All right. Morning. I’d like for us to start by going to the very first chapter in the Bible: Genesis 1:26-28.
And God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea, over the cattle, over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
And God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
And God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the sky, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
Now, another couple of verses out of Exodus. Exodus 10. This is the next-to-last plague. Exodus 10:21.
And the Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand toward the sky, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, even a darkness which may be felt.”
So Moses stretched out his hand toward the sky, and there was thick darkness in all the land of Egypt for three days.
They did not see one another, nor did anyone rise from his place for three days, but all the sons of Israel had light in their dwellings.
And finally, over in Ephesians 3. This is Paul’s second prayer in this letter, beginning in Ephesians 3:14.
For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from Whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man;
so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth,
and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.
Let’s pray.
Lord, we are so grateful that we have this privilege of gathering around Your table. Lord, even as our brothers shared the table, the greatest event throughout all history, we are able to be in Your presence because of that.
We sit here today; we have already been blessed. We came to remember You, but You blessed us, and we thank You for that. Lord, we are thankful, too, that You have not left us alone. You have given us the Holy Spirit. You have given us Your Word.
We offer ourselves unto You, Lord, that Your Spirit would have great freedom within all of our hearts and lives to use the very Word of God to pierce, to do that very dividing of soul and spirit.
We recognize that the days we are living in are these last days. No one has to speak of the evil of these days. There is an intensity about it. There is a darkness at times which we can even feel. But Lord, we are thankful that we can look up. We can see You.
As we come to Your Word today, Lord, we fix our eyes upon You. We offer ourselves to You, that You would have great freedom and great liberty to work in each of our lives. In Jesus’ name, amen.
I have noticed recently that the Lord has been speaking and sharing various burdens with us as an assembly about the family. A couple of weeks ago, Roger shared on the sons of Israel, speaking of the families there. Before that, our brother Tak shared on the families from generation to generation.
Recently, too, in an open prayer meeting, a sister brought up praying for families. We have prayed for families several times. I do not believe that any of us have to be convinced that there is a great battle over the family today. We see it, we are involved in it, and we feel the intensity of that battle.
We know that because of that battle, there is something critical about the family that is the focus of the enemy’s attack. It is sad how, even as you look among believers today, there is separation going on within families and divorce within families. We say there is a battle over the family, but sometimes there is a battle within the family that we need to be working through also. Praise God, He has made a way.
This morning, I wanted to go back and consider the matter of the family: God’s purpose for the family, God’s battle over the family, and how we can be encouraged and equipped to stand as the testimony of God in this day.
That is why we went back and read those verses out of Genesis 1. When you are considering something, it is always good to go back and look at the first mention. When we look at that first mention in Genesis 1:26-28, we see that this thought of the family did not come from man.
It was not like two people were upon this earth and said, “Hey, let’s form a family.” The family was upon God’s heart from eternity past. It was something that He desired—not something from man, not an afterthought. The very origin of the family came from the heart of God.
We see how the family came about: God had fellowship within Himself and said, “Let Us make man in Our image.” The motivation for the family came out of a desire and heart of love. There was a purpose in the family. God wanted to have a bride, an eternal companion for His Son.
So, the very origin and thought behind the family was love. When we see the family of God, that is to be the very characteristic of families: the love of God being expressed in many different ways.
We also note that the very nature of a family from the beginning was corporate. He said, “Let Us make them, male and female.” Those two co-workers together—God had a purpose for them. Male and female working together to accomplish His purpose. Neither one is complete without the other.
That purpose was to defeat the enemy in this day, to fulfill His eternal purpose, to bring in His kingdom, and for that bride to be made ready. There is a goal and a purpose in view. We are not here merely for ourselves.
Praise God, when we are in the family, there are many blessings; but it is far beyond us. It is not just about us. As He encourages us in this matter of the family, we see that there is a call upon the family.
What were they to do? They were to be productive. They were to be fruitful. This is far more than just physical; this is spiritual. There is a spiritual growing and a spiritual fruitfulness that God desires from the family.
They were also to be prevailing and subduing, being aware of the enemy’s tactics so that His will could be done upon this earth as it is in heaven. The family is to exercise dominion, to exercise power, and to stand as a testimony of God upon this earth.
Praise God, we are here with purpose, and He is calling us into this to fulfill it in a glorious way. There is also a tending of the garden, attending and gardening there, being that wall of protection.
