The Lamp That Did Not Go Out

The wicked queen Athaliah sets out to destroy every descendant of David, but Jehosheba steals away the infant Joash and hides him in a back room of the temple, where he is brought up in secret for six years. Through those years the high priest Jehoiada quietly prepares for the appointed time, and at last Joash is crowned king of Judah.

What appeared to collapse was the house of David, not the covenant of God. Jehoshaphat took Ahab’s daughter as a wife for his son, certain that he himself would never be shaken; yet that decision drew his son and grandson into idolatry and brought the nation to the brink of ruin. Human sin and betrayal, however, could not break the covenant. In a place no one knew of, God was keeping one life safe.

Christians must not place too much confidence in their own faith, for sin does not begin as a settled intention; it begins with the compromises a person makes with himself. Yet even when people fail, God does not, and the covenant he made with David is finally fulfilled in Jesus Christ. To hold fast to that promise and remain faithful to the end is the part left to us today.