◄ 2 Chronicles 22:9 ►
Then Jehu looked for Ahaziah, and Jehu's soldiers captured him while he was hiding in Samaria. So Ahaziah was brought to Jehu and put to death. They buried him, for they said, "He is the grandson of Jehoshaphat, who sought the LORD with all his heart." So no one was left from the house of Ahaziah with the strength to rule the kingdom.
Sermons
Ahaziah's Wicked ReignJ. Wolfendale.2 Chronicles 22:1-9
A Chapter of TragediesT. Whitelaw 2 Chronicles 22:1-12
Our Friends and Their Fate, EtcW. Clarkson 2 Chronicles 22:5-12














Pulpit Commentary Homiletics
Our Friends And Their Fate, Etc
2 Chronicles 22:5-12
W. Clarkson
These verses offer us a cluster of truths which we may gather.

I. THAT OUR FATE IS COMMONLY BOUND UP WITH THAT OF OUR FRIENDS. Ahaziah "went with Jehoram the son of Ahab" (ver. 5); and, allying himself with him in war, he visited him as a friend when he was at his home at Jezreel. But this friendship with God's enemies led him to his destruction; his coming to Jehoram was "of God" (ver. 7); it was the way taken by Divine Providence to bring upon him the penalty of his guilt. For he perished with his friend on the same day and at the same hand (vers. 8, 9). When we are determining upon our alliances and our friendships, it is well not only to consider the station, the income, the reputation in society, of those who invite us to their confidence, but also to inquire concerning their probable whither-ward. In what direction are they moving? Toward what goal are their faces turned? What will their end be? Are they on an upward or on a downward course? For nothing is more likely than that we shall share their fate, that we shall become what they are becoming.

II. THAT THE INFLUENCE OF A GOOD MAN GOES FAR BEYOND HIS OWN GENERATION. "They buried him, Because (they said) he is the son of Jehoshaphat," etc. (ver. 9). He was Jehoshaphat's grandson; but though they had to go back two generations, the memory and the moral impression of the good king had not faded - at any rate, had not been effaced. "The memory of the just" abides; it is fragrant after many years have gone; and the influence of the holy lasts when the memory has disappeared. Knowledge in the memory, peace in the mind, soundness in the soul, beauty and usefulness in the life, - these are the fruits of the good man's life, though they are not traced to his hand and not referred to his working; they are influences which spread and widen as the years go on.

III. THAT IF WE PLACE OURSELVES UNDER THE DOMINION OF EVIL, WE DO NOT KNOW TO WHAT DEPTH WE MAY DESCEND. We have here a woman, who was brought up in a civilized court, and who had the opportunity of acquainting herself with the Law of the Lord, causing all her own grandsons to be murdered, in order that she might have the helm of the state in her own hands! To what a bottomless depth of moral degradation can a woman sink, when she gives herself up to the power of evil! And we do not, any of us, know the lengths of wrong-doing, the depths of iniquity, to which we may go, if we once yield to that strong temptation - impurity, avarice, indulgence in strong drink, the intoxication of applause, or whatever it may be - which is assailing and even threatening us. Shun the first step in an evil course, for the slope becomes steeper as we go further, and it leads down to a deep and dark gulf of shame and ruin.

IV. THAT WOMANLY KINDNESS HAS A LARGE CONTRIBUTION TO BRING TO THE CAUSE AND KINGDOM OF GOD. It was a very great service, fruitful of large results, which Jehoshabeath now rendered (ver. 11). It was a very valuable service that womanly kindness and fidelity rendered to our Lord when he lived and when he died for us. The Apostle Paul had to thank womanly kindness for succour in the course of his career. Pity, with the hand of help it stretches forth, is a handmaid of piety, a valued servant in the king's household.

V. THAT IN THE HOUSE OF THE LORD WE MAY FIND A HIDING-PLACE FOR OURSELVES. (Ver. 12.) His aunt hid the infant Joash in the house of God (ver. 12). Many times, in many lands, has the house of God been a sanctuary, a place where men have taken refuge and have hidden themselves from the wrath of the pursuer. But there is a better way in which God's house may be to us a sanctuary. We may go there to hide ourselves in him whose house it is. We may go there with our troubled or our sin-burdened heart, and we may hide in him who is the God of all grace and consolation, in him who is abundant in mercy and truth (see Psalm 27:4, 5). When we cherish a living faith in God our Saviour and our Friend, we "hide ourselves under the shadow of his wings" (Psalm 17:8). - C.

Biblical Illustrator
For his mother was his counsellor to do wickedly.
2 Chronicles 22:8
A mother's influence
W. Richter.
Every first thing continues for ever with the child; the first colour, the first music, the first flower paint the foreground of life. Every new educator effects less than his predecessor, until at last, if we regard all life as an educational institute, a circumnavigator of the world is less influenced by all the nations he has seen than by his nurse.

(W. Richter.)