We know the first family was not a very good wall, because the enemy was able to come in and there was that fall. But the family is to be that wall of protection.
Now, how were they to accomplish all this? Just by Adam and Eve being created? Were they able to accomplish it merely in themselves? They were given instruction. They were given encouragement.
The Lord said, “You can eat from any tree within the garden, except that tree of the knowledge of good and evil,” really pointing them to that tree of life. They were to eat of the tree of life and feast upon that. That was to give them power from on high to bring about His purpose.
But sadly, we know they ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. That tree speaks of the world’s standards. It speaks of self. It speaks of handling things in ourselves.
That choice between which tree we eat of continues to be a choice today. Are we feasting upon Christ, that Tree of Life? Or are we feasting upon the tree of the knowledge of good and evil?
There is a lot of good knowledge out there, a lot of so-called helpful things, but it is not of eternal value because it feeds ourselves. It does not accomplish His purpose. We are confronted with this choice every day in life.
As we read those verses from Ephesians 3, we see how the family is intimately involved in God accomplishing His purpose. He says, “Every family in heaven and on earth derives its name” from Him. It is all with a purpose.
As Psalm 107 says, He makes all the families like a flock. He does not want us to be a whole group of individual families; He brings us together. He wants us, as those families, to be like a flock—to be the family of God and the testimony of God—not merely a cluster of individual families.
As many have shared before, families are the building blocks of the church. As those families function together, the church is built. Families are really God’s basic unit of operation.
It is interesting as you look throughout the history of Israel. God always desired there to be that corporate expression of His life among His people. When they came out of Egypt in that great exodus, they came out by families.
When they were numbered in the book of Numbers, how were they numbered? It was not merely by clusters: “This is the group that lives in this region, and this is the group that lives in that region.” They were numbered by families.
When David was preparing to bring in the kingdom, and people were gathering unto David to bring in that kingdom, how did the Holy Spirit record them? It did not merely say, “These are the ones bearing spears, and these are the ones bearing swords.” No, they came by family.
We even had a conference on the sons of Issachar. As you look at Chronicles, they are listed there by family. The Lord is sending us a message there. He is showing us the significance of how He wants families to be together, serving His purpose and bringing people into a greater heart and purpose.
The more we see of God’s heart and purpose for the family, the more we start to understand the intensity of the battle that we are in. By the very nature of the intensity of this battle, we should see the significance of the family.
The battle over the family goes far beyond individual families. It is a battle over the family of God. It is a battle over the testimony of Jesus. That is the target.
We are not the target. We might be instruments used here and there, but as this battle intensifies, it is the testimony of Jesus—God’s heart and God’s purpose—that is really under attack.
It is sad today, as we look around at the testimony of the Lord, that we are in a weakened condition. At times, this can be discouraging. It can cause us to lose heart. It can cause us to faint.
But God says, “Look up. Our salvation draws near.” Praise God, that is our hope, brothers and sisters, in the midst of these days.
We read those verses out of Exodus 10: though everything else was dark, there was light in the dwellings of the sons of Israel. That little phrase before it says that the darkness could be felt.
Sometimes, when we are in the midst of darkness, when there is evil around, it is amazing how you can feel the darkness. You have a sense of how dark it is. This was where they were at that time. But praise God, there was light in their dwellings.
I really love that phrase, “light in the dwellings,” because up to this point I have been speaking of family. When you speak of family, we automatically, quite often, have one thought: this is a family. But if you think about light in the dwellings in a broader sense, what are families?
I think the family takes on various forms at different phases of life. Praise God, we have some sisters and some brothers who live together. We pray that there would be light in their dwelling.
There was, to me, a beautiful family in the New Testament: Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. What a preciousness. Sometimes you have single brothers and single sisters—light in their dwellings. Sometimes we have newlyweds—light in their dwellings.
Sometimes a family is with young children. Sometimes we are empty nesters. Sometimes we are widows, widowers, or divorcees. Whatever the situation, the goal is that there would be light in the dwelling.
His purpose and desire are the same for each and every one: wherever we are, the Lord desires the light of His life to come forth. Whatever phase of life we are in, this is not merely about what we might categorize as a so-called family—mother, father, and children.
This is all-inclusive. We are the family of God, and this is what He is after. There is a great battle over that. Are we giving the Lord the opportunity for that light to shine forth in our families, in our dwellings?
