94 - The Protection of King Joash. Doctrine of Self Defense [B]

The Protection of King Joash. Doctrine of Self Defense 2 Kings 11:4

If we have followed various contemporary events we will have observed that we live in a culture where there is a certain segment of the culture that has taken a position against violence in principle. They represent themselves as being pacifist in relationship to military conflict, they also represent themselves as being against the private ownership of guns and they promote extreme regulation of private ownership of guns and weapons. They are usually the same group of people that are against capital punishment and who have a way of looking at the penal system in a way the focus more on rehabilitation than punishment. All of these things are linked and work together in terms of certain basic presuppositions about human life. That is why many of those people who hold those positions also take certain other positions in relationship to life because they really don't fundamentally and biblically understand the value of life, even though they often say that they do. And that is one of those strange little quirks about people: they are often say that they are defending and promoting one thing when in fact what they are actually working for is something that is against that position. They claim to be in the right when they are in the wrong.

We see that again in our study for when the tide turns against Athaliah she screams out that it is treason when it is she herself who is the traitor. So we always have to be very careful not to get caught up simply thinking about the superficial things that people claim that they are doing, the superficial ways in which they are promoting things. People say the right things but they are doing the wrong things they use the right words in order to mask and camouflage their wrong agenda.  

There are several basic doctrines that are embedded within the story of Jehoash who is the king that comes to the throne in 2 Kings chapter eleven. Embedded within this account there are these three doctrines. The first is that which relates to killing—murder, self-defense, war. As we go through this account related to Jehoash as the king of the southern kingdom in Judah he is going to implement a way to restore and repair the temple that has been ignored and under disrepair for a number of years, In doing that he is going to levy some new taxes, call for free will giving according to the purpose of their heart. These episodes in the Old Testament connect to key doctrines that are explained clearly in the New Testament.

What we have seen as we have been looking at chapters 8-11 with God's judgment which He brought against the northern kingdom of Israel, and the southern kingdom to some extent, is that this ultimately relates back to the character of God. Is God able to protect His promises so that He can fulfill His promises? Is He able to do that which He has promised to do and bring about that which He has told people He will do? As we have seen this relates to His integrity, to His righteousness, justice, love and truth. So we start from that and whatever we see God doing it is by definition righteous and holy, and therefore it challenges us to perhaps reevaluate or rethink our own understanding of certain ethical principles so that they are brought into conformity with God's character.

We have seen that the whole issue of God's faithfulness focuses on His covenant with David. In that covenant God promised three things: that David would have an eternal house or dynasty, an eternal kingdom, and an eternal throne. There can only be an eternal house, kingdom and throne if the lineage is going to go on without end in an infinite series of descendants or if one of those descendants is Himself going to be eternal, which of course is the case. The Davidic covenant openly focuses on the seed of the woman, as promised in Genesis 3:15. Jesus Christ is the focal point of those seed promises. Satan understands that and that is another aspect of the backdrop to these events. Satan's strategy in the Old Testament is to prevent God from being able to fulfill the covenant with David (and earlier with Abraham) because if he can prevent God from bringing the promised seed then he wins. And so there is always an assault upon the seed of Abraham and the seed of David.

The first thing Athaliah does when she comes to the throne is instigate a hit squad against everybody in the divine line in an attempt to completely blot out and destroy the lineage of David. She is not on the line of David, she is the only ruler in the southern kingdom that is not in the lineage of David. This is an aberration in the southern kingdom and she is virtually a usurper of the throne, and in her attempt to blot out the line of David she is foiled by the sister of Ahaziah, the daughter of Jehoram, who rescues one of the infants, the infant son of Ahaziah, Joash. This is an attack at a spiritual level, because spirituality drives everything; everything gets driven by theology. We live in a world today that wants to make theology something very private and personal, and individual spiritual life is something that is one's own and it is in a realm of pure subjectivity. That comes because of the influence of a German philosopher by the name of Immanuel Kant in the late 1700s who redefined religion as something that is purely subjective, an individual's personal, private perception of that which he said was beyond our senses. This thinking that goes back to Kant revolutionized the thinking of western civilization. This kind of subjective view of truth was completely foreign to Moses, Jesus and Paul. They never understood truth that way, Christianity is based on an actual objective view of truth and reality and it is defined by God and revealed in His Word.

The southern kingdom of Judah had fallen prey to an ancient kind of this subjectivity, which is the worship of Baal, the worship of the various fertility idols, and it was all about how people felt about the gods and there was a lot of emotionalism that went along with it. All of this was impacting and influencing the southern kingdom of Judah and so this was a threat to the house and the lineage of David. The assault is coming on the Davidic line, Joash is rescued and hidden away in the temple and Athaliah becomes the evil ruler.

