Psalms 31:1-4

My Shepherd met me in His green pastures, and the Mind of His Spirit engaged the mind of my spirit in 2 Chronicles 15:16

2 Chronicles 15:16 And also concerning Maachah the mother of Asa the king, he removed her from being queen, because she had made an idol in a grove: and Asa cut down her idol, and stamped it, and burnt it at the brook Kidron.

Sunday last, we celebrated mothers! Emphasizing the importance of honoring our mothers, taking the fourth commandment from Exodus 20 as my text, I pointed out that it does not say honor your father and your mother only if they are honorable. I believe that is true; however, that does not mean we ignore egregious and abominable behavior. We do not elevate our mothers above our Lord Jesus (Luke 14:26).

Monday morning, as I was seeking the Shepherd in His green pastures, I noticed something in the record of King Asa that caught my attention: Asa honored his GOD above his mother. He “removed her from being queen, because she had made an idol in a grove” (2 Chronicles 15:16). Furthermore, he destroyed her idol with fervent zeal: cut it down, stomped it, and burnt it with fire [IBID.].

It was not unusual for Judah’s Queen Mothers to hold that honorific title beyond the reign of their husbands. There was no “official” office called Queen in Israel; that is, there was no official biblical office identified as Queen.* However, the influence of mothers is such that it is not surprising that such a quasi-office developed.

Athaliah is an example of a mother whose influence extended beyond her husband’s reign (2 Kings 8-11). Yet she is not called Gebirah. Athaliah was the daughter of Jezebel, the wife of Ahab, king of Israel. Jezebel’s daughter married the son of Jehoshaphat, whose name was Jehoram. Jehoram succeeded his father as King of Judah. Azariah, the firstborn son of Jehoram by Athaliah, succeeded his father to the throne of Judah, and Athaliah remained Queen Mother throughout his reign. When her son, Azariah, died, Athalaiah killed all the “seed royal,” attempting to secure the throne for herself. It was a devilish plot to destroy the line of David and so cut off the divinely chosen seed through which God intended to send Christ into the flesh (2 John 7). A brave woman named Jehonadab rescued one son of the royal seed; his name was Joash. Her plot was foiled. She was destroyed by Jehoida the Priest, who was the caretaker of the throne of David while Joash was in his minority. Athaliah is the only mother who reigned as “king” (מַלְכָּה (Mal-kah—The feminine form of the word  מֶלֶךְ (Mel-Ek— or King). See 2 Chronicles 22:12, where the word Mal-kah is used to describe Athaliah’s rule, where the word is translated as “reigned,” although she usurped the role by force and violence.)**

Along the still waters, I was impressed by the Spirit to correct my emphasis on honoring our mothers, despite their dishonorable behavior. However, we must not shame them for personal picadillos common to human nature that do not rise to the level of blasphemy, or gross errors that distort morals, that make perversity a fixed characteristic of their personality.

Give yourself the break God extends to you by His grace, and give your mother every break you give yourself.

In the valley, shadowed by His cross, my Shepherd’s voice carried the call to my heart: “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me” (Luke 9:23).

At the table, we communed for a while as I was reminded what a great mother He gave to me, of how the Devil sought to destroy her, how the grace of my Shepherd saved her, and the joy I have in my heart knowing I will see my mother Eunice and my grandmother Lois in Glory.

Jesus anointed my head with His oil and filled my cup with His grace. Goodness and mercy followed as we went together into the harvest.

Praying for revival! 🙏

Going live asap:

https://rumble.com/v79r912-shepherds-pasture.html

[*The term for queen,  גְּבִירָה (Gebirah—“strong one, to prevail, to be mighty”) was used to identify only two mothers in Judah: Maachah, the mother of Abijah, who is called “queen” during the reign of her husband, Joram, their son, Abijah, and whom we presume to be her grandson, Asa. (NOTE: She is called “mother” to both Abijam and Asa, using the same Hebrew term. However, because we are told that Asa was the son of Abijah (1 Kings 15:8; 2 Chronicles 14:1), we know that Maachah extended her influence as “queen” through the reigns of her husband, son, and into the reign of her grandson. The alternative is to suggest the very pagan Abijam had relations with his very pagan mother.) The only other mother of a king in Judah, who is called Gebirah—strong one, to prevail, to be mighty—is Nehushta, wife of King Jehoiakim and mother of King Jehoiachin (aka Jeconiah), her son (Jeremiah 13:18; 29:2).]

[**Esther, on the other hand, received this honor from the pagan king Ahasuerus (Esther 2:17, 22; 5:2-3, 12; 7:1-8; 8:1, 7; 9:12, 29, 31). The Bible does not mention any son born to Ahasuerus from Esther. A Rabbinical speculative tradition suggests Darius II might have been Esther’s son. It is based on some weird stuff, supposing that Xerxes I is Ahasuerus, that his son, Artaxerxes, was a child of Vashti, and that this Artaxerxes took Esther as a concubine, from whom came Darius II, the “son of Artaxerxes I (by a Babylonian concubine). (https://grok.com/share/c2hhcmQtMg_f94dbb3a-d008-4c8f-928a-8c3c7df8cd33)]