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2 Chronicles 23 - The Evil Queen Loses Her Throne · The Bible Explained with Jenn Kokal

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Speaker 1: Life Audio. Hi, Faith listeners, Welcome to the Bible Explain podcast.
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Speaker 1: On this absolutely lovely morning, we're going to get into
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Speaker 1: the story of Little Joe ash today and how he
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Speaker 1: becomes the next King. Stay tuned for a great episode.
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Speaker 1: Today has been a lovely little day. It is nice
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Speaker 1: and snowy outside, and it kind of looks like I
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Speaker 1: am sitting in a snow globe right now. I'm looking
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Speaker 1: out my window right now, and it's just nice snowflakes
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Speaker 1: coming down. I appreciate days like this. You know. I'm
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Speaker 1: not the biggest fan of snow, because it's cold, and
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Speaker 1: I don't like going out in it, and I certainly
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Speaker 1: don't like warming my car up. But snow is a
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Speaker 1: very beautiful thing, and so I'm going to appreciate the
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Speaker 1: beauty of it at least, even if I don't appreciate
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Speaker 1: the feeling of it. Let's go ahead and read it
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Speaker 1: Second Chronicles twenty three today, But before we do, here's
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Speaker 1: a quick word from a sponsor. So let's read Second
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Speaker 1: Chronicles twenty three the entire chapter. As always, I'll be
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Speaker 1: reading from the World English Bible or the w e
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Speaker 1: B this morning, but fav the listener feel free to
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Speaker 1: pause the podcast, to grab your cup of coffee or
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Speaker 1: your cup of tea, and also the version of the
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Speaker 1: Bible that you prefer. And once you do all that,
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Speaker 1: let's give reverence to God's word together. In the seventh year,
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Speaker 1: Joheida strengthened himself and took the captains of hundreds, Azaria
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Speaker 1: the son of Jehoram Ishmael, the son of Jehoahan, Azaria
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Speaker 1: the son of Obed, Messiah the son of Adiah, and
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Speaker 1: Alishafat the son of Zikar, into a covenant with him.
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Speaker 1: They went around in Judah and gathered the levites out
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Speaker 1: of all the cities of Judah and the heads of
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Speaker 1: Father's households of Israel, and they came to Jerusalem. All
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Speaker 1: the assembly made a covenant with the king in God's house.
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Speaker 1: Jehoidah said to them, behold, the king's son must reign.
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Speaker 1: As Yahweh has spoken concerning the sons of David, this
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Speaker 1: is the thing that you must do. A third part
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Speaker 1: of you, who come in on the Sabbath of the
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Speaker 1: priests and levites, shall be gatekeepers of the threshole holds.
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Speaker 1: A third part shall be at the King's house, and
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Speaker 1: a third part at the gate of the foundation. All
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Speaker 1: the people will be in the courts of Yahwai's house.
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Speaker 1: But let no one come into Yaowai's house except the
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Speaker 1: priests and those who minister of the Levites. They shall
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Speaker 1: come in, for they are holy. But all the people
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Speaker 1: shall follow Yahwei's instructions. The Levites shall surround the king,
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Speaker 1: every man with his weapons in his hand. Whoever comes
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Speaker 1: into the house, let him be slain. Be with the
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Speaker 1: king when he comes in and when he goes out.
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Speaker 1: So the Levites and all Judah did according to all
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Speaker 1: that Jehoida the Priest had commanded. They each took his
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Speaker 1: men those who were to come in on the sabbath
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Speaker 1: with those who were to go out on the sabbath.
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Speaker 1: For Jehoida the Priest didn't dismiss the shift. Jehoida the
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Speaker 1: priest delivered to the captains of hundreds spears, bucklers and
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Speaker 1: shields that had been King David's, which were in God's house.
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Speaker 1: He said, all the people, every man with his weapon
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Speaker 1: in his hand, from the right side of the house,
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Speaker 1: to the left side of the house near the altar,
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Speaker 1: and the house around the king. Then they brought out
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Speaker 1: the king's son put the crown on him, gave him
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Speaker 1: the covenant, and made him king. Jehoida and his sons
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Speaker 1: anointed him, and they said, long live the King. When
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Speaker 1: Athalia heard the noise of the people running and praising
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Speaker 1: the king, she came to the people into Yahwai's house.
