CHARACTER: JosiahNovember 23, 2008
with Matt Johnson
I’ve always been amazed at the stories of children who face adversity and intense pressure.
Roberta’s son – 300+ days in hospital within first 6 years of life.
David going to battle Goliath as a young shepherd boy.
Mary being given the Christ Child at 13.
Josiah history:
Appointed to King of Judah at 8 yrs. Old.
Israel already in captivity to Assyria.
At 16 he begins to seek the God of his Ancestor David. In doing so, he starts to remove idols and implement change in the nation.
He collects taxes to restore the temple, and as the priests are working there, the scroll of God’s covenant is found. Pentateuch, Moses, Deuteronomy, etc…
Repents, calls nation to repentance. Travels around country destroying pagan worship altars and idols.
God is angry, but promises that Josiah will not see his judgment of country.
Calls for celebration of Passover once again. Most complete Passover celebration since Samuel’s days as a priest.
At 39, confronts the king of Egypt in battle and is killed. Taken by God?
We’ve been going through this series of faithfulness…
Remaining faithful when it seems that God/Satan is out to get you
-What God really wants is more of you
Remaining faithful when your family is out to get you
-Learning to forgive
Remaining faithful when your community is out to get you
-Following God’s voice when it’s not the popular thing to do
Remaining faithful when your church is out to get you
What’s the application?
Maybe it’s that… Sin does not have to be generational.
When Ashley and I were living in Rochester, we went to various local churches to get to know the community and we heard a disturbing sermon from one of the pastors of a large church. It was disturbing, and had we not been sitting in the center of a large pew with families on both sides, we would have gotten up and left. When the pastor read his passage, Galatians 5, he actually added sins to the list of “fruits of the sinful nature”, including watching TV and getting tattoos. Then he makes a very disturbing general statement – if you’re uneducated, poor, and from a non-Christian family, it’s unlikely that you will make it to heaven. Apparently he thought that people were not able to break these cycles from their families. If he was right, Josiah wouldn’t stand a chance. His Grandpa, Manasseh, was an evil king who brought idolatry and foreign gods into Judah. He even sacrificed his own sons in idol worship. Manasseh’s son, Josiah’s dad, wasn’t much better. He too was detestable and did what was evil in the eyes of the Lord. His reign only lasted two years before his officials plotted his death.
Josiah was born with the cards stacked against him, but he chose to change. Many of us have been born into tough situations. Families in financial ruin, ugly divorces, alcoholism, drug abuse, adultery, many times with no acknowledgement of Jesus, or sometimes worse, in the name of Jesus. Know this – your family and your history does not determine your ability to have faith. The blood of Christ is more powerful than the crap of your past, and you CAN change. As Josiah reached an age of accountability, he began to seek out God rather than pursue the lifestyles of his father and grandfather. In the same way, we need to realize that we reach an age of accountability where we are responsible for our personal choice in following or ignoring God in our life.
Maybe it’s that… We need to be faithful with both general revelation and special revelation.
With the recent history of the nation of Judah during Josiah’s lifetime, specific information about God was sparse. The bible was missing, idol worship ran rampant in nation and even in the temple, and honorable men and women of God were few and far between. The nation was in spiritual ruins. In the midst of all of this, Josiah comes into reign and when he is 16, chooses to begin to pursue the God of his ancestor, David. The resources are limited in finding out more about God, but Josiah is faithful with the knowledge that he has about God. He recognized God’s general revelation through nature, history, and his own heart. Even without the details of scripture, he begins to be obedient to the God he seeks. When presented with the scroll of scripture he received God’s special revelation of truth and salvation. He continued to be faithful in his knowledge of God as it grew and God revealed more of himself to Josiah.
We’ve got to be faithful with the knowledge of God that we possess. Maybe some of us have had years and years of the study of scripture and have been walking with God for twenty, thirty, even forty years. Maybe some of us have just recently heard the story of salvation for the first time and are still seeking this God whom we’ve just began to come to know. Where ever we find ourselves, God calls us to be faithful with the knowledge of his truth that we possess. In Luke, Jesus says “Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much…” As we remain faithful with even the small information we have about God, he will bless us with more and more knowledge of his character, kingdom, and His truth.
