Chapter 10: The City Was Quiet

With Athaliah dead, Jehoiada moved swiftly. He gathered the king, the people, and the leaders of Judah, and established two covenants. The first was between the Lord, the king, and the people.

JEHOIADA (standing before the assembly)“From this day, you shall be the Lord's people. The covenant that was broken is restored.”— 2 Kings 11:17

The second covenant was between the king and the people, a bond of mutual faithfulness between ruler and nation. What Athaliah had torn apart, Jehoiada rebuilt in a single day.

Then all the people went to the temple of Baal. They tore it down. They smashed the altars. They shattered the images. They killed Mattan, the priest of Baal, before his own altars. The building that had risen during Athaliah's reign as a monument to her mother's gods was reduced to rubble.

A CAPTAIN (to his men, at the temple of Baal)“Every altar. Every image. Leave nothing standing.”— 2 Kings 11:18

Jehoiada stationed guards at the Temple of the Lord and restored the order that David had established, the divisions of priests, the Levites, the gatekeepers. The house of God would be protected again.

Then the procession began. The captains, the nobles, the governors, and all the people of the land escorted Joash from the Temple down through the Upper Gate to the royal palace. A seven-year-old boy, walking the path from the house of God to the house of kings.

He sat on the throne.

All the people of the land rejoiced; and the city was quiet, for they had slain Athaliah with the sword. (2 Kings 11:20)

Six years of Baal worship, six years of tyranny, six years of a stolen throne. Finished. Not by an army, but by a priest, his wife, and the God who does not forget His promises. The boy Athaliah failed to kill would be the one to restore everything she destroyed.