When Treason is Piety: The End of a Tyrant Text: 2 Chronicles 23:12-15
Introduction: The Usurper's Accusation
We live in an age that is profoundly confused about authority, legitimacy, and rebellion. Our culture has inverted the meaning of words, calling good evil and evil good, putting light for darkness and darkness for light. It is an age that celebrates rebellion against God's created order in the name of freedom, while demanding absolute submission to its own godless decrees in the name of tolerance. And so, when the people of God finally stand up and say "no more," when they reassert the crown rights of Jesus Christ over every square inch of creation, the first and loudest cry from the crumbling citadels of secularism is always the same: "Treason! Sedition! Rebellion!"
This is nothing new. The devil is not creative; he is a plagiarist. He has been running the same play for millennia. The playbook of the wicked is to seize power unjustly, to murder and lie their way to the top, and then, when the rightful authority is restored, to shriek "Treason!" at the agents of that restoration. The one who commits the treason is always the first to accuse others of it. The tyrant wraps himself in the flag of legitimacy, hoping that no one will notice the blood on his hands or the stolen crown on his head.
In our text today, we witness the dramatic conclusion to one of the great constitutional crises in the history of Judah. A wicked queen, Athaliah, the daughter of Ahab and Jezebel, had seized the throne through a bloody coup. She was a Baal-worshipper, a usurper, and a murderer of her own grandchildren, the royal seed. For six years, her illegitimate and idolatrous reign polluted the land. But God, in His providence, had preserved one rightful heir, the young boy Joash, who was hidden away in the house of God itself, under the protection of Jehoiada the high priest. The church was harboring the true king.
What we see in these verses is not a messy political squabble. It is a covenant renewal. It is the collision of two kingdoms: the kingdom of Baal, founded on murder and usurpation, and the Kingdom of God, founded on divine right and covenant faithfulness. It is a story about how a faithful priest, representing the church, orchestrated the overthrow of a tyrannical government and the restoration of the rightful king. It is a lesson in godly treason, which is to say, ultimate loyalty to the King of kings.
The Text
Then Athaliah heard the noise of the people running and praising the king, so she came into the house of Yahweh to the people. And she looked, and behold, the king was standing by his pillar at the entrance, and the commanders and the trumpeters were beside the king. And all the people of the land were glad and blew trumpets, the singers with their musical instruments leading the praise. Then Athaliah tore her clothes and said, “Treason! Treason!” Then Jehoiada the priest brought out the commanders of hundreds who were appointed over the military force and said to them, “Bring her out between the ranks; and whoever follows her, let him be put to death with the sword.” For the priest said, “You shall not put her to death in the house of Yahweh.” So they laid hands on her, and when she arrived at the entrance of the Horse Gate of the king’s house, they put her to death there.
(2 Chronicles 23:12-15 LSB)
The Sound of Righteousness (v. 12-13)
We begin with the rude awakening of a tyrant.
"Then Athaliah heard the noise of the people running and praising the king, so she came into the house of Yahweh to the people. And she looked, and behold, the king was standing by his pillar at the entrance, and the commanders and the trumpeters were beside the king. And all the people of the land were glad and blew trumpets, the singers with their musical instruments leading the praise." (2 Chronicles 23:12-13)
For six years, Athaliah had enjoyed the quiet of a cowed and compromised populace. The worship of God had been suppressed, and the sounds of her idolatrous court were the only sounds that mattered. But now, a different noise reaches her ears. It is not the sound of a riot; it is the sound of worship. It is the noise of "praising the king." Notice the fusion here. The people are running, they are praising, they are blowing trumpets. This is a liturgical and a political act, all at once. True worship is never politically neutral, because it declares that Jesus is Lord, and therefore Caesar is not.
Athaliah, drawn by the commotion, enters the house of Yahweh. She has no business there, but tyrants always believe they have jurisdiction everywhere. And what she sees is her worst nightmare. The rightful king, Joash, is standing "by his pillar at the entrance." This was the designated spot for the king during covenant ceremonies. His very posture is a declaration of legitimacy. He is not hiding in a corner; he is publicly assuming his rightful place according to God's law. He is surrounded by the instruments of power, the commanders, and the instruments of worship, the trumpeters and singers. This is a picture of a rightly ordered kingdom, where the civil and the liturgical are in harmony, both submitted to the true king.
The reaction of the people is crucial: "all the people of the land were glad." True, godly authority brings joy to the people. Tyranny brings misery, fear, and a sullen silence. But when the rightful king is on the throne, the people rejoice. This is not a coerced celebration; it is a spontaneous eruption of gladness. They had been living under the thumb of a murderous Baal-worshipper, and now the line of David was restored. This is a foretaste of the joy that will fill the whole earth when King Jesus returns to take His throne.
The Traitor's Cry (v. 13b)
Athaliah's response is immediate and predictable.
"Then Athaliah tore her clothes and said, 'Treason! Treason!'" (2 Chronicles 23:13b LSB)
She tears her clothes, a sign of extreme distress and grief. But her grief is not for her sin; it is for her loss of power. And then comes the cry, "Treason! Treason!" In the Hebrew, it is a clipped, frantic cry: qesher, qesher! Conspiracy! Conspiracy! It is the ultimate projection. The one who had conspired against God's anointed, who had murdered her way to the throne, now accuses the loyalists of conspiracy.
