"(For she was the sister of Ahaziah)" 2 Chronicles 22:11

OLD TESTAMENT PARENTHESES (17)

"(For she was the sister of Ahaziah)" 2 Chronicles 22:11

IN Bible Quizzes not many people would be able to identify Jehosheba or, as the Chronicler calls her, Jehoshabeath, yet she made a vital contribution to divine history, for it was she who saved and sheltered the one tiny living link in the Davidic dynasty which was left after the wicked Athaliah had murdered all the other descendants of King Ahaziah.

SHE was Ahaziah's sister, so we are told. That means that she was the aunt of the infant Joash. She was only an 'auntie', but I suggest that she was the most famous aunt in the Bible. Her husband, Jehoiada, was God's instrument for establishing little Joash on the throne and was a tremendous influence for good in the royal court so long as he lived. This was so much the case that he was given the unique experience for a commoner: "They buried him ... among the kings" (2 Chronicles 24:16).

JEHOIADA was the prominent figure and he got the limelight, but he could have done nothing if his wife had not first taken responsibility for safe-guarding her baby nephew by hiding him and his nurse in her own bedroom.

LATER he was smuggled into the house of the Lord. That was a master stroke. I wonder if it was her idea. The house of God was the one place which the ungodly Athaliah would not wish to enter. This move must have meant that Jehosheba's part was only a brief bridging operation which gave her no more part in the matter and little if any recognition. Perhaps this parenthesis, which only repeats the twice-given information that she was the daughter of King Jehoram in another way, may serve to ensure that she is remembered. Somehow aunts fail to find much place in the Scriptures.

TO me she stands as the prototype of all those godly aunts who play such an important part in the lives of their young nephews and nieces. During my lifetime I have often noted and appreciated the great value of an aunt's loving and prayerful concern. I would like to think that King Joash remembered how much he was indebted to this aunt of his, but I doubt it. Never mind! God saw! God had it written down in His inspired Word. And we do well to pay tribute to the woman who stood in the gap for God when the whole future of the Davidic throne was so direly threatened.

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