All the people of the land rejoiced, and the city was calm, because Athaliah had been slain with the sword. – 2 Chronicles 23:21

Today’s Scripture Reading (November 13, 2016): 2 Chronicles 23

Adolf Hitler died on April 30, 1945. He took his life by shooting himself in the head. Eva Braun, his longtime companion, killed herself by swallowing a cyanide capsule. The first revelation that the Fuhrer had died came from the German’s themselves. They announced the death of Hitler over the radio on May 1 – and then began to negotiate their surrender with the U.S. and Britain and their allies, basically to save their people from falling into the hands of the Soviet Union soldiers who was closing in around the country and headed straight for Berlin. The understanding seemed to be that there would be more mercy and justice coming from the West than would be available from the Soviet Union. But the news of the death of Hitler was met with celebration, and that celebration was magnified a week later as the war officially ended in Europe on May 8, 1945.

I was recently asked why April 30 is not a national holiday – the Death of Hitler Day. And the answer to that question is a little complex. First, no one wants to remember the tyrant who tried to tear the world apart and almost succeeded. He is not worth remembering. But the bigger answer is that the celebration just didn’t last that long. We were relieved that the war was over, but the nightmare of what Hitler and his war machine had done was just beginning to be revealed. We had heard rumors of the concentration camps and the mass murder of civilians before the end of the war, but the stories were impossible to believe. No one could be that evil. But the days following the Death of Hitler and the end of the war began to reveal a nightmare that should have stayed in our dreams. At the end of World War II, there was nothing to celebrate. We needed to remember the atrocities and the people who had suffered through them. We needed to celebrate the indomitable human spirit. But the man who had caused all of this needed to be left behind – at least, as much as possible.

As Athalia dies, we are told that the land rejoiced and the city (Jerusalem) was calm. The nightmare that was Queen Athalia was over. She had plotted to end the reign of David’s descendants, and she had failed. Joash was on the throne and Jehoiada the Priest was in control. Judah would be a nation transformed back into a Kingdom under the God who had brought Israel out of Egypt and had guided their steps into the Promised Land. The altars of Ba’al and Asherah needed to be destroyed. There was a celebration, but it was probably a very short one. Because, in the end, there was work to do as the people attempted to recover from the nightmare that they had been suffering through during the six-year reign of Queen Athalia.     

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: 2 Chronicles 24