King Josiah

2 Chronicles chapter 34. 2 Chronicles 34. I'm going to read an interesting, very interesting account of a very, very young king.

One of the best kings that Israel had, actually. And very young when he began to reign. Chapter 34, 2 Chronicles verse 1. Josiah was 8 years old when he began to reign.

Can you imagine that? An 8-year-old boy taking the throne of a nation. An 8-year-old boy. I was looking at a couple of the kids eating today, and crumbs all around their mouth from dessert.

And I started thinking about Josiah. And I pictured 8 years old, some of these can't even wipe their mouths and all. And here's a man, a young man who's leading a nation.

But interestingly, his name means given of Jehovah. A godly king. And I want you to notice the development of it too.

Because I'm looking at young ones here. And I know last year in Waterloo there were a number of younger ones saved. And I know just at the start of this message sometimes you have people who get up and they say, I want to speak to the young people.

Well, I want to speak to some really young people too. Some who were 8, some who were 10, some just saved. And so when you look at this man, I want you to notice this young man, the development of him, but also what happened during his reign.

Josiah was 8 years old when he began to reign, and he reigned in Jerusalem 31 years. And he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord. And walked in the ways of David his father, and declined neither to the right hand nor to the left.

For in the 8th year of his reign, now that would put him at 16. So now he's 16 years old. He's a teenager.

While he was yet young, even God recognizes that 8 years is young, 16 years is young, he began to seek after the God of David his father. 16 years old. How many people here around the age of 16, in your teens, seeking after God? A level of responsibility, certainly not what this young man had, but nevertheless, a level of responsibility even in your teen years in your life.

And are you seeking God? These are the formative years. These are important years. These are years in which there are trends and established roots of dependence on God that are developed.

They're very important. Formative years. They're the years when you take your steps for the Lord and so on and you learn how to walk.

That's what was happening. 8 years when he begins, 16 years old now, and now it says, let's go down, it says, he began to seek after the God of his father, David his father, and in the 12th year, now he's 20, he begins to purge Judah and Jerusalem from the high places, the groves, the carved images, and the molten images. And they break down the altars of Balaam in his presence.

He was overseeing the job. He wasn't going to even give this to the hands of others. He senses the weight of his leadership role and his responsibility, not only for the people, but before God.

And he is watching, he is purging, 20 years of age. And it says here, the images that were on the high above them, he cut down. And the groves and the carved images and the molten images, he break in pieces.

We're not going to use these again. And made dust of them. And he strode them upon the graves of them that had sacrifice done to them.

This is what he is now showing publicly that these are the men who built these idols, this is now what we think of them, and he is making a public statement as to the fact of what they did in misleading the nation, in taking them in a wrong direction, 20 years old. But it goes, read more, he burnt verse 5, he burnt the bones of the priests upon their altars and cleansed Judah and Jerusalem. And so did he in the cities of Manasseh and Ephraim and Simeon even unto Naphtali with their maddox round about.

Now, let's go down to verse 8. Now in the 18th year of his reign, he's now 26. He's still, by all intents and purposes, a relatively young man. In the 18th year of his reign, when he had purged the land and the house, he sent Shaphan, the son of Azaliah, and Masih, the governor of the city, and Joah, the son of Jehoaz, the recorder, to repair the house of the Lord his God.

So he has taken care of cleansing, that has to happen first. Cleansing must always take place. Personal issues, national issues, he's making sweeping reforms.

And now he's at the house, it says, the house of the Lord his God. And then we're going to read, let's go down to verse 14. And when they brought out the money that was brought into the house of the Lord, he had taken collections, contributions, to support the workers and the work that was going on.

It says, Hilkiah the priest found a book of the law of the Lord given by Moses. And Hilkiah answered and said to Shaphan, the scribe, I have found the book of the law in the house of the Lord. And Hilkiah delivered the book to Shaphan.

Now I'm going to stop there just for a moment. We're not told exactly what this was, but based upon the further content that we're going to get down, this was likely, and most commentators would agree, that this was likely either the book of Deuteronomy in its entirety or perhaps chapters 12 through 26. It's the book of the law of Moses, we know so it links with the Pentateuch.

Based on what we're going to read in terms of the judgments that are going to come and in fact the responsibility of the king and so on, it would likely again be the book of Deuteronomy. What is interesting is that the Jews would often, when there is the threat of invasion from enemies around, they would have hidden portions of the word of God so that they could have recovered them later. Now whether that was the case here, we're uncertain.

