Jehoida, acting

[Joash] remained hidden with his nurse at the temple of the LORD for six years while Athaliah ruled the land.

Now is the time for action. I have waited, but now my waiting is complete. The fullness of time has come, and what is demanded is action. It is true that waiting is more active than men think, since it requires a intension of mind, a willful effort of inaction. It implies a chosen course, and my course has long been set. But eventually, waiting must move into activity. Now is that time, the opportunity comes, and I must act.

It is odd to think of action in this context, since for so long it has remained only in my prayers, a distant hope, seemingly impossible. It was bound up not in my observation, for the woman seemed so strong, so secure! And I, I was scared even to talk overmuch in her presence, afraid of her discovering the child, afraid of her penetrating my plans. The long years were years of prayer, of calling to God, of seeking his protection. So far, he has been faithful, proving himself to me even as in the waiting my heart was strengthened. But now it is time to act, time to seize the promises, time to take at the command of God that which he offers to his people. It is curious, this combination of promise and action. But the kingdom of our fathers has always been taken by force.

For look (I address first my heart), David's kingdom endures the reign of a daughter of idolatry, that offspring of Jezebel, a woman in her mother's image, a tyrant, a parody of created action, seizing, controlling, killing. The people falter under her, under her dominion, the kingdom of God remade in the form of the Canaanites once cleansed from her. This is what confronts me, the blasphemies I have witnessed, the idols in the very temple where I serve, a priest, a Levite, a man devoted to God in these dark times, a light alone in a long night.

Look at the darkness which surrounds me! Darkness is ignorance, covering the eyes of all men and veiling the glory of our worship, so that all men serve the gods of gold and silver and wood, pouring out the libations of blood, bowing before the works of their hands, joining together in the blindness of their hearts to exalt that which is dead--ignorant yes, but maliciously so. They partake a mixed worship, a syncretism, men imagining they honor God while also worshiping at the altars in the mountains, the altars in their homes, even the altars improperly erected in the courts of the temple. It is a time when men pretend to call on God while praying also to the gods of the earth, the gods of men. Pretend! No, in their hearts there is a certain sincerity, an ignorant wishing. O Israel, fools, God will not submit to your decree! No, we must worship our God according to the statue given to Israel. This is the form laid out in the psalm, the hymn of praise:

I rejoiced with those who said to me,
Let us go to the house of the Lord.

That is where the tribes go,
the tribes of the Lord,
to worship the name of the Lord,
according to the statute given to Israel.

There is one place where we may worship, the house of the Lord, thus David, constantly, 'I will bow down toward your holy temple.' O men of Israel, what do you worship when you prescribe for yourself a form? There is a statute given, an instruction, a worship to be submitted unto! Do you think God would trust the fallen hearts of men to invent a worship pleasing to him? God will be worshiped only as he decrees! Thus in the fallenness of our minds and hearts what springs from our reason descends into idolatry, self-worship, desecration.

O for the zeal of our fathers, renewed in our midst! Lord, give me a heart like David's, a heart that was after yours! He knew his heart because you showed it to him, his undivided heart, the heart that you searched and broke, around which you placed your hand, hemmed in it was, a heart controlled. His worship came to you according to the forms you prescribed, and you covenanted with him.

You promised him. You swore an oath to him! O Lord, this child, this child we have sheltered these many years, this is the promise. This line, according to your own word! cannot fail, cannot perish, it must bring forth a king, it must, a king who will inherit that everlasting throne, the throne that David spoke of, that Solomon pointed to. O Lord, he knew it was not him that possessed it. O Lord, you whose word cannot and will never fail, here in this moment, if this does not succeed, your word will fail, for he is the last of the line and his grandmother has set her heart to destroy him!

The promise, unfailing. The promise, made before Abraham acted, itself calling his acting forth. When men promise, it gives us the freedom to act upon their word, depending on both the trustworthiness of the one making the promise, and the power possessed to bring it to pass. I have known men who would die for the integrity of their word and others who would cast it aside to gain a few loaves of bread. Such are the vagaries of men, and we must analyze them before we act upon them, for we risk when we act. This is the nature of things, the pattern of all faith, whether in man's word and power, my own word and power, or eventually in God's revealed word and semi-revealed power.