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Speaker 1: Then she looked and behold the king stood by his
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Speaker 1: pillar at the entrance, with the captains and the trumpeteers.
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Speaker 1: By the king, all the people of the land rejoiced
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Speaker 1: and blew trumpets. The singers also played musical instruments and
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Speaker 1: led the singing of praise. Then Athalia tore her clothes
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Speaker 1: and said treason, treason. Jeheida, the priest brought out the
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Speaker 1: captains of hundreds who were set over the army, and
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Speaker 1: said to them, bring her out between the ranks, and
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Speaker 1: whoever follows her, let him be slain with the sword.
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Speaker 1: For the priest said, don't kill her in Yahway's house.
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Speaker 1: So they made way for her. She went to the
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Speaker 1: entrance of the horse gate to the king's house, and
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Speaker 1: they killed her there. Jeheida made a covenant between himself,
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Speaker 1: all the people, and the king that they should be
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Speaker 1: Yahway's people. All the people went into the house of
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Speaker 1: the bail, broke it down, broke his altars and his
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Speaker 1: images and pieces, and killed Matan the priests of Bail
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Speaker 1: before the altars. Jehoida appointed the officers of Yaowai's house
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Speaker 1: under the hand of the levitical priests whom David had
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Speaker 1: distributed in Yahwai's house, to offer the burnt offerings of Yahweh,
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Speaker 1: as it is written in the Law of Moses, with
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Speaker 1: rejoicing and with singing. As David had ordered, he set
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Speaker 1: the gate keepers of the gates of Yahway's house that
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Speaker 1: no one who was unclean in anything should enter in.
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Speaker 1: He took the captains of hundreds, the nobles, the governors
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Speaker 1: of the people, and all the people of the land,
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Speaker 1: and brought the king down from Yahway's house. They came
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Speaker 1: through the upper gate to the king's house and set
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Speaker 1: the king on the throne of the kingdom. So all
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Speaker 1: the people of the land rejoiced and the city was quiet.
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Speaker 1: They had slain Athaliah with the sword to do a
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Speaker 1: rundown of the previous chapter. We talked about this little
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Speaker 1: king named Ahazia. He was a very young king. He
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Speaker 1: was twenty two years old when he became king, and
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Speaker 1: he was only a king for one year in Jerusalem
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Speaker 1: because he was not a good king. He was not
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Speaker 1: blessed by Yahweh at all, So he actually ended up
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Speaker 1: dying very shortly after becoming the king. But he did
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Speaker 1: have quite a few sons. We don't know how many
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Speaker 1: sons he had, but he had several. Because right after
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Speaker 1: Ajazia dies, his mother, Queen Athalia, goes nuts and decides
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Speaker 1: that she's going to kill anybody who is of the
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Speaker 1: lineage of King David. The reason being because she hated
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Speaker 1: the line of King David because she knew that one
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Speaker 1: of David's sons or descendants was supposed to rule in Jerusalem.
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Speaker 1: She didn't want that. She wanted her line to rule.
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Speaker 1: Her line was the line of King Omri up in Israel.
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Speaker 1: So she decides she's going to kill anybody related to
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Speaker 1: King David that could potentially take the throne someday, and
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Speaker 1: she's just gonna take it for herself, maybe have more
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Speaker 1: sons that could take the throne from her after she dies.
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Speaker 1: I don't even know no clue what her end goal was,
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Speaker 1: but she takes the throne for herself and in the
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Speaker 1: process kills all of her grandchildren and anybody else really
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Speaker 1: related to King David. However, one baby slips by. This
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Speaker 1: would have been the son of King Ahazia. His name
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Speaker 1: was baby joe Ash Okay. So Joe Ash ended up
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Speaker 1: getting saved by his aunt, so Ajazia's half sister from
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Speaker 1: another mother. She saved baby joe Ash. In fact, Josepha
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Speaker 1: says that she found the baby among the remains of
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Speaker 1: his siblings. So that is how gruesome things got under
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Speaker 1: Queen Athalia. So the aunt finds the baby and takes
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Speaker 1: him along with his nurse and hides him away from
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Speaker 1: Athalia for six years. And she actually hid him in
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Speaker 1: the Temple of God in one of the rooms. So
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Speaker 1: there was a bunch of rooms in God's temple, if
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Speaker 1: you guys remember how it was set up. There were
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Speaker 1: rooms that weren't connected to like the inside of the temple.
