the whole lay of the land of your life just as the crowning of Joash king did here. Everything was different after Joash was made king, may Jesus be the crowning glory of your life! … I will cheer like they did, but yes… people will say Treason, Treason!

The Bible says of this same Jesus “Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:” … a translation happened in this story. The kingdom was translated from Athaliah to Joash! I hope you let Jesus translate your life from lost to saved, from darkness to light… from blind to “now I see”!

… and just as a sidenote. If you struggle on the translation issue because someone put that little question in your head not the Holy Spirit more like the slithering serpent in Genesis 3:1… Did you know that your salvation is a translation? If your idea of God is so doddery, dumb and impotent that he cannot translate his word across languages perfectly, despite the fact he made languages, despite the whole gift of tongues being for that purpose and not some gobbledygook… if he can’t translate his word accurately, what makes you think he can translate you into the kingdom of God? Maybe he got that wrong too. But that’s the problem isn’t it… the problem is many people struggle with translation of the Bible because God has never translated their soul and spirit first. When you realize he has power to translate you from going to hell to going to heaven… you’ll realize the miracle of the preservation of his word is not a big deal to him at all. A powerless God cannot preserve his word, but the powerful living God can… he did pretty good at preserving little Joash in this story, and translated him to KING. Nevermind his word, I pray God does some translating in your life, from faithless to believing!

So in this chapter, the son of the king is crowned king, despite everything that was done to prevent it. Yeah, strong overtones of Jesus Christ here hey! But you know, Satan gave his all to prevent the plan of redemption through Jesus Christ, but you can be sure in the end Jesus will return King of kings and Lord of lords, as sure as the crown was placed on Joash’s head. In light of that inevitability, best put him in his rightful position now don’t you think? But maybe you think that what I’m writing from God’s word is “Treason, treason”… Athaliah’s already been there. Maybe to you the preaching of God’s word is “Treason, treason”… you’re not the first. If the truth of God’s word, if the glorious light of the gospel of Christ is treason to you, doesn’t that show you whose side you’re really on?

By the way, this story shows what Jesus taught… which is that you cannot serve two masters. Jesus isn’t going to “co-reagent” with Satan. There is no sharing the same seat. This little middling things of God and this world has to stop. Jesus said you’re either for me or against me… no middle ground, you’ll fall off that fence and have a great fall if you think you can enjoy the greener grass both sides. And so this will be a divisive issue, as Jesus said, he is going to cause plenty of division, indeed the sword of his truth draws right down the middle between truth and lie, light and darkness, clean and unclean, strait and wide, narrow and broad, saved and lost, heaven and hell. What side are you standing on? Remember in the garden of Gethsemane, Judas stood with those come to arrest him? That’s the real treason. Imagine valuing that secret place at thirty pieces of silver? You cannot put a price on dwelling in the secret place of the most High. How sad though that like Judas standing across from Christ, so today so many professing Christians stand opposite “opposed” to God’s word, which is the proof of the love they claim and even pucker with their lips they dare place on his cheek.

With that all said, let’s set the scene a bit more, I know you can’t wait for more of me!… and so in 2 Kings 11 and it’s companion 2 Chronicles 23 (from which the story is quoted)… this evil woman called “Athaliah” has taken the throne. She doesn’t get it legitimately, she in fact takes a role that is not hers, but she seizes control of the throne through murder and reigns for many years over God’s people… The problem of evil people in leadership and positions they ought not be is nothing new… and it’s not a happy land. You won’t find true happiness when Christ isn’t numero uno in your life, doesn’t matter how much you indulge yourself on the decadent dainties and delicacies of life.

And we find additional details, such as that when Athaliah took power, she had all the royal line of children killed to ensure her throne… Snuffing out young life is a theme all through history. And we find out that Athaliah came pretty close to getting every last child… in fact she just missed just ONE. But the one that mattered. She didn’t realize that one of the babies escaped her rampage!, just like baby Jesus and Herod… and we read that there was a baby rescued by a brave husband and wife duo, Jehoiada the priest and his wife Jehoshabeath. Man, we need some brave and committed men and women of God these days, strong couples, strong families… who are going to say to Satan …you aren’t having this one!

And they do something pretty wise, they raise this boy in the temple of God, there he is beyond Athaliah’s knowledge or reach, parents take note, and the boys name is Joash. They define his life, God defines his life… not the world and not the devil. And then when he’s grown up a bit, they bring him out… but not before being immersed in the things of God, and the Bible says to remember thy Creator in the days of thy youth not without reason.

In the seventh year the priest brings the boy out heavily armed to make him king… as he rightfully is. By the way, arms are Biblical. As a Christian, you need a shield, a helmet, a breastplate and a sword, and you better buckle that whole thing together with truth, or you’re going to cop a deathblow to your little Christian profession one of these days.

It’s so easy to get distracted!, but today I want to make sure the focus is on Athaliah’s reaction when she finds out that Joash has been made king. Because this reaction happens in a home, place, community near you. Perhaps you have even experienced the ferocious reaction when the rightful king is crowned in your life. Treason, treason! You betrayed us! … But know I’m celebrating with you! Because when you get saved, if you have been saved, it is the most joyous experience in your life. It is the “crowning” moment… quite literally, it is the beginning of a life that will go forever, that gets better, and brighter even along life’s journey.

It was a long road there, many dark years. Maybe this is your life. Athaliah had a long reign, and it was remarkable it took this long for her to be deposed… but in reality, for too long Satan is let and left to reign and run rampant over people’s lives, and when he is deposed from where he ought not be… it is seen as a treason to the established order. And this is why many people will never get saved, because it will upset the apple cart too much.

