Josiah was eight years old when he became king,
and he reigned in Jerusalem thirty-one years. His mother's name was Jedidah
daughter of Adaiah; she was from Bozkath. He did what was right in the eyes of
the Lord and walked in all the ways of his father David, not turning aside to
the right or to the left. 2 Kings 22:1,2
Footnote: In reading the Biblical lists of kings, it is
rare to find one who obeyed God completely. Josiah was such a person, and he
was only eight years old when he began to reign. For 18 years he reigned
obediently; then, when he was 26, he began the reforms based on God's laws.
Children are the future leaders of our churches and our world. A person's major
work for God may have to wait until he is an adult, but no one is ever too young
to take God seriously and obey him. Josiah's early years laid the base for his
later task of reforming Judah.
When God's Word was found, drastic changes had to be made
to bring the kingdom in line with God's commands. Today you have God's Word at
your fingertips. How much change must you make in order to bring your life into
line with God's Word?
When Josiah heard the law, he tore his robes in grief. He
immediately instituted reforms. With just one reading of God's law, he changed
the course of the nation. Today many people own Bibles, but few are affected by
the truths found in God's Word. The Word of God should cause us, like Josiah,
to take action immediately to reform our lives and bring them into harmony with
God's will.
When Josiah realized how corrupt his nation had become, he
tore his robes and wept before God. Then God had mercy on him. Josiah used the
customs of his day to show his repentance. When we repent today, we are
unlikely to tear our clothing but weeping, fasting, making restitution or
apologies (if our sin has involved others) demonstrate our sincerity when we
repent. The hardest part of repentance is changing the attitudes that
originally produced the sinful behavior.
....So Judah went into captivity, away from her
land. 2 Kings 25:21
Footnote: Judah, like Israel, was unfaithful to God. So
God, as he had warned allowed Judah to be destroyed and taken away (Deuteronomy
28). The book of Lamentations records the prophet Jeremiah's sorrow at seeing
Jerusalem destroyed.
The book of 2 Kings opens with Elijah being carried to
heaven -- the destination awaiting those who follow God. But the book ends with
the people of Judah being carried off to foreign lands as humiliated slaves --
the result of failing to follow God.
Second Kings is an illustration of what happens when we
make anything more important than God, when we make ruinous alliances, when our
consciences become desensitized to right and wrong, and when we are no longer
able to discern God's purpose for our lives. We may fail, like the people of
Judah and Israel, but God's promises do not. He is always there to help us
straighten out our lives and start over. And that is just what would happen in
the book of Ezra. When the people acknowledged their sins, God was ready and
willing to help them return to their land and start again.
Keep reading -- 149 days left!
All footnotes taken from the Life Application Study Bible, NIV
No comments:
Post a Comment