2 Kings 11:4 ^NASB "Now in the seventh year Jehoiada [the high priest] sent and brought the captains of hundreds of the Carites and of the guard, and brought them to him in the house of the LORD. Then he made a covenant with them and put them under oath in the house of the LORD, and showed them the king's son." For seven years Joash has been hidden in the temple. He has been taught and trained by Jehoiada so his life has been shaped by the teaching of the Word of God and listening to the reading of the Torah, and according to Deuteronomy this was to be one of the primary training tools for any leader or king in Israel. Jehoiada is very wise in the way he approaches this. He has kept it secret for years and now he brings in those who can be trusted. Before he reveals the existence of Joash he is going to call upon them to swear an oath of loyalty and secrecy. We are told more about this in the parallel passage in 2 Chronicles 23:1-4 ^NASB "Now in the seventh year Jehoiada strengthened himself, and took captains of hundreds: Azariah the son of Jeroham, Ishmael the son of Johanan, Azariah the son of Obed, Maaseiah the son of Adaiah, and Elishaphat the son of Zichri, {and they entered} into a covenant with him. They went throughout Judah and gathered the Levites from all the cities of Judah, and the heads of the fathers' {households} of Israel, and they came to Jerusalem. Then all the assembly made a covenant with the king in the house of God. And Jehoiada said to them, 'Behold, the king's son shall reign, as the LORD has spoken concerning the sons of David. This is the thing which you shall do: one third of you, of the priests and Levites who come in on the sabbath, {shall be} gatekeepers'…" So this goes right back to the Davidic covenant, Jehoiada is looking at history and what he is doing in terms of the promise of God and in terms of that covenant. That is how we are to look at life. We are always to look at life through the grid of these covenants. The major covenants with Israel lay the foundation for all of history. The Abrahamic covenant: God is going to bless all nations through the descendants of Abraham, and those who bless the seed of Abraham will be blessed and those who curse the seed of Abraham will be cursed. That is further expanded in the land covenant where the land of Israel was given to them permanently; the Davidic covenant determined that the seed of David would be the line of the Messiah; then eventually the new covenant. That is the grid for examining and evaluating all of history. 

So Jehoiada is not operating outside of the law. In fact, it is Athaliah who is operating outside of the law, had usurped the throne, taken it from the seed of David through the violent means of murder. She has had all of the legal heirs to the throne assassinated, except one. He is the hope, the only one left alive, and God has protected him through Jehoiada.

2 Kings 11:5 ^NASB "He commanded them, saying, 'This is the thing that you shall do: one third of you, who come in on the sabbath and keep watch over the king's house…." This is not some spur-of-the-moment event, he has thought this out. What he means by that in terms of those who come on duty, remember that under David the priesthood was divided into 24 groups which rotated so that they all didn't serve at the same time. They served in shifts within these 24 different groupings of priests, and it seems that the military that served in the temple was also divided in much the same way so that there were some who would serve for maybe eight hours and another group would come on for eight hours. One third of them were to watch over and guard the kings house because this is where Athaliah is and they have to watch what she is doing and make sure there is not a successful response to this coup that is taking place. [6] "(one third also {shall be} at the gate Sur, and one third at the gate behind the guards), shall keep watch over the house for defense. [7] Two parts of you, {even} all who go out on the sabbath, shall also keep watch over the house of the LORD for the king.  [8] Then you shall surround the king, each with his weapons in his hand; and whoever comes within the ranks shall be put to death. And be with the king when he goes out and when he comes in." So they are to protect the king from anyone who is allied with Athaliah who seeks to kill him to keep her on the throne. [9] "So the captains of hundreds did according to all that Jehoiada the priest commanded. And each one of them took his men who were to come in on the sabbath, with those who were to go out on the sabbath, and came to Jehoiada the priest. [10] The priest gave to the captains of hundreds the spears and shields that {had been} King David's, which {were} in the house of the LORD." There is a reason for that in that he is making a clear statement that they are constitutionally authorized (by the Davidic covenant), and so he is arming them. [11] "The guards stood each with his weapons in his hand, from the right side of the house to the left side of the house, by the altar and by the house, around the king." That means they have filled the outer courtyard, they have surrounded the external walls and are on guard at every gate. Only then, when they have provided complete security, do they bring out young Joash, seven years old, with tremendous pomp and circumstance. There is a formality here that takes them back to the foundation of the Jewish nation in the Mosaic Law. They will bring him out and anoint him as king. [12] "Then he brought the king's son out and put the crown on him and {gave him} the testimony; and they made him king and anointed him, and they clapped their hands and said, '{Long} live the king!'"

