Covenant, Carnage, and a Quiet City Text: 2 Kings 11:17-21
Introduction: The Non-Negotiable Covenant
We live in an age that despises binding commitments. Our culture champions the autonomous self, the individual who is free to define his own reality, his own morality, his own identity. The highest sacrament of the modern world is the freedom to break any promise that becomes inconvenient. Marriage vows, business contracts, national constitutions, you name it, they are all treated as suggestions, liable to be renegotiated the moment they start to chafe. This allergy to being bound is, at its root, an allergy to God. Because the God of the Bible is a covenant-making and a covenant-keeping God. The entire plotline of Scripture, the very structure of reality, is covenantal.
A covenant is a solemn, binding oath, sworn before God. It is not a contract between equals; it is a relationship defined and administered by a sovereign. And when a people, or a nation, breaks covenant with God, the results are never peace and freedom. The result is always tyranny and chaos. When you reject the lordship of Christ, you do not get neutrality. You get a usurper. You get an Athaliah. You get a murderous, idolatrous regime that seeks to stamp out the line of the covenant promise.
The story before us today is the story of a violent, necessary, and glorious course correction. It is the story of a nation being brought back to its senses through the unflinching leadership of a faithful priest. It is a story of covenant renewal. And we must understand that this is not just an interesting historical episode. It is a paradigm. It shows us what is required when a people has gone astray. It requires more than just good intentions. It requires a formal re-commitment to God, and it requires the public and thorough dismantling of the idols that led to the apostasy in the first place. This is reformation in high definition.
The Text
Then Jehoiada cut a covenant between Yahweh and the king and the people, that they would be the people of Yahweh, also between the king and the people. And all the people of the land came to the house of Baal and tore it down; his altars and his images they broke in pieces thoroughly, and they killed Mattan the priest of Baal before the altars. And the priest appointed overseers over the house of Yahweh. And he took the commanders of hundreds and the Carites and the guards and all the people of the land; and they brought the king down from the house of Yahweh, and came by the way of the gate of the guards to the king’s house. And he sat on the throne of the kings. So all the people of the land were glad, and the city was quiet. For they had put Athaliah to death with the sword at the king’s house. Jehoash was seven years old when he became king.
(2 Kings 11:17-21 LSB)
The Vertical and the Horizontal (v. 17)
The first action after the coronation of the rightful king is not a political policy speech. It is a theological realignment.
"Then Jehoiada cut a covenant between Yahweh and the king and the people, that they would be the people of Yahweh, also between the king and the people." (2 Kings 11:17)
Notice the structure. This is a three-way covenant, with two distinct dimensions. First, and most importantly, is the vertical dimension. Jehoiada, acting as God's representative, binds both the king and the people to Yahweh. Their fundamental identity is not determined by their ethnicity or their political allegiance, but by this one defining reality: "that they would be the people of Yahweh." This is the foundation of everything else. Before you can have a righteous king or a righteous citizenry, you must have a people who understand that they belong to God. All authority, all law, all social order flows downward from this point. If God is not sovereign, then the state will be, and that is the very definition of tyranny.
Only after this vertical allegiance is re-established does Jehoiada formalize the horizontal dimension: "also between the king and the people." This is crucial. This establishes what we might call a constitutional monarchy under God. The king is not an absolute despot like Athaliah was. He is bound by the same covenant that binds the people. He has obligations to them under God's law, and they have obligations to him under God's law. He is not the source of the law; he is a servant of the law. This is the biblical blueprint for limited government. The state is not ultimate; the covenant is. When a nation forgets this, it trades the liberty of serving God for the slavery of serving men.
Reformation Has Teeth (v. 18)
Covenant renewal is not a matter of pious sentiment. It is not a feeling. It demands immediate, tangible, and sometimes violent action. Repentance without reformation is a sham.
"And all the people of the land came to the house of Baal and tore it down; his altars and his images they broke in pieces thoroughly, and they killed Mattan the priest of Baal before the altars. And the priest appointed overseers over the house of Yahweh." (2 Kings 11:18)
This is corporate, public action. "All the people of the land." This was not a clandestine operation by a few radicals. This was a popular uprising of righteousness. They went straight for the spiritual heart of the previous corrupt regime, the state-sponsored temple of Baal. And they did not "repurpose" it or "dialogue" with its adherents. They "tore it down." The text emphasizes the totality of the destruction: "broke in pieces thoroughly." This is iconoclasm. This is the physical removal of temptation and the public repudiation of idolatry. You cannot serve God and Baal, and so the house of Baal must be leveled.