Whether they hid it because of fear of invasion or perhaps someone just wanted to get it out of the way, we're not told. But regardless, they find the book of the law. They find this portion of the word of God that had been hidden, recovered.

As I think of that, notice, let's go and see how Josiah treats this. Verse, let's go down to verse 18. Then Shaphan the scribe told the king, saying, Hilkiah the priest hath given me a book.

A book. That's how he treats it. He found a book.

And Shaphan read it before the king. So he starts reading the contents of this book to Josiah. And it came to pass when the king had heard the words of the law that he rent his clothes.

Let me stop again just for a moment. Tears his heart. He tears his clothes.

He hears the word of God being read, this recovery of this book. And he is so moved at what has been found and recovered that the value of this book he rents his clothes. Can I ask everyone, how do you treat the word of God? When we hear ministry at a conference, when we give ministry at a local level in the assembly, do men stand up with that book, with the reality of the weight and the value and the necessity of the book of God? A king moving at this time, eight years old, starts to reign, 16 years old, 20 years old, purging the nation, 26 years old, repairing the house of the Lord.

I was thinking of this young man as he rediscovers, recovers this book. One thing, just to tie in what we have been hearing a little bit. Scott began with an exactness in terms of the accuracy of the word of God and its importance.

Take that book away. What would you have heard him say this afternoon? Nothing. Our brother plant, the value of Christ, the beauties of Christ.

Take the book away. What do we have? Brother Murray mentioned the fact that he said, there is nothing more valuable in all the world than this book. Take the book away.

And what do we have? How would we know? What would we know? This is the only thing in the entirety of this world that we have, that we have in which we live, that is absolutely heavenly in origin. And so Josiah is sitting there and he says, you found a book? It's interesting how that man treats, there's a book. There's a level of casualness, almost of, found a book.

And when Josiah starts to hear, he rips his clothing. He recognizes what it is. Let's go a little further now.

Verse 19, it says, it came to pass when he heard the words of the law that he rent his clothes and the king commanded Hilkiah and Ahakam, the son of Shaphan and Abdon, the son of Micah and Shaphan and so on, a servant of the king saying, go inquire of the Lord for me and for them that are left in Israel and in Judah concerning the words of the book that is found. He wants, in other words, immediate action. Nothing delayed.

We're not going to think about this. We're not going to, immediate action. This is what God says.

This is what we have to do. And the king using his authority in the recognition of the highest authority, God's authority, then commands, understanding his responsibility in this and his care and concern for the truth of God for this word to be carried out. What a great lesson for us in assembly testimony.

And then he says, and in life itself. But here's the reason. For great, let's break in again at verse 21 in the middle, for great is the wrath of the Lord that is poured out upon us because our fathers have not kept the word of the Lord to do after all that is written in this book.

Now listen, things were going fairly well for him in his reign. He's moving, he's clearing the kingdom, he's doing the work of God, he's repairing the house of the Lord. But now he recognized the danger of now what has been found, what has been read.

And if we do not respond to this, there is danger. The past generation brought this in. He says, we're clearing it out and we do not want it back again.

And so now as he reads this, verse 22, actually let's finish that verse. Poured out upon us because our fathers have not kept the word of the Lord to do after all, all. Underline that.

Not some, not part, not what we want, not what we don't want. All. How good are we at keeping all of the word of God? And then he says, that is written in this book.

And Hilkiah and they that the king had appointed went to hold of the prophetess. And notice what she says, verse 23, and she answered them, thus saith the Lord God of Israel, tell ye the men that sent you to me, thus saith the Lord, behold, I will bring evil upon this place and upon the inhabitants thereof, even all the curses that are written in the book, which they have read before the king of Judah. Verse 26, and as for the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of the Lord, so shall ye say unto him, thus saith the Lord God of Israel concerning the words which thou hast heard, because your heart was tender and you did humble yourself before God.

When thou heardest his words against this place and against the inhabitants thereof and humbled yourself before me and did rend your clothes and weep, weep before me. I will bring evil upon this place and upon the inhabitants thereof. I have even heard thee also sayeth the Lord.

And he tells them that he would have peace and so on. Verse 30, no, verse 29, then the king sent and gathered together all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem. Think of this, a 26 year old young man, gathering together the elders of Jerusalem, the elders of the city and Judah.

And the king went up into the house of the Lord and all the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem and the priests and the Levites and all the people, great and small. And he read in their ears all the words of the book of the covenant that was found in the house of the Lord. Verse 33, and Josiah took away all the abominations out of all the countries that pertain to the children of Israel and made all that were present in Israel, he made them to serve, even to serve the Lord their God.

