She looked, and there was the king, standing by his pillar at the entrance. The officers and the trumpeters were beside the king, and all the people of the land were rejoicing and blowing trumpets, and musicians with their instruments were leading the praises. Then Athaliah tore her robes and shouted, “Treason! Treason!” – 2 Chronicles 23:13

Today’s Scripture Reading (December 19, 2019): 2 Chronicles 23

“Let us not seek the Republican answer or the Democratic answer, but the right answer. Let us not seek to fix the blame for the past. Let us accept our own responsibility for the future.” The words belong to John F. Kennedy and reflect a line of political thought that seems to be almost totally absent in our contemporary world. We live in a world of pain and revenge. We look for guardians of conservatism and liberalism rather than commit ourselves to the best idea regardless of where the idea might have found its origins. And it never ceases to amaze me the way that we can refuse to take responsibility for our actions and what those actions might mean for our future. A journey into social media reveals a parade of innocent people; the negative situations that are present in their lives are never their fault. They have no money, not because they refused to take care of their finances, but because of the greed that exists in the world.  The blame is never mine; it is always someone else’s. In the Calvin Harris song “Blame,” it isn’t even a person that is to blame for the singer’s bad behavior. It is just the inanimate “night” that is at fault. The chorus repeats the lines, “Blame it on the night, don’t blame it on me; don’t blame it on me.” Our innate ability to shift blame is impressive.

Athaliah was a power-hungry woman. I can’t imagine someone being evil enough to be able to commit the crimes of Athaliah. After the death of her son, Ahaziah, Athaliah killed the rest of her family, including her own grandchildren, so that she could reign as Queen of Judah. Athaliah was the only Queen to have solo reign in either Judah or Israel, and the Queen’s reign lasted six years. But, unknown to her, she did not kill all of her grandchildren. One grandson remained; a little boy named Joash. Joash was hidden away while Athaliah frittered away her time on the throne. But when the time was right, Joash was brought out in front of the nation and crowned the King of Judah.

Athaliah was angry. The boy was surrounded by guards, protected like the crown jewel that he really was. And Athaliah couldn’t do anything about it. She has no defense for the evil that she has done, and Athaliah cannot deny that Joash’s claim to the throne of Judah was stronger than hers, so instead, she levels the charge of treason against all of those who had conspired against her by saving the life of this grandson, the future king. In her mind, somehow she was not responsible for this turn of events. She had deceived herself into believing that somehow the throne was hers and I am not sure that anyone has been able to understand that logic. It was not treason that she had killed her family, including all of the princes of Judah, so that she could reign as Queen. It was treason that someone had dared to hide this grandson, and rightful heir to the throne, away from her in a place where she could not get at him and kill him.

Ultimately, what happens next was nothing more than a result of all that Athaliah had built. This was the future that her scheming had prepared for her — a future for which she refused to take responsibility. 

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: 2 Chronicles 24

See Also 2 Kings 11:14