2 Chro No.17 A Man Humbled

The reading this morning is taken from Chronicles, 2nd Chronicles, Chapter 35. Now last week, if you remember, in Chapter 34 we heard how the young king Josiah was determined to walk in the way of the Lord and to rid his country of the paraphernalia of bell worship and idolatry. And one of the things he did was to repair the temple.

And during the repair of the temple, Hilkiah, the high priest, rediscovered the book of the law. And this had a tremendous effect on Josiah and his people. One of the effects it has was that the Passover, which had not been celebrated for many years, was celebrated again.

And Josiah had to give detailed instructions to his people on how this should be carried out. And this is related in the first 15 verses of the chapter. I'm going to begin reading at verse 16.

So at that time, the entire service of the Lord was carried out for the celebration of the Passover and the offering of burnt offerings on the altar of the Lord, as King Josiah had ordered. The Israelites, who were present, celebrated the Passover at that time and observed the Feast of Unleavened Bread for seven days. The Passover had not been observed like this in Israel since the days of the prophet Samuel and none of the kings of Israel had ever celebrated such a Passover as did Josiah with the priests, the Levites, and all Judah and Israel who were there with the people of Jerusalem.

This Passover was celebrated in the 18th year of Josiah's reign. After all this, when Josiah had set the temple in order, Necho, king of Egypt, went up to fight at Carchemish on the Euphrates and Josiah marched out to meet him in battle. But Necho sent messengers to him saying, What quarrel is there between you and me, O king of Judah? It is not you I am attacking at this time, but the house with which I am at war.

God has told me to hurry, so stop opposing God, who is with me, or he will destroy you. Josiah, however, would not turn away from him, but disguised himself to engage in battle. He would not listen to what Necho had said at God's command.

But went to fight him on the plain of Megiddo. Archers shot king Josiah and he told his officers, Take me away, I am badly wounded. So they took him out of his chariot, put him in the other chariot he had, and brought him to Jerusalem where he died.

He was buried in the tombs of his fathers and all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for him. Jeremiah composed laments for Josiah and to this day all the men and women singers commemorate Josiah in the laments. These became a tradition in Israel and are written in the laments.

The other events of Josiah's reign and his acts of devotion, according to what is written in the law of the Lord, all the events from the beginning to end are written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah. May God add his blessing to this reading of his word. King of my life, I crown thee now, Thine shall the glory be.

Lest I forget thy thorn-crowned brow, Lead me to calvary. Lest I forget Gethsemane, Lest I forget thine agony, Lest I forget thy love for me, Lead me to calvary. Show me the tomb where thou wast laid, Tenderly mourned and wept, Angels in robes of light arrayed, Guarded thee whilst thou slept.

Lest I forget Gethsemane, Lest I forget thine agony, Lest I forget thy love for me, Lead me to calvary. Let me like Mary through the gloom Come with a gift to thee, Show to me now the empty tomb, Lead me to calvary. Lest I forget Gethsemane, Lest I forget thine agony, Lest I forget thy love for me, Lead me to calvary.

May I be willing, Lord, to bear Daily my cross for thee, Even thy cup of grief to share Thou hast borne all for me. Lest I forget Gethsemane, Lest I forget thine agony, Lest I forget thy love for me, Lead me to calvary. Let me read just one verse again.

The 25th. 2 Chronicles 35, 25. Jeremiah composed laments for Josiah.

And to this day all the men and women singers commemorate Josiah in the laments. These became a tradition in Israel and are written in the laments. It seems to me that it's rather fortunate that we're looking into this passage of Scripture.

The discipline of expository ministry, of coming around the Word of God consecutively has many, many benefits. It makes a congregation spend time in passages that perhaps otherwise would be missed by the preacher. The syllabus is written by the Holy Spirit because he inspired the words of Scripture.

And there are occasions when in the exposition of a narrative you discover that the narrative has a great deal to say to the particular day in which the saints of God are gathered. And today is no exception. The hearts of not only this prophet Jeremiah are filled with sorrow.

And those who are very sensitive and perhaps read newspapers not just academically to be informed but prophetically to try to discern what's just going to happen around the corner, their hearts are filled with fear. The outbreak of another war when we are remembering the death of tens of thousands of people in the First and the Second World War, well, that is too great a tragedy even to contemplate in any detail the full significance of what could happen if war breaks out in the Gulf. It's horrendous with the weapons that there are at the disposal of either side.