People were out to see what was going on, there was a tremendous amount of noise, and Athaliah now is alerted, hears the noise and comes out to see what is going on. [14] "She looked and behold, the king was standing by the pillar, according to the custom, with the captains and the trumpeters beside the king; and all the people of the land rejoiced and blew trumpets. Then Athaliah tore her clothes and cried, 'Treason! Treason!'" We are not sure what the custom was but apparently once they had crowned the king he would be taken to stand by one of the pillars, probably outside the temple, and there they would announce that he was the king. All the people then were rejoicing, singing hymns and blowing trumpets. Athatliah cries treason, but it is not treason. She is the traitor. How often it is that those with evil intent mask their intent with the deception of claiming they were the ones who are actually following the law, they are the ones who are actually in the right. The only way to get past that is to actually know what the right thing is. In those days it was only those who knew the Torah, who understood the covenants, who were able to see past the deception of these claims of people like Athaliah.

2 Kings 11:15 ^NASB "And Jehoiada the priest commanded the captains of hundreds who were appointed over the army and said to them, 'Bring her out between the ranks, and whoever follows her put to death with the sword.' For the priest said, 'Let her not be put to death in the house of the LORD.'" They can't violate the sanctity of the temple so she is to be taken outside of the temple where she was executed. Following that there is a covenant made between Jehoiada and the people and the Lord.

We stop here and address what is going on here in terms of the protection of the king in light of the doctrine of self-defense in Scripture. It is really the foundation for the doctrine of just war; it is related to the private ownership of property. It comes out of a more basic doctrine which is the distinctiveness and the sanctity of human life.

1.  The life of every human being has value because every human being is created in the image and the likeness of God. Genesis 1:26, 27. Among all of God's creatures only human beings are created in His image and likeness. This indicates something that is distinct about man; not only the immaterial makeup of man, his soul and his ability to have a relationship with God, but it also relates to his mission, to his purpose, because the idea of being an image or representation of somebody is that you are a representative of someone and are to represent him. Man was to represent God to creation, to rule over the birds of the air, the fish of the sea, the beasts of the field. The image was not destroyed when Adam sinned, it was distorted and warped by sin but every human being is still in the image and likeness of God as value because they are in the image and likeness of God. They are not valuable because of what they can produce for society. Every single human being has the same value because they are created in the image and likeness of God, not because they are God's children (the latter is the liberal theology claim). This becomes the basis for capital punishment. Genesis 9:5 ^NASB "Surely I will require your lifeblood; from every beast I will require it. And from {every} man, from every man's brother I will require the life of man. [6] Whoever sheds man's blood, By man his blood shall be shed, For in the image of God He made man." The issue is that every life has value because they are in the image of God and therefore when someone violates/destroys that image then they have lost the right to life.

2.  There is not an absolute, unequivocal right to life in the Scripture. Just because you are alive doesn't mean you have the right to continue living no matter what. That is the liberal position that flows out of the universal fatherhood of God, which is a distortion of Genesis 1:26, 27. The Scriptures clearly make it known that there are circumstances where a person can forfeit the privilege of living. They can forfeit that privilege of living, it is not a constitutional guaranteed right to be alive under any and all circumstances. This occurs, according to Scripture, when people commit certain crimes which reveal a level of soul depravity and perversion that is so great that that person has now forfeited the right to live. One of these cases is in the case of first degree murder or homicide. This is laid down in the Noahic covenant in Genesis chapter nine. One of the other provisions in that covenant was to eat meat. Up to that point man was not to eat meat. A third provision of that covenant was that God promised that He would not ever again destroy the earth by water. The sign that this covenant is still in effect is the rainbow—including the right to eat meat, including capital punishment, and the promise that God won't destroy the earth again by water. People will ask: What about those passages in the Bible that talk about you shouldn't kill? Someone will bring up Exodus 20:13 which is accurately translated, "Thou shalt not murder." This is a prohibition of murder; it is not a prohibition on all categories of taking human life. God has already delegated two human beings in the Noahic covenant that under certain circumstances it is the obligation and responsibility of human beings to take the life of other human beings who have so forfeited the right to life because of the fact that they have committed certain crimes. Under the Mosaic Law other crimes called for the forfeiture of life—idolatry, rape, blaspheming the name of the Lord (which occurs when a person takes the name of the covenant God of Israel and assigns it to their agenda falsely). If any creature shed man's blood then man was to destroy the life of that creature, whether it was a beast or another human being. Cf. Exodus 21:28.