And all his days they departed not from following the Lord, the God of their fathers. And in the next chapter if you were to read it, which I'm not going to, you would see that there is a celebration of a Passover that did not occur in any of the days of the kings even since the days of Samuel. It was a tremendous celebratory experience of observation and obedience in terms of the Passover.

Interesting. The greatest irony I found in this chapter, what was the most ironic in this entire account is this. Number one, that the word of God was lost.

The word of God was lost. Now that's ironic because we owe a lot to the Jew. We owe to the Jew not only the bringing in of the world of the Messiah, the promised seed, but the actual scriptures.

Because of the Jew, we have the scriptures. They are the guardians, not only the writers, but the guardians of the scriptures. There are certain translations of the Old Testament written by certain groups of Jewish men.

For example, likely some of you have heard of the Masoretic text, the Masorites. They were so meticulous in writing the word of God and copying it in a scribal way that when they actually wrote the name of Jehovah, they would stop and wash their hands. They're the guardians, and yet they lost it.

And I was thinking, the word of God, are we in danger of losing it? Can we be? Absolutely. If you think we're not, then think again. Number two, I thought of irony was this.

Not only were they the ones that lost it, but where it was lost. It was actually lost in the house of the Lord. It didn't fall prey to some other civilization.

It didn't fall prey to some other culture. It was lost right there in the house of God, in the temple. I think I'm reminded how many times something that I would always lose, my kids growing up, the keys to my car, I would always lose the keys to my car in my own house.

I never lost them outside, never lost them. In fact, my one son, when he was younger, he would run around the house and he would run around saying, my keys, my keys, my keys. He was mocking me, because always making fun of me.

Your kids have a way of doing that, right? Can you imagine in the assembly, house of God, and we lose the book of the Lord? We lose it because it's just not really being used. It becomes a book. I'm amazed sometimes how many breaking of breads, we never open the book.

But we open the hymn book a lot, but we don't open the Bible. I wonder why that is. Lost in the house of the Lord.

We can lose it, and I just jotted down a number of things here, when it becomes merely a record rather than the revelation of God. We can lose it when we lose the sense of its supreme, singular authority. It's not just that when it comes to how we live and what we do and what we practice, it's not simply the highest authority.

It is the only authority. We lose it when we lose the true value of it. The true value of it.

I wonder how it would affect us if some of us had to go a week without reading the Bible. Would it affect you? Or maybe you do go a week without reading it. I wonder how it would affect us if we were living in lands where the word of God was absolutely prohibited.

We had to read in secrecy. We had to hide it. Not lose it, hide it.

We lose the value of it. We lose, we can lose the word of God when we put our experiences, situations, claims, or events into the book of the Lord. Above its teachings and finality.

We can lose it when we give it low regard in doctrinal matters. And you'll hear people say sometimes when we're trying to hash out things or discussing things, I've had people say to me, oh you're just splitting hairs. Believe me, there's a few of us here, we can't afford to split hairs.

So when we do something like that, it must be something important. There's issues that go on. For example, I remember being in a conference a number of years ago and the expression that came up, and you've probably heard people say this, where people have said that we have the righteousness of Christ.

We do not have the righteousness of Christ. We do not have the righteousness of Christ. We have been imputed a righteousness of God.

A righteous standing given by God in justification. And so I made that statement in the conference and corrected someone who said that. And they said, well aren't you splitting hairs? And I said, okay, if the word of God never says that we have the righteousness of Christ, why do you want to say that? And in fact the other flip side of, if it says we have a righteousness of God, why won't you say that? There is a distinction.

The righteousness of Christ was his own personal righteousness as he lived before men. It's not splitting hairs. Headship.

The truth of headship. If we fail to recognize that, if we lose the value of the teaching of the word of God, on the relationship and the truth and reality of headship in relationship to Christ himself, in relation to the congregation coming together, if it becomes more a part of my wardrobe than my worship, or the reproach in wearing it for a sister, and we lose the value of that, you know what's happening? We're already starting to lose the word of God. The value of reverence.

Look at what Josiah did when that book was read. He rent his clothes. He wept.

The heart of this young king, tender before God, was torn up by the spirit of God and he responds to that in such a way. Do we react that way? Do I react that way? When the word of God is open and the value of this precious book, that had I, if I lost it, how would it affect me? How would it drive me to cry unto God and appreciate its value? Young men, young women, get a look at Josiah here. Get a look at his age.

