2 Chronicles 23:21: “So all the people of the land rejoiced; and the city was quiet, for they had slain Athaliah with the sword.”

October 10th, 2023 by Pastor Ed in devotional

Athaliah was the daughter of King Ahab of Israel and his wife Jezebel. She married Jehoram king of Judah. The northern kingdom of Israel had already been completely led astray into open and idolatrous worship of Baal through the wicked, aggressive efforts of Jezebel and the acceptance of King Ahab. Their daughter, Athaliah, was made in her mother’s image and tried to lead the southern kingdom of Judah astray also. She was a terrible influence on her husband and her sons who enthusiastically adopted her faith and pagan, sensual idol worship. Why are her blatant mistakes and failures recorded for us so openly in Scripture? Simply because we can learn from good models what to copy and do well and from terrible models what mistakes to avoid.

We assume Athaliah’s husband, King Jehoram, was raised in a godly home because his father, King Jehoshaphat, had done right in the eyes of the Lord. So what happened to his son Jehoram? Why didn’t he follow the ways of his father; and when he became king, do right in the eyes of the Lord? The answer is painfully simple—he married the wrong woman. And he allowed Athaliah to influence him and his sons to do evil. That is why we need to be extremely careful about who we allow to influence our lives. The impact of a person on our lives can be for good or bad.

The following examples demonstrate the different impacts a person can have on their descendents:

Max Jukes was an atheist who lived an ungodly life and married an ungodly woman. They had 570 descendents: 310 paupers, 150 criminals, 7 murders, 100 drunkards, and more than half of the women were prostitutes.

Jonathan Edwards lived a godly life and married a godly woman. They had 1,394 descendents: 13 college presidents, 65 college professors, 3 U.S. Senators, 30 judges, 100 lawyers, 60 doctors, 75 army and navy officers, 100 preachers and missionaries, 60 authors of prominence, 1 United States Vice-President, 8 public officials, 295 college graduates (some of whom became state governors and U.S. ambassadors).

One man lived an ungodly life and had a detrimental effect on his descendents. The other lived a godly life and had a tremendously positive influence on his descendents.

“LORD, please make us a godly example to those around us this day.”