Maybe it’s that… When you stray from scripture, corruption follows quickly.
As you look at the history of Judah, it’s really no surprise that they find themselves in the place they’re at when Josiah takes over the reigns of the country. His grandpa, Manasseh, allowed idolatry into God’s temple, including Ashera poles, statues and idols to Baal, and even a wing for prostitutes of these Gods. In the middle of all of this corruption and sin, God’s word is misplaced. It’s possible that the last few faithful priests of the time hid it in hopes that a future generation would find it and return to God. More likely though, the pagan ministers within the temple intentionally misplaced it in order to conveniently allow the nation to forget about their relationship with God. Either way, the written and specific truth of God as recorded by the hand of Moses himself was not present in the nation for decades. In its place came corruption, idolatry, and pagan worship.
It doesn’t take a long look at the history of the church to see that when scripture fades in importance, corruption follows quickly. Too often in our own lives, the importance of God’s truth in written form takes a back seat to personal theology, denominational agendas, cultural issues, busyness, stress, fear, etc… and as we stray, we allow the corruption of sin to settle in. When the truth and wisdom of God no longer has authority and significance in your life, sin will win.
Maybe it’s that… We must repent and act when confronted with God’s truth.
When the scroll of scripture was found and read to the king, Josiah tore his clothes in mourning and immediately consulted a prophet to find out how they could restore their relationship with God. In reading the covenant of the Old Testament, Josiah recognized that his country of Judah had sinned greatly against the Lord and his wrath loomed over them. In doing so, he genuinely repented to God and called for the reading of the scripture to all the elders of the community where he once again renewed God’s covenant with the people of Judah. From there, he went on a national reform unlike anything ever seen and ever to be seen again in history. He went from community to community within his country destroying and defiling the idols and alters of pagan worship that had been so rampant in the land. Once he had purified the nation once again from their pagan worship he turned to the celebrations of scripture, and called for Judah to once again celebrate Passover. All this because when he was confronted with God’s truth, he repented and acted.
Too many times we face God’s truth, and walk away unchanged because we do not allow it to penetrate our hearts. Maybe it’s something that we hear in a sermon, maybe it’s a song on the radio, a passage in scripture we’ve never paid attention to before, maybe it’s a book we’ve read recently, or the challenging words of a friend into our lives, but we are constantly presented with God’s truth as Christians. It’s our responsibility to allow His truth to touch our hearts and change our lives. We cannot simply hear it and walk away. Just as Josiah, we must act with urgency and sincerity to apply God’s truth to our lives as we are confronted with it.
Maybe it’s that…We have to be diligent and thorough in our faith.
Josiah was unbelievably thorough in his purging of idolatry and paganism from the nation of Judah. He left no stone in place that represented worship of another God. His passion for and response to God’s truth was not short lived or faltering. Unlike his ancestors who entered into the promised land, but soon grew apathetic and complacent in God’s command to remove everyone from the land entirely. Instead, they left some foreigners, and with them, their pagan Gods too remained in the Promised Land. Josiah, however, is unrelenting in his pursuit of purity and obedience to God’s truth and he purges the nation completely.
When confronted with the truth of God, we must be diligent and thorough in our faith. Much like the Israelites, we often heard God’s truth but fell short of following through with his commands. Our faith and obedience must be diligent and unwavering as we pursue God’s truth in our lives.
One of my favorite books is a book by AW Tozer, called the Pursuit of God. I love the double meaning of the title. You see, it’s not only about our Pursuit of him, but of His pursuit of us. How God wooo’s us in with love and grace and mercy because he wants so desperately to have a relationship with us. It’s just as much about His pursuit as ours. We all love to be pursued, to be sought after, to know we’re important. God does this regularly and consistently. His truth is chasing us down, knocking at our hearts, seeking desperately to find a place to take root.
We’ve had these ideas about:
Remaining faithful when it seems that God/Satan is out to get you
Remaining faithful when your family is out to get you
Remaining faithful when your community is out to get you
I think the idea of Josiah is probably this for our sermon series:
Remaining faithful when God’s truth is out to get you.
And here’s the application...
How do you remain faithful when God’s truth is out to get you?
Let it.