Are we recovering things such as devotions, prayer, fellowship, and worship—those intimate times together in the presence of the Lord—that the light of His life would really come forth?
Families are not going to be strong unless His life is recovered within our midst. Hear what I say: just coming to meetings is not enough. That may be once a week, or perhaps two or three times a week. Praise God for those opportunities, but that is not enough.
We need daily to be feasting upon Him. There needs daily to be that oil of the Holy Spirit poured forth within our homes and within our lives, that the light would shine in a fuller and greater way.
We know that modern-day life is totally against the family as we would look at it from God’s perspective. But we need His light and His life to really be shining forth.
Today, I wanted to take a family out of the Old Testament. They were living in some of the darkest times in the Old Testament, but they stood for the Lord’s testimony.
When we talk about families, sometimes we can look around at our own families and come under condemnation. I think everybody feels their failure in their family at some time or another. But praise God, we are not the judge of that.
As we come back to Him, He says today is the day. We can hear His voice. We can be encouraged. We can rise up. We can press on. We can put the past behind and allow Him to come in with freshness of life and bring restoration within us.
We all make mistakes. We are all failures at various times, but praise God for the blood of the Lamb. Praise God for that healing ointment of that precious oil that comes in.
Maybe we have allowed the locusts to eat our families bare and strip them naked, but He can restore what the locust has eaten. There is great hope in Him. That is what we want to see today: the hope we have for the families of God, the hope we have in our Lord Jesus Christ.
We want to be encouraged by this particular family who, as I said, stood for the testimony of God during one of the darkest times in the history of Israel.
If you remember the history of Israel briefly, we know how Israel reached its zenith under David and Solomon. The temple was built, the kingdom was united, and the glory of the Lord appeared there. It was a real zenith.
But tragically, because of the sins of Solomon, after Solomon’s death the kingdom was divided between the northern kingdom, the ten tribes of Israel, and the southern kingdom, the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin.
Though the Lord sent prophets to the northern kingdom and reached out to them many times, there was never a response to the Lord. Within a couple of hundred years, they were taken captive by the Assyrians.
The southern kingdom, thankfully, had times of reviving, but sadly, after that there would be a falling back. There was an ebb and flow. Tragically, after about three hundred years, they were taken captive by Babylon.
After Solomon’s death, when his son Rehoboam reigned, the kingdom was divided. There were a couple of bad kings, and then the Lord raised up Asa and Jehoshaphat. There was a reviving for a period of time.
But sadly, during the reign of Jehoshaphat, he allowed his son Jehoram to marry Athaliah. Athaliah was the daughter of Ahab and Jezebel from the nation of Israel.
When you say the name Jezebel, it speaks volumes. When we speak of Jezebel, we are speaking of far more than an individual or a woman. We are speaking of a spirit that is against everything that God desires.
The spirit of Jezebel relentlessly attacks everything that God is after and pursuing. This is what we see within Jezebel.
I have never met somebody who named their daughter Jezebel. Maybe somebody has, out of ignorance, but you do not hear of many Jezebels. We have some schoolteachers here—I do not know whether they have ever taught a Jezebel or not.
But we see how that name, even in the world, carries a stigma. Somehow, through a political alliance, Jehoshaphat allowed his son to marry Jezebel’s daughter, and it had an immediate effect.
Let’s turn back to 2 Chronicles 21. After Jehoshaphat died and his son Jehoram became king, we see the impact of Athaliah upon him.
Jehoram walked in the ways of the kings of Israel, just as the house of Ahab did, for Ahab’s daughter was his wife; and he did evil in the sight of the Lord.
—2 Chronicles 21:6
We see here the impact that a husband or wife can have upon a family. We can encourage one another in good and positive ways, or in negative ways. There is a direct impact that husband and wife have upon each other.
Athaliah had a great impact upon Jehoram because she was not following the Lord. She was a worshiper of Baal, and she brought that family down. Because of that, the Lord smote him with an illness. We will not go into the grossness of the way he died, but his son Ahaziah was raised up.
In the next chapter, 2 Chronicles 22, Ahaziah was made king. But we see how this evil continued.
He also walked in the ways of the house of Ahab, for his mother was his counselor to do wickedly.
He did evil in the sight of the Lord.
—2 Chronicles 22:3-4
We see Judah’s spiritual condition getting darker and darker. Ahaziah was so evil that he was slain. At this point, his mother Athaliah, the daughter of Jezebel, took over the rule within the southern kingdom of Judah.