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Speaker 1: They were actually on the outside, so you'd have to
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Speaker 1: walk outside to get to these rooms. And these rooms
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Speaker 1: held all sorts of things, whether it was equipment for
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Speaker 1: the temple, whether it was storages of gold and silver,
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Speaker 1: whether it was weapons or the covenant, or even rooms
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Speaker 1: for the priest to go into to relax or sleep
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Speaker 1: I don't know, but the ant takes baby joe Ash
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Speaker 1: along with his nurse and hides him in one of
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Speaker 1: those rooms. And the reason the aunt was able to
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Speaker 1: do this was because she was actually married to the
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Speaker 1: High Priest. So the High Priest allowed this obviously and
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Speaker 1: helped raise this baby because presumably the baby did not
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Speaker 1: have a mother, or the mother had been killed by Athalia.
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Speaker 1: We don't know what the situation is there, but that's
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Speaker 1: the rundown of everything that happened in the last chapter.
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Speaker 1: It's a lot to talk about. So it says starting
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Speaker 1: in second Chronicles twenty three in verse one, in the
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Speaker 1: seventh year, So when joe Ash was seven years old,
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Speaker 1: it says Jehoida, the High Priest strengthened himself and took
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Speaker 1: the captains of hundreds. So, like I said, Jehoida was
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Speaker 1: raising joe Ash. He was the high priest at the time,
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Speaker 1: raising this little baby, knowing that he was the next
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Speaker 1: in line for the throne, knowing that this baby was
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Speaker 1: very important, that he was going to carry on the
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Speaker 1: lineage of David. And so finally, when the baby is
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Speaker 1: seven years old, Jehoidah says strengthened himself now that means
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Speaker 1: that he was scared, but he took courage anyway because
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Speaker 1: he knew that what he was about to do was very,
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Speaker 1: very important. It says he took the captains of hundreds,
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Speaker 1: Azaria the son of Jehoah, Ishmael the son of Jehoahan,
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Speaker 1: Azaria the son of Obed, Massiah, the son of Adeya,
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Speaker 1: and Alishafat the son of Zickary, into a covenant with him.
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Speaker 1: So these were very powerful men. Captains of hundreds is
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Speaker 1: what it says. These men probably worked for the queen
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Speaker 1: who was terrorizing everybody, but they were sick of how
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Speaker 1: she was running things. They were sick of the fact
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Speaker 1: that she was treasonous because she had a track record
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Speaker 1: of just killing people who got in her way. Obviously,
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Speaker 1: she killed her own lineage. She killed her grandchildren because
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Speaker 1: they had the blood of David in them. You know,
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Speaker 1: she was a ruthless and apseolutely terrible woman. There's also
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Speaker 1: some history to show that she took beautiful things from
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Speaker 1: God's temple to make the temple of Bail even more beautiful,
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Speaker 1: so she tread on the house of God as well,
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Speaker 1: and also likely on the rights of the people to
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Speaker 1: worship Yahweh. She was probably not much different honestly than Jezebel.
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Speaker 1: Her mother had been only several years prior to this.
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Speaker 1: So Jehoidah, the High Priest, strengthens himself, meaning he gets courage,
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Speaker 1: and he goes to these captains who were probably still
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Speaker 1: working with Athalia, and he tells them. He's like, hey,
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Speaker 1: I've got a secret for you guys, but I'm really
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Speaker 1: hoping you guys don't kill me if I tell you
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Speaker 1: what this secret is. It turns out that these captains
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Speaker 1: were on board. They found out about baby joe Ash
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Speaker 1: living in the temple for seven years. They were probably
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Speaker 1: shocked believing that Athalia had killed all of the line
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Speaker 1: of David, and I'm sure they were on board. They're like, yes,
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Speaker 1: let's do this thing. Let's stay j aku like we
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Speaker 1: are on board. And all of this had to be
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Speaker 1: done very secretly because if Athalia caught wind of any
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Speaker 1: of this, then she would kill everybody, including those captains,
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Speaker 1: including the High Priest, including the High Priest's wife and
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Speaker 1: baby joe Ash. She'd kill everybody that came in her way.
