Living A Life Of King Josiah’s Reforms

“Prior to the reign of the godly King Josiah, the law of God had been lost in the temple for many years. Has the same thing occurred among us? Has the evangel been lost among Christians?” Paul Washer

I’ve found myself having a little trouble sleeping lately. 2 sons deployed will do that to you. To try and fall asleep with some semblance of positive input, I have been listening to the books of the Bible as I fall asleep. I had forgotten the Kings upon Kings that served in Israel. There is a common theme throughout. God blesses Israel and they prospered for a while. Sometimes the Kings married women from different cultures, their gods were brought in, the people started leaving God’s worship and worshiped the little gods. God judged the culture through His prophets and wars. Altars were broken, revival took place and the people turned their hearts back to the one true God. After listening to these recordings, I thought, “Wow, they are human much like us.” 

Are those little gods demons?

In my studies, I learned that those “gods” are actually demons who desire worship on the earth. In Deuteronomy 32 we find that God was quite upset with His people. Verse 5 says: Israel has acted corruptly toward Him. They are not His children, because of their moral defect; But are a perverse and crooked generation. To take the idea further, verse 15-17 says: But Jeshurun (Israel) became fat and kicked at God. You became fat, thick, sleek, and obstinate! Then he abandoned God who had made him, And scorned the Rock of his salvation. They provoked Him to jealousy with strange gods (by denying Him the honor and loyalty that is rightfully and uniquely His;) And with repulsive acts they provoked Him to anger. They sacrificed to demons, not to God. To gods who they have not know, New gods who came lately, Whom your fathers never feared. 

The little “gods” can take over your life

In this passage synonymous parallelism is used in this writing. What does that mean? It is  a literary device that involves repeating an idea in different words in successive lines. It’s a common feature of Hebrew poetry. Those strange gods and sacrifices to demons. They are the same. After reading this passage I wondered, do I have strange gods in my life? They don’t have to be outwardly apparent. They could be something as small as a bad attitude or gossip. But have I taken the time to find those other gods in my life? 

Have we lost sight of Almighty God?

One of the arguments that I have heard recently concerning society at large is:  we are in the place that we are because we have taken Almighty God out of so much of daily life. Have we become like the Israelites of old? Have we taken our eyes off of God and put them on to the little Baal’s in our life? After all, we have what some call a God shaped hole in our life. What do I mean? In Ecclesiastes 3:11 it says: God has made everything beautiful and appropriate in its tie. He has also planted eternity (a sense of divine purpose) in the human heart (a mysterious longing which nothing under the sun can satisfy except God)-yet man cannot find out (comprehend, grasp) what God has done (His overall plan) from the beginning to the end. 

We have been created with a need for God

We all have a place in ourselves that needs God. If we don’t fill it with him, we will find those little gods to try and satisfy our longing for fulfillment. After reading and listening more to 2 Chronicles, a King named Josiah came to my attention. Josiah was 8 years old when he came to reign. Can you imagine? When I was 8, I was obsessed with Barbies. But Josiah? He was made King of Judah. King Amon proceeded Josiah, he was known as a wicked and idolatrous king. He had graven images of those little gods all over the kingdom. The people had strayed from God Almighty. Because of Amon’s evil reign, he was assassinated after only 2 years. Hence, Josiah was installed as King. Now Josiah was not like Amon, he did what was right in the sight of the Lord. He walked in the ways of David, his forefather and did not turn aside either to the right or to the left. Josiah purged the altars of the little gods, he tore down the altars of the Baals and cut to pieces the incense altars that were high above them. He ground them into dust. Josiah was so against the little gods that he burned the bones of the pagan priests to ashes. 

How does this apply to us?

I’ve thought a lot about this passage. This morning I had a conversation with a troubled believer. She said, “I wish we lived in Biblical times.” I looked at her and said, “We do!” Why did God give us the scripture? To give us a model to live by. I do believe that the Old Testament can teach us lessons that apply to today. This is what I believe King Josiah can teach us:

• Pray that we will tear down the altars to the little gods in our life. Let God search your heart and bring those things to your attention.  Psalm 139:23-24
• Pray for a Josiah movement in our country. Let’s face it, things right now are a bit much in the world and in the US. We need to break down some huge altars in this country. If we truly believe, only God will move on our behalf.  I Timothy 2:1-2
• Each day is an opportunity to be the example of God to others. I know its hard, people can be very rude but trust me, we need to be Jesus to others. Ephesians 2:10
• Practice forgiveness in your life. Matthew 6:14-15

King Josiah can teach us a lesson today

Josiah reigned for 31 years and brought Judah back to Yahweh. We need to be like him in our society. There is so much ugliness, so much sin, so much divisiveness at the moment. I don’t know about you all, but it is hard to bear on some days. During his reign Josiah sought the prophetess Huldah, he was concerned about the evil that had infected his land. When Huldah spoke all the words were not wonderful. God did indeed say that the land was in store for great judgment. In fact, God’s wrath was going to be poured out so much that it will not be extinguished. Yikes. But because Josiah’s heart was gentle and penitent and he humbled himself before God when he heard His words against Judah and its inhabitants, and humbled himself before God he was spared the great and awful judgment . We can learn some life lessons from Josiah, to seek God and break the altar of the little gods in our life. 

Thank you King Josiah for the lesson in faith. May your memory be a blessing.