As we said, this was the spirit of one who was against everything of the Lord. The first thing she did was begin to kill off all the royal offspring.
Now remember who she was killing: she was killing her children and grandchildren. It was not as though they were people she did not know. That speaks of the evil of this time, the wickedness and darkness to which Judah had fallen.
This was a bleak point. Outwardly, it appeared that God’s promise to David had failed. God had promised David that one of his seed would always be upon the throne. We praise the Lord that the Messiah came from that seed of David, but Athaliah was on the throne.
Outwardly, it appeared hopeless, as though God had failed. If you relate that to us today, when you look around at the outward condition of the church, it can appear that God has failed.
We see so much confusion. We see divisions, heresies, fightings, man-centered things, man’s ministry, this and that. It can appear that God has failed.
But praise God, He said, “I will build My church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.” It can appear in this dark day that the promise has failed, but God and His promise will accomplish what He has started.
This is why it is so vital that we, as the people of God, understand what God’s heart and purpose are. If we look only at outward appearances, we can say, “How is God ever going to build His church? How is this church ever going to be without spot or wrinkle? It is utter chaos. He needs to start again.”
But praise God, He is going to accomplish that which He started. We see the same thing here within the Old Testament.
This brings us to this dear family. In the darkest of times, when everything seemed so hopeless and helpless, they did not think of themselves. Their hearts were on God’s purpose and God’s interest.
It is a beautiful testimony of a husband, a wife, and a son serving God’s purpose because they knew that the only hope for Israel was for David’s seed to be on the throne.
The only hope that Judah, as that southern kingdom, had was for David’s seed to be upon that throne. What is our hope today? Our hope today is in Christ. It is about looking up—not looking in the natural way, but looking up and knowing that He is doing a great work.
It may appear outwardly at times to be a failure, but we know that in the end He is going to accomplish everything that He desires.
This family was Jehoiada, his wife Jehosheba, and their son Zechariah. I was a little confused about how to pronounce the wife’s name, so I Googled it. I found about ten different ways to pronounce it, so I cannot be wrong.
There is a lot of freedom and breadth in how you pronounce that name. In fact, her name is spelled differently in the book of Kings. If I pronounce it a couple of different ways today, forgive me.
We are first introduced to Jehosheba in 2 Chronicles 22:10. This gives us a glimpse of the evil situation that this family was living in.
Now when Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she rose and destroyed all the royal offspring of the house of Judah.
But Jehosheba, the king’s daughter, took Joash the son of Ahaziah, and stole him from among the king’s sons who were being put to death, and placed him and his nurse in the bedroom.
So Jehosheba, the daughter of King Jehoram, the wife of Jehoiada the priest—for she was the sister of Ahaziah—hid him from Athaliah, so that she would not put him to death.
And he was hidden with them in the house of God six years while Athaliah reigned over the land.
—2 Chronicles 22:10-12
To me, this is a precious testimony of this one. She was a king’s daughter, married to the high priest, and she was actually the aunt of this Joash whom she saved.
What an act of courage. She saw everything going on out there, all these ones being killed, and she was not thinking of her own life. She had seen firsthand the wickedness of Athaliah.
There was no guarantee that she would not be killed too if she were found trying to do what she did. But as a king’s daughter, as the sister of a king, and as the wife of the high priest, she knew God’s heart.
She knew the precious promise that the Lord had made to David, that there would be the seed of David upon the throne. She put God’s interest above her own interest, and she took this step when she saw this atrocity occurring right in front of her eyes.
That burden for the royal line, that burden for the testimony, was greater than any of her natural considerations. What a godly influence this one wife, this mother, this dear sister had upon the family and the nation.
She did not allow the circumstances she was in, the circumstances she was under, to impact the call that God had upon her life.
Many people had heard about the promise that God had given to David. This was not an obscure promise. The people knew that the Lord had promised David that there would be his seed upon that throne. This was not some secret hidden mystery.
People knew of God’s heart and purpose. But what was different about this dear Jehosheba was that it impacted her life. It caused her to love not her life unto death. She denied herself, denied her natural thinking, and stood for God’s heart. She took action for God’s interest.
Praise God for that. Many could perhaps talk about it, but it did not impact their lives. They did not do anything. They did not stand for the testimony. But it impacted her life in such a way that it was more valuable to her than even her own life.