3.  What we see from this is that the foundation of self-defense is the recognition that all human life is valuable and must be protected, even though that may cost the life of someone who attempts to take the life of another, or threatens to take the life of another. If you feel your life is threatened Scripture absolves you of guilt in taking the life of the person whom you think threatens your life. But there is an obligation to protect life on all of us. Psalm 82:4 ^NASB "Rescue the weak and needy; Deliver {them} out of the hand of the wicked." We are to be vigilant to protect those who cannot protect themselves. Proverbs 24:11 ^NASB "Deliver those who are being taken away to death, And those who are staggering to slaughter, Oh hold {them} back." We are enjoined to protect those whose lives may be in jeopardy. Ezekiel 33:6 ^NASB "But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet and the people are not warned, and a sword comes and takes a person from them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood I will require from the watchman's hand." This lays down the principle that we are to protect others and that of we are negligent in protecting others it should be that our lives should be taken in capital punishment.

4.  Exodus 22 is the foundation passage related to self-defense. [2] "If the thief is caught while breaking in and is struck so that he dies, there will be no bloodguiltiness on his account." The point here is that if someone is breaking in and they are threatening to take the life or the property of an individual, then the person who is threatened or his property is threatened has the right to take the life of the person who is threatening them and there is no guilt for that bloodshed. [3] "{But} if the sun has risen on him, there will be bloodguiltiness on his account. He shall surely make restitution; if he owns nothing, then he shall be sold for his theft." The point is that if you wait two hours and there is no longer any immediate threat, and then you kill the burglar, you are guilty of murder. But at the time you are under threat or the threat of the loss of property, you have the right to take the life of the thief. That doesn't mean you have to do it; it is not a mandate, but you have the right.

5.  The case law of the Mosaic Law shows that on the basis of this law and others like it, when a person's private property is threatened and their individual life is threatened, then deadly force is acceptable. Two other key passages in the Old Testament also demonstrate the right of self-defense. In Nehemiah the Jews have returned from the captivity under the mandate of Artaxerxes, but they are meeting opposition from people in the land. The leader is Sanballat and there were others who heard that the walls of Jerusalem were being restored and they conspired together to come and attack Jerusalem and create confusion. The response was that Nehemiah positioned men behind the lower parts of the wall and the openings with their own private ownership of weapons: "Remember the LORD great and awesome will fight for you." The right of self-defense and of others is emphasized there, but ultimately it is a recognition that our protection is from the Lord and it is in light of His overall protection that we have that authorization for self-protection. The same thing happens in Esther when the Jews are in Persia and there has been a plot against them. Once that was discovered it was too late but the king authorized them to protect themselves. Esther 8:11, 12.

6.  There is no change in the New Testament. In Luke chapter twenty-two Jesus tells the disciples at the end of the Passover meal: Luke 22:35 ^NASB "And He said to them, 'When I sent you out without money belt and bag and sandals, you did not lack anything, did you?' They said, '{No,} nothing.' [36] And He said to them, 'But now [new dispensation, new instructions], whoever has a money belt is to take it along, likewise also a bag, and whoever has no sword is to sell his coat and buy one. [37] For I tell you that this which is written must be fulfilled in Me, 'AND HE WAS NUMBERED WITH TRANSGRESSORS'; for that which refers to Me has {its} fulfillment.' [38] They said, 'Lord, look, here are two swords.' And He said to them, 'It is enough.'" When they were sitting there at the Passover meal they had their concealed weapons! The reason for that was to defend the Lord. He is to be arrested that night but it has to follow God's plan and there can't be some situation where somebody in the mob just reaches out and kills Him. He has to go to the cross, so the swords are there for self-defense. When Peter cut off the ear of the high priest's servant Jesus heals the servant, but He doesn't rebuke Peter. From the other accounts we learn that He said: "Peter, put your sword away." He doesn't say to throw it away. Peter is guilty of being indiscreet and foolish in the way he applied the principle of self-defense because there really wasn't a threat. So there is also the need for discretion in the use of violent force because in the use of violent force you are still dealing with someone—even though they are a criminal and a threat—who is in the image and likeness of God.

What we learn from this is that the Bible, from Genesis right through the New Testament, affirms the right to self-defense. To allow a murder or a theft when it could be prevented is morally wrong. To put the life of a criminal over the life of a victim is morally wrong. We see that every person has the right to defend life and property to the point of taking the life of those who immediately threaten the life and property, but it doesn't mean that they should. Even the Lord commuted David's sentence. David was guilty of two capital crimes under the Mosaic Law, murder and adultery, and God commuted that sentence and did not call for David's life. So just because it is a legal option doesn't mean it should always be invoked; there is room for grace.

Underneath all of this we have a statement of Jesus in John chapter 15 where He says: "This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends." The application of that in context is that the Lord is going to die on the cross for the sins of the world. But an implication and application of that is that those who are willing to defend the life and the liberty of others are demonstrating this tremendous love that God is talking about. It was exemplified by Him on the cross. Those who are willing to defend the life and the property of others, especially in the military, police, etc., are worthy of great praise because of their devotion to ultimately saving life.        

Illustrations