The Worst Queen?

By Elizabeth Prata

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Is it a tie between Jezebel and Athaliah? As bad as Jezebel was, perhaps Athaliah was worse!

Herbert Lockyer wrote a book called All the Women of the Bible. He opened his entry on Athaliah this way: “The Woman Who Was a Notorious Murderess”. You do not want the words notorious or murderess in your bio!

Athaliah’s story is mainly in 2 Chronicles 22; 23:13-21; 24:7. Guess who her parents were? Ahab and Jezebel.

Edith Deen also wrote a book called All the Women of the Bible (1955). Her entry states,

“Athaliah, the only woman ever to sit on the throne of David and rule, was the extreme in wickedness.”

“Evil ran in her veins. She was the granddaughter of Omri, who waded through slaughter to a throne he never inherited. She was the daughter of Ahab, the legitimate successor of his unscrupulous father, and of Jezebel, whose name is synonymous with wickedness. Reared in the northern kingdom of Israel, at Samaria, where the palace of her parents was surrounded by groves and idols of Baal worship, Athaliah grew up in an atmosphere that completely denied the one God. Because of the lewd cult worship of Baal, introduced by her mother, the kingdom was swept by immorality and godlessness.”

Unchecked, our inner depravity will always sink to new lows, and Baal worship is about as low as a person can get.

“Athaliah, probably for political expediency, was married to Jehoram, eldest son of the pious Jehoshaphat, king of Judah. She went with him to Jerusalem, capital of the southern kingdom. When he was thirty-two years old, he came to the throne, and Athaliah sat beside him. Just as her mother had done when she came to Samaria from Tyre, Athaliah promoted her Baal worship among the people.“

Stop doing that! But if a person doesn’t cling to the One True God, she will believe any other god, which are all satan.

“Jehoram reigned eight years and died unmourned of an incurable disease foretold by Elijah. The Philistines had captured all his secondary wives and sons, except Ahaziah, Athaliah’s own son, who now came to the throne. As queen-mother, Athaliah was more powerful than ever. Her son was young and she had had the experience of dictating through her husband. We have the record that Ahaziah “walked in the ways of the house of Ahab: for his mother was his counsellor to do wickedly” (2 Chronicles 22:3).”

“Within a year Athaliah’s son was wounded in his chariot by Jehu, commissioned by Elijah to overthrow the dynasty of Athaliah’s father. Her son escaped to Megiddo, where he died. Athaliah seized the throne and resolved to destroy “all the seed royal,” her own blood relations, among whom were her own grandchildren.”

All of us have murder in our soul. Our sin-nature makes any sin possible not only to contemplate but to perform. But it’s really hard to understand the killing one’s own family. Athaliah’s grasp for power was stronger than her natural feelings for her family.

Proverbs 21:4 says, Haughty eyes and a proud heart—the guides of the wicked—are sin.

2 Timothy 3:1-4 says in the last days people will be be brutal and not care for their own family, as well as many other sinful and social ills.

After a few more murders, … “Athaliah seized the government. She ruled only six years before she was supplanted by Joash and killed. When the horses trampled over her body, which lay just inside her palace gates, her fate was not unlike that of her mother, Jezebel.“–end Edith Deen entry on Athaliah, 1955

An ignominious end to a murdering Baal worshiper.

Herbert Lockyer also wrote a book called “All the Women of the Bible”. His entry says,

“After putting to death her young grandsons, Athaliah reigned for six years, and was the only woman to reign as queen of Judah. The daughter of a king, wife of a king, mother of a king, she is now queen. While her husband reigned she was the power behind the throne—now she is the power on the throne, and proof of her energy, forcefulness and ability are seen in the length of her reign.”

“A despotic ruler, her every gesture had to be obeyed. During her reign part of the Temple of Jehovah was pulled down and the material used in the building of a temple of Baal. But the God who overrules in the destinies of men and nations, intervened to redeem His promise of a Saviour from the tribe of Judah.”

 Dr. Robert G. Lee summed up Athaliah’s murderous career,

Her very name is an execration. She put the whole nation under the shadow of a great horror. She trampled on all faith. She violated all obligation. She lived with the shrieks of those she butchered in her ears. She lived with her hands red with the blood of princes and princesses. She died, frantic with rage, with the accusation of Treason on her lips. She died in the barnyard under the battleaxes of an aroused people.

Wow. Athaliah was so evil. As we read through these passages in the Bible let us reflect on the monumental sacrifice of Jesus to die for our sins- even sins as evil as Athaliah’s – and to bring repentant sinners to His bosom. If Athaliah had repented she would have been accepted. The evil deeds of the worst person in the world can never outpace the Lord’s grace. His grace extends to the ends of the earth to all those who will come to Him. He will not cast them out. (John 6:37).

And we all need Him. Athaliah is a prime example of where unfettered sin will lead a person. In Romans 7:24 Paul famously said- Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?

O, to be acutely aware of our own sin but not know the relief of it, as Charles Spurgeon and John Bunyan did in their years before coming to the blessed arms of the Savior! O, worse never to be aware of one’s own sin and wallow in it to the death and be cast into perpetual hell!

Mortify the sin that remains in us after salvation by repenting of our remaining sins, and repenting often.

Even at that, God allowed an evil such as an Athaliah to rise and kill. His divine sovereignty was demonstrated that though the evil queen killed off her grandchildren, God’s covenant with David was preserved by the fact that one grandchild was hidden- Joash. He survived Athaliah’s reign and ascended the throne, just as God had promised that the Davidic line would continue.

God also allowed this evil period to continue to demonstrate not only that He is committed to His promises, which cannot be thwarted, but to allow the evil to run the people back to Him, for which Priest Jehoiada eventually was the catalyst. In 2 Chronicles 23:1 the priest had had enough, “Now in the seventh year, Jehoiada gathered his courage,”… Jehoiada was the Priest of Judah who orchestrated the coup to overthrow Athaliah and put Joash, the rightful heir in the line of David, on the throne.

Takeaways:

Further Resources

Edith Deen, All the Women of the Bible (in Web Archive Library)

The End Time- I wrote about Athaliah 12 years ago, with a different emphasis: