2 Chronicles 22

2 Chronicles 22:1

AHAZIAH’S WICKED REIGNThe names get confusing because sometimes different names are used for the same person. Ahaziah is the Jehoahaz of 2Ch_21:17. He is the only son left. All the other sons of Jehoram were killed.

2 Chronicles 22:2

Athaliah is really the queen on the throne. She is the power behind the throne. She is the daughter of Ahab and Jezebel, and the grand-daughter of Omri. She never really gave up her position. Remember that she turned her husband, Jehoram, away from God. Now her son, Ahaziah, listens to her and aligns himself with the northern kingdom and with the house of Ahabwhich was to his destruction. Justice with a vengeance will be wrought upon him.

2 Chronicles 22:5

This gets confusing, too, because there was a Jehoram in both the northern and the southern kingdoms. It looks as though we have the same man back again, but Jehoram, king of Judah, is dead. His son, Ahaziah, is the king, and now he aligns himself with Jehoram, king of Israel. Jehoram was wounded in this battle with the Syrians.

2 Chronicles 22:6

Azariah, king of Judah, went to visit Jehoram, king of Israel, who was recovering at Jezreel, and he probably took him a basket of fruit or something.

2 Chronicles 22:7

The interesting thing is that Jehu didn’t know that Ahaziah, this king from the southern kingdom, was up there. Notice what happened.

2 Chronicles 22:8

These “sons of the brethren of Ahaziah” were not the brothers of Ahaziah, since they had been slain by Arabian marauders (2Ch_21:17), but these were the sons of these brothers, and therefore Ahaziah’s nephews. The “princes of Judah” were probably distant relatives who held important offices in the court. Jehu slew them all. Now he goes after Ahaziah, who had escaped, and he is found and slain.

2 Chronicles 22:9

This is a bloody period. God records it to let us know that He judges sin. He wants us to know that man doesn’t get by with sin. How complicated it is! I said before that the way of sin is crooked and complicated.

2 Chronicles 22:10

ATHALIAH’S BRUTAL REIGNI’ll be very frank with you. It takes a bloody person and a mean one to kill her own grandchildren! If you are a grandparent, you share my feeling about grandchildren. I know why they call them grandchildrenthey are grand. The fact of the matter is, I think grandchildren are more wonderful than children. If I had known how wonderful they were, I’d have had my grandchildren before I had my children! I do not understand how this bloody queen could slay her grandchildren, but that is what she did. She slew all but onebecause she couldn’t find him.

2 Chronicles 22:11

If this had not taken place, the line of David would have been cut off. And God’s promise to David concerning the coming of the Messiah would never have taken place. This is how close it was. You can see that Satan has made attempts again and again to try to destroy the line that would lead to Christ. You will recall how Satan tried to destroy the line that would lead to Christ when all the male babies were to be slain down in the land of Egypt. He tried to have all the Jews exterminated at the time of Haman. After Jesus was born, he worked through old Herod and tried to kill Jesus by killing all the baby boys around Bethlehem. Here is another instance when Satan had the line of David reduced so there was only one survivor. This little fellow, Joash, was one year old when he was hidden. He was kept hidden away in the temple for six years. During that time the bloody queen ruled the land.