2 Chronicles 23:1-7. Jehoiada, the high priest, "took courage" and began planning how to get the rightful, six-year-old king, Joash, on the throne in place of Athaliah, the evil queen mother of the terrible, and now deceaed, King Ahaziah. Athaliah is ruling in her son's stead after having killed the royal family (other than the baby Joash). Here Jehoiada enters into an agreement with the commanders of the army and they go about Judah gathering the Levites and the heads of the houses of Israel. They all come back to the house of the Lord where Joash is being hidden and make a covenant to support and protect him. Jehoiada divides the priests into thirds - 1/3 are to be gatekeepers, 1/3 will be stationed at the king's house, and 1/3 at the foundation gate. All the people are to be in the courts of the house of the Lord, but no one may enter the house of the Lord except for priests and Levites. The Levites shall surround King Joash at all times with their weapons in hand. "Be with the king when he comes in and when he goes out."

Sometimes bad people get to be in charge. The reason constitutional forms of goverment like ours are set up the way they are is to protect against this - to allow bad rulers to be voted out of office without bloodshed (as long as the elections are fair and honest, but I digress😏). Unfortunately, the Israelites, having demanded a king of God at the time of Samuel, had a history of often having very bad kings that they did not know how to get rid of. But God always takes care of his people.

When, as here, there is an illegitimate and wicked king on the throne of Israel, God raises up people like Jehoiada to deal with it. It is not easy for Jehoiada or those assisting him, they are putting themselves at great risk. They are engaging in a conspiracy, a plot to overthrow the head of government, albeit an illigitimate head. How could they be sure they were doing the right thing and that God would protect them? They could not be 100% sure, but because they were supporting the true heir (in accordance with the laws of Israel), and because were not setting out to kill or harm anyone, just to protect and install the rightful king, God was with them. God would see their plans through. In this case, there was not much bloodshed, but sometimes there is bloodshed, unfortunately. We just have to discern and act in accordance with his will always and trust that what happens then is his will. So here God obviously did not want his people to suffer a civil war due to the machinations of an evil woman, but Jehoiada and his men did not fully know that. They had to trust the Lord, and they did.

We are all called to put ourselves at risk for the true king. It can be very frightening, as I'm sure Jehoiada was frightened (in fact, he waited to act until he had taken courage, so obviously he was frightened!), but if we are close to God and listening to him, discerning, we will know when we have to act.

For most of my life I have not had to put myself at risk for my faith, or for the true king, but over the last few years I have realized that I very much do have to do that now, and I have suffered because of it. I think we are coming to a point where all Christians will have to suffer for the true king. That is okay - he will protect us and bring about the best possible outcome, just as he did for Joash and Jehoiada. All that we have to do is stay with him, listen to him, and "be with the king when he comes in and when he goes out."