Self-Destruct

 

    When we self-destruct we can leave a lot of pain and destruction in our path.  It is not something that happens just once.  It is not something that just happens, a slip in your life.  It is something that becomes a pattern.   It is a pattern of allowing the negative thoughts to take over.  It is feeding your anger and hurt instead of searching a way to move forward in peace and forgiveness.

    Athaliah was the queen mother of Ahaziah.  How can a mother ever handle the loss of her child?  She gave birth to him, raised him, watched him become a man.  It is not natural that the child die before the mother.  She had had a lot of loss in her life and this was the last straw.  She self-destructed in a fashion that would destroy anyone in her path too.

    Athaliah destroyed the whole royal family as revenge for her son's death.  Joash was the only one to survive.  He was a baby when his aunt, Jehosheba, hid him away in God's temple.  They hid there for six years while Athaliah reigned the nation.  

    Joash was seven when he became king.  Athaliah heard all the noise and was not too happy about the changes happening.  As the people celebrated, she tore her clothes and screamed treason.   As his grandmother she should have been raising him, protecting him, and preparing him for the moment he would be ready to lead a nation.  Instead, she had lost all reason.  Her reaction got her killed. 

    The priest, Jehoiada, raised Joash to follow God and the land lived in quiet peace.  The young king did follow God all the way until Jehoiada died. It leads me to believe that Joash had faith, but it never grew.  When he lost the most influential person in his life, it left a lot of pain and he found other ways to fill that pain than turning to God.   He blamed God and rebelled in response to that anger.  In his own way, he self-destructed too, it just was not as obvious.

1 Kings 11