The Women Who Saved Christmas: Jehosheba, A Brave Woman and a Future King

Sometimes all it takes is three verses for your courage to show.

Photo Credit: Unsplash

Today’s post is a (free!) bonus because Tuesday’s wasn’t part of this planned series. But this woman is the reason I named the series “The Women Who Saved Christmas.” It’s a play on a sermon by my favorite Old Testament scholar and retired pastor, Dale Ralph Davis. You should listen to him. He’s amazing. It comes from 2 Kings 11:1-3:

Now when Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she arose and destroyed all the royal family. But Jehosheba, the daughter of King Joram, sister of Ahaziah, took Joash the son of Ahaziah and stole him away from among the king's sons who were being put to death, and she put him and his nurse in a bedroom. Thus they hid him from Athaliah, so that he was not put to death. And he remained with her six years, hidden in the house of the Lord, while Athaliah reigned over the land.

For some context. This is a time period where the kingdom of Israel is divided, and the king is rarely benevolent. We’re a long way from the time of Ruth, when King David’s lineage was just getting started. We’re a long way from David’s reign and the promise of a king to lead them to worship God and bless the nations. By this point, often when a king is mentioned, the text will say who his mother was. Solomon was led astray by many women, leading Israel to worship false gods. This pattern only continued in successive generations. Marry well, your heart is kept steadfast. Marry poorly and you face a swift demise. Not every woman is a hero in scripture. In fact, some of them are pretty terrible. There aren’t a lot of women saving Christmas in 2 Kings.

But God always has a remnant.

In the midst of the darkness of a wayward kingdom, light breaks through.

Athaliah is on a mission to destroy the babies (sound familiar?). The seed of the serpent is once again trying to take out the seed of the woman. Without the king, you have no line for the promised king they were waiting for. No baby boys, no promised Messiah.

But what I find striking about Jehosheba, the woman who saves the baby king, is that we’re never told why she does it. In Exodus, we see the Hebrew midwives’ faith. We’re told they “fear God.” In Ruth, we see her pledge her loyalty to Yahweh. Jehosheba acts with courage, but we’re never given a reason why.

In Bible study this is an important detail. It would be easy to say she did this because she trusted in the promise that a Messiah would come. It would be easy to say that her faith led her to act. Perhaps it did, especially given that she ended up hiding him with the priest. But I think there is a more important interpretation and application for us here. The absence of a reason leads us to ask what God wants us to see about him in this text.

Jehosheba’s action comes in a time where it looks like God has stopped working. The entire kingdom is upended. Athaliah should be promoting the future king, trusting in the promise of the Davidic Covenant to carry God’s people to the Messiah. Instead, she works to snuff it out—and she almost succeeds.

The promises of God are in peril, and Jehosheba is the vulnerable party here. She’s carrying a baby and Athaliah bears the sword. It’s not a fair fight.

And isn’t that how God works? These women are used by God to save Christmas, but really he’s the one moving all the pieces on the chess board. Sometimes he uses people who know exactly what they’re part of—like the Hebrew midwives. Sometimes he uses people who only know what’s happening in the next minute—like Jehosheba. Sometimes he uses people who have devout faith in his purposes. Sometimes he uses people who just do the net thing, and faith comes later.

In the end, he’s the one who wins—even when you’re in a losing game and an evil queen is wielding her sword.

And Christmas still happens, and his kingdom marches forward. All because of three verses and a courageous woman who just did the next thing.