Having that seed of David was so precious to her. Brothers and sisters, we said there was no guarantee of her safety, but she took this risk.
As we have heard about God’s purpose and God’s heart, has it impacted our lives? Do we like merely to sit around and talk about it, maybe have a conference or two about it? Does it impact our lives, the decisions we make, the relationships we have, and the way that we stand for the Lord?
Knowing that God has a purpose of building His house and having a testimony for His Son, does that impact our lives? Or do we love ourselves so much that we are protecting ourselves?
Praise God, this Jehosheba had been captured in such a way that she did not care what happened to her. She was standing on the Lord’s side. There is that old hymn that says, “Who is on the Lord’s side?” Well, Jehosheba was on the Lord’s side.
It was by the grace of God. We know all of that. It was by His grace that she responded to the impact that God’s purpose had upon her life.
As they hid this child in the house of God for those six years, I love how it says in 2 Chronicles 22:12 that he “was hidden with them in the house of God.” He was hidden with them—in fellowship and relationship.
They did not merely hide him in the house of God. Joash, this dear young child in that formative age, was hidden with them. We can be sure that during that time they were pouring forth within his heart and planting the Word of God within his heart, that he would know the call that God had upon him.
I love, too, that the nurse was hidden there with him, taking care of him—this unnamed one. This nurse must have known of the danger also.
Somehow, she too had been captured. Either she saw something, had a respect for Jehosheba, or knew something of God’s heart and purpose. She was willing to risk her own life also for the sake of God’s testimony.
She did not want merely to stay comfortable, stay quiet, and have a peaceful little life. She risked it for the sake of the testimony. Praise God.
After those six years, as Joash was growing up, Jehoiada, the husband, starts to come more into the picture. We see him preparing the way for Joash to become king.
If you look in 2 Chronicles 23:1, I love the first little phrase there: “Now in the seventh year Jehoiada strengthened himself.”
Praise God. Remember, David strengthened himself in the Lord. Jehoiada realized that the time had come. He realized that he was there for such a time as this. He strengthened himself in the Lord to stand for the Lord’s interest.
He gathered others around him. He made a covenant with them that they were going to bring Joash in as king.
What a lesson this is for us brothers, husbands, and fathers. Are we keeping ourselves strong in the Lord? In the day of darkness, in the day when there is so much going on, what is our focus? What are we concerned about?
Are we those who are strengthening ourselves in the Lord? Are we bringing our families before the Lord? Are we being priests within our own families, assuming that rightful place as husbands and fathers to ensure that our family is serving His purpose?
Praise God for this Jehoiada. Through him, God was able to bring about this great working.
Finally, when Joash became seven years of age, he was brought out. Throughout 2 Chronicles 23, he was anointed king over all Judah, and Athaliah was killed.
It is a wonderful verse at the end of 2 Chronicles 23:21:
So all the people of the land rejoiced and the city was quiet, for they had put Athaliah to death with the sword.
—2 Chronicles 23:21
Praise God. There was joy. There was peace. When God has His person in his rightful place, when the hearts of people are acknowledging the Lord, there is joy and peace.
When the Lord Jesus comes into our lives and into our dwellings, and that light is shining, there is joy and peace there. It does not eliminate all the problems, but in the midst of the problems, there is joy, peace, and security.
That is what they were experiencing again. Life had come in—that life that the Lord was after.
Joash took over as king. In 2 Chronicles 24:1-2, there is a little summary of his rule.
Joash was seven years old when he became king, and he reigned forty years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Zibiah from Beersheba.
And Joash did what was right in the sight of the Lord all the days of Jehoiada the priest.
—2 Chronicles 24:1-2
There is that little caveat: he did what was right all the days of Jehoiada the priest. As you read on, when Jehoiada died, Joash immediately departed from the Lord. It is really sad.
He followed the way of a godly man, but he never entered into the relationship with the Lord that Jehoiada had. That is a great lesson for us.
We can follow godly people. Within a family situation, a wife can follow a godly husband, a husband can follow a godly wife, and children can follow godly parents. In an assembly, we can follow godly brothers and sisters.
But do we have that personal relationship with Him so that when that person is not there, we can continue on? Joash did not have that.
After Jehoiada died, the young princes of Judah came to Joash and told him how wonderful he was. They fell down and worshiped him. They flattered him, and it felt so good to the flesh. He turned his back upon the ways of God and brought in Baal worship again.
