Old Testament: 2 Chronicles 34-36
Poetry: Psalm 12
New Testament: 2 Timothy 3-4
During this week’s readings we’ve seen examples of many ways and reasons that people turn away from God. We’ve also seen how people can be a complicated mixture of both faithful and obedient to God but also can lose their grip on faith and obedience through pride or greed and lose their intimate connection to God.
Throughout scripture, God shows himself to be merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in love and forgiveness. He is a God of second chances (and 3rd, 4th, and 5th chances). Yet he is also a holy and just God and brings down the rod of discipline upon the people he loves to correct their corrupt ways when they refuse to repent.
On this final day of the week, these Scriptures show us some pretty remarkable things about God’s patience and mercy, and also the dangers to neglecting the Word of God.
Josiah began to reign as King of Judah at the tender age of 8. When he was a young lad of 16 he began seeking God. He decisively began to rid Judah of idols. He arranged to have the temple repaired. As the workers were working in the temple, cleaning out the relics in the back halls and storage units they came across a dusty old book. It looked old and probably hadn’t been read for centuries. It turns out that the dusty old book was the Bible, as it was constituted at the time of Moses. It contained the teaching and laws that Moses recorded based on what he received from God along with the history of God’s people going back to creation. King Josiah asked that it be read aloud to him. As he listened to God’s word being read, he was overcome with horror. He tore his robes. As he heard God’s word being read he realized how far astray they had gone from doing God’s will.
Josiah called for a prophet of God to come and tell them what God was going to do. He was going to bring his judgment against the people of Judah, there would be a disaster that was unprecedented. However, King Josiah would be spared because of his love and faithful obedience to God. God said: “Tell the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of the Lord, ‘This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says concerning the words you heard: Because your heart was responsive and you humbled yourself before God when you heard what he spoke against this place and its people, and because you humbled yourself before me and tore your robes and wept in my presence, I have heard you, declares the Lord. Now I will gather you to your ancestors, and you will be buried in peace. Your eyes will not see all the disaster I am going to bring on this place and on those who live here.’” (2 Chronicles 34:26-28)
Josiah led the people to renew the Covenant. He led them in celebrating the Feast of Passover which had not been celebrated since the time of Samuel. He continued to purge the nation of its idols. Josiah was rewarded for his humility and faithful obedience to God’s covenant. He was permitted to live out his life with the nation in peace. In this instance, God is both gracious to Josiah for his humble and repentant heart, but he is also just and requires that Judah suffer the consequences for their disobedience.
After Josiah died, there was a rapid succession of kings, who each “did evil in the eyes of the Lord.” God continued to send prophets to warn his people to repent, but they would not listen. “Furthermore, all the leaders of the priests and the people became more and more unfaithful, following all the detestable practices of the nations and defiling the temple of the Lord, which he had consecrated in Jerusalem. The Lord, the God of their ancestors, sent word to them through his messengers again and again, because he had pity on his people and on his dwelling place. But they mocked God’s messengers, despised his words and scoffed at his prophets until the wrath of the Lord was aroused against his people and there was no remedy.” (2 Chronicles 36:14-16)
God gave second and third and fourth and fifth chances, but finally they were so hardened and disobedient that he had no choice but to let them be taken away into exile.
Josiah was a man of God living in a broken and sinful world. He did his best to lead others toward faithfulness and trust in God, but ultimately they rejected God and faced the consequences. God showed mercy to Josiah for the sake of his humility and faithfulness.
Like Josiah, we can be men and woman of God living faithfully in a broken and sinful world. We can take heart, God sees our faithfulness and humility as we repent of our sins and turn to Jesus Christ and walk in obedience to Christ. We have no guarantee that life will be easy as we live godly lives in a godless age. In fact, we are warned that it will be hard.
“In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evildoers and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” -2 Timothy 3:12-17.
Sadly, in Josiah’s day, the Bible was lost for hundreds of years in the back of the temple. We are blessed, we have access to God’s word to read and study and obey…. But do we?
-Jeff Fletcher
Reflection Questions
- How do you suppose God’s people completely lost God’s word for hundreds of years? Could that happen again in our age?
- Josiah humbled himself and repented. In what areas of your life do you need to humble yourself and repent?
- As a result of this week’s devotions, what one change are you committed to making in your life?
Seek Grow Love 