This is always the way of the wicked. When their illegitimate authority is challenged by God's legitimate authority, they do not repent. They double down. They accuse the righteous of the very sins they themselves have perfected. They redefine loyalty to mean loyalty to their sinful rebellion. Anyone who remains loyal to God is, by their twisted definition, a traitor. We see this today. When Christians insist that marriage is between a man and a woman, they are called hateful. When they insist that there are only two genders, they are called bigots. When they insist that Jesus is the only way to the Father, they are called intolerant. The world screams "Treason!" against the law of God.
But Athaliah's cry is impotent. It is the shriek of a cornered animal. She has no moral high ground, no legitimate claim. Her authority was based on violence and lies, and now that the truth has been brought into the light, her power evaporates. The people are not with her. The military is not with her. And most importantly, God is not with her. Her cry of "Treason!" is nothing more than a confession of her own guilt.
The Priest's Command (v. 14)
In this critical moment, it is not the new king who acts, but the priest. Jehoiada takes charge.
"Then Jehoiada the priest brought out the commanders of hundreds who were appointed over the military force and said to them, 'Bring her out between the ranks; and whoever follows her, let him be put to death with the sword.' For the priest said, 'You shall not put her to death in the house of Yahweh.'" (2 Chronicles 23:14 LSB)
Here we see the proper relationship between church and state in a moment of crisis. Jehoiada, the priest, does not take up the sword himself. He is a minister of the sanctuary. But he does not hesitate to command the civil magistrate, the commanders of the military, to do their duty. He reminds them of their God-given responsibility to punish the wicked and protect the righteous. This is not the church becoming the state, but it is the church speaking authoritatively to the state, reminding it of the law of God.
Jehoiada's command is twofold. First, "Bring her out between the ranks." She is to be escorted out as a criminal, her authority publicly stripped away. Second, "whoever follows her, let him be put to death with the sword." This is a declaration that the rebellion is over. There will be no negotiation, no compromise. Anyone who sides with the usurper will share in her fate. This is the application of God's law regarding capital crimes. Athaliah was a murderer and an idolater, and the penalty for such high treason against the covenant was death.
But notice the crucial caveat: "You shall not put her to death in the house of Yahweh." Jehoiada is zealous for justice, but he is also zealous for the holiness of God's house. The temple was a place of life and worship, not a place for bloodshed and execution. The ground was holy. This demonstrates a profound theological balance. Justice must be done, but it must be done in a rightly ordered way. The priest understood the distinction between the sacred space of the temple and the common space of the city, where the sword of the magistrate was to be wielded. He was not a pragmatist who would do anything to win; he was a man of God who obeyed God's law even in the process of enforcing it.
The Execution of Justice (v. 15)
The final verse is stark and efficient. The sentence is carried out.
"So they laid hands on her, and when she arrived at the entrance of the Horse Gate of the king’s house, they put her to death there." (2 Chronicles 23:15 LSB)
The commanders obey the priest. "They laid hands on her." The authority of God, spoken through His minister, was recognized and followed. She is taken to the "Horse Gate," a public entrance to the royal palace. It was a place of transit, a common place. There, outside the sacred precincts of the temple but within the domain of civil justice, she was executed.
The justice is swift and final. There is no lengthy appeal process, no hand-wringing over the feelings of the tyrant. Her reign of terror was over. The land could begin to heal. This was not an act of vengeance; it was an act of public justice, a cleansing of the land from the pollution of idolatry and murder. It was the necessary surgery to remove a cancerous tumor from the body politic of Judah.
This is a hard word for our sentimental age. We have been taught that tolerance is the highest virtue and that judgment is the greatest sin. But the Bible teaches that justice is a cornerstone of God's character. A God who does not judge evil is not a good God. A civil magistrate who refuses to punish high crimes, who bears the sword in vain, is abdicating his God-given duty. The execution of Athaliah was a righteous and necessary act that restored order and reaffirmed that God's law is supreme.
Conclusion: Loyalty to the True King
So what does this ancient account of a palace coup have to do with us? Everything. We too live under the reign of usurpers. The principalities and powers of this dark age have, like Athaliah, seized control of our culture, our institutions, and our governments. They have murdered the innocent through abortion, redefined God's holy institutions, and promoted every form of idolatry imaginable. And when the church, like Jehoiada, dares to protect the truth and proclaim the rights of the true King, Jesus, the world shrieks, "Treason! Bigotry! Hate speech!"
This story teaches us that our ultimate loyalty is not to the reigning Athaliah of the moment, but to the hidden Joash, our Lord Jesus Christ. Our allegiance is to the King who is currently, in a sense, hidden away in the heavenly temple, but who will soon be revealed to all. We are to be like Jehoiada, faithfully preserving the truth of the covenant and preparing the people for the day of the King's appearing.
This does not mean we are to be violent revolutionaries. Jehoiada acted with the full support of the legitimate civil and military authorities. Our weapons are not carnal, but they are mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds. Our weapon is the proclamation of the gospel of the Kingdom. Every time we declare that Jesus is Lord, we are committing what the world considers treason. Every time we baptize a new believer, we are marking them as a citizen of a rival kingdom. Every time we gather for worship, we are celebrating the coronation of the true King.
Let the world cry "Treason!" We know it is the highest form of loyalty. For one day soon, the trumpets will sound in earnest. The true King will stand forth, not by a pillar in an earthly temple, but on the clouds of heaven. And on that day, every usurper will be cast down, and all the people of the land will rejoice. Until then, our task is clear: protect the royal seed, which is the gospel. Proclaim the rights of the King. And do not be intimidated when the traitors cry treason.