Preached October 2, 2011
from
2 Chronicles 34:29-33; 2 Kings 23:4-20; 2 Chronicles 35:1-19
Theme: King Josiah’s personal reforms show us what it looks like when God’s word truly transforms our lives.
(Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture references are taken from The Holy Bible, New King James Version; copyright 1982, Thomas Nelson, Inc.)
Over the past several months, we’ve been studying the individual lives of the Kings of Judah. And last Sunday, we were introduced to the last of Judah’s godly kings—King Josiah.
Josiah, you’ll remember, was a king who was brought to the throne at the tender age of eight. His grandfather Menassah, and his father Amon, were both profoundly ungodly kings—in fact, they led their people further away from the Lord than any of the kings that preceded them. But what a breath of fresh air Josiah must have been! His reign was very much the opposite of that of his fathers. As 2 Kings 23:25 tells us; “Now before him there was no king like him, who turned to the LORD with all his heart, with all his soul, and with all his might, according to all the Law of Moses; nor after him did any arise like him.”
As a young man, Josiah had set himself to walk in the godly ways of his great ancestor King David. As soon as he was able to do so—at the young age of twenty—he began to purge his kingdom of the horrible idolatry that his predecessors had brought into it. He smashed up the idols that had been built and destroyed the altars that had been set up. And what’s more, he also commanded that the temple of the Lord—long neglected and allowed to go to ruin—be cleaned up and restored.
And it was in the process of cleaning up the temple that an amazing discovery was made. A copy of the law that God had given to Moses had been found by the high priest. The priest sent this lone copy of the long-forgotten Scriptures young King Josiah; and as it was read to him, his heart was broken over how far his people had been led from God’s good way—and he wept, and tore his clothes, and greatly humbled himself before the Lord.
I suggested to you last week that Josiah’s response to God’s word was an illustration of what we’re told in Isaiah 66:2; where God said, “But on this one will I look: on him who is poor and of a contrite spirit, and who trembles at My word.” Josiah was truly a man who trembled at God’s word.
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Now; I also suggested last week that Josiah is an example of how God further blesses those who prove faithful to rise up and put that word to use once He reveals it to them. And Josiah’s faithful response to God’s word to Him is what I’d like us to consider this morning.
You see; as a preacher of God’s word, I’m confident in its power to change lives. I often feel that I have the greatest and most privileged job in the world—that of studying and sharing with others the life-changing, life-transforming word of God! As Josiah’s story tells us—and as the experience of many in this room can testify—the potential of God’s word, in the power of the Holy Spirit, to radically transform people’s lives is unlimited. As Hebrews 4:12 says, the word of God “is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”
But how does that life-transformation show itself? What does it look like when the Holy Spirit powerfully applies God’s word to someone’s heart and changes them from the inside out? I suggest that King Josiah’s story helps, to some degree, to answer that question. His personal reforms, after that particularly powerful encounter with God’s word, shows us what it looks like when God’s word truly transforms our lives.
I’d like to take you this morning to three major portions of Josiah’s story and show you some of the ways that God’s transforming work through His word demonstrates itself in someone’s life. First, if you would, turn with me to 2 Chronicles 34:29-33; and to the story of what happened immediately after he heard God’s word read to him—after he trembled in response, and after God expressed His pleasure at his humble repentance at the hearing of that word.
There, we discover that, one of the ways life-transformation through God’s word shows itself in us is by the fact that . . .
1. WE SHARE OUR OUR RESPONSE TO GOD’S WORD WITH OTHERS.
We’re told,
Then the king sent and gathered all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem. The king went up to the house of the LORD, with all the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem—the priests and the Levities, and all the people, great and small. And he read in their hearing all the words of the Book of the Covenant which had been found in the house of the LORD (2 Chronicles 34:29-30).
Now; the king was acting in his proper role as the earthly head over his kingdom. And as that head, he exercised his kingly prerogative to the glory of God and the good of his people He gathered everyone together before him in an official manner, and read to them the very word from God that had been read to him. He shared with them the life-transforming Scripture that God had used to impact him, in the hopes that they—like him—would also tremble before God’s word.
And then, before this gathered assembly, the king did a very daring thing. We read,
Then the king stood in his place and made a covenant before the LORD, to follow the LORD, and to keep His commandments and His testimonies and His statutes with all his heart and all his soul, to perform the words of the covenant that were written in this book. (vv. 31-32).
It takes a very special kind of courage to stand before everyone—especially before those who can easily see your every-day walk through life—and declare that you are committing yourself to change your ways and walk in obedience to God’s word. Some people would be afraid to make such a public commitment out of fear of being held accountable for it. But Josiah took the risk, ‘planted his flag’ as it were, and publicly declared his allegiance to God and His commandments.