He had so much set before him. He had all the precious promises. He had everything, but he never entered into the reality of it.
In His mercy, even though Joash had turned his back upon the Lord, the Lord had not turned His back on Joash. Look at 2 Chronicles 24:19.
Yet He sent prophets to them to bring them back to the Lord; though they testified against them, they would not listen.
—2 Chronicles 24:19
He sent prophets—that is plural. He was sending a word to them over and over again, but they would not listen. What a message that is.
Finally, Jehoiada’s son, Zechariah—praise God—the Lord touched his heart in such a way that he stood up and prophesied against Joash. It was a prophecy of judgment.
Look at the reaction in 2 Chronicles 24:21-22:
So they conspired against him, and at the command of the king they stoned him to death in the court of the house of the Lord.
Thus Joash the king did not remember the kindness which his father Jehoiada had shown him, but he murdered his son. And as he died, he said, “May the Lord see and avenge!”
—2 Chronicles 24:21-22
Joash and Zechariah had grown up together. They were actually cousins in the lineage of things. Jehoiada had been so kind to Joash, yet we see that when one turns away, there can be such evil.
It is such a contrast. They both grew up under the influence of Jehoiada and Jehosheba. One turned out evil; one turned out, so to speak, good.
To me, this can be a great encouragement to parents. As you serve your families, as we serve the brothers and sisters, and as we serve one another, we may give the same to different people, yet some choose to go one way and others choose another way.
When people choose to go another way, away from the Lord, it can often lead to condemnation within our hearts. We feel so bad, as though we have failed.
But look at the reverse of that. If your child follows the Lord, if a brother or sister follows the Lord, do you get the glory? Do you take credit for it? You cannot have it both ways.
If they fail, you cannot come under condemnation and say it was all your fault. If they succeed, then you have to apply the same logic and say, “I did good, so I get the glory.” No. Who gets the glory? It is God.
If people do not turn out as we hoped, do not allow the enemy to attack, kill, and beat us up. We can learn from it, yes. We still pray and reach out, but do not allow it to paralyze us and put us out of the race.
The enemy loves to wipe us out. When that son, perhaps that prodigal son, goes away, praise God, we leave him in the Lord’s hands, and He can bring him back. That is the hope we have.
As you think about this family and what God is after, they were a family of vision. They knew God’s heart.
It would have been very easy for them to stay quiet, stay peaceful, and simply live their lives quietly and without disruption. During these times, as it says in Scripture, there were people in Israel who were serving God and serving idols.
If they wanted to serve their idols and serve God, they could do this, and there was not a lot of persecution or disruption. They were going on together.
Jehoiada could have stayed quietly as the priest, not disrupting anything. Jehosheba could have stayed in the royal family and continued on. But they could not, because they were captured. Something had captured their hearts.
I was thinking about Jehosheba, too. She did not allow even her natural affection for her son Zechariah to hinder her from taking a chance.
What if she had said, “Oh, I cannot risk my life, because if I am killed, what is going to happen to Zechariah? I need to protect my family.” There can be all sorts of thoughts. Do not carry that example too far. Just listen to the point more than the example.
When God is after something, we need to be those who are available to Him right at that time, there for such a time as this.
I have always loved the title of Norman Grubb’s biography, Once Caught, No Escape. Praise God, she was caught, and there was no escape. She needed to stand for the testimony of the Lord.
Brothers and sisters, in the dark hour that we are living in, the Lord needs people who are standing for the testimony of the Lord. In the midst of Judah at that time, there was one family. We might call them overcomers, because they were.
The Lord is looking for overcomers today who will stand against the tide of all the evil—even the tide against religious systems and Christendom out there—and stand for His heart and His interests.
We can be encouraged by Jehosheba. We think of Jehoiada, too, how he strengthened himself and then began gathering people together.
When you have a burden on your heart and a secret plan that you are going to carry out, what is one of the surest ways for that plan to fail? Tell other people.
There was a step of faith that Jehoiada took when he went to those Levites and guards and said, “We are going to overthrow this Athaliah.” It would have taken only one person to betray him.
But he stood on the Lord’s side, and the Lord honored that. I thought it was amazing that all these men could keep a secret—especially when they went home and told their wives, and the wives could keep a secret too—and it never got out.
Praise God they did not have Facebook or Instagram then. It would surely have blown the whole plot up. But Jehoiada took this step of faith.