And when we come to the Word of God we find that not only does Jeremiah the prophet lament because of the particular situation in his day but we find that the Christian church is ever engaging in a lament when it realizes the reason behind the death of Jesus on the cross. It was your sin and my sin that put Him there. And although there's a note of victory in what He achieved there's no victory, there is no triumph so to speak in human sinfulness per se in and of itself.

There is a sense in which all of us should ever be in tears when we consider what God wants of us. And what we have delivered. So it's good to be in remembrance today for loved ones who died to preserve the peace for those who fell in the Falklands skirmish for those who bear the wounds of such battles of yesteryear.

But it's even more important that we remember the story of our Lord Jesus. Should pastors ever weep? Should prophets ever weep? Of course they should. In one sense there is no justification to be a messenger of God unless you know what it is at times for your eyes to brim with tears.

Jeremiah is known as the weeping prophet. He looked on the situation in his day and his heart was engulfed with fear. He watched the demise of a good man who could have preserved a nation from its folly and he was felled as an axe was put to the root of his life seemingly prematurely.

Our Lord Jesus on one occasion found himself on a hill overlooking Jerusalem and with prophetic perception he realizes what is just in store. His eyes brim with tears as he says, Oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who stone the prophets, you who reject all whom the Father would send unto you, you who I would have gathered under my wings as a hen gathers her chicks, for you I weep. The apostle Paul when he is writing to the Corinthians speaks about the cost of being a minister of the evangel and the way at times when his heart breaks within him and he says in the fourth verse of the second chapter of the second letter, I wrote to you out of distress and anguish of heart and with many tears, not to grieve you but to let you know the depth of my love for you.

Well, here is Jeremiah. Let's ask the question, why are you weeping? In the year that King Josiah died, Jeremiah wept before the Lord. But why weep because of that king? Won't there be other kings? Why be over-concerned because of the death of this king? I work out the reasons for Jeremiah's lament as I open up this address.

Jeremiah wept over the death of a life judged worthy. You know what an elegy is? It's a poem that is composed when someone dies. You read of Gray's elegy.

There's an elegy that David offers on the death of Saul and perhaps with less justification on the death of Absalom. Well, here is Jeremiah and he weeps because a king has died and this king was indeed a very worthy king. And the song which Jeremiah composed became the Hebrew equivalent of that hymn that we have just sung, Oh God our help in ages past.

It seems to me that you would have to go to the prophecy of Jeremiah to discover the actual elegy, the poem that Jeremiah wrote in the twenty-second chapter of the prophecy that bears his name. He makes reference in the fifteenth verse to one who did what was right and just, so all went well with him. He speaks of one who defended the cause of the poor and needy and so all went well.

Now, good men are not generally bestowed amongst the ranks of humankind. And when a good man dies, a good man who at the age of eight was on the throne of Judah, if you can believe that, and by the age of sixteen was seeking the Lord with all his heart, and by the time he comes into the twenties is leading a reformation. When a man of that standing dies at forty, it's a tragedy.

We need good leaders. We need leaders in the church. Sometimes I come before the sovereignty of God recognizing His omniscience, His all-knowledge.

And in the doubt that sometimes I have when I consider His purposes, I say, Lord why? Why did you take that man and not that man? Lord, to me it seems so wrong to remove into your kingdom, into your immediate presence, those who are so vital for us on this earth in terms of the leadership that they have given. Well, here is Josiah, and he dies prematurely. And a prophet laments his passing.

It's a life that was judged worthy. Judged worthy not only by the ordinary person, but by the historians who chronicled his life. We are told in the thirty-third verse of the thirty-fourth chapter, Josiah removed all the detestable idols from all the territory belonging to the Israelites, and he made all who were present in Israel serve the Lord their God.

We're told in the second verse of the same chapter that he followed the fashion of David, not turning aside to the right or to the left, and yet this man dies at forty. And in the year that King Josiah dies, Jeremiah weeps over the death of a man whose life was judged worthy. Calvary has some wonderful aspects to it.

It also has some awful ones. And I ask you, when the chalice is sometimes put to your lips, and the bread is taken into your mouth, do you ever weep about the death of that just man, Jesus of Nazareth? Do you weep at the prospect of thousands of young men and women, and some not so young, the innocent, so to speak, of Kuwait and Iraq, who could well be eliminated if the obscenity of war breaks out again? Do you ever weep when you consider that the West turned a somewhat blind eye when weapons of poisonous nature were used by the president of Iraq in certain areas of his country? And God have mercy on us. Many of the armaments which Iraq possesses came from the West.

