He then went in search of Ahaziah, and his men captured him while he was hiding in Samaria. He was brought to Jehu and put to death. They buried him, for they said, “He was a son of Jehoshaphat, who sought the LORD with all his heart.” So there was no one in the house of Ahaziah powerful enough to retain the kingdom. – 2 Chronicles 22:9

Today’s Scripture Reading (October 23, 2013): 2 Chronicles 22

In 1789, Louis XVI, king of France, declared an Estates General. The Estates General was a general assembly representing the three Estates of the French society. It was the first time that an Estates General had met since 1614. So the Estates General brought together representatives from the First Estate (the clergy), the Second Estate (the nobles) and the Third Estate (the common people). The meeting was called to propose the kings solution for the country’s economic problems. The Estates General sat for several weeks during May and June 1789, but they could not come to a solution. In fact, there was an impasse because the Estates themselves could not agree on what it was that they were supposed to do and what each Estates rights and responsibilities were. The First and Second Estate were convinced that the final answer to the financial problems of the nation was to raise the taxes on Third Estate – the common people of the nation.  The Third Estate disagreed. The result of the impasse was that the Third Estate decided to declare itself a National Assembly, excluding the First and Second Estates, and the ten year period we know of as the French Revolution had begun.

Over the next three months the authority of the King was transferred completely to the elected representatives of the people. Eventually the King and many in his court would be executed. But there was a problem that the common people had not anticipated. None of them were able to step up and fill the leadership vacuum that had once been occupied by the King. The result of the vacuum created at the top of French society by the French Revolution that it created the opportunity for Napoleon Bonaparte to rise to power. And Napoleon became a self-styled emperor of France – a replacement for the executed Louis XVI.

In one of the weirdest turns in the Bible, the houses of both the former King of Israel and the current King of Judah were murdered. Jehoram, King of Judah, had sought a treaty with his northern brothers and so he had married the daughter of Ahab. Her name was Athaliah. But when her Father’s family was eliminated, Athaliah decided that what needed to happen was that the house of Jehoram, the very house that she had married into, also needed to be destroyed. In one swoop she hoped to end the reign of David.

In some ways she succeeded. The Chronicler says that as the king, Ahaziah – the son of Jehoram and the stepson of Athaliah – dies, there was no one left of the house of David who was strong enough to lead the nation. And because nature abhors a vacuum, Athaliah, the daughter of Ahab, the former ruler of the Northern Kingdom of Israel, became the Queen of the Southern Kingdom of Judah. The vacuum had to be filled, and Athaliah was pleased fill the vacancy.

But God held another plan. And unknown to Athaliah, there was someone who would grow into his position as the rightful King of Judah, and the Kingdom of David would be restored. Because while we may fill a vacuum temporarily, it is only God that fulfills it permanently.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Joel 1