The boy King Josiah, and the frustrated Catholic priest Martin Luther speak a word to any church or denomination tempted to go along with the culture rather than be true to God's Word.
Then the king summoned all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem. And the king went up to the Temple of the Lord with all the people of Judah and Jerusalem, along with the priests and the prophets—all the people from the least to the greatest. There the king read to them the entire Book of the Covenant that had been found in the Lord’s Temple. The king took his place of authority beside the pillar and renewed the covenant in the Lord’s presence. He pledged to obey the Lord by keeping all his commands, laws, and decrees with all his heart and soul. In this way, he confirmed all the terms of the covenant that were written in the scroll, and all the people pledged themselves to the covenant. Then the king instructed Hilkiah the high priest and the priests of the second rank and the Temple gatekeepers to remove from the Lord’s Temple all the articles that were used to worship Baal, Asherah, and all the powers of the heavens. The king had all these things burned outside Jerusalem on the terraces of the Kidron Valley, and he carried the ashes away to Bethel. He did away with the idolatrous priests, who had been appointed by the previous kings of Judah, for they had offered sacrifices at the pagan shrines throughout Judah and even in the vicinity of Jerusalem. They had also offered sacrifices to Baal, and to the sun, the moon, the constellations, and to all the powers of the heavens. The king removed the Asherah pole from the Lord’s Temple and took it outside Jerusalem to the Kidron Valley, where he burned it. Then he ground the ashes of the pole to dust and threw the dust over the graves of the people. He also tore down the living quarters of the male and female shrine prostitutes that were inside the Temple of the Lord, where the women wove coverings for the Asherah pole. Josiah brought to Jerusalem all the priests who were living in other towns of Judah. He also defiled the pagan shrines, where they had offered sacrifices—all the way from Geba to Beersheba. He destroyed the shrines at the entrance to the gate of Joshua, the governor of Jerusalem. This gate was located to the left of the city gate as one enters the city.
King Josiah then issued this order to all the people: “You must celebrate the Passover to the Lord your God, as required in this Book of the Covenant.” There had not been a Passover celebration like that since the time when the judges ruled in Israel, nor throughout all the years of the kings of Israel and Judah. But in the eighteenth year of King Josiah’s reign, this Passover was celebrated to the Lord in Jerusalem. Josiah also got rid of the mediums and psychics, the household gods, the idols, and every other kind of detestable practice, both in Jerusalem and throughout the land of Judah. He did this in obedience to the laws written in the scroll that Hilkiah the priest had found in the Lord’s Temple. Never before had there been a king like Josiah, who turned to the Lord with all his heart and soul and strength, obeying all the laws of Moses. And there has never been a king like him since. 2 Kings 23:1-8, 21-25[1]
Another October 31st
celebration in Christian churches, which is most opposite of the darkness of
witches and evil, is Reformation Day, celebrating Martin Luther’s nailing of
his 95 theses to the church door at Wittenberg, Germany 503 years ago[2]. Luther was a
Catholic priest who recognized that the church of Jesus Christ, which he dearly
loved, had slipped-into the depths of hypocrisy. The church was courting the judgment of God,
and he knew he had to do something drastic.
So, Martin Luther did
something very drastic; he laid open his Bible next to the list of rules he was
taught to follow as a priest. When he
compared the two, he found 95 ways the church and God’s Word had parted
ways. He then wrote a paragraph about
each and nailed them to the church doors.
Those theses were 95 challenges intended to kickstart a holy, cleansing
revival in the church. Instead of
renewal it started a riot; Luther was excommunicated, and a rebellion followed. Calvin, Luther, Wesley, and a host of others
led the way in schism.
Today there are so
many denominations it is hard to say just how many. And it’s harder still to say which
denomination, if any, truly holds the corner on the market of being right
in its preponderance of doctrines and rules.
There is one safe thing to say; in all the
preaching, opinions, self-righteousness, wonderment, and wishing, only God’s
Word holds truth without mixture of man’s error.
Martin Luther may
have had King Josiah’s reformation of the Temple and Israel in mind when he
began his efforts to turn God’s people back to holy living and worship.
Josiah was only 8
years old when the death of his father made him King in Judah and
Jerusalem. Later, when he was 26, while some
work was being done on the Temple walls, the Book of the Covenant[3] was discovered and brought to the king.
When Josiah heard the
Word of God it convicted his heart, much the same as God’s Word had touched
Martin Luther’s heart. Josiah not only felt
remorse, Josiah changed his ways.
Notice the things Josiah
did that were not easy, but were Godly examples for us to follow in our church
and community:
1. He Revealed God’s Word to the People
Our text (v1-2)
shows us that when Josiah read God’s Word he knew all the people had no
knowledge of how God had commanded them to live. Josiah’s father and grandfathers had dabbled
in witchcraft, pagan worship and secularism.
They’d forsaken Jehovah and only had the title and land – not the Spirit
of God.
He knew the people
needed to know of their sinful ways, so he gathered them all together and read
the whole book of Deuteronomy. The
people were astonished because the priests had long since abandoned teaching
it.
Today we have an
entire generation growing up with no clear sound from the pulpit reminding them
of who they are, and how they’re expected to live.
2. He Removed the Sinful Practices that Afflicted the People
Josiah had the
authority and he used it to remove pagan altars, Asherah poles, heretical priests,
mediums and even prostitutes from the Temple.
And he did it from Geba (the northern border of Judah) all the way to
Beersheba, the southern border. It was a
clean sweep; sin was not tolerated.
3. He Required the People to Seek Renewal
The young king took a
lesson out of Moses’ Book of Covenant (Deuteronomy 12) and required
the people to remember the God who saved them in Egypt. He required they celebrate the Passover, the
night when they eat a sacred meal in memory of the death angel sweeping over Egypt
taking the firstborn of each household.
Each Israelite
household was instructed to kill a lamb with no imperfections, sprinkling its
spilled blood on the lintels and door posts.
Only those doorposts covered in lamb’s blood were spared. The next day Israel was free!
The young king
offered his heart to God, and his life to the cause of helping others know
God. He emptied the Temple of every
pagan vestige and practice, sent the lying priests packing, and he burnt the
Asherah poles of pagan worship and banished the male and female prostitutes
connected with such worship.
But this much our time also has in
common with Luther's and Josiah's – the power is still powerful. Dangerously powerful. And when the word gets out and the Holy
Spirit gets hold of the word and the people who read it, powerful things
happen. Walls can come tumbling
down. Stones can be rolled away. The heavens can be
torn asunder. The powerful can be cast
down from their thrones, the poor can be fed and the prisoner set free. Old wineskins can burst. Sinners can die to themselves and have Christ
reborn in them. And churches – even old,
dusty mainline churches, can have new life breathed into them.[4]
These
days when denominations are confronted with God’s holy Word they usually
rewrite their Bibles instead of their rule books. Josiah and Martin Luther were different; they
were willing to turn the whole world upside down to agree with God and not
man’s new ideas.
If there
is one “tried and true” medicine for what ails the United Methodist Church (and
anything else on planet earth, including you and me, and this church, and this
community) it is the wisdom of a 26 year old king, or a frustrated Catholic
priest…scrap everything and read the BOOK…repent and restart in obedience
to what God has told us to be.
Go to VIDEO
[3] Probably
the core chapters of Deuteronomy
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