II Kings 11: Raised In The Church?

From time to time you may hear lifelong Christians share their faith testimony and say something along the lines of, "I was literally raised in the church!"  By this they usually mean that they were brought up by their parents in the faith from a very early age and that a lot of their childhood was spent in church-related activities.  They weren't actually raised in the church.  But the key figure of II Kings 11 was, in fact, "literally" raised in the church.  (Or in the Temple, anyway!)

What happened was this: when he was just a year old, Prince Joash's father, King Ahaziah of Judah, was killed by Jehu (you may remember that occurring back in II Kings 9:27), who also killed the King of Israel.  While Jehu was busy cleansing the nation of Israel of the house of Omri/Ahab and Baal worshipers, Judah was ruled by a woman: Ahaziah's mother, Athaliah.  Athaliah was related to Ahab (probably his daughter, but possibly his sister.)  In keeping with her family's wretched reputation, Athaliah decides to cement her grip on power by killing all of her relatives in the nation of Judah.  Charming.  All in all, it was a bad time to be related to Ahab.

Athaliah's campaign against her relatives includes even her grandchildren.  Little Joash is in her crosshairs.  But instead of Joash being slain, his aunt named Jehosheba (likely Ahaziah's half-sister born to a different wife of King Joram rather than Athaliah) rescued him from that fate.  Jehosheba hid the child and his nurse (vs. 2).  "He remained with her six years, hidden in the house of the Lord, while Athaliah reigned over the land" (vs. 3).

So from age 1 to age 7, the child Joash is brought up in the Temple.  (Not surprisingly, when he reaches the throne in chapter 12, he is regarded as a good king, with a special interest in the Temple upkeep!  But that's getting ahead of the story.)  In his seventh year, the priest Jehoida decides it's finally time to proclaim the boy as king.  A descendant of David will once again take the throne of Judah, dispelling the wicked daughter of Ahab's house!

Queen Athaliah doesn't go quietly, however,  When she hears the noise going on in the Temple (probably the tumult associated with the discovery of a rightful heir to the crown), Athaliah goes to the house of the Lord to investigate.  Seeing her grandson being recognized as king, she is enraged.  She tears her clothes and cries out, "Treason!  Treason!"  (vs. 14).  Jehoida orders her to be executed - but not in the Temple - and Joash takes his place on the throne.  With Jehoida to advise the king, the worship of Baal is cleansed from Judah with his temple torn down, his altar broken, and his priest killed.  Not bad for a church kid!