And look at how Josiah further used his kingly prerogatives. We’re told,
And he made all who were present in Jerusalem and Benjamin take a stand. So the inhabitants of Jerusalem did according to the covenant of God, the God of their fathers (v. 32).
He, of course, could not hold authority over the individual hearts and consciences of those under his rule. But to the degree that he could exercise his authority for their advancement of obedience to God’s word, he did so. It was as if he made the same sort of commitment that Josiah made of old: “But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD” (Joshua 24:15b). And it would seem that his leadership in this was taken to heart by the people; because, as it says in the parallel account in 2 Kings 23:3, “all the people took a stand for the covenant.”
What an example Josiah sets for us; especially for those of us who are heads of households. As you know, we’re constantly being told by the ‘experts’ of this world that we shouldn’t push our values and religious convictions on those over whom we hold responsibility. But apparently, Josiah didn’t get that memo! When it came to those who were under his rightful sphere of leadership and influence, he didn’t keep things to himself. With great confidence and courage, he shared with them the word of God that had transformed his life, publicly committed himself to obey that word, and sought to bring others that were under his care into that same commitment with him.
That, I suggest to you, shows what it looks like when God takes hold of someone through His word and transforms them!
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Now; another way that such life-transformation shows itself is hinted at in the last verse of that passage;
Thus Josiah removed all the abominations from all the country that belonged to the children of Israel, and made all who were present in Israel diligently serve the LORD their God. All his days they did not depart from following the LORD God of their fathers (2 Chronicles 34:33).
You see; Josiah’s commitment to obey God’s word wasn’t mere words. He really meant what he said, and fully intended to put it into action. And this shows us that another way that a life-transformation through God’s word shows itself in us is by the fact that . . .
2. WE RID OUR LIFE OF THAT WHICH IS SINFUL.
The most detailed report of how Josiah did this is given to us in 2 Kings 23. Clearly, because he had brought others into the covenant with him to keep God’s word, he was greatly enabled to rise up with them and—thoroughly and systematically—remove everything from his kingdom that was contrary to God’s word.
First, notice how he began by cleaning out the very temple of the Lord. During the reigns of his grandfather and his father, the temple had been defiled with idols and with the paganistic worship of the sun, moon and stars. So; we read,
And the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest, the priests of the second order, and the doorkeepers, to bring out of the temple of the LORD all the articles that were made for Baal, for Asherah, and for all the host of heaven; and he burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of Kidron, and carried their ashes to Bethel (2 Kings 23:4).
It was the right priority to begin by taking these things out of the place where only God should be worshiped. And then, after doing so, Josiah turned his efforts toward removing these sinful things from the land of Judah and Jerusalem. We read,
Then he removed the idolatrous priests whom the kings of Judah had ordained to burn incense on the high places in the cities of Judah and in the places all around Jerusalem, and those who burned incense to Baal, to the sun, to the moon, to the constellations, and to all the host of heaven (v. 6).
These are forms of paganism that had been introduced into the kingdom by his grandfather Menassah. And here, we see that Josiah not only sought to remove the idols and altars of these pagan gods, but also the very priests who promoted the worship of them.
Note too that we’re told;
And he brought out the wooden image from the house of the LORD, to the Brook Kidron outside Jerusalem, burned it at the Brook Kidron and ground it to ashes, and threw its ashes on the graves of the common people (v. 7).
This “wooden image” is the horrible, idolatrous image that his grandfather Menassah had made and had set up in the temple. When Menassah had repented, he removed the idol from the temple; but he didn’t destroy it. And then, when Menassah’s wicked son Aman became king, he put it back. Josiah came and not only removed it from the temple; he also utterly destroyed it so that it could never be put back again!
The idolatry that his father and grandfather had brought into the land had apparently created the kind of atmosphere in which some of the most immoral practices imaginable became commonplace. Ritual prostitutes of both genders set-up operations within the temple; and the women in the temple made crafts in honor of Manasseh’s horrible idol that the prostitutes served. Josiah displayed ‘zero tolerance’ for such things in his land or in the house of the Lord; and so we read;
Then he tore down the ritual booths of the perverted persons that were in the house of the LORD, where the women wove hangings for the wooden image (v. 8).
Not only did he remove all the false priests and priestesses of paganism from his land, but he sought to deal with those from the true priesthood who had become unfaithful to the Lord. God had commanded that they make offerings to God only at the temple; but they had been disobediently leading people away from the temple and out into the “high places” that God did not command; and they were allowing the people to observe their offerings in ways that God had forbade in His word. So we read;
And he brought all the priests from the cities of Judah, and defiled the high places where the priests had burned incense, from Geba to Beersheba; also he broke down the high places at the gates which were at the entrance of the Gate of Joshua the governor of the city, which were to the left of the city gate. Nevertheless the priests of the high places did not come up to the altar of the LORD in Jerusalem, but they ate unleavened bread among their brethren (vv. 9-10).