Now, a trivia question. It says that Jehoiada was one hundred and thirty years old when he died. Who was the last person recorded in Scripture as older than him?
Amram, the father of Moses, was one hundred and thirty-seven years old. I could not find anybody after him who was recorded as older than Jehoiada.
To me, that speaks of how God had a vessel, and He kept this vessel until the right moment. We hear nothing of Jehoiada during those first one hundred and some years.
He actually lived during King Asa, King Jehoshaphat, the bad kings, Ahaziah, and Jehoram. He lived during all those times. He was born a few years before Asa became king.
He had seen a lot and had a lot of experience, but there was a time when God wanted to use him. He was faithful up until that time, and praise God, when the Lord called him, he stepped out.
That little phrase, “for such a time as this,” applies to us too. We are here for such a time as this.
I appreciate Jehoiada because he was clear on the purpose of his life and the priorities of his life. Are we clear on the call God has upon our lives, what we are here for, and what it is all about?
I appreciate, too, how Zechariah came and had a heart for the Lord in such a wonderful way. It is interesting that the Scriptures are silent on how Jehoiada and Jehosheba trained up Zechariah.
I think that is actually good. If you look in the New Testament, the Scriptures are silent on how Lois and Eunice raised up Timothy. But we know that they raised him in a godly way.
I think that is good because it shows us something of how the Lord knows us. If it had said, “Jehoiada and Jehosheba,” or “Eunice and Lois,” did this, this, this, and this, what would we have done?
We would have written a book, posted it on Instagram, made a YouTube channel, and made a system out of it. “Here is how it is done.”
A few years ago there was that little book called The Prayer of Jabez. They took a prayer and turned it into a system: “You do this, and you will be blessed.”
We love to create systems, thinking, “Oh, this is the way God works.” That is why, even as we take the Lord’s Table every Sunday morning, if you look through the New Testament, it is silent on the practice of exactly how the Table occurred.
We have the principle of remembering the Lord, the cup, and the loaf, but how it actually works out is in life. It occurs in life among each assembly.
It is the same within families. It is not, “You have to do boom, boom, boom.” Rather, as the families of God seek Him, He will show us His way for us. He will bring us into the way that He desires for that light to shine in our dwelling.
Praise God.
I was thinking about Zechariah because it would have been so easy for him, and everybody would have understood, if he did not go to King Joash. If he did not prophesy, nobody would have said anything about it.
He could have said, “Well, I had something on my heart, but all the other prophets went and nobody listened to them, so I am not going. I have something on my heart, but he rejected my father, so he is not going to listen to me.”
But who was he serving? He was serving the Lord. In spite of what the outcome might be—he did not know what it would be, though it turned out pretty tragic for him—he was faithful to what God had put upon his heart.
In spite of what others might think, in spite of his own natural thinking, he was captured by God’s heart and purpose. He served the purpose of God and loved not his life unto death.
That is the call of saints in the day and time that we are living in. That is the call of the overcomer. That is what we see within this family.
Even though the attack on the testimony may be different than it was back then—we do not have kings and all of that—the battle still goes on today. There is a great battle, brothers and sisters, that we are involved in.
There is a battle over the person and work of our Lord Jesus Christ. There is truly a frontal assault upon who the Lord Jesus Christ is and what He did.
Sadly, so many within Christendom are lowering Him and bringing Him down so low. They are weakening and dissipating the work that He did. Do we know the Word of God in such a way that we can stand for who the Lord Jesus Christ is and the work that He did?
Praise God, we have this Table every Sunday to bring us back to remembrance of that greatest victory throughout all history.
Another matter under frontal assault is the Word of God. Years ago, the Word of God was what people would call an authoritative source.
Whenever you have any field of study, there are certain books or documents that are authoritative documents upon which you can rely. If you refer to one, people say, “Oh, okay.”
I remember when I was studying accounting, certain accounting professors were considered authoritative. If you referred to them, people said, “Ah, okay, that is it.”
But now the Word of God, sadly, to many is not an authoritative document. But is it to us? Or do we allow what others say about it to weaken its impact?
We need to be those who stand for that, standing in the right way. I am not talking about battling physically, but there is a spiritual battle going on here.
The very definition of a family is under great assault. We know what a family is. Are we those who are standing for that?
Even the church of God is so distorted today. The word church is used so broadly that everybody in the world can go out and say, “A church of this,” or “a church of that,” and it bears no resemblance or relationship to the church that we see in the Scriptures.