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Speaker 1: So this was all done very secretively. It says the
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Speaker 1: captains in verse two went around in Judah and gathered
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Speaker 1: the Leevites out of all the cities of Judah and
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Speaker 1: the heads of the Father's households of Israel, and they
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Speaker 1: came to Jerusalem. All this assembly made a covenant with
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Speaker 1: the king in God's House. So these captains went around
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Speaker 1: and gathered the leaders of Judah, brought them into the
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Speaker 1: temple and made this covenant with them. And this shows
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Speaker 1: right here that people were just like coming and going
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Speaker 1: out of the Temple. I don't know if you guys
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Speaker 1: remember us talking about the temple, but people were not
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Speaker 1: really supposed to go in there. It was considered to
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Speaker 1: be a holy place that only the Levites were supposed
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Speaker 1: to enter. And yet at this point in time, Athalia
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Speaker 1: had gone in there, taken everything out, and was treading
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Speaker 1: all over it. So I'm sure people were coming and
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Speaker 1: going inside the temple all the time time. But it
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Speaker 1: seems for whatever reason, it was the perfect place to
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Speaker 1: hide from Athalia because a lot, it seems like, was
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Speaker 1: going on in God's House that she just did not
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Speaker 1: know about, either because she didn't care to understand what
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Speaker 1: was going on in Yahway's house, or she looked down
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Speaker 1: on anybody that went to Yahway's house or thought that
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Speaker 1: she had control of it and that nothing serious was
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Speaker 1: going on there. I don't know, but this was the
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Speaker 1: perfect place, it seems like, to hide joe Ash and
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Speaker 1: also to make these plans to take Judah back for
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Speaker 1: the line of David. So it says that this assembly
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Speaker 1: made a covenant with the king. Joe Ash, though he
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Speaker 1: was seven years old, he was clearly on board with
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Speaker 1: all of this. You know, seven year olds, they don't
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Speaker 1: know exactly what's going on, but they're also not dumb,
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Speaker 1: so I'm sure he knew that he had a pretty
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Speaker 1: big task ahead of him. And you know, Jehoida, the
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Speaker 1: High Priest, was going to be with him the entire time. Essentially,
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Speaker 1: Jehoida acted as his father, and we're definitely going to
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Speaker 1: see that moving into joe Ash's story a little bit more.
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Speaker 1: You know, Jeheida was behind all of this, and he
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Speaker 1: was a good father figure counseling joe Ash through all
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Speaker 1: of this. And you might be thinking at this time,
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Speaker 1: why did Jehoida only wait seven years, you know, because
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Speaker 1: a seven year old is not king material typically, like
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Speaker 1: we don't think of children being good kings, So why
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Speaker 1: didn't Jehoida, wait a little bit longer. Well, we don't
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Speaker 1: know how bad the situation was under Atholia. Seven years
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Speaker 1: old was definitely young for a king to become a king,
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Speaker 1: but it was also an age where people would recognize
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Speaker 1: Joash as king. So the high priest Jehoidah says to
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Speaker 1: this assembly that's gathered in the temple, behold, the king's
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Speaker 1: son must reign. As Yahweh has spoken concerning the sons
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Speaker 1: of David, this is the thing that you must do.
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Speaker 1: A third part of you, who come in on the sabbath,
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Speaker 1: of the priests and of the levites, shall be gatekeepers
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Speaker 1: of the thresholds. A third part shall be at the
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Speaker 1: king's house, and a third part at the gate of
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Speaker 1: the fact foundation. All the people will be in the
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Speaker 1: courts of Yahway's house. So now they're essentially planning for
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Speaker 1: this takeover of the throne. They are planning for battle.
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Speaker 1: They are getting into formation, deciding how to best protect
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Speaker 1: joe Ash. You know, because joe Ash, he's seven years old.
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Speaker 1: He can't protect himself, so all these men have to
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Speaker 1: do it for him. And so they're getting into formation
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Speaker 1: and deciding what the next best course of action is
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Speaker 1: going to be. So all of these men would be
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Speaker 1: stationed in different areas. Some would be protecting joe Ash himself,
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Speaker 1: some would be protecting the gate, making sure nobody is
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Speaker 1: going in and out that shouldn't be. Some would be
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Speaker 1: protecting the King's house, and others would be protecting Yahway's house.