Among the most horrible of the practices that his grandfather had introduced into the land was that of human sacrifice to the false god Molech in the nearby valley. Josiah dealt decisively with that as well;
And he defiled Topheth, which is in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, that no man might make his son or his daughter pass through the fire to Molech (v. 11).
It would seem that Josiah felt no obligation to honor the idolatrous monuments that his fathers had set up out of any misplaced respect for “culture” or “history.” They had established “horses”—either a team of literal horses, or statues of horses—that were dedicated to the sun in the sky; along with the chariots associated with them. So we read;
Then he removed the horses that the kings of Judah had dedicated to the sun, at the entrance to the house of the LORD, by the chamber of Nathan-Melech, the officer who was in the court; and he burned the chariots of the sun with fire (v. 12).
He even went further and removed the paganistic things that had been built by his distant ancestors;
The altars that were on the roof, the upper chamber of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and the altars which Manasseh had made in the two courts of the house of the LORD, the king broke down and pulverized there, and threw their dust into the Brook Kidron. Then the king defiled the high places that were east of Jerusalem, which were on the south of the Mount of Corruption, which Solomon king of Israel had built for Ashtoreth the abomination of the Sidonians, for Chemosh the abomination of the Moabites, and for Milcom the abomination of the people of Ammon. And he broke in pieces the sacred pillars and cut down the wooden images, and filled their places with the bones of men (vv. 12-14).
These are things that he did in his own homeland. But he went even further than that, and went up to the northern kingdom. The northern kingdom of Israel had been devastated by the Assyrian empire some time before; but some of the remnants of its former idolatry had remained. And it was in Bethel that idolatry had first been introduced into the land by the northern kingdom’s first king, Jeroboam. Josiah went up north to strike the ildolatry at its source. And so, we read;
Moreover the altar that was at Bethel, and the high place which Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel sin, had made, both that altar and the high place he broke down; and he burned the high place and crushed it to powder, and burned the wooden image (v. 15).
As you might remember, this was something that God had promised that Josiah would do some three-hundred-and-twenty years before Josiah was born. God had raised up a man of God at that time to declare that a man named Josiah would one day come and destroy Jeroboam’s paganistic altar.
As Josiah turned, he saw the tombs that were there on the mountain. And he sent and took the bones out of the tombs and burned them on the altar, and defiled it according to the word of the LORD which the man of God proclaimed, who proclaimed these words. Then he said, “What gravestone is this that I see?” So the men of the city told him, “It is the tomb of the man of God who came from Judah and proclaimed these things which you have done against the altar of Bethel.” And he said, “Let him alone; let no one move his bones.” So they let his bones alone, with the bones of the prophet who came from Samaria (vv. 16-18).
Josiah must have had a powerful sense of divine purpose in what he was doing. And this must have inspired him to even greater and more thorough action;
Now Josiah also took away all the shrines of the high places that were in the cities of Samaria, which the kings of Israel had made to provoke the LORD to anger; and he did to them according to all the deeds he had done in Bethel. He executed all the priests of the high places who were there, on the altars, and burned men’s bones on them; and he returned to Jerusalem (vv. 19-20).
We read on in verse 24;
Moreover Josiah put away those who consulted mediums and spiritists, the household gods and idols, all the abominations that were seen in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, that he might perform the words of the law which were written in the book that Hilkiah the priest found in the house of the LORD (v. 24).
And again, what an example Josiah sets for us in all this! The word of God had taken hold of him, and he had made a commitment before his people that he would do as God had said. And he put that commitment into action! He diligently, thoroughly, systematically, uncompromisingly removed everything from his realm that was contrary to God’s word.
When God’s word transforms our lives, dear brothers and sisters, it shows itself in a thorough cleansing of our own lives. We make no compromise with sin; but get rid of all those things in our home and in our lives that do not belong there, and that are contrary to God’s will. It makes a change in what’s on our bookshelves. It makes a change in what’s on our television, or our computer. It makes a change in what we even allow into the door.
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Now; when God takes hold of someone through His word and transforms them, that transformation not only shows up in what they get rid of; but also in what they embrace. You can see hints of this in verses 21-23 of the passage we’ve just considered:
Then the king commanded all the people, saying, “Keep the Passover to the LORD your God, as it is written in this Book of the Covenant.” Such a Passover surely had never been held since the days of the judges who judged Israel, nor in all the days of the kings of Israel and the kings of Judah. But in the eighteenth year of King Josiah this Passover was held before the LORD in Jerusalem (vv. 21-23).