I say semi-revealed not because it is insufficiently revealed, but because it is first of all selectively revealed, and second of all, only partially revealed. The world could not bear up under the full revelation of it, and thus he moves towards us in a sufficiency of revelation. I have not seen him, as my fathers did, as Aaron and Moses did, as Abraham did, nor have I heard his voice, like David and Samuel did. Yet he has sufficiently revealed his power, at least to cause in me the action that here needs doing.

In what such a revelation? my heart nags at me, for around around the corners of my decision there is a small voice, a small doubt, a small question. This is no friend, no ally, no voice of reason, for I have enough to know that God is powerful. There is the testament of the past, the stories of our fathers, even recent ones, for I remember as a boy the wonders of Elisha and Elijah, the great men of God who in the power of God spoke and acted. Then also, there is the glory of his worship, the splendor of it in what it represents, the revealed truth showing man as he is, his past and the things still yet to come. There is a convincing power in his Law, the hands of which I feel upon my soul every time it is read, even as I repeat it to my children every evening. All this is sufficient for any action, sufficient to know the reality of God and the reality of his promises, for if one exists than the other must too.

Doubt is the hindrance to my action, doubt and the fear it creates, for doubt speaks insecurity to my feeble heart, and a man insecure fears. Fear is the anticipation of a future pain, and it should have nothing to do with the people of God! God, who is power, who reigns over all things, who controls all things, who no one can thwart, for does not the Psalmist say,

The Lord does whatever pleases him,
in the heavens and on the earth

Where this fear then? Remember, O heart, my ancestors, those that fell in the desert, who daily had the power of God demonstrated for them, more clearly than any people who have ever lived, save perhaps Noah. Yet they doubted, feared, held back, and they were destroyed.

The promise of God is an enlivening promise, a promise that creates its fulfillment in the hearts of men! Thus in the fullness of time I must act. I have used here, O Lord be praised in this as in all things, every tool of wisdom and strength at my disposal, the preciseness of subterfuge, the secret power of carefully cultivated allies, the faithful men of this realm surreptitiously probed, examined, invited, slowly gaining men who would act with me, so that this woman, this neo-Jezebel, this idolatrous leprosy in the body of his people may be purged, destroyed, eliminated. And we will place on the throne of Israel the promised son of David, the one who must be placed there, so that the Word of God may not fail.

It will not fail. It cannot fail. God will bring it about, one way or another, and who knows but that I am brought to this position so that he can work through me? This is a glory to be treasured, to be numbered among the people of God in this great venture, to be with him in a fight for his glory, thus always victorious, for God will be glorified. And also to act, for this is the way I am made, an acting creature, have I not longed for it everyday of my life? I am made for this day, it is mine to be claimed, though God acts through and in me, bringing to pass what he has decreed through the vigor of my chosen actions. This is the great mystery of his grace and call, that which causes what it ordains, leaving man the pleasure of his natural gifts used, his place brought forth as he was created, his joy in being what he was meant to be, a man used. Yes, Lord, let it be so!

Therefore, my heart is strengthened, my feet once again stand firm, my mind is clear and my path unobstructed. In my action, act, O sovereign Lord. My hands are trained, because you have trained them, as the psalmist says,

You make my feet like the feet of a deer,
you train my hands for battle,
my arms can bend a bow of bronze.

These are David's words in the midst of his action, the strong efforts of his arms. In all of them, he returned glory to you, relying upon you even as he fought. So must I today, for the glory of your promise to this his ancestor, a glory covering also all over whom he reigns, and for the restoration of your promised people, a return to glory in your worship and the anticipation of the future promises. May all who see this be also strengthened to act in a similar faith, venturing upon your Word wherever your glory is promised but lost. Take us there, O Lord, in our action, for you reign over all things.

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Psalm 18, 135, 122 are quoted

The story is in 2 Kings 11. Joash followed God for as long as Jehoida was alive.