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Speaker 1: But Joheida says in verse six, let no one come
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Speaker 1: into Yahway's house, accept the priests and those who minister
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Speaker 1: of the Levites. So Jehoida is trying to get back
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Speaker 1: to the original design of the temple, where people aren't
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Speaker 1: just coming and going and taking whatever they want out
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Speaker 1: of it, but that it's a holy place where only
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Speaker 1: Levites are supposed to go. Johida saying, enough is enough
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Speaker 1: enough of all of these people coming into Yawai's house
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Speaker 1: and doing whatever they want to it. That is done
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Speaker 1: starting right now verse seven. The levites shall surround the king,
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Speaker 1: every man with his weapons in his hand. Whoever comes
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Speaker 1: into the house, let him be slain. Be with the
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Speaker 1: king when he comes in and when he goes out.
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Speaker 1: So Jehoida knows how serious the situation is. That Athalia
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Speaker 1: will kill anybody that gets in her way, even a child,
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Speaker 1: so the Levites are all on board, and also the
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Speaker 1: rest of Judah. Everybody who knew about this plan was
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Speaker 1: on board. It says they did according to all that
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Speaker 1: Jehoida the priest commanded. They each took his men those
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Speaker 1: who were to come in on the Sabbath with those
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Speaker 1: who are to go out on the Sabbath. For Jeheidah.
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Speaker 1: The priest didn't dismiss the shift. So it sounds like
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Speaker 1: all of this took place on a Sabbath day. I
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Speaker 1: don't know exactly what the strategy of that was. Maybe
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Speaker 1: they knew that Athalia would be busy worshiping her God
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Speaker 1: or something on the Sabbath day. I don't know. I
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Speaker 1: don't know what the customs of bail worship was if
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Speaker 1: they worshiped on a Sabbath, no clue, But they decided
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Speaker 1: that the Sabbath was the best day to make joe
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Speaker 1: Ash the next king. It says Jehoeida the priest delivered
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Speaker 1: to the captains of hundreds the spears, bucklers, and shields
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Speaker 1: that had been King David's, which were in God's house.
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Speaker 1: So whatever weapon was left in God's house, whether it
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Speaker 1: was in storage, whether it was rusty and old, whether
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Speaker 1: it was displayed on the walls, I don't know. But
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Speaker 1: Jehoida took those and gave them to each of his men.
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Speaker 1: And that's really interesting to me that it sort of
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Speaker 1: sounds like these captains may not have had weapons. Potentially,
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Speaker 1: maybe they had weapons for themselves, but not enough for
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Speaker 1: the rest of the men, which shows how much control
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Speaker 1: Atholia had over her people that she de weaponized them.
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Speaker 1: This is common throughout all sorts of dictatorships through history.
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Speaker 1: The first thing they want to do is de arm
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Speaker 1: the public, because then the public cannot protect or take
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Speaker 1: care of themselves. But thankfully there were enough weapons left
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Speaker 1: in God's house that Athaldia did not steal or didn't
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Speaker 1: think were useful. Jehoida gives them to all of these men,
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Speaker 1: it says. Then they brought out the king's son, put
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Speaker 1: the crown on him, gave him the covenant, and made
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Speaker 1: him king. Jehoida and his sons anointed him, and they said,
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Speaker 1: long live the King. Now. I do wonder where they
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Speaker 1: got the crown from. I would have thought that Athalia
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Speaker 1: would have worn it herself, unless it was too big
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Speaker 1: for her. Maybe they also hid the crown. Maybe it
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Speaker 1: was somewhere in God's house, and maybe it was David's
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Speaker 1: crown that was locked away somewhere and Jehoida knew where
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Speaker 1: it was. We do know that the Temple of God
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Speaker 1: held a lot of treasures of past history, so it
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Speaker 1: could be that this crown, even if it wasn't David's,
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Speaker 1: was a previous king's crown that had been stored away
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Speaker 1: in the temple that Atholia maybe did not know about.
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Speaker 1: They also gave him the Covenant, and I love that.