Even the term Christian today is applied so broadly. It is like the enemy either tries to broaden something to dissipate it and dilute it, or he tries to cut it up, make it narrow, and make it less valuable and less precious.
Brothers and sisters, we need to be aware of this attack in which we are involved. We need to ask ourselves: Do we realize the value, the reality, and the preciousness of God’s heart and purpose?
Like this family, we have a choice. We can stay quiet. We can continue to live comfortable lives.
One of the sad things about living in the United States is that you can still live okay without being a Christian. Being a Christian here does not cost us much compared to many other places.
We can be quiet. We do not want to be too radical or too committed. Maybe we compromise a little here and compromise a little there, so that everybody will still like us.
But I was thinking about this story in Judah. What would have happened if this family had stayed quiet? What would have happened if they had not stepped up?
Theologically, I know God is still in control and something else would have happened. But the point is: what would have happened at that moment in time? What is going to happen today if we, as the people of God, do not awaken ourselves to the battle that we are in?
It is far more than our individual families or individual dwellings. The testimony of God is suffering a frontal assault, and we need to be those involved in this spiritual battle.
Praise God, we have weapons. We have prayer. We have the Word of God. We have opportunities together to find His life and bring His life in.
Each of us has to ask ourselves, even as we bring it down to individual family life: What is the condition of my family? Is there light shining in the dwelling?
One of the greatest tragedies today, to me, among many tragedies, is how the enemy has come in and deceived and distorted so many believers’ minds into thinking that the family altar or daily devotions are merely legalistic.
“It is all legalism. You have to be free in grace.” Oh, brothers, we are free. Actually, it is just the opposite.
The freedom we have in Him is to freely gather in our homes and study the Word of God; freely gather in our homes and pray; freely gather as a family and worship; freely gather as a family and have fellowship.
Now, that is going to take different forms, at different times of day, and in different ways within the family. But by the grace of God, there is a way for us.
There is a way for our families to allow that bright light of life to shine forth—not in a system, but in life. This is what we are jealous for in this day and time.
Strong families do not just happen. Light in our dwelling does not just happen.
We can walk into a room, flip a light switch, and poof, there is light. But the light of life is developed, and it shines brighter and brighter.
I love that proverb about the Lord’s life: it shines brighter and brighter. It is like the morning, like the sun rising, and it shines brighter and brighter until the fullness of day. There is a progression in this life, and He is jealous for it.
The core issue within this battle is a battle for life. It is a battle for His life—for His life to be expressed through His people as the testimony of God.
Praise God, we saw a family that was serving the purpose of God in their generation. May we, as families—both individual families and families together—be those who serve the purpose of God in our generation.
May we be those hastening His return.
Again, as we consider this matter of families, we want to allow the Holy Spirit to speak, because as we travel around, I have seen too many families taken out of the race.
It is sad that now I am not shocked anymore when I hear of Christians who were walking along so well getting divorced. These are the tragic times in which we are living.
We need to be praying for one another. We need to be praying for our families: young families, brothers and sisters living together, single people, and dear older ones. We are all in this together.
May the Lord strengthen us. May He really burden and quicken our hearts, that care for His interest and care for His purpose would be lived out and seen in our families and in our lives together.
May we be those supporting and holding up one another’s arms, walking with those whose legs are getting a little weak, and caring for one another, that the light would shine brightly through the dwellings and through the dwelling place of God.
Let’s pray.
Lord, we are thankful that we are so privileged to be part of the family of God. Lord, we are thankful that You have called us with so great a calling.
Lord, we are thankful, too, that You call us to look off unto You. Lord, if our eyes naturally look at ourselves, we get discouraged. As our brothers shared at the Table, we see that sackcloth. We see all our failures.
But we are thankful that we are clothed in robes of righteousness. We are thankful that we can look up unto You.
Lord, would You do a reviving within our hearts, a reviving of care and concern for Your interest and for Your family?
Lord, where we as families need to make adjustments, we pray that we would have ears to hear what the Spirit is saying. Lord, also defend families in this hour, for the battle is great.
Lord, we are weak, but Thou art strong. Lord, defend each brother and sister. Defend the young. Defend the middle-aged. Defend the old.
Lord, that we could together walk on in the goodness and grace of God that You have given to us. In Jesus’ name, amen.