As we move along in the history of Israel's northern and southern kingdoms, our attention turns to the southern kingdom of Judah. You may recall that when Ahab, the king of Israel (the northern kingdom), stole Naboth's vineyard, Elijah had prophesied that Ahab's entire family would be wiped out (1 Kings 21:21). The upstart king Jehu fomented a revolution in the northern kingdom, and every male descendant of Ahab, as well as Jezebel, his wife, were killed in a royal bloodbath.

Ahaziah, king of Judah, was also caught up in the melee and killed by Jehu. This left Judah without a king, but its queen, Athaliah, the daughter of the wicked couple Ahab and Jezebel, was quite determined to take matters into her own hands. She proceeded to kill off the entire royal family of Judah—that is, her own grandchildren—in order to consolidate her own power.

Now, this was an attempt to kill everyone in the line of David, through whom God had promised to send the true and perfect king we now know was Jesus Christ. Not only are lives at stake here, but the very promise of God is, too.

As we often find in the Bible, and in history, a few courageous people standing with God against tyranny make all the difference. In this case, it was Jehosheba, Athaliah's sister-in-law, who took Joash, the crown prince, and hid him away. With the help of the high priest, Jehoiada, they successfully hid Joash for six years.

Jehoiada then devised a clever plan to restore the rightful king to the throne and displace the wicked Athaliah. He arranged for a large number of the royal guards, who wanted the house of David back on the throne, to be present at a secret anointing of Joash. Once they were all there, Jehoiada crowned Joash in the traditional place, at the gate of the temple, symbolizing the unity of king and temple from the time of David. It all worked out as planned: Athaliah was killed by the royal guard, and Joash became king.

This was not just about kingly succession, though. Jehoiada made sure that Joash was not only proclaimed king, but also presented with a copy of the covenant, God's law. This ceremony had been neglected for many years, and marked the commitment of Joash and his supporters to return Judah to the covenant that their ruler was to be king under God.

The reaffirmation of the covenant had two major results: the people smashed the temple of Baal that had become a place of worship under Athaliah, and they killed its high priest. Then they set out on the long path of repairing the great temple of God built by Solomon. Since the temple was the center of Israelite faith and religion, where all the sacrifices and ceremonies took place, it was essential that it be rebuilt. It was the public, visible symbol of the true worship of God.

In this engrossing and violent story, we see the hand of God working through brave and dedicated people who were willing to endanger themselves to do the right thing.