CSSA 1-3-16 - JOSIAH'S STAND FOR THE TRUTH

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66. JOSIAH'S STAND FOR THE TRUTH

"/ will bring evil upon this place,,, but thine eyes shall not see all the evil. "

Aim

To show how Josiah steadfastly followed Yahweh all his life and tried to make his people do the same.

King Hezekiah had died and Judah was left in the hands of his wicked son Manasseh. This evil king set about to undo all the good work that Hezekiah had done in turning the hearts of the people back to God. He built altars to Baal and worshipped the sun, moon and stars; he even put altars in the Temple in Jerusalem; and many other shocking things Manasseh did in his long reign of 55 years. Near the end of his life, however, he humbled himself and tried to change his ways, but he had done a lot of harm. His son, Amon, reigned after him and was just as evil as his father had been. He reigned for only two years and his servants killed him in his palace. Judah was in a very sorry state. They had gone backwards and forgotten their God. What they needed now was a wise ruler to draw them back to worshipping Yahweh in truth. The next king would be just the right one, but at this time he was only a boy.

2 Chronicles 45; 35:1-19

JOSIAH BEGINS TO REIGN: 2 Chronicles 34: 17

Little Josiah was only eight years old when he began to reign, but by the time he was sixteen we are told that "he began to seek after the God of David his father" (v 3). It seems that his mother was his teacher; she brought him up to love God so that he "waited in all the ways of David his father, and turned not aside to the right hand or to the left" (2 Kings 22:2). By the time he was twenty he began to cleanse the land of all the idols and altars of Baal. He broke them down and crushed them into dust and scattered the dust on the graves of the false prophets. So he went throughout all Judah and the neighbouring cities, until he had got rid of every sign of idolatry. The people were impressed by his eagerness to turn the nation back to God.

JEREMIAH PROPHESIES: Jeremiah 1:14-16

At about the same time, while the people of Judah helped their young king smash the idols and destroy the altars of Baal, Jeremiah the prophet began to preach. He prophesied of the terrible judgments that God would bring on His people from the north. Just as Assyria had come from the north to threaten Judah in Hezekiah's day, so the king of Babylon would soon come to overthrow Jerusalem completely. Yet here was Josiah, setting a good example to his people and they appeared to follow him willingly. This was unfortunately not good enough. The people obeyed their young king because they loved him and were impressed by his en thusiasm, but God, who knows the hearts of all men, knew that their hearts were far from Him. "Judah hath not turned unto me with her whole heart, " said Jeremiah (Jeremiah 3:10).

JOSIAH CLEANSES THE TEMPLE: 2 Chronicles 34:8-19

Josiah was doing his best to serve Yahweh his God. He decided next to repair the Temple. The Levites had gone throughout the land and collected money from the people to assist in the work. Workmen were chosen to do the repairs, carpenters, builders and masons, and they were given the money to buy hewn stone and timber. There was no need to keep any accounts of how the money was spent, for "the men did the work faithfully" (v 12).

One day while they were bringing out the money that had been brought into the Temple, Hilkiah, the High Priest, found a large scroll. When he examined it he found that it was a copy of the law of Moses. He showed it to Shaphan the scribe, and said, "/ have found the book of the law in the house of Yahweh " (v 15). Shaphan was a wise and faithful friend of the king. He realised the importance of this discovery and knew, too, how glad Josiah would be to hear this news. He went in to the king to report that all the repairs had been completed and the money had been paid to the workmen. Then he showed him the scroll that Hilkiah the High Priest had found.

The law of Moses is contained in the first five books of our Bible. Genesis tells of the creation and the sin of Adam and Eve that changed everything; it tells also of the promises to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; Exodus tells of the escape of the children of Israel from Egypt; Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy tell of their wilderness wanderings before Israel entered the land and of the laws God made. As we learned in lesson 5, there was a special commandment for kings, telling them to write out a copy of God's law in a book. "And it shall be with him, and he shall read therein all the days of his life; that he may learn to fear Yahweh his God, to keep all the words of this law and these statutes, to do them" (Deuteronomy 17:18-19).

