The Priest’s Wife Who Saved Christmas

There’s a vault under a mountain above the Arctic Circle. It’s intentionally remote and cold, to prevent its contents from being damaged by war or disaster, and because the temperatures aid preservation. Inside the vault, there’s a priceless treasure gathered from all over the world. It’s not gold or silver, coin or cash. The treasure is seed. Inside this vault is “the world’s largest collection of agricultural diversity.”

Try to imagine this scenario: A blight obliterates all the wheat on earth. Then, by some catastrophic accident or heinous attack, the seed vault in Norway explodes in flames. One lone worker risks life and limb to salvage a single grain of wheat—a precious deposit of genetic code with the potential to restore the world’s daily bread.

A similar scenario occurs in 2 Kings 11, where we meet Jehosheba, who is only mentioned in Scripture for this singular but critical act.

When evil seems to have won the day, God is at work through his people to preserve his promise.

Nearly 3,000 years ago, Jehu—king of Israel and God’s avenger—ordered the killing of Ahaziah, king of Judah (2 Kings 9:6–7, 27). Ahaziah’s evil ways came to an end, but his toxic mother, Athaliah, was just getting started. Seeing an opportunity to reign as queen, this dysfunctional daughter of Ahab and Jezebel (8:26) began murdering her competition for the throne: her own grandchildren (11:1). Her idolatrous lust for political power was so great, she was willing to sacrifice her family.

Before Athaliah could exterminate them all, Jehosheba, sister of the fallen Ahaziah and “wife of Jehoiada the priest” (2 Chron. 22:11), intervened. Through her bravery, Jehosheba reminds us of a timeless Christmas truth: When evil seems to have won the day, God is at work through his people to preserve his promise.

When All Seems Lost

At great risk, Jehosheba stole her nephew Joash and took him to the temple compound where she and her husband adopted him. They secretly protected Joash during his grandmother’s reign of terror. Aunt Jehosheba was the only mother Joash would know, but he also had a mentor in his uncle, who instructed him in God’s Word (2 Kings 12:2). Joash experienced a hard life in his young years, but God was secretly causing it all to work for Joash’s good. Better to be raised by the faithful preacher and his wife in the temple than by a Baal-worshiping king in the palace.

God was secretly causing it all to work for Joash’s good.

For seven years, the nation’s faithful remnant suffered under the heartbreaking, gut-wrenching, hope-killing illusion that all was lost. God had promised David his throne would be established forever, that one of his seed would eternally reign in truth and righteousness (2 Sam. 7:16). Now all the seed was destroyed and Jezebel’s daughter was on the throne. As far as the people knew, all David’s descendants in the royal line had been exterminated.

The implications are devastating. If no Davidic heir remains, God isn’t trustworthy. Either he lies to his people or he changes his mind, breaking promises he once intended to keep. Maybe he doesn’t change his mind but is so ignorant or weak that unforeseen circumstances thwart his will. Either God isn’t smart, or he isn’t strong, or he isn’t good, or he isn’t there. If we can’t trust God to keep his promises to David, God’s people must have thought, how can we trust him to keep his promises to us?

God Keeps His Promise

When he turned 7, Joash was finally revealed to the nation as the rightful heir to David’s throne. The godly remnant in Judah rejoiced, but Athaliah persisted in arrogance until her well-earned execution. Joash ruled for more than 40 years. His was a time of reform and relative peace in Judah, when many returned to worshiping the one true and living God. Joash’s grandson Uzziah would eventually find a place both on David’s throne and in our Savior’s genealogy (Matt. 1:9).

Centuries later, we meet the promised child. He also feels at home in the temple. On his first visit, he was carried in the arms of his parents. The tiny seed was gently handed to Simeon who recognized he held in his arms Joash’s direct descendant—and the Lord’s salvation (Luke 2:30). The next time we see Jesus in the temple, he’s not learning like Joash but teaching like Jehoiada (v. 47). Once more, the temple of the Lord becomes the seed vault of his Christ.

Because the priest’s wife put her life on the line, countless people in her generation were blessed. More importantly, every generation since has been blessed as well. “Try to see God’s hand at work long before Luke 2,” writes Dale Ralph Davis. “If Athaliah had her way, there would’ve been no angels or shepherds or swaddling clothes or good news of great joy. Today you’d better thank God for the lady who saved Christmas.”

Without celebrity status, riveting rhetoric, awe-inspiring miracles, or angel choirs, Jehosheba quietly defied a wicked ruler in service to our faithful God. Not knowing then what she surely knows now, Jehosheba rescued the lineage of the Savior of the world. Through her, the Lord of Christmas saved his own line, preserving his great plan of salvation.