And when Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she arose and destroyed all the seed royal.
- II Kings 11:1
Today I’d like to wrap up our look at Jehoiada’s righteous interposition on behalf of the legitimate Davidic line of kings and the people of Judah.
As we’ve discussed so far, the purpose of this series is to look at an important but largely ignored Biblical doctrine known as the doctrine of the lesser magistrate. Last week we defined the doctrine of the lesser magistrate using Matthew Trewhella’s book The Doctrine of the Lesser Magistrates. In his book, Trewhella gives the following definition of this doctrine,
The lesser magistrate doctrine declares that when the superior or higher civil authority makes unjust/immoral laws or decrees, the lesser or lower ranking civil authority has both a right and duty to refuse obedience to that superior authority. If necessary, the lesser authorities even have the right and obligation to actively resist the superior authority (1).
It’s important to define and discuss this doctrine because Christians in the West find themselves in situations where more and more they live under governments that are openly hostile to them. Good is now evil and evil is now good. In some places, Christians can find themselves prosecuted for quoting what the Bible says about homosexuality, while satanic transgender activists are free to recruit kids for their perverted cause.
Here in the United States, we have a situation much like what Judah faced under Queen Athaliah, an illegitimate government that goes out of its way to implement evil policies. Athaliah was a murderess and promoter of Baal worship. Joe Biden works tirelessly to implement the Vatican’s globalist agenda via his climate change policies, unprecedented illegal immigration, attacking the Americans’ Second Amendment rights, fanning the flames of war in eastern Europe, the promoting sexual perversion, and accusing patriotic, Christian Americans of sedition when they speak out against his evil.
When faced with evil government dictates, some Christians will point to Romans 13:1 – Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities – and argue that there is no legitimate or almost no legitimate reason for Christians ever to push back against evil government commands. If a governor says that you have to shut down your church due to Covid, you shut down your church due to Covid, and that’s just that. Anything else is unrighteous rebellion. That this is a widespread opinion can be seen by the number of churches that bent their knee when told to close their doors “to stop the spread.”
On the other hand, there are some people who hold that primate rebellion is a justified response against a tyrannical government. There are several instances where the kings of Judah and Israel were murdered by political opponents. Oddly, young king Joash, whom Jehosheba and Jehoiada saved, would later be murdered by his servants. But the murder of Joash, even though Joash had clearly deviated from the paths of righteousness later in life, is clearly condemned in the Scriptures.
So we see that neither blind obedience nor private rebellion is the Christian answer to dealing with tyrannical governments. The Christian answer is the doctrine of the lesser magistrate. A doctrine we see modeled quite well by the righteous high priest Jehoiada. Jehoiada hid the young, rightful heir to the throne of Judah for six years. After that period had elapsed, he organized a military guard, brought the seven-year-old Joash out in public, and made him king.
That’s where we left off last week. Let us now consider the beneficial effects of Jehoiada’s actions and what lessons American and other Western Christians can take from his example.
Lux Lucet 