Useful Bible Studies > 2 Kings Commentary > chapter 11
Athaliah had built a temple – a great building – for the religion of the false god Baal in Jerusalem. She would have wanted it to become the official religion there, as her parents Ahab and Jezebel did in Samaria (1 Kings 16:32). It seems likely that this new temple stood inside the great court (or yard) of the temple of the true God. So the temple of this evil religion stood on land that was especially holy.
The Bible teaches that it is wrong to serve a false god or to pray to an image (Deuteronomy 4:15-19, 5:8-10 and 7:1-6). Actually, the religion of Baal was much worse than some other wrong religions are. For example, this religion approved of wrong sex acts (Numbers 25:1-3) and even murders (1 Kings 19:10). This religion is the reason why the Bible declares Ahab to have been Israel’s most evil king (1 Kings 21:25-26).
Clearly, there was no place for such a wicked religion in a nation that had just chosen only to serve the true God (11:17). So, the first act of the people of Judah with their new king was to destroy the temple of Baal. They pulled down the building. They destroyed its idols. The idols were the images, in front of which the people prayed. A temple of Baal probably had stone images of the male god Baal and wooden images of a female god, Asherah. So, the people lit fires to burn the wooden images, and they used the heat from the fires to break the stone images into many pieces. They also destroyed the altars. These were the places outside the temple where the priests burned gifts to offer them to Baal. Mattan, the chief priest of Baal died, perhaps as a punishment, or perhaps because he tried to defend his temple.
Next part: Joash's palace and his throne (2 Kings 11:19-21)
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