Year 6, Day 321: 2 Chronicles 22

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Protection

• Protection: In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus teaches us to pray that God might deliver us from evil – even the Evil One.  Sometimes we need God’s protection from the sin around us.  Sometimes we need protection from the sinful people around us.  Other times we need protection from the sin that lies within ourselves. In any case, Jesus’ point is clear.  We need protection from the Father to make it through each and every day.

Ahaziah comes into power.  He rules for a single year.  You know a king just didn’t get along well with God when he only reigned for a single year.  Ahaziah goes out to meet the king of Israel.  God takes advantage of the opportunity.  As Jehu was sent out to deal with the house of Ahab, he takes care of Ahaziah, too.

What is really neat, though, is the story that follows.  We know that God promised to have a descendant of David upon the throne.  When Athaliah, the mother of Ahaziah, sees that her son is dead, she sets out to kill the rest of the royal family.  She nearly succeeds, too.  A faithful servant of God, Athaliah’s own sister, finds her actions despicable and plans against it.  She takes Joash and hides him from Athaliah so that she can’t kill him.  She hides him in the temple.  God’s house literally protects Joash from Athaliah!

God’s protection is really amazing, and often unexpected.  Who would have thought to care about a small child?  Who would have thought to care about him for a number of years?  Who would have been devoted to hide him in the temple?  God’s faithful servants, people who care about God’s will being done, make sure that God is heard.  God’s protection starts with God and is planned by Him.  But we are the hands and feet of His plan of protection, reaching out into the world to help in unsuspecting ways.

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