If you are a slave to peer pressure, and what people think about you, and don’t want to break from the old… you will never experience the new. I’ve met so many people so locked up and locked into Satan’s grip, it is so sad that they will never experience the glorious liberty of the children of God. But even more the shame, when salvation does arrive, that there are so many people who should be shouting for joy, but are instead devastated by the news.

We are living in a society that does not want you to get saved. They’ve taken all traces of the gospel, they thought, out of schools, off the tv screen, out of public consciousness, and that is where the speech and thought controls are going don’t worry about that, because Satan doesn’t want you to think about leaving, let alone leaving. And all this removal of the God that gave us the way of life whom we do not attribute to… but whose his grace we enjoy nonetheless… all this in and of itself should be evidence to you of the truth of God’s word. Because God says in 2 Corinthians that Satan is working non stop to prevent you from seeing the light of Christ, to prevent you from switching sides on him. Why do you think Athaliah eliminated all the royal seed? By the way, that’s going on today. If you don’t have a pastor with the King James Bible, the royal seed is gone. But it’s not gone, is it, you’ve read verses from it here. The revelation of God’s word is just like Joash emerging from the temple… glorious! Amen to the declaration and power of God’s perfect word! Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my word shall not pass away.

In the meantime, this Christian brokering truce with the devil stuff needs to stop. Get this straight, Satan and his many ministers do not want you to get saved. If you don’t believe the Bible… he is winning in your life already, he’s already got you, not you’re going to be got, he’s already got you. And because the opposition to your salvation is so fierce, every salvation is a miracle, because it is literally being pulled out the burning fire when Jesus snatches you from his jaws like David grabbing the lion by the beard and killing him to release his precious little lamb from his teeth.

We are reading about a momentous occasion in Judah’s history, because here they listen to the priest on how to bring the king’s son out. How to guard him. How to install him as king. May we have more faithful ministers like Jehoiada, who can present Christ to a world dying for him. But let me tell you, Jehoiada was organized and thorough in how he made it happen. And the Bible teaches that any may come, but there is a way you come to Christ, and it is through repentance of sin, it is through unconditional pride breaking ego crushing entitlement destroying surrender to the truth of his word… and you know why they made Joash king? … Because God’s word said he was the rightful king. How about living like “because God’s word says so”? Amazing what happens when you go from investigating it to obeying it. Just because you may not be clear about the Bible doesn’t mean the Bible isn’t clear. It was clear to them, son of David = our KING. And it took bravery and risk to life to do so.

… and so we read that Joash was crowned king. Has Jesus been crowned king in your life? You know when your life is going to be set in order, when it stops being your way and starts being his way! Then cue the celebrations! They blew trumpets. They shouted. They ran. They sang. They leaped for joy! The wicked queen’s reign is no more, her power is gone… God save the king! Salvation is the best thing ever.

The old hymn says “Happy day, happy day, When Jesus washed my sins away!” And it’s a happy day when Jesus gets put in his rightful place in your life. You were not created to serve the devil, you were not made to live under his power, he is a liar, he is a murderer. The land wasn’t happy with Athaliah in control, and we are living in a land that is not happy, because Satan will never give you peace, joy and happiness found only in Christ. Remember, all Satan offers, though he promises a lot, is empty lies. Why listen to him? Why serve him? You are serving the wrong master, even while you listen to everything he whispers in your ear about how bad and wrong and untrustworthy God is.

And so in these verses, we can picture Athaliah strolling through her palace, unawares of what’s happening behind the scenes. But guess what. God is still working in people’s lives today! People still are being saved. Yeah maybe not you, but people are still coming! You may miss out, but others won’t! You know what drew her attention? She heard immense noise coming from inside the temple… and there is a wonderful truth in here… because guess what, in the temple, that’s where the change is going to happen first in your life, or no change will happen at all… the change must happen inside before it reaches out. When Jesus takes throne in your heart, that is when the rejoicing starts, and that is when other people notice the evidence of the great change that first has happened within.

I am so thankful Jesus Christ saved me, I am so thankful that no matter how deep the gloom, how dark the valley, he has the crown and he has the testimony in my life. I’ve given him it, he’s writing my life. He’s shaping my life, I am his, and he is mine. And I am overjoyed when any other lost sinner comes to Christ and experiences the joy of salvation for themselves. It’s still happening today. It is a sight to see a life changed by the power of God, all because Jesus was simply placed by faith where he rightfully belongs.

And so I love this cry of treason, treason! …Because Satan thinks you are meant to serve him. And the old order sees it as betrayal when you come out for Christ. It’s sad that even in Christian circles that is where the opposition to salvation is so fierce. But know this, if you see someone’s glorious salvation as treason, rather than the crowning amazing glory of their life, that is a reflection of where you’re at spiritually. But this happened all through the gospels, I love the story of blind Bartimeaus coming to Christ… but not before he pushed straight through all the people telling him to shut up. Shut up Bartimaeaus, you’re not supposed to see for yourself! And I want you to see for yourself reader, read the Bible yourself, get to know Jesus for yourself because there are a lot of people lying about him.

Anyway, I hope you’ve made it this far and this is a blessing to you. Things are always better when Jesus is crowned king, I can tell you about it but you never will know the least bit about it until you take it for yourself “O taste and see that the Lord is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him.” This was the blessed day that they trusted Joash as king. Treason, Treason! Phooey on Athaliah! It will be the blessed crowning glory of your life when you crown the Lord Jesus Christ King of kings and Lord of lords in your life… just as he truthfully and rightfully is.

Blog Athaliah Bible Christian Church Faith God Gospel Jesus Joash Salvation