Athaliah heard the noise of jubilation. “Conspiracy! Conspiracy!” she cried out when she came in and saw what had happened. In loyalty to Jehovah’s rightful king, High Priest Jehoiada had her conducted outside and put to death at a gate of the palace. (2 Chron. 22:10 to 23:15; 2 Ki. 11:1-16) In his loving-kindness Jehovah, by means of his loyal worshipers, proved true to his covenant made with his servant King David.

27. In Jehoash’s case, how did loss of appreciation lead to disloyalty, but what kept the kingdom covenant operating?

²⁷ Loss of appreciation leads to disloyalty. Even Jehoash gave an example of that. As long as High Priest Jehoiada lived and was his spiritual adviser, King Jehoash went straight. After Jehoiada died, Jehoash listened to idolatrously inclined princes of Judah. Jehoiada’s son, the High Priest Zechariah, objected. “Because you have left Jehovah, he will, in turn, leave you,” he said. Finally, at King Jehoash’s own command, the people conspired against High Priest Zechariah and stoned him to death in the very courtyard of Jehovah’s temple. What base ungratefulness! Says 2 Chronicles 24:22: “Jehoash the king did not remember the loving-kindness that Jehoiada [Zechariah’s] father had exercised toward him, so that he killed his son, who, when he was at the point of dying, said: ‘Let Jehovah see to it and ask it back.’” Jehovah did. The record tells us how Jehoash died: “His own servants conspired against him because of the blood of the sons of Jehoiada the priest, and they got to kill him upon his own couch, so that he died.” (2 Chron. 24:25) His son Amaziah succeeded him on the “throne of Jehovah.” Thus, by Jehovah’s loving-kindness, the kingdom covenant kept operating.

Men of Loving-Kindness and the Kingdom

1. What questions become proper today regarding the kingdom covenant, and how is our own life involved?

HOW can we today be loyal to Jehovah’s everlasting covenant with David for the kingdom? With whom today has Jehovah concluded an “indefinitely lasting covenant respecting the loving-kindnesses to David that are faithful”? (Isa. 55:3) Look! the old city of Jerusalem is held by Mohammedan Arabs. The mountaintop once occupied by Jehovah’s temple is now crowned with the mosque known as the Dome of the Rock. The Republic of Israel has no king of the royal house of David in the covenant for the kingdom. What has happened to that everlasting covenant? Our gaining everlasting life in God’s approaching new world of righteousness hangs on our getting the right answer and acting in loyal harmony with it.

2. How did the active kingship of David’s successors at Jerusalem cease, and how was it that Zerubbabel did not revive the kingship?

² In 618 B.C. King Jehoiachin, the nineteenth