Wednesday, May 25,
2022
Then he [Josiah] gave these orders to Hilkiah, Ahikam son of
Shaphan, Acbor son of Micaiah, Shaphan the court secretary, and Asaiah the
king’s personal adviser: “Go to the Temple and speak to
the Lord for me and for all the remnant of Israel and Judah. Inquire about the words written in the scroll
that has been found. For the Lord’s
great anger has been poured out on us because our ancestors have not obeyed the
word of the Lord. We have not been
doing everything this scroll says we must do.” So Hilkiah and the other men went to the
New Quarter of Jerusalem to consult with the prophet Huldah. She was the
wife of Shallum son of Tikvah, son of Harhas, the keeper of the Temple
wardrobe. She said to them,
“The Lord, the God of Israel, has spoken! Go back and tell the man who sent you, ‘This
is what the Lord says: I am
going to bring disaster on this city and its people. All the curses written in the scroll that was
read to the king of Judah will come true. For my people
have abandoned me and offered sacrifices to pagan gods, and I am very angry
with them for everything they have done. My anger will be poured out on this place, and
it will not be quenched.’ “But
go to the king of Judah who sent you to seek the Lord and tell him: ‘This is what the Lord, the God of
Israel, says concerning the message you have just heard: You
were sorry and humbled yourself before God when you heard his words against
this city and its people. You humbled
yourself and tore your clothing in despair and wept before me in repentance.
And I have indeed heard you, says the Lord. So I
will not send the promised disaster until after you have died and been buried
in peace. You yourself will not see the
disaster I am going to bring on this city and its people.’” So they took her message back to the king. 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 Levites—all the people from the greatest to the least. 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. He promised to obey all the terms of the
covenant that were written in the scroll. And he required
everyone in Jerusalem and the people of Benjamin to make a similar pledge. The
people of Jerusalem did so, renewing their covenant with God, the God of their
ancestors. So Josiah removed
all detestable idols from the entire land of Israel and required everyone to
worship the Lord their God. And
throughout the rest of his lifetime, they did not turn away from the Lord,
the God of their ancestors.
2 Chronicles
34:20-33
In the 21st century culture of the United States, this
act of King Josiah would be considered treason.
He took the Scriptures, held it up to God and vowed he would live by it
(a good model for any world leader), and then (the treason to a modern-day
American) King Josiah required everyone
else in his service, and all the citizens of the land to pledge likewise.
I feel a storm brewing here, between the modern-day
culturally-hallowed icon of individual freedom and a Josiah model
of surrendering-all to the will of God. The former, being popular, ingrained from the
first time we say the pledge of allegiance, or sing the Star Spangled Banner,
is no longer an outcome of the later, but the very target
at which every allegiance is aimed these days.
Yet, Biblically, our personal freedom is still the lesser, compared to
the greater claim on our lives by the Creator, the God of Josiah’s Scriptures.
For You Today
I get it…as those
who honor a God who gave us free will, we cannot abandon the quest for liberty,
but I get it even more that, when it comes to obeying God, that personal
liberty is the first idol that must go.
Anything other than God in first place is an idol; such is the essence
of His first commandment:
Then God gave the people all these
instructions: “I am the Lord your
God, who rescued you from the land of Egypt, the place of your slavery. “You must not have any other god but me. Exodus 20:1-3
You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road with
Jesus; have a blessed day!
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