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Speaker 1: I love that they're setting joe Ash up to be
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Speaker 1: a godly king because they're not just putting the crown
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Speaker 1: on his head and setting him out in front of
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Speaker 1: all the people. They're also making him hold the Covenant,
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Speaker 1: which was the law of God. This was a time
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Speaker 1: when bail worship was going rampant because of Athalia being
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Speaker 1: the queen, so to establish joe Ash as a godly
17:40
Speaker 1: king was a really wise choice in my opinion. And
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Speaker 1: so they set joe Ash out on this pedestal outside
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Speaker 1: the temple, and joe Ash and his sons anointed him
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Speaker 1: and they said, long Live the King. This would have
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Speaker 1: been a public celebration, and maybe that's why it was
17:57
Speaker 1: done on the Sabbath actually was because a lot of
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Speaker 1: people would have been coming out to worship. This was
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Speaker 1: the day of worship, so if a big crowd was
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Speaker 1: at the temple, maybe Jehoida was thinking their safety in numbers.
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Speaker 1: And if enough people see this and get excited about it,
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Speaker 1: then Athalia doesn't really have any recourse essentially, so that
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Speaker 1: could be why it was done on the Sabbath day.
18:22
Speaker 1: It was a very public ceremony. So Jehoida and his
18:25
Speaker 1: sons anoint little joe Ash and they exclaim to everybody,
18:30
Speaker 1: long live the King. And the people get so excited
18:34
Speaker 1: because they now believe that the reign of Athalia is over.
18:39
Speaker 1: So everybody that's at the temple or in the city
18:42
Speaker 1: streets coming out to worship starts singing and dancing and
18:48
Speaker 1: exclaiming long Live the King. To joe Ash, it says
18:51
Speaker 1: the people were running around and praising the king, and
18:54
Speaker 1: Athalia heard all of this noise. So she comes outside
18:58
Speaker 1: and she's very distressed. She goes into Yahweh's house and
19:03
Speaker 1: she looks and behold the king stood by his pillar
19:06
Speaker 1: at the entrance with the captains and the trumpetears by
19:10
Speaker 1: the king. So little King joe Ash is standing there
19:14
Speaker 1: where everybody can see him, like up on this pedestal
19:17
Speaker 1: near God's temple, and Athalia is seeing all this. She's
19:21
Speaker 1: seeing the people dancing and getting all excited over the
19:24
Speaker 1: next king, and she is furious. While the singers were
19:30
Speaker 1: playing their instruments and singing, she tore her clothes and
19:34
Speaker 1: screamed treason, treason. And what's so ironic about that statement
19:41
Speaker 1: is the fact that she was the treason this one.
19:43
Speaker 1: From the very beginning. She tried to destroy the entire
19:46
Speaker 1: line of David, the legitimate heirs to the throne, so
19:51
Speaker 1: that she could take it for herself and for her family,
19:55
Speaker 1: because she knew her family, the line of Omri was
19:59
Speaker 1: dying off. She understood that, in fact, only a couple
20:02
Speaker 1: years before this, King Jehu up north had gone and
20:07
Speaker 1: literally destroyed pretty much everybody from the line of King Ahab.
20:11
Speaker 1: Athalia is the only person left. And like I said,
20:14
Speaker 1: I don't know what her game plan was to continue
20:16
Speaker 1: the throne for Omri, but it was not succeeding, as
20:20
Speaker 1: we can see here. So she tears her clothes out
20:23
Speaker 1: of mourning and anger very dramatically and screams treason. But
20:28
Speaker 1: this big show that she puts on does not work
20:30
Speaker 1: because everybody's against her. It says Jehoida. The priest brought
20:34
Speaker 1: out the captains of hundreds who were set over the army,
20:36
Speaker 1: and he said to them, bring her out between the ranks,
20:39
Speaker 1: and whoever follows her, let him be slain with sword.
