A mediator between God and man
Jehoiada
Jehoiada was the high priest who, in the darkest hour of the royal line, hid the infant heir, crowned him king, and renewed Israel's covenant with the LORD. While he lived, he steadied a nation, but his story also warns how quickly hearts can turn once a godly guide is gone.
“And the seventh year Jehoiada sent and fetched the rulers over hundreds, with the captains and the guard, and brought them to him into the house of the LORD, and made a covenant with them, and took an oath of them in the house of the LORD, and shewed them the king’s son.”2 Kings 11:4
Who he was
Who he was. Jehoiada served as high priest during the reign of the wicked queen Athaliah. When Athaliah saw that her son Ahaziah was dead, she "arose and destroyed all the seed royal" of the house of Judah to seize the throne (2 Kings 11:1). But Jehoiada's wife, Jehosheba, stole away the baby prince Joash and hid him, "and he was with her hid in the house of the LORD six years" (2 Kings 11:3). In the seventh year Jehoiada acted. He gathered the captains, showed them the king's son, armed them from the temple, and in a carefully guarded ceremony "brought forth the king's son, and put the crown upon him ... and they made him king, and anointed him; and they clapped their hands, and said, God save the king" (2 Kings 11:12). Athaliah was slain, and "Jehoiada made a covenant between the LORD and the king and the people, that they should be the LORD's people" (2 Kings 11:17). The people tore down the house of Baal. Jehoiada guided the young king in the good, repairing the temple (2 Kings 12), and he died at a great age, honored so highly that they buried him among the kings (2 Chronicles 24:15-16).
His priesthood
His priesthood. Jehoiada's priesthood joined courage with covenant faithfulness. At the risk of his life he preserved the seed of David through which God's promises must come, refusing to let the royal line be extinguished by a usurper. He did not seize the throne for himself, though he held great power as regent; he set the rightful king upon it and pointed the nation back to God. His renewing of the covenant, binding king and people afresh to the LORD, was priestly work at its best, leading a whole people to belong again to God and to purge idolatry from the land. Yet 2 Chronicles tells the sober sequel. "Joash did that which was right in the sight of the LORD all the days of Jehoiada the priest" (2 Chronicles 24:2), but after Jehoiada died, the princes flattered Joash, who turned to idols and even ordered the stoning of Jehoiada's own son Zechariah in the temple court (2 Chronicles 24:17-22). Jehoiada's godly influence was real, but it could not finally hold a heart that was not truly the LORD's.
How it points to Christ
How it points to Christ. Jehoiada is not named as a type in the New Testament, so we read him thoughtfully, yet his story shines with gospel patterns. He preserved the line of David when a murderer sought to destroy it, much as God preserved the promised seed again and again until Christ, the true Son of David, was born, whom Herod likewise sought to kill (Matthew 2). Jehoiada was a priest who crowned a king and bound the people to God in covenant; Christ is the Priest who is Himself the King and who seals a new covenant in His own blood (Hebrews 9:15). And the tragic aftermath, when Joash forsook God once his priestly guide was gone, exposes the deepest need: not a mentor beside us but a Mediator within us, a Priest who does not die and leave His people, but "ever liveth to make intercession for them" (Hebrews 7:25). Jehoiada's influence ended at his grave; Christ's never ends.
Questions people ask
Why is Jehoiada's story told with such a sad ending?
Second Chronicles 24 honestly records that Joash served God faithfully while Jehoiada lived but turned to idolatry after his death, even killing Jehoiada's son Zechariah. Scripture tells it plainly to show that outward reform can rest on borrowed conviction. It exposes our need for a Priest who does not die and a heart truly changed by God.
Was Jehoiada right to overthrow Athaliah?
Athaliah was a usurper who had murdered the royal seed to seize a throne that was not hers. Jehoiada acted to restore the rightful Davidic king through whom God's covenant promises ran, and Scripture presents this as faithful and courageous. It was the removal of a murderous tyrant and the reestablishing of God's ordained order, not a private grab for power.
Why was Jehoiada buried among the kings?
Second Chronicles 24:16 says he was buried in the city of David among the kings "because he had done good in Israel, both toward God, and toward his house." It was a rare honor for a priest, marking how greatly his faithfulness had blessed the nation. It testifies that God notices and honors lives given to His service.