Day 13: The Word
“The high priest Hilkiah told the court secretary Shaphan, ‘I have found the book of the law in the Lord’s temple,” and he gave the book to Shaphan, who read it.’”
2 Kings 22:8
King Josiah came to the throne at the age of eight years old. He ruled for 31 years and was probably the Southern Kingdom of Judah’s greatest King.
“He did what was right in the Lord’s sight and walked in all the ways of his ancestor David; he did not turn to the right or the left.”
2 Kings 22:2
His greatness is seen in how he responded to the word of the Lord. He came to the throne after the murder of his father Amon. He followed two of the most wicked and corrupt rulers Judah ever had. They had filled the Land with idolatry and corruption, sacrificing their children to false gods, they abandoned the way of the Lord. During the rule of his grandfather the nation reach the point of no return and their judgment and exile is confirmed as a certainty.
How did this happen? How did the nation of Judah fall so far? The answer is simple, they stoped reading and eventually lost the Bible. This sounds mental that Judah fell from the Land of David into a land of child sacrifice by losing their bible. It happened in Judah and it happened to our own nation. Once known as the land of the book, now a moral mess where the question, 'what is a woman?' causes mass confusion. How did this spiritual decline happen?
First we neglect God’s word, then we neglect God’s ways.
In the 18th year of King Josiah while repairing the Temple, Hilkiah the high priest found a copy of the Torah. He brought it to the young King who upon hearing the word of the Lord tore his clothes as a sign of grief as he considered God’s goodness and the state of his nation and sent the High Priest to inquire of the Lord for him to see if their was a way for his people to be delivered from God’s wrath.
Say this to the king of Judah who sent you to inquire of the Lord: ‘This is what the Lord God of Israel says: As for the words that you heard, because your heart was tender and you humbled yourself before the Lord when you heard what I spoke against this place and against its inhabitants, that they would become a desolation and a curse, and because you have torn your clothes and wept before me, I myself have heard’ this is the Lord’s declaration.‘Therefore, I will indeed gather you to your ancestors, and you will be gathered to your grave in peace. Your eyes will not see all the disaster that I am bringing on this place.’”
2 Kings 22:18-20
Josiah’s generation was delivered from God’s wrath because the young King had a tender heart and humbled himself before the Lord, when he heard God’s word. The word of the Lord hit him like a sledgehammer and transformed him so that scripture says:
“Before him there was no king like him who turned to the Lord with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his strength according to all the law of Moses, and no one like him arose after him.”
2 Kings 23:25
Written by Andrew Mathieson
A Thought to Remember: First we neglect God’s word, then we neglect God’s ways.
A Bit More to Read: 2 Kings 22, 2 Timothy 3:16-17
A Question to Ask: Am I in the word?
A Song to Sing: Love Divine
A Picture for the kids: Bible