Yippee! Today we have another one that I've NEVER heard of! Have I even read the bible?

2 Kings 11:1-4, 9-18, 20
When When Athaliah, the mother of Ahaziah, saw that her son was dead, she began to kill off the whole royal family. But Jehosheba, daughter of King Jehoram and sister of Ahaziah, took Joash, his son, and spirited him away, along with his nurse, from the bedroom where the princes were about to be slain. She concealed him from Athaliah, and so he did not die. For six years he remained hidden in the temple of the LORD, while Athaliah ruled the land.

But in the seventh year, Jehoiada summoned the captains of the Carians and of the guards. He had them come to him in the temple of the LORD, exacted from them a sworn commitment,and then showed them the king’s son.

The captains did just as Jehoiada the priest commanded. Each one with his men, both those going on duty for the sabbath and those going off duty that week, came to Jehoiada the priest. He gave the captains King David’s spears and shields, which were in the temple of the LORD. And the guards, with drawn weapons, lined up from the southern to the northern limit of the enclosure, surrounding the altar and the temple on the king’s behalf. Then Jehoiada led out the king’s son and put the crown and the insignia upon him. They proclaimed him king and anointed him, clapping their hands and shouting, “Long live the king!”

Athaliah heard the noise made by the people, and appeared before them in the temple of the LORD.When she saw the king standing by the pillar, as was the custom, and the captains and trumpeters near him, with all the people of the land rejoicing and blowing trumpets, she tore her garments and cried out,“Treason, treason!” Then Jehoiada the priest instructed the captains in command of the force:“Bring her outside through the ranks. If anyone follows her,” he added, “let him die by the sword.” He had given orders that she should not be slain in the temple of the LORD. She was led out forcibly to the horse gate of the royal palace, where she was put to death.

Then Jehoiada made a covenant between the LORD as one party and the king and the people as the other, by which they would be the LORD’s people; and another covenant, between the king and the people. Thereupon all the people of the land went to the temple of Baal and demolished it. They shattered its altars and images completely, and slew Mattan, the priest of Baal, before the altars. Jehoiada appointed a detachment for the temple of the LORD. All the people of the land rejoiced and the city was quiet, now that Athaliah had been slain with the sword at the royal palace.

Okay, what?

I can't stop thinking about the stories that my friend Amy always tells me about sitting around in church as a little girl, looking up the sex and violence parts in the bible. I bet she knows all about this one. I'm seriously going to have to open this blog to comments soon, so that someone can tell me what is what. Now I know why my little devotional book only picks one reading per day to comment on. But of course, I love it, it's high drama, it is Old Testament at it's most bloody, and I did a little reading before it, and I think I may have a tiny inking what the story is trying to tell us. The study bible was silent on this one too, so here I am, going out on a limb. The story in the chapter before tells all about Jehu, kicking butt. He even gets rid of the entire rival royal family by sending their servants threatening letters. He does a lot of this to get rid of the idol worship, especially of Baal, but he quietly keeps his own idols, because they were politically advantageous to him. (He told people that they were of the Lord, so that they wouldn't leave his area and go on pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Neat.) So, this story that we are reading picks up in a weird place, but basically, when this Athaliah finds out that Jehu killed her son, she goes and tries to kill all of Jehu's royal family, but in Old Testament full revenge-of-the-Lord style, the high priest's daughter (Jehosheba) hides the child heir so that they can raise him in the temple until he is old enough to overthrow, then has a big bloody showdown (Where would Hollywood be without the bible?), then finally gets rid of all of the Baal stuff. So, is the entire reading a warning against idol worship? That is all I got.

As a side note, I did read somewhere once (maybe I made it up, who knows?) that one of the reasons that the Jews were so anti-Baal, was that his followers sacrificed babies to him. Makes sense to me. Anyway, you are tired of this, on to the next:

Matthew 6:19-23
Jesus said to his disciples: “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and decay destroy, and thieves break in and steal. But store up treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor decay destroys, nor thieves break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be."

“The lamp of the body is the eye. If your eye is sound, your whole body will be filled with light; but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be in darkness. And if the light in you is darkness, how great will the darkness be.”

Yes, I love my material goods way too much. This morning I was contemplating hiding some of my favorite coffee cups so that no more of them will break and I can have them forever and forever. I knew that this would come up in the reading as soon as I started stroking them and calling them "my precious". I have heard a lot of sermons equating the love of material goods with idol worship, and maybe it is true. Maybe that is the tie-in with both readings. Loving something more than God is damaging to the soul on this life as well as the next.

And I think that we have heard quite enough from me for now...goodbye.