2 Kings 23:1-37

Josiah was a great king in Judah.  He served the Lord with all of his heart and led the people in the purifying of the land as well as in worship of the Lord.  However, the wrath of God over the sins of the people and the previous kings for generation after generation was still very abundant.  God had already determined that He would punish the nation and send it into captivity.  God knew that the revival under Josiah would be short lived and that the following generation would be unfaithful just like the previous generation had been.  Josiah gave hope to the current generation and God withheld His wrath during Josiah’s life.  This gave an ample opportunity for the people to truly repent and turn to the Lord.  Many did; but unfortunately, many did not.  Even though Josiah’s obedience could not undo the consequences of all the disobedience from the previous generations; Josiah is a great example of leadership.

JOSIAH LEADS THE PEOPLE BY REVEALING THE WORD OF GOD TO THEM: The Word of God has a huge impact on Josiah and brought him to a genuine repentance before the Lord.  However, as a godly leader he was not content to keep this information to himself.  He ordered all of the people to come and he read the Word of God to them and called them to make a covenant before the Lord to obey and serve Him.  The people responded to his call and a great revival broke out in Judah.  We who have been blessed with the Word of God are responsible to bless others with the Word that we have been given.  We must not be ashamed of God’s Word or neglect to proclaim it.  We must boldly reveal the Word of God to all around us and call others to repent and follow God’s commands.

JOSIAH LEADS THE PEOPLE BY REMOVING THE IDOLS FROM THEM: After calling the people to make a covenant with God, Josiah then leads the people in the purification of the temple and the entire nation of any form of idolatry.  The altars and the high places and any object that was used in the worship of idols was all made into ashes and destroyed.  Josiah fulfilled the promise of the man of God as spoken to Jeroboam many generations before when he burned the bones of the priests of Baal on the altar that Jeroboam had built.  His zeal for removing idols and idolatry exceeded that of his great grandfather, Hezekiah.  We must all be this zealous as we search for and seek to destroy any idols that are in our hearts.  We are so prone to worship comfort, things or other people instead of faithfully worshiping God alone.  We must never become tolerant of these idols in our lives.

JOSIAH LEADS THE PEOPLE BY REMEMBERING THE PASSOVER WITH THEM:  Not only did Josiah remove the idols, but he replaced them by restoring the observance of the Passover as an act of worship to the Lord.  He was faithful to remember what God had done in the past and obeyed the command of God’s Word to celebrate this observance.  Following God is not just a matter of getting rid of idols it is also a matter of worshiping Him in the manner that He has commanded.  Sanctification involves the process of putting off the rags of disobedience and then putting on the robes of obedience.  We are often good at making lists of the things we don’t do and don’t believe but we have a hard time articulating what we do believe and what we do desire to practice.

JOSIAH LEADS THE PEOPLE BE REMAINING FAITHFUL BEFORE THEM: Josiah was only eight when he began to reign and he was twenty-six when the Law was discovered and he started all of the reforms.  He was killed before he was forty so he only really led as an effective king for about fifteen years.  He accomplished much during that short time, and it is important to recognize that he is one of the few kings that truly remained faithful to the very end.  It is a glorious but rare thing to both start and finish well.  God’s wrath over the past disobedience was stayed during the reign of Josiah but it was not eliminated.  Josiah’s son was an evil king and was taken into captivity after only a few months and his other son was made to be king but he too was an evil king and the first steps toward captivity had already been taken.  Josiah did all that was in his power to do, but sin has consequences and God is faithful to judge nations that turn their backs on Him.  God is patient but He is not willing to let sin go unpunished forever.  The only permanent escape from the wrath of God is found in a personal relationship with Christ through faith in His death on the cross.  Josiah escaped God’s wrath but the sins of the nation could be ignored no longer.  One day that reality will fall upon all the nations of this world.  We must be faithful to warn them of this coming day.