A mother's influence
Great Thoughts.
Mothers, ye are the sculptors of the souls of the coming men; queens of the cradle, humble or high, ye are the queens of the future. In your hands lie the destinies of men. I am not speaking poetry, but plain fact, which history proves. Nero's mother was a murderess; Nero was a murderer, on a gigantic scale. Byron's mother was proud, ill-tempered, and violent; Byron was proud, ill-tempered, and violent. Washington's mother was noble and pure; Washington was noble and pure. Scott's mother loved poetry and painting; you know what Walter Scott was. Carlyle's mother was stern, and full of reverence; Carlyle very much so. Wesley's mother was a God-like woman; Wesley was a God-like man. The prison chaplain will tell you that the last thing forgotten, in all the recklessness of dissolute profligacy, is the prayer or hymn taught by a mother's lips, or uttered at a father's knee. Yes, when all other roads are closed, there is one road open to the heart of the desperate man — the memory of his mother.

(Great Thoughts.)

An unnatural mother
J. Parker, D. D.
"For his mother was his counsellor to do wickedly." There must be a mistranslation! All nature is offended by this tremendous affront. Can we not.find some other word for "mother"? Any other word will do better, even "father" would not be so objectionable. The one word that cannot be tolerated here is the word that is found, namely, "mother"! We might close the Bible here, and say the book that contains this statement was never inspired. But we cannot do so. Then the word "counsellor" is so full of plan, premeditation, arrangement; the mother was a schoolmistress, with one pupil, and she suggested, invented, culminated ends, whispered, threw out hints, advised bad policies; told him when he was halting because the course was evil to "go on!" Napoleon said, "They that rock the cradle rule the world." To have a cradle rocked by such a mother as Athaliah surely were enough to be foredoomed to endless misery! How sweetly the text would have read had it proceeded on the lines of nature! — for his mother was his counsellor to do bravely. Surely the word "wickedly" is a misprint, traceable to some careless copyist! — his mother was his counsellor to do wisely, patiently, hopefully, — these would have been womanly words, words most motherly, the very words with which we build home and Church and heaven. But the word is "wickedly," and we must regard it in its literal significance. What are mothers doing now? They could be God's foremost ministers. No man can pray like a woman; no man has the art of eloquence as a woman has it; no one can come into life so silently, quietly, blessingly as woman, mother, sister. If women would preach surely the world would listen. They ought to preach; they know the secret of love, they have the answer to the Cross, they can solve in some degree the enigma of sacrifice. This is the very reason of the horribleness of the text. If woman had been otherwise, then the word "wickedly" would not have read with such a sense of irony and moral collision as it does in this instance. It is because woman can be so heavenly that she can be so low, and wicked, and bad; it is because she can be so like a saviour that she can be such an engine and agent of ruin.

(J. Parker, D. D.)

People
Ahab, Ahaziah, Arabians, Aram, Athaliah, Azariah, Hazael, Jehoiada, Jehoram, Jehoshabeath, Jehoshaphat, Jehosheba, Jehu, Jezreel, Joash, Joram, Nimshi, Omri, Syrians
Places
Jerusalem, Jezreel, Ramah, Ramoth-gilead, Samaria, Syria
Topics
TRUE, Ahaziah, Ahazi'ah, Body, Bring, Buried, Bury, Capture, Captured, Caught, Death, Family, Grandson, Heart, Hid, Hiding, Hold, Jehoshaphat, Jehosh'aphat, Jehu, Killed, Kingdom, None, Power, Powerful, Rest, Retain, Rule, Samaria, Sama'ria, Search, Searched, Secret, Seeketh, Slain, Slew, Sought
Outline
1. Ahaziah succeeding, reigns wickedly
5. in his confederacy with Joram, the son of Ahab, he is slain by Jehu
10. Athaliah, destroying all the seed royal, save Joash, usurps the kingdom

Dictionary of Bible Themes
2 Chronicles 22:8

     5459   prince

Library
Ahaziah
BY REV. J. G. GREENHOUGH, M.A. "And the destruction of Ahaziah was of God, by coming to Joram; for, when he was come, he went out with Jehoram against Jehu the son of Nimshi, whom the Lord had anointed to cut off the house of Ahab."--2 CHRON. xxii. 7. We rarely read this part of the Bible. And I do not wonder at it. For those particular chapters are undoubtedly dreary and monotonous. They contain the names of a number of incompetent and worthless kings who did nothing that was worth writing …
George Milligan—Men of the Bible; Some Lesser-Known

The Whole Heart
LET me give the principal passages in which the words "the whole heart," "all the heart," are used. A careful study of them will show how wholehearted love and service is what God has always asked, because He can, in the very nature of things, ask nothing less. The prayerful and believing acceptance of the words will waken the assurance that such wholehearted love and service is exactly the blessing the New Covenant was meant to make possible. That assurance will prepare us for turning to the Omnipotence …
Andrew Murray—The Two Covenants

Chronicles
The comparative indifference with which Chronicles is regarded in modern times by all but professional scholars seems to have been shared by the ancient Jewish church. Though written by the same hand as wrote Ezra-Nehemiah, and forming, together with these books, a continuous history of Judah, it is placed after them in the Hebrew Bible, of which it forms the concluding book; and this no doubt points to the fact that it attained canonical distinction later than they. Nor is this unnatural. The book …
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament

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