20:43
Speaker 1: So basically, anybody that is on Athalia's side that tries
20:46
Speaker 1: to side with her, that tries to start a war
20:48
Speaker 1: or tries to kill the little king, they should be
20:51
Speaker 1: put to death as well as Athalia. But the priest says,
20:55
Speaker 1: don't kill her in Yawei's house. So I don't know
20:57
Speaker 1: if she walked into the temple. I kind of doubt
21:01
Speaker 1: she did, because you know, there were people like lined
21:05
Speaker 1: up making sure that nobody could go in to the
21:07
Speaker 1: temple anymore. But even her being in one of the
21:09
Speaker 1: courtyards would have been her being in Yahweh's temple. So
21:13
Speaker 1: the priest says, don't defile the temple with this evil
21:17
Speaker 1: woman's blood. Essentially, so it says that she went to
21:21
Speaker 1: the entrance of the horse gate to the king's house,
21:23
Speaker 1: so it kind of sounds like she was going back
21:25
Speaker 1: to her home, like going back to the king's house,
21:28
Speaker 1: but they killed her before she could get there, right
21:31
Speaker 1: at the entrance of the horse gate that would have
21:35
Speaker 1: been the area where the horses go in and out.
21:37
Speaker 1: That's how Jezebel died. Her mother only a few years
21:40
Speaker 1: prior to this, Jay who had gone and killed the
21:42
Speaker 1: entire line of Ahab, including Jezebel, and they threw her
21:47
Speaker 1: out of a window and trampled her underfoot of the
21:51
Speaker 1: horse's hoofs. So she died in one of the most
21:54
Speaker 1: shameful ways, and interestingly enough, her daughter died also in
21:58
Speaker 1: a very similar way. And so now it says in
22:01
Speaker 1: verse sixteen, Johoida made a covenant between himself, all the people,
22:05
Speaker 1: and the king that they should be Yahweh's people. All
22:09
Speaker 1: the people went to the house of Bail, broke it down,
22:12
Speaker 1: broke his altars and his images in pieces, and killed Maton,
22:16
Speaker 1: the priest of Bail before the altars. So now the people,
22:21
Speaker 1: who are very excited about joe Ash being the next
22:24
Speaker 1: king and Athalia's terrible reign being over, they agree we're
22:28
Speaker 1: gonna be Yahwei's people once again. So they go to
22:32
Speaker 1: the temple of Bail that Athaliah had made, probably with
22:35
Speaker 1: a lot of the beautiful things found in God's temple
22:39
Speaker 1: and the people they tear it into pieces, is what
22:41
Speaker 1: it says. They broke down everything, broke the altars and
22:45
Speaker 1: the images in pieces, and they also killed Maton, who
22:49
Speaker 1: was the high priest of Bail before all the altars. Now,
22:54
Speaker 1: this was I believe a just thing to do, because
22:57
Speaker 1: I've talked about bail worship in the past and how
23:00
Speaker 1: absolutely terrible it was for the entire community of Israel.
23:05
Speaker 1: It caused a lot of sickness and death and problems
23:10
Speaker 1: in the community. So the people going and tearing down
23:14
Speaker 1: all of these altars and also killing the high priest
23:16
Speaker 1: who encouraged all of the people to worship this false
23:20
Speaker 1: God was probably a just thing to do. But the
23:23
Speaker 1: one thing I do find very funny is the emotionality
23:27
Speaker 1: of the people where it just sort of seems like
23:31
Speaker 1: in Israel's history and today, you know, people just get
23:34
Speaker 1: so caught up with emotions that they just do whatever
23:39
Speaker 1: seems good at the time. And man, is that not
23:42
Speaker 1: how it is today too, Like people are very inflammatory
23:46
Speaker 1: and get very violent very quickly. I'm not saying they
23:49
Speaker 1: shouldn't have broken the altar to bail down in pieces.
23:53
Speaker 1: But the main problem is is that they shouldn't have
23:56
Speaker 1: allowed it to happen for as long as they did
23:58
Speaker 1: in the first place. Again, they're just kind of, you know,
24:02
Speaker 1: changing with the wind whatever seems popular to do at
24:06
Speaker 1: the time, and that's very common in Israel's history, and
24:10
Speaker 1: not just in Israel, but every nation on the planet. Then,
24:15
Speaker 1: it says Jehoida appointed the officers of Yahway's house, under
24:18
Speaker 1: the hand of the levitical priests whom David had distributed
24:21
Speaker 1: in Yahway's house, to offer the burnt offerings of Yahweh
24:24
Speaker 1: as it is written in the Law of Moses, with
24:27
Speaker 1: rejoicing and singing as David had ordered. So essentially, Jeheitda's
24:31
Speaker 1: getting back to the religion of his father's the way
24:36
Speaker 1: it was ordained to be done from the beginning, the
24:39
Speaker 1: way David had set it up. And David set it
24:41
Speaker 1: up in a very good way, by the way, he
24:43
Speaker 1: tried to make everything as close to the levitical laws
24:46
Speaker 1: as possible. So David did a really good job, and
24:49
Speaker 1: now Jehoida is trying to do the exact same thing.