Get a look at his exercise. We've been hearing about young men. We've been hearing about young people.

As far as the Lord's coming is concerned, we have to live in the expectation of it. Thank God. But he may not come in the next little while.

So while we live properly in the expectation of it, we also need to live in the preparation of daily life. And that means obedience to the word of God. So in that light, this younger generation that I'm looking at in this meeting, and younger folks that I, and I do thank God for many young people.

And I think of even some of the area Bible readings that we've been having among the assemblies in this area. I look and I thank God for the input that is coming from younger ones. And in some ways, and please you'll allow me, don't shoot me for this one, but there is a sense in which there is an older generation, yes, there's another level of a middle generation, and then there's the younger generation.

And for some reason, there is a void and a vacuum in that, that upper level generation. And in some ways, I'm sensing that young people are kind of, while we thank God for the past as we've been hearing, there are younger ones that are in some ways feeling their way along. They're questioning things.

Not because they want things, they're rebels and challenging. Some do. But there are many young people that genuinely want to know.

Because there seems to be something that was lost in that upper generation, that kind of just coasted along. And you younger ones, dig into your books. Get levels of conviction that you will not be moved on.

That you will stand on. That when you come, start young. Is there someone here, young people that have been saved at a very young age, 8, 9, 10? Read your Bible.

Get to read it. Study it. Memorize it.

It is the Word of God. And younger ones, don't let anyone move you from it. No one.

Not your peers, not relationships, not friends. Married couples, don't let your wife move you from it. Husbands and wives, don't let your husbands move you from it.

But I would pray that you'd move together on it. We can lose it when we pay it lip service. But really make little or no effort to actually understand it and apply it.

We can lose it. It just becomes a book. Just like Chafin said.

We can also lose it when we use sophisticated arguments to explain why it really doesn't mean that. It really doesn't mean that. And brethren, we need to be careful in our interpretation.

We don't want to make fanciful things that aren't there and just kind of apply them. There are, when it comes to church truth, there are epistles that give a solid church truth. Go to those.

We have pictures in the Old Testament. But the doctrine of it, the clear teaching of what the assembly is and how it functions and how we are to live is right there in the book. We can lose it when we treat Bible readings in the assembly locally and ministry as something, and this is something that tears me, and I hope and pray it will tear people and affect especially leadership and men in assemblies, when we treat Bible readings and ministry meetings as something casual, without depth of study and a careful handling of the word of God in feeding the people of God and speaking from this platform as the oracles of God.

I have heard, and I'm not here to trash, but I've heard men get up at a Bible reading in the local assembly and say, where are we at now? That's embarrassing. That's very casual. It would be tremendous if the men who opened the book treated it like a Josiah.

And there was that desire and that rending of the heart. If you, as I think of this, if you lost your Bible, how would it affect you? You know, I think about this here, and until we find the word of God in the church, the assembly today in our lives, we will not have the spiritual resources, renewal, reform, that word reform, or revival that we desperately need. And brethren, we are always in the need of revival.

Always. If we fail to, can I put it this way, fact check things and simply rely on practice, if we fail to continually keep the template of the truth of the word of God before us in terms of what we are doing, how we are carrying out things, the features, the functions, the formations, the preaching of the word of God. The one thing the apostle said to Paul when he was ready to die, the last will and testament of Paul to Timothy was this, preach the word.

Guard the deposit. Take heed to the doctrine. Because that is going to affect everything else.

And if we don't value it, if we don't treat it with accuracy and importance and essential necessity that it has, if we don't guard it, if we don't keep vigil, you know, it impressed me, I don't know if anybody has ever been down outside of Arlington, Virginia, and you have watched the tomb of the unknown soldier. I tell you, it impressed me. I see those guards and they are just so clear just the way they march, the steps, and the rifle at hand.

And it didn't matter if the rain came pelting down, that man just kept moving, that soldier. He is guarding the tomb of a dead man, the unknown soldier. We are having and left with the responsibility to guard the truth of the living God that we know deeply that has loved us and appreciates us and we have his interests.

Might God help us as we leave this conference with a little bit of a revival in our hearts, of capturing that spirit of a Josiah and looking into things. I think of as he does this, and I will just tell you two other things and maybe we will end a little bit early here, but just as this. As I think of this, he recognized this, that the smallest divergence will affect things.

