“Now when Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son
was dead, she arose and destroyed all the royal family.” She nearly wiped out the
entire Davidic line but one of her daughters managed to secret away a grandson,
Joash. Athaliah was the daughter of Ahab
and Jezebel, and, like her mother, a Baal worshipper. She had married Jehoram, king of Judah, as
part of a treaty between the two kingdoms and the king had tolerated her Baal
worship in the land. Now, she decides to
rule herself, like her mother, and to destroy her own family in order to secure
that throne against other claimants. Joash
is hidden in the house of the Lord for six years while his grandmother reigns
before Jehoiada, the priest, brought him forward and made him known to the
guards of the temple as the rightful king.
There is a Mosaic parallel here. When
Joash is proclaimed as king by the guard, Ahaziah claims this to be a
treasonous act but the guard are ready to put her to death and, along with her,
the priests of her god, Baal, and to destroy all the places where this god is
worshipped. So ends the extended reign
of Jezebel through her daughter. The evil of this woman is finally purged from the
land.
Do you remember the little song that, in part, said, “Be careful
little eyes what you see”? The two
sayings that bracket Jesus’ words on the eye being the lamp of the body, that
through which light enters the consciousness, are explained by this middle
paragraph. The teaching follows on the
ideas of the Lord’s Prayer, looking for the coming of God’s kingdom and in so
doing, seeing the world for what it truly is, a wonderful creation of a loving
God but one that is fallen and compromised.
Our treasure is not here on earth, it is passing away, and we are to
look to things eternal and when we do, our eyes are filled with the light that
comes from God, that first light that came into being prior to creation. We are then able to see clearly all things
and properly assign value to all things.
Paul’s presumption is that the converts are adults who
already had lives when they came to faith.
Those lives are now problematic for many of believers. I have certainly known people who became
followers of Jesus when they adults whose spouses didn’t follow them in
faith. It makes for difficult marriages
but I believe with Paul that the right thing to do is remain in the marriage. I have also seen incredible redemption when
that unbelieving spouse comes to faith. What
does Paul mean when he says that the belief of one spouse hallows another? It means
that God is in that house through the believing spouse, and the conditions are
then better for the other to come to faith by seeing the changed life of their
spouse. We have always to keep our eyes
on the prize so Paul says not to worry about externals, those things don’t have
to do with salvation and the eternal reward.
Energy expended on changing those externalities is often taken from more
important things like the pursuit of the kingdom.
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