And this leads us to yet one more way the word of God demonstrates a powerful life-transformation in us; and that is that . . .
3. WE GIVE A PRIORITY TO GENUINE WORSHIP.
When God transforms us by His word, it’s most certainly—in part—so that we will get rid of the sin in our lives. But that alone isn’t enough. God desires that His people—reformed in His holiness—then turn to Him in genuine, obedient, heart-felt worship. And this is what Josiah did!
As a man who had become gripped by the word of God, King Josiah led his people in the greatest Passover celebration that the land had seen in centuries! The fullest details of this are given to us in 2 Chronicles 35; and as we read it, take particular note to how careful Josiah was to stay true to the word of God. We read, first, of how careful he was to prepare for it:
Now Josiah kept a Passover to the LORD in Jerusalem, and they slaughtered the Passover lambs on the fourteenth day of the first month. And he set the priests in their duties and encouraged them for the service of the house of the LORD. Then he said to the Levites who taught all Israel, who were holy to the LORD: “Put the holy ark in the house which Solomon the son of David, king of Israel, built. It shall no longer be a burden on your shoulders. Now serve the LORD your God and His people Israel. Prepare yourselves according to your fathers’ houses, according to your divisions, following the written instruction of David king of Israel and the written instruction of Solomon his son. And stand in the holy place according to the divisions of the fathers’ houses of your brethren the lay people, and according to the division of the father’s house of the Levites. So slaughter the Passover offerings, consecrate yourselves, and prepare them for your brethren, that they may do according to the word of the LORD by the hand of Moses” (vv. 1-6).
Can you see how Josiah didn’t simply make things up as he went along? In worship, he made sure to do things as God had commanded. And he even did what he could to make sure—at great personal cost— that every provision was made for the people to also do things as God had commanded;
Then Josiah gave the lay people lambs and young goats from the flock, all for Passover offerings for all who were present, to the number of thirty thousand, as well as three thousand cattle; these were from the king’s possessions. And his leaders gave willingly to the people, to the priests, and to the Levites. Hilkiah, Zechariah, and Jehiel, rulers of the house of God, gave to the priests for the Passover offerings two thousand six hundred from the flock, and three hundred cattle. Also Conaniah, his brothers Shemaiah and Nethanel, and Hashabiah and Jeiel and Jozabad, chief of the Levites, gave to the Levites for Passover offerings five thousand from the flock and five hundred cattle (vv. 7-9).
Josiah’s willingness to give inspired other leaders to do the same. And once careful provision had been made according to God’s word, the actual observance of the Passover was also done as God commanded;
So the service was prepared, and the priests stood in their places, and the Levites in their divisions, according to the king’s command. And they slaughtered the Passover offerings; and the priests sprinkled the blood with their hands, while the Levites skinned the animals. Then they removed the burnt offerings that they might give them to the divisions of the fathers’ houses of the lay people, to offer to the LORD, as it is written in the Book of Moses. And so they did with the cattle. Also they roasted the Passover offerings with fire according to the ordinance; but the other holy offerings they boiled in pots, in caldrons, and in pans, and divided them quickly among all the lay people. Then afterward they prepared portions for themselves and for the priests, because the priests, the sons of Aaron, were busy in offering burnt offerings and fat until night; therefore the Levites prepared portions for themselves and for the priests, the sons of Aaron. And the singers, the sons of Asaph, were in their places, according to the command of David, Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun the king’s seer. Also the gatekeepers were at each gate; they did not have to leave their position, because their brethren the Levites prepared portions for them (vv. 10-16).
A careful provision for worship, and a careful observance during worship, led to a biblical fulfillment of it all that was pleasing to God in accordance with His word:
So all the service of the LORD was prepared the same day, to keep the Passover and to offer burnt offerings on the altar of the LORD, according to the command of King Josiah. And the children of Israel who were present kept the Passover at that time, and the Feast of Unleavened Bread for seven days. There had been no Passover kept in Israel like that since the days of Samuel the prophet; and none of the kings of Israel had kept such a Passover as Josiah kept, with the priests and the Levites, all Judah and Israel who were present, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem (v. 17-18).
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This, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, gives us a clear picture of what it really looks like when God brings His holy word to bear in our lives and transforms us from the inside-out. We rise up in a clear commitment to God’s commands, and seek to bring others into that commitment with us. We actively, thoroughly, systematically, decisively get those things out of our lives that are displeasing to God and that stand in opposition to His commands for us. And we consider that our heart-felt obedience to the Lord is incomplete until it is expressed in genuine, joyful, biblically-guided worship.
May God increasingly demonstrate such life-transforming evidence in us through His word!