Just before the southern kingdom of Judah went captive to Babylon, God allowed a good king to reign over the land. His name was Josiah, and he is described as one of the most godly of the Judean kings. He ascended the throne at age 8, and he was godly from the start. But Josiah’s true greatness as a king began when he was 26.
Josiah had commanded that renovations be performed on the temple in Jerusalem. Some things had fallen into disrepair, and Josiah wanted the people of God to be able to worship the Lord as they should. And in the process of the renovation, the workers discovered the book of the law of God.
2 Kings 22:8-10 – 8 And Hilkiah the high priest said to Shaphan the secretary, “I have found the Book of the Law in the house of the Lord.” And Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan, and he read it. 9 And Shaphan the secretary came to the king, and reported to the king, “Your servants have emptied out the money that was found in the house and have delivered it into the hand of the workmen who have the oversight of the house of the Lord.” 10 Then Shaphan the secretary told the king, “Hilkiah the priest has given me a book.” And Shaphan read it before the king.
Josiah, after first hearing the words of the law of Moses, the covenant that God had made with national Israel, recognized that he and his kingdom were in great trouble. Both in Exodus and in Deuteronomy, the covenant language is very clear. When Israel followed the commands of God, they would be blessed by the Lord. But, when Israel failed to follow the clearly agreed upon commands, they would suffer the judgment of God. And Josiah knew that the people of Judah had not been obeying the commands of God. He knew they had lost their faithfulness. In fact, they had misplaced the book of the law so that none of them were paying attention to the inspired commands of God.
This discovery led to some fantastic reforms on Josiah’s part. He moved around the land, tore down idols, took out high places, and brought about, for a brief time, obedience to the Lord’s commands. Sadly, things would not end well. After all, reform from the top-down does not always reach the hearts of the people. The individuals in the nation did not actually change their personal allegiance throughout Josiah’s reforms. But, for a time, the people at least stopped blatantly rebelling against the covenant they had with the Lord.
What I wonder is how many of us are like Israel under Josiah’s early reign? How many of us are like Josiah? How many churches fit this picture? Do we have some basic goodness in our actions and attitudes while somehow not actually following the written commands of the word of God? Do we need to rediscover the book, the word of God?
Friends, let this story from Josiah call you back to Scripture. You and I will never obey the Lord rightly without that obedience coming from his word. WE must not allow our churches or our households to become places of general morality or basic spirituality without first being founded on and directed by Scripture. We must not do what is right in our own eyes. Instead, we must let what is right come to us from the Bible. Anything less will leave us unable to actually follow the will of the Lord.
What would it take for you to find the book again? Are you reading the Bible daily, or at least most days? Are you sitting under preaching that is intentionally biblical and passionately committed to exposition? Are the sermons you hear full of sound teaching or are they more focused on delivering a particular emotion to you? Are your worship songs full of biblical truth or of sappy emotionalism? Are the lessons you learn basic, legally oriented, to-do lists, or are you actually seeing the meaning of the text? We cannot live apart from the spiritual food of the word of God.
Pastor Travis Peterson 