If we are allowed to get off course in just a few degrees now, how is that going to affect each assembly in the future? Because you are well aware, there are pilots here, if you stay off course, if you start off just a few degrees and you keep going, eventually you are going to be very far off course. And what always brings us back to the spiritual, scriptural vectors that we need is the word of God. And that has to be.

I remember sadly talking to someone in Ontario, and I don't want to get back to this subject, but it was the subject of it and I don't want to seem like I am beating something over and over, but at the time we were going through, when we lived in Ontario, we were going through a situation where there were sisters meetings, sisters conferences even, that were going on. And I went to talk to someone who was instrumental in them, and I just said, look, tell me something. I said, what does this mean here? Titus chapter 2. And I said, let's just open the Bible, let's look at it.

Titus chapter 2 there in relation to the older sisters, the younger sisters, the older men, the younger men. And if you look at that passage and you look at the words, the importance there is, it's behavior. It's behavior.

When it talks about the older women teaching the younger women and so on, it's in relation to character, behavior. It's not public teaching, because if it did, if it did mean that, it would clearly contradict 1 Corinthians 14 and other passages, 1 Timothy chapter 2. So it's clear that the public sphere of teaching and instruction is not given to women. So all I simply asked him was this, just tell me then what that means.

And his response was, I can't talk to you. I can't talk to you. I said, I'm trying to talk to you.

And I'm trying to talk to you over what makes all the difference. Not how I feel, not how you feel, what God says. If we eliminate the word of God, if it is not the foundation of what we do, we have lost all.

Josiah recognized that. We are in need of revival on this always at any moment. Now I'll leave you with one last thought, and I thought this was very interesting as I read this passage.

The prophetess speaks to, it says here, Hilkiah rather, sorry, and Huldah the prophetess and so on, she's speaking to him, and that is interesting, the fact that there is a prophetess here whose name is Huldah, because you say, you just contradicted yourself, right? There's a woman here, and so on. But there was a day of weakness. It was a day of departure.

That was the whole problem. They had lost the book. Things like that happen when you lose the book.

And so as pronouncement of judgment comes, you would have thought that Josiah could have taken selfishly the words of the prophet for himself. Well, I'm okay. God recognizes I'm not complicit in this.

I'm not to blame. Other people are to blame. And two things I noticed that come out of that.

Number one, is he does all he can, even though he's exempt from it, but he does all he can to stay off the impending judgment from the people, because he recognizes they are God's. This is something for God. This is God's interest.

It's not about me. This is about him. This is about his interests.

And he works because it's the right thing to do. And it says he gathers all Israel there, and he's bringing them into this. You see, you would have thought this man could have said, well, what's the difference? You know, I mean, it's inevitable.

Judgment's inevitable. It's like coming to Revelation chapter 3 at the end and saying, well, what's the difference? Laodicea, we're in the days of Laodicea. What's the point? Because he's doing what's before God, what's right.

And the other thing is he's recognizing this, that this is no reason, even though judgment is coming, that this is no reason to allow things to continue. That's the other point I want to make. You say, well, there are some things in the assembly we just can't change.

Some things, and I mean that in a good way. I don't mean that in a bad way. I mean change according to the Word of God.

We heard yesterday, one of our brethren said at reception, I think it might have been William, so important, the matter of reception. And so when there are elements of weakness, maybe people in, you never see them in a midweek meeting. They just never come out, don't come out, no interest.

And so others want to come into the assembly and be received, but they don't come either. So the view could be taken, well, you know what, we've already got people like that here, so we can't really say no to them. So the question is then, do we want to continue contributing to that very element of weakness by receiving others who are doing the same thing? Or do we at least want to say, we don't stand for that, we don't appreciate that, the Word of God doesn't support that, and we're letting you know that that is not what the Word of God teaches.

Don't contribute to things that are ongoing. Josiah wasn't willing to do that. He wanted to make the necessary corrections, even though he thought judgment was inevitable.

Read the next chapter, brethren, in your spare time, and you will see it's a great day of revival, the Passover. I think, if I remember on top of my head, 40,000 animals slain? 40,000? It was a day like no other. You know what would be a wonderful thing? If we left this conference and we took the value of the Word of God, and we took the beauties of Christ as Lord, and we just brought them in a day of revival so that it would be like none other.

Not with our heads down, not with the fact that it was a great conference and, well, next year we'll think about this, but today, the Word of God, the beauty of it, the value of it, the power of it, the ability of it, the one thing in this world that is absolutely and totally heavenly in origin, the beauty of the manna, food for our souls, guidance for our lives, and the truth of God literally in our hands. What a wonderful thing. May God help us to do so.