Daily Devotional

When you are terrified, open your mouth and start singing praises. Be like Paul and Silas, who could sing from prison and the glory of God manifested mightily. The chains were broken, and all the prisoners were set free. Faced with threats on every side from many who wanted his downfall, Jeremiah prays: “O Lord of hosts, who triest the righteous, who seest the heart and the mind, let me see thy vengeance upon them, for to thee have I committed my cause.”

Today’s first reading continues the story of Joash, the young king who bit the hand that fed him. Despite all that the priest Jehoiada did to protect him from being slain by Athaliah, Joash failed to protect Zechariah, the son of Jehoiada. Another evil of King Joash was his support for idol worship. Under his watch, Israel served Asherim, abandoning God’s ways. Nemesis caught up with Joash when the Syrian army, with only a few men, massacred the great army of Judah.

Do not kill anyone for the sake of the fleeting things of this world. The story of Athaliah confirms Jesus’ statement to Peter on the night of his arrest: “Those who kill by the sword will die by the sword.” (Matthew 26:52). Jesus says that the eye is the lamp of the body. In other words, your life is determined by what you see (the things you focus on). If your eyes are sound (fix your gaze on heaven), your body will be light.