I. THE DANGER FROM WHICH HE WAS DELIVERED.

1. An early death. He was an infant at the breast, since he had a wet-nurse: "not above a year old" (Josephus). More than one-half of the human race die in infancy. Scripture examples of the deaths of children: the firstborn of Pharaoh (Exodus 12:29, 30); the child of David (2 Samuel 12:14-23), of Jeroboam (1 Kings 14:13), of the widow of Zarephath (1 Kings 17:17), of the Shunammite (2 Kings 4:19, 20). Many exposed to the danger of dying in infancy who nevertheless escape, like Moses (Exodus 2:3), the child of the harlot (1 Kings 3:25), Jesus (Matthew 2:8), the centurion's son (John 4:49).

2. A violent death. He was in danger of being cut off by the sword. To die a natural death in infancy is sad enough; to be cut off by a supernatural stroke like the Egyptian children, or the Bethlehem innocents, or by an accidental stroke like the Shunammite's boy, much more by a violent stroke like Samaria's children (Hosea 10:14), excites the imagination as a hard fate indeed.

3. An unnatural death. He was in danger of being killed by his own grandmother. Only one fate could have been worse - to have been slain by his own mother, like the son of the woman in Samaria (2 Kings 6:29); or by his own father, like the King of Moab's eldest son (2 Kings 3:27).

II. THE PERSON BY WHOM HE WAS DELIVERED.

1. A kinswoman. Jehoshabeath, or Jehosheba, "Jehovah is the oath," was the aunt of Joash, the sister of his father (see preceding homily).

2. A good woman. A plausible inference from the fact that she was married to Jehoiada the high priest. "Even princesses did not then scorn the bed of those that served at God's altar ' (Hall). Most likely she and her husband disapproved of the state religion and state policy of the day, inspired and controlled as these were by Athaliah.

3. A brave woman. Scarcely without peril to herself could she have carried out her humane design of rescuing her infant nephew.

4. A clever woman. Without immense tact she could never have evaded the vigilant eyes of Athaliah. Of the substitution of some other child in Joash's room (Hall) Scripture is silent.

III. THE MODE IN WHICH HE WAS DELIVERED.

1. By secret concealment in the palace. Along with his nurse he was hid in a bedchamber, or chamber for the beds; neither the dormitory of the priests and Levites in the temple-courts (Vatablus), nor the sleeping-apartments of the royal princes in the palace (Clericus), but a room in the latter, where, according to Eastern custom, the beds, i.e. mattresses and coverlets, were kept (Keil). In this recess, usually uninhabited, a temporary refuge was obtained from Athaliah's rage.

2. By private upbringing in the temple. Not in the holy of holies (Targum), to which Athaliah had no access, but in one of the buildings on the outer wall, in which the high priest resided with his wife. Fetched at the first convenient opportunity from their dangerous proximity to Athaliah in the palace, the young child and his nurse were for six years lodged in the priest's house. Here his training must have been both carefully and successfully attended to, as his after-career showed (Proverbs 22:6). From the priest's lips he would receive instruction in the Law of God (Malachi 2:7); from his aunt, learn to love and practise the religion of his great and good ancestors, Jehoshaphat and Asa. Learn:

1. The ease with which God can defeat the projects of the wicked.

2. The tender care God takes of children, especially of such as belong to the covenant.

3. The blessing of possessing pious parents and kinsmen.

4. The value of early instruction in the doctrines and duties of religion.

5. The safety of those whom God keeps.

6. The advantage of spending one's early years in the house of God. - W.

A distinguished authority on European history is fond of pointing to the evil effects of royal marriages as one of the chief drawbacks to the monarchical system of government. A crown may at any time devolve upon a woman, and by her marriage with a powerful reigning prince her country may virtually be subjected to a foreign yoke. If it happens that the new sovereign professes a different religion from that of his wife's subjects, the evils arising from the marriage are seriously aggravated. Some such fate befell the Netherlands as the result of the marriage of Mary of Burgundy with the Emperor Maximilian, and England was only saved from the danger of transference to Catholic dominion by the caution and patriotism of Queen Elizabeth. Athaliah's usurpation was a bold attempt to reverse the usual process and transfer the husband's dominions to the authority of faith of the wife's family. It is probable that Athaliah's permanent success would have led to the absorption of Judah in the northern kingdom. Our own history furnishes numerous illustrations of the evil influences that come in the train of foreign queens. Edward II suffered grievously at the hands of his French queen; Henry VI.'s wife, Margaret of Anjou, contributed considerably to the prolonged bitterness of the struggle between York and Lancaster; and to Henry VIII's marriage with Catherine of Aragon the country owed the miseries and persecutions inflicted by Mary Tudor. But no foreign queen of England has had the opportunities for mischief that were enjoyed and fully utilised by Athaliah. The peace and honour and prosperity of godly families in all ranks of life have been disturbed, and often destroyed, by the marriage of one of their members with a woman of alien spirit mad temperament.

(W. H. Bennett, M.A.).