24:52
Speaker 1: It says Jeheida set gatekeepers at the gates of Yahway's house.
24:55
Speaker 1: Then no one who is unclean in anything should enter in.
24:58
Speaker 1: So that shows right there that all sorts of different
25:00
Speaker 1: people were coming and going in Yahwei's house. Clean or unclean,
25:05
Speaker 1: it did not matter. But now Joheidah saying no, we're
25:07
Speaker 1: going back to the levitical laws. Only people who are
25:10
Speaker 1: clean can enter in. Here it says he took the
25:14
Speaker 1: captains of hundreds, the nobles, the governors of the people,
25:17
Speaker 1: and all the people of the land and brought the
25:19
Speaker 1: king down from Yahweh's house. They came through the upper
25:22
Speaker 1: gate to the king's house and set the king on
25:25
Speaker 1: the throne of the kingdom. So all the people of
25:27
Speaker 1: the land rejoiced and the city was quiet. They had
25:31
Speaker 1: slain Athalia with the sword. So I don't know if
25:34
Speaker 1: that means that the city became quiet because Athalia was
25:38
Speaker 1: no longer running rampant everywhere, or if it means that
25:42
Speaker 1: all of the supporters of Athalia were quiet because they
25:46
Speaker 1: knew they had lost. But I'm going to guess it's
25:48
Speaker 1: the latter one. That everybody knew they had lost, so
25:52
Speaker 1: nobody actually defended Athalia, even if they had been previous
25:57
Speaker 1: supporters of her. This was a the sight Jive victory
26:01
Speaker 1: for Jehoida and for King joe Ash. And we will
26:06
Speaker 1: definitely talk more about the reign of joe Ash in
26:09
Speaker 1: the next chapter, because unfortunately, Joe Ash is one of
26:12
Speaker 1: those kings that starts out very good but ends very poorly,
26:16
Speaker 1: as many of them do. So we will get into
26:19
Speaker 1: that starting on Monday. But, faithful listeners, here's a quick
26:22
Speaker 1: word from a sponsor before I end the episode. The
26:28
Speaker 1: last thing I want to say before I end the
26:29
Speaker 1: episode is I want to tie today's episode into Monday's.
26:33
Speaker 1: Remember how I said on Monday that God is always
26:35
Speaker 1: working behind the scenes, even if we don't see it.
26:39
Speaker 1: All of God's plans for joe Ash have now come
26:42
Speaker 1: to fruition. People are seeing it and they are excited.
26:46
Speaker 1: The people who saw joe Ash become the king are
26:50
Speaker 1: now rejoicing in the street, and the people who wanted
26:54
Speaker 1: Athalia for whatever reason, to be the queen are quiet
26:58
Speaker 1: in the land because they know that nothing they will
27:00
Speaker 1: do will bring Athalia back. When God is on our side,
27:04
Speaker 1: his plans work, and that is definitely what we see
27:07
Speaker 1: here today in this chapter, Faithful Listeners, have a fantastic
27:11
Speaker 1: and wonderful rest of your day. As always, I hope
27:14
Speaker 1: to see you guys tomorrow for an episode from tewod
27:17
Speaker 1: Timothy six am or whenever you choose to wake up
27:20
Speaker 1: and listen. Until then, happy listening and God bless. I
27:29
Speaker 1: just want to take a second to thank the team
27:31
Speaker 1: at Life Audio for their partnership with me on the
27:33
Speaker 1: Bible Explain podcast. In fact, if you go to lifeudio
27:36
Speaker 1: dot com you'll find dozens of other faith centered podcasts
27:39
Speaker 1: in their network. They've got shows about prayer, Bible study, parenting,
27:44
Speaker 1: and more.