And then we come to a verse that makes modern, effeminate evangelicals blush and stammer. "They killed Mattan the priest of Baal before the altars." Let us be clear. This was not murder. This was a righteous, public execution. Mattan was not simply a man with different religious opinions. He was the chief agent of a treasonous, foreign religion that demanded child sacrifice and sexual perversion. Under the law of God, which was the law of that land, he was a spiritual and political traitor, guilty of capital crimes (Deut. 13:1-5). To allow him to live would have been an act of sentimental foolishness, leaving the root of the cancer in the ground. Justice required his removal. True peace is never established on a foundation of compromise with evil.
But notice that destruction is immediately followed by construction. After tearing down the false, Jehoiada builds up the true. He "appointed overseers over the house of Yahweh." Reformation is not just about what you are against; it is about what you are for. You demolish the brothel so you can reconsecrate the sanctuary. The worship of God is restored to its rightful place.
Authority Flows from God's House (v. 19)
The next verse is a powerful piece of political theology, demonstrated in a public procession.
"And he took the commanders... and they brought the king down from the house of Yahweh... to the king’s house. And he sat on the throne of the kings." (2 Kings 11:19)
Pay close attention to the geography. Where does the king start? In the house of Yahweh, the Temple. Where does he end up? In the king's house, the palace. The procession moves from the sacred space to the civil space. The message is unmistakable: all legitimate civil authority flows from and is accountable to the authority of God. The king is consecrated in God's house before he sits on his own throne. The state is downstream from the church. The palace derives its legitimacy from the Temple. This is the principle of the crown rights of King Jesus over all of life, displayed for all to see. The king rules by the grace of God, or he is no king at all, but a tyrant.
The Fruits of Justice (v. 20-21)
So what is the result of this covenant renewal, this iconoclasm, this execution of the wicked, and this establishment of righteous authority? The answer is twofold: joy and peace.
"So all the people of the land were glad, and the city was quiet. For they had put Athaliah to death with the sword at the king’s house. Jehoash was seven years old when he became king." (2 Kings 11:20-21)
First, "all the people of the land were glad." True obedience to God does not lead to misery; it leads to joy. The people had been living under the dark, paranoid, and bloody reign of a usurper. Now that the rightful king is on the throne and the true God is being worshiped, their hearts are filled with gladness. This is the joy that comes from a rightly ordered society.
Second, "the city was quiet." This is the Hebrew word for peace, for tranquility. The chaos of Athaliah's rule is over. The political intrigue, the fear, the violence, it has all been replaced by shalom. And the text gives the explicit reason for this peace: "For they had put Athaliah to death." The quietness of the city was purchased by the just execution of the tyrant. Let that sink in. Our modern world believes that peace comes through tolerance, inclusivity, and the refusal to execute judgment. The Bible teaches the exact opposite. Peace comes through the decisive and just removal of wickedness. Unflinching justice is the bedrock of social tranquility.
And the final verse is a beautiful reminder of God's grace. "Jehoash was seven years old when he became king." This entire reformation was not accomplished by a mighty warrior king. It was accomplished by a faithful priest on behalf of a little boy. This highlights the fact that the victory belongs to God alone. The hope of God's people is not in the strength of their leaders, but in the faithfulness of their God to keep His covenant promises, even when the heir to that promise is a child. God secures the line of David, the line that would ultimately lead to Christ, not by human might, but by His sovereign power.
Christ the King, Athaliah in the Heart
This entire narrative is a picture of the gospel. Every one of us is born with a usurper on the throne of our hearts. Our own personal Athaliah, the tyrant of Sin and Self, rules us with an iron fist. We live in a state of chaos and fear, chasing after the Baals of this world, whether they be money, sex, power, or approval.
But then our great High Priest, the Lord Jesus Christ, intervenes. He cuts a New Covenant, not with the blood of animals, but with His own blood. He deposes the tyrant, putting our old man to death on the cross. He is the true King, the rightful heir of David's throne, who has come to reclaim His kingdom.
And when He is enthroned in our hearts by faith, the same pattern follows. We are called to a life of radical iconoclasm. We are to go to the house of Baal in our hearts and tear it down. We are to break our idols in pieces thoroughly (Col. 3:5). This is not optional. It is the necessary fruit of true conversion. And we are to do this not just once, but daily.
And what is the result? It is the same as it was in Jerusalem. It is gladness and quiet. It is the "peace of God, which surpasses all understanding" (Phil. 4:7) and the "joy of the Lord" which is our strength (Neh. 8:10). This peace and joy is purchased by the death of the tyrant. Christ killed our Athaliah on the cross, and He calls us to enforce that victory in our lives.
Therefore, let us take this lesson to heart. Let us renew our covenant allegiance to our King. Let us be ruthless in tearing down the idols in our own lives, in our families, and in our churches. And let us not be surprised when the result of this unflinching faithfulness is a deep and abiding gladness, and a quiet, peaceful city of the soul.