Obi Wan Kenobi says of Mos Eisley Spaceport:
“You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy. We must be cautious.”
As in all space movies, what’s true in outer space is true on earth. It is true of America. Of my city and yours: We must be cautious.
Jesus said it another way:
“Be shrewd as serpents, but innocent as doves” Matthew 10:16.
May God give us wisdom and discernment. May God make us cautious and shrewd.
The reign of King David was Israel’s golden age. God blessed Solomon’s reign too as a sequel of sorts: the Sons of Jesse, Part Two.
But the moment Solomon died, people began choosing sides, a civil war erupted, and suddenly God’s Chosen People were living like North Korea and South Korea: one people with one language, one culture, one heritage, but divided into two warring kingdoms. The Northern Kingdom called itself Israel, and the Southern Kingdom called itself Judah.
And the bloodshed was just getting started. Kings would take the throne of Israel or Judah, wear the crown for a year or two, then be murdered. If the new king feared the same fate, he might murder every brother and nephew of the king he had killed and sometimes murder his own brothers and nephews. The royal palace became a bloodbath.
Following one of these massacres, a complicated drama swirled around a young woman named Jehosheba. Her father was Joram a former king of Israel, and her mother was Athalia, soon-to-be the Queen of Judah. Jehosheba’s half-brother was the reigning king of Judah but was suddenly murdered. Once he was killed, his mother Athalia immediately killed every other heir to the throne—her sons and step-sons—so that SHE could wear the crown.
Jehosheba had an infant brother named Joash, and she saved him before Grandma could find him and kill him. Jehosheba carried him off to be hidden in the temple. In addition to her royal ties, Jehosheba was the wife of the high priest, and thus lived in the priest’s apartment inside the temple. The new Queen Athalia would avoid the temple, being interested only in the worship of Baal. Thus Joash, the last surviving son of King Ahaziah (and heir to the throne of David), would spend the next six years hidden away indoors, a fugitive from a grandmother who believed him to be dead–and liked it that way.
“Jehosheba, the daughter of King Joram, sister of Ahaziah, took Joash the son of Ahaziah, and stole him from among the king’s sons which were slain, and they hid him, even him and his nurse, in the bedchamber from Athaliah, so that he was not slain. And he was with her hid in the house of the Lord six years. And Queen Athaliah did reign over the land” 2 Kings 11:2-3.
Can you imagine a little boy locked up in an upstairs apartment for the first six years of his life? Remember the MAN IN THE IRON MASK, Dumas’ great novel about the king and pretender to the throne who hides his slightly older twin away in a prison so that he can steal the crown? Joash lived the much more common story: a rightful king who must be hidden so the pretender to the throne will not murder the rightful king. For six years the pale little boy stayed inside, keeping his voice down like Anne Frank, hidden away in an attic.
But unlike Anne Frank, young Joash was saved. When he became seven, his uncle the high priest assembled an army, rebelled against the wicked Queen Athalia, and anointed the seven-year-old Joash King of Judah.
“Then they brought out the king’s son, and put upon him the crown, and gave him the testimony, and made him king. And Jehoida and his sons anointed him, and said ‘GOD SAVE THE KING!’” 2 Chronicles 23:11.
Trumpets were blown. Announcements made. The queen heard what was happening and rushed to the temple to see for herself. When she saw her seven-year-old grandson wearing the crown, she was shocked.
“Athaliah rent her clothes and shouted ‘Treason! Treason!’” She was captured, taken outside the House of God, and slain, 2 Chronicles 23: 13-15.
Can you imagine a mother who would have her own sons and grandsons killed so she could be queen? Do you think there are people like that in our world today? There are. Every day terrorist organizations use the internet to recruit foot soldiers, angry young men who dream of bombing a church, school, or children’s hospital.
In addition, some of our world leaders are mirderously evil. (I don’t claim to know which ones!) But I’m sure the depths of evil on the world stage would surprise us. With some dictators, perhaps we expect it. But what about the leaders of nations with democratic elections? Again, I don’t claim to know. But I would rather be shrewd than be naive.
Yet on the other hand, we must not forget that there are also “prominent men of noble character” like Jehoiada the high priest and his wife Jehosheba, people of great courage and integrity who will stand up for what’s right.
Sometimes it is hard to know which is which. Are you rooting for the madman or the righteous leader? Am I rooting for the murdering con-artist or the man of integrity? May God give us the wisdom to know. He knows. He knows and he can lead us.
Dear God, make us like the men of Issachar, “who understood the times and knew what Israel should do” 1 Chronicles 12:32.
AΩ
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