Hide and Seek: The Royal Edition
In the middle of the political chaos of 2 Chronicles 22, there’s a short moment that could be easy to miss. After King Ahaziah is killed, his mother Athaliah seizes power by destroying the rest of the royal family. It’s brutal and swift. But one child, Joash, survives—and only because someone made the quiet choice to act.
Jehosheba, the king's sister, hides Joash and his nurse in a bedroom to keep him from being murdered. The text doesn’t give us much more about her. There’s no backstory, no internal monologue, no angelic visitation or dramatic speech. Just a decision. She takes the child and hides him for six years.
What Was She Thinking?
It’s a brief but loaded scene. There’s so much happening: fear, risk, loyalty, secrecy. I find myself wondering what kind of person Jehosheba was. Did she plan it out or act on instinct? Did she tell anyone, or did she live with that secret in isolation for years? What was it like to care for a child in hiding, knowing a powerful monarch wanted him dead?
We often read about kings and prophets in these stories, but here’s someone operating in the shadows. Jehosheba isn’t leading armies or issuing decrees. She’s preserving a single life—and in doing so, shaping the future of a nation.
Unsung MVPs of the Bible
What about the people whose names we barely remember? The ones who don’t get their own chapter, whose stories are wrapped up in someone else’s. In historical accounts, and even in modern news cycles, there's a tendency to focus on the most visible actors. But sometimes the person who changes the course of events is the one making a quiet, terrifying choice in the background.
Joash eventually becomes king, and the story moves on quickly from the fact that he was ever in hiding. But the whole arc depends on that hidden period. Without Jehosheba, there is no Joash. Without Joash, there is no restoration of the Davidic line.
The Courage We Don’t See
There’s something compelling about how little is said. It leaves space for interpretation, for curiosity. And maybe that’s part of what makes Jehosheba's actions so powerful: not that she is remembered in great detail, but that she acted without any guarantee of how it would end. I keep coming back to the image of a woman choosing to protect a child during a purge. Let's remember that history often turns on quiet acts of courage.