Josiah

I've been working my way through Kings. Remember a while ago I said about an evil king who begat an evil son, who begat a righteous son, who begat and evil son... and someone wanted me to be more specific.

Well, I've been reading, and David (righteous) begat Solomon (righteous), betgat Rehoboham (evil), begat Abijah (evil), begat Asa (righteous), begat Jehosephat (righteous),

Now, we know that David was a man after God's own heart, and though he sinned - by not going to war with his army, raping Bathsheba, and murdering her husband - he begged God for forgiveness, repented and was forgiven.

Solomon was given wisdom and God blessed him with wealth, but he also had 700 wives, and some of his wives were pagan worshippers, and he turned from walking in righteousness and worshipped other gods
1 Kings 11:3 He had 700 wives, all princesses, and 300 concubines; and his wives turned his heart away. 4 For when Shlomo became old, his wives turned his heart away toward other gods; so that he was not wholehearted with ADONAI his God, as David his father had been. 5 For Shlomo followed 'Ashtoret the goddess of the Tzidoni and Milkom the abomination of the 'Amoni. 6 Thus Shlomo did what was evil in ADONAI's view and did not fully follow ADONAI, as David his father had done.

Rehoboham, proved himself a pretty evil guy 1Kings 12:14 "My father made your yoke heavy, but I will add to your yoke! My father controlled you with whips, but I will control you with scorpions!" And another thing to pay attention to, let's look at the major woman in his life 1 Kings 14:21his mother's name was Na'amah the 'Amonit. Hmm, imagine that, she's not a Hebrew, not a Y'hudit, not from any of the other Tribes of Israel.. nope, she's one of Solomon's Pagan Wives. What was that commandment? Deut 17:17 Likewise, he is not to acquire many wives for himself, so that his heart will not turn away; and he is not to acquire excessive quantities of silver and gold.

And what about Abijah? 1Kings 15:3 He committed all the sins his father had committed before him; he was not wholehearted with ADONAI his God, as David his forefather had been. and his Mother? the verse previous says his mother was Ma'akhah, the daughter of Avishalom Hmm, does that mean she was a Hebrew? Not sure.

1Ki 15:14 - But the high places were not removed. Nevertheless, Asa was wholehearted with ADONAI throughout his life. Asa deposed Ma'akhah who was a wicked woman, 2Ch 15:16 - Asa the king also deposed Ma'akhah his [grand]mother from her position as queen mother, because she had made a disgusting image for an asherah. Asa cut down this image of hers, chopped it into tiny pieces and burned it in Vadi Kidron.

Jehosephat 1Ki 22:42 His mother's name was 'Azuvah the daughter of Shilchi.
1Ki 22:43 - He lived in the manner of Asa his father and did not turn away from it, doing what was right from ADONAI's perspective;
1Ki 22:46 -He rid the land of the male and female cult-prostitutes remaining from the time of his father Asa.



OK, so you see where I was going with all this. But.. I'd like to jump ahead to Josiah.

WAY back in 1 Kings 13, at the time of Jeroboam - at the split of Israel into two kingdoms - a prophecy was made, about a child named Josiah who will sacrifice the priests of the pagan shrines. They will be sacrificed on the altar that Jeroboam built at Bethel. Jeroboam appointed priests and made a golden calf. He set a festival similar to Sukkot Let's see, the sins of the Kingdom of Israel are that they made altars not instructed by God, appointed priests not appointed by God, set feast days not appointed by God, worshipped graven images prohibited by God,.. Hmm sounds like today's church.

OK, let's jump back to 2 Kings. He's the son of Amon, an evil King, the son of Jedidah the daughter of Adiah from Bozkath. Josiah did what was pleasing in the Lord's sight and followed the example of his anscestor David. He did not turn aside from doing what was right. HMM, makes me think his mother was a righteous woman.

OK, so Josiah is King of Judah and in his 18th year of his reign, he sets about restoring the temple. Hilkiah discovers a copy of the Torah. It's read out to Josiah. His heart is wrenched by the words he hears. For all these 18 years he thinks he's been doing what God wants. He suddenly realizes they haven't nearly been obeying God. He seeks the consult of a prophetess, who says that God will send his judgement on Judah, but not until after Josiah has gone to the grave in peace. The, the KING himself reads out the Torah to the people. Then, in leadership, the King himself renews the covenant of the Lord, and obeys all the commandments, and the people follow his lead.

So then he fulfills the prophecy about him, he takes care of the pagan shrines, killing the priests and demolishing the shrines in Samaria and in the Temple courtyards, destroying the ashera poles and prostitue houses, and the altars.

He then celebrates the Passover to the Lord God. There had not been a Passover celebration like that since teh time when the judges ruled in Israel, throughout all the years of the kings of Israel and Judah.

He also destroyed all the household idols.. he did it all in obedience to the Lord according to the Book of the Covenant.

OK, end of history lesson. What can we see here about what we're to do?

I AM JOSIAH. YOU ARE JOSIAH. Can you see it? As Christians.. no matter what denomination, we were all seeking to obey God. We all did what we thought was righteous. And then we found the Torah. The Holy Spirit showed us the Truth and we were wrenched with sorrow at not knowing before, and repented and turned to obey him. While it took some time to learn how to obey.. and we're still learning how to obey, we all are desperate to obey him to the best of our ability. Piece by piece we're ridding our lives of the pagan - idolotrous - influences in our lives.

I am Josiah!