The Worst Grandparent Ever

(Based on a message preached at First Baptist Church Chamois, MO on September 10, 2023. This is not an exact transcription.)

Introduction: Except for Adam, Eve, and the first generation of children (Cain, Abel, Seth, etc.) everybody has at least four grandparents! Some were good, and, sadly, many were not. This message takes a look at one of the worst, if not the worst, grandparent ever.

Let’s take a look at the text, from the Old Testament book of 2 Chronicles:

Text: 2 Chronicles 22:1-4, New American Standard Version 1 Then the inhabitants of Jerusalem made Ahaziah, his youngest son, king in his place, for the band of men who came with the Arabs to the camp had killed all the older sons. So Ahaziah the son of Jehoram king of Judah began to reign. 2 Ahaziah was twenty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned for one year in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Athaliah, the granddaughter of Omri. 3 He also walked in the ways of the house of Ahab, for his mother was his counselor to act wickedly. 4 So he did evil in the sight of the LORD like the house of Ahab, for they were his counselors after the death of his father, to his own destruction.

A few words about another mid-September day

Before I begin the message, may I share a little about 9-11? Some of you weren’t even born when this took place, when two airplanes crashed into the World Trade Center in New York City, killing over two thousand people. Some have never been identified, even to this day. There was also another crash into the Pentagon, near Washington DC and that crash killed hundreds of people there. Another flight, and you may have heard of Flight 93, was headed, some think, for the White House but some of the passengers took action and made the plane crash into an empty field. We may never know how many lives were spared because of what these heroes did.

I can remember that day to this day. I was a substitute teacher that day, when a little before lunch time the principal came dashing into the classroom. He had a photo of Plane 1 hitting the World Trade Center, showing the flames, etc. and I honestly thought this was a joke of some kind. People have reworked pictures for many years and at first I thought this was one of the same but it wasn’t long before a lot of us realized this was no joke.

It was real.

And the world has never been the same. Let’s always remember and always be alert. Our nation is worth defending, no matter what. Now let’s go on to the message.

What we know about Athaliah

We know Athaliah’s parentage: she was the daughter of Ahab, king of the Ten Northern Tribes, and Jezebel, daughter of Eth-Baal, king of Sidon. These names speak volumes, as the old saying goes, to those who know their Bibles: Ahab was probably the worst king of the Northern Tribes, and Jezebel was one of the most wicked women ever. She brought the worship of Baal, one of the Sidonian “deities” and no doubt hundreds of priests and prophets to make sure the Israelites followed her faith to the letter.

Jezebel also “helped” Ahab on at least one occasion. There was one man, named Naboth, who owned a vineyard neat the king’s palace. Ahab made him an offer he hoped Naboth wouldn’t refuse, but Naboth said No and Ahab was upset, to say the least.

Then came Jezebel who asked Ahab what was wrong. He told her and in so many words she said, “Leave it to me, I got this” or words to that effect. And she did: she arranged a sham or show trial, had Naboth convicted and executed for a made-up charge, and she probably thought everything was sunshine and roses for her and Ahab. The whole story is in 1 Kings 21.

But one of the worst things she ever did was persecute God’s prophets. After a while, there weren’t very many of God’s true prophets left in the North. Obadiah, a believer in the God of Israel, did what he could to provide “bread and water”—both scarce in those days—for maybe two groups of fifty prophets each.

Still worse was her threat to Elijah: after he had seen God’s power displayed on the top of Mount Carmel (1 Kings 18), and heard the crowd assembled there return to worshiping the True God, Jezebel sent one of the coldest letters ever made. In brief, she said, “Let my gods put me to death if you’re still alive by tomorrow about this time”!

Elijah ran for his life, maybe 100 miles, to get away from her! Think about it, Mount Carmel is near Haifa, in northern Israel and Mount Sinai/Horeb is way down in the Sinai Peninsula! This was no 100-meter dash; he was going as fast as he could to avoid her!