When Shaphan had finished reading, king Josiah was so distressed to find that they had not obeyed these laws for so many years, "that he rent his clothes" (v 19).

Not only should the king have read from the law daily, but it should have been read aloud to the people every seven years at the feast of Tab ernacles. It was normally kept in the side of the Ark in the Most Holy Place of the Temple, but had been lost during the wicked reigns of the last two kings. Now that the blessings and cursings had been read to him from Deuteronomy 28, Josiah could understand the urgent message of Jeremiah. Israel had disobeyed God for so long. It was no wonder that He would send the Babylonians from the north to punish them and lead them away into captivity.

GOD IS PLEASED WITH JOSIAH: 2 Chronicles 34:20-28

Josiah was very distressed. Would God indeed bring upon His peo ple the terrible judgments he had just read about in the Law? There was a way he could find out. He sent Hilkiah, Shaphan and three other faith ful servants to Huldah the prophetess who lived in Jerusalem, saying, "Go, enquire of Yahweh for me " (v 21). So they came and told her what the king had said and how worried he was about the future. Sadly the prophetess replied that God would indeed punish His people. He had warned them for so many years through His prophets, but few had lis tened to the prophets or changed their ways. Yet Josiah had set his heart to obey God from the time he was a child. God had a special message for him. "Because thine heart was tender, and thou didst humble thyself before God, when thou heardest His words against the place... and didst rend thy clothes, and weep before me; I have even heard thee also, saith Yahweh " (v 27). God would not bring evil upon Jerusalem in Josiah's day. Through his faithfulness he had saved the people of the land for a little while and given them the chance still to repent and change their ways.

So they returned from the prophetess and told the king all that she had said.

THE GREAT PASSOVER: 2 Chronicles 34:29-33; 35:1-19

When Josiah realised the mercy that God was showing him, he could see that others too might receive such mercy if they could be taught to serve Him in truth. So he gathered all Judah and Jerusalem, the priests and the Levites, all the people great and small, and read in their ears all the words of the scroll that had been found in the Temple. He made a covenant with God, promising to walk in all His ways and to keep His commandments with all his heart and with all his might. Then he made all those who were present with him agree to it.

It was now drawing near to the time of Passover. So Josiah de cided to keep a great Passover feast. He carefully studied the instruc tions given in the law of Moses to make sure that he obeyed God in all things. He looked up the history of the lives of David and Solomon and learned from them how to arrange the priests and the Levites for the Tem ple services. Thousands of animals were gathered and slain for the sacrifice. He was so determined to do his best that "there was no Passover like to that kept in Israel from the days of Samuel the prophet" (v 18).

Everything evil Josiah destroyed out of the land; idols, and the priests that worshipped them; images, altars and high places - everything con demned in the law of Moses. This is why God said of him: "like unto him was there no king before him, that turned to Yahweh with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his might, according to all the law of Moses" (2 Kings 23:25).

LESSON FOR US

How important are the early years of instruction from our mothers. If we learn to love God and His word of truth when we are children, we will grow up to be eager to please Him. Josiah was a wonderful example to us of someone who never turned aside to the right hand or to the left from all the things his mother taught him. He was steadfast - that is, he did not change. He searched God's Word to find out what was right and did it. God blessed him for that and He will bless us too if we constantly obey Him as Josiah did.

QUESTIONS

Short Answers

1. How old was Josiah when he began to reign?

2. Whom did Josiah follow as his example?

3. What did Josiah do when he was only 20 years old?

4. What terrible judgments did Jeremiah say God would bring on His people?

5. Why did Jeremiah say that God was going to punish Judah9

6. When the Temple was cleansed what did Hilkiah find?

7. Why did Josiah rend his clothes?

8. What did Huldah the prophetess say God would do?

9. Why did God say He would not bring evil on Jerusalem in Josiah € s day?

10. Why was Josiah € s passover the greatest since the days of Samuel?