Let he who is without sin cast the first stone, and let us Westerners realize that before a holy and omnipotent God we are not innocent in this crisis in the Gulf, however politically you assess it. Jeremiah lamented, and there is a need for you and I sensitively to bring the present situation before the Lord. The prophet wept over the death of a life judged worthy, but then Jeremiah wept over the death which he considered unnecessary.

It's the wastage of human life that creates the grief. You see, there was every indication that this King Josiah would have a long reign, you remember he was the man who was brought perhaps the actual parchments that Moses wrote out, the Bible, inverted commas, of his day. He was given certainly the book of Deuteronomy, maybe the rest of the Pentateuch, and he was elated on the reception of his Bible as perhaps a member of the Soviet Union is elated today when a long-sought-for Bible is given and placed in his possession.

And it's Josiah who, having permitted the reading of all the Scriptures in front of his entourage in the court, then asks a woman to give him further explanation. Do you recall how set down in the 22nd and 23rd verses of the preceding chapter Huldah speaks to Josiah? At least she passes on a message to Josiah. Verse 26, 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.

It goes on to give this tribute to the king, Your heart is responsive, You humbled yourself before God. You see, this is a good man, this Josiah. And she predicts two things.

First of all, he will not see the demise of Jerusalem. This prophet appreciates that the reformation that he has sincerely brought into being, however commendable, will not be far-reaching nor long-lasting. And Huldah perceives all that will ultimately happen when terrible things occurred, when Jerusalem was ransacked by those fierce pagan armies.

Josiah will not see this. And another prediction is made that he will go to his grave in peace. Verse 28, I will gather you to your fathers and you will be buried in peace.

Your eyes will not see all the disaster I'm going to bring on this place. And yet here, those of you who listen to that reading of Scripture will know that Josiah's death was a shocking one. He is cut down in the prime of his days and it seems as though the first part of Huldah's prophecy was not fulfilled.

But my friend, you're not to deal carelessly with Scripture. You're not to take the precious promises of God and apply them to yourself as though it was from the magic of some promised box that they automatically are yours if you forget the conditions, which are that a man must walk uprightly before his God. The best of men, says Charles Spurgeon, are men at best.

And however tall Josiah walks, however great some of our contemporary leaders in Christendom may be, it may well be that their feet have for their constituents both brass and also clay. The greatest of men can be toppled. The mighty can fall.

A man of outstanding stature such as Josiah can place his reason over against God's revelation and as a result, the axe will be laid to the root of the tree and the man will die prematurely. You see, here is this second person who warrants our attention at this moment, not a woman prophet, but a male king, a pagan king at that, verse twenty-one of the thirty-fifth chapter, Necho, who comes from Egypt. Now God in His mysterious ways will sometimes take a non-Jewish person and reveal His will to him.

It happens with Cyrus. It will happen with other people in the Old Testament. God has a concern not just for the Jews, though He has a prime concern for them.

He has a concern also for the citizens of Nineveh, you remember. And there are occasions when He will take a pagan king and speak to him His word. And so here is Necho and he surveys the international scene.

He reads the papers of his day. He hears the voice of God propelling him to the forefront of battle. But his quarrel is not with Josiah.

It's not with the Jews. And here is Josiah who cannot brook the fact that God will use Necho and march around His land. And so Josiah, without taking leave of God, without gaining His permission, goes out to accost the Egyptian pharaoh.

And the king reacts, verse 21, in the most commendable fashion. What quarrel is there between you and me, O king of Judah? It is not for you I am attacking at this time, but the house with which I am at war. God has told me to hurry.

So, and here are distilled words of wisdom falling from the lips of a pagan monarch. Stop opposing God who is with me or He will destroy you. My dear friends, because you are a child of God, it does not mean that everything that you do in life, every decision that you make, must of necessity have the hand of God upon it.

And if you step out of line with His will, then He can take you from the ministry that you are exercising, from the position in which you find yourself. You see, Isaac Watts was not only a great hymn writer, he was a great theologian. And he sometimes makes reference to the frowning providence of God.

God frowned the day that Josiah went out into war. He frowned the day when Josiah disguised himself, seemingly indicating that he wasn't too sure that he should have been at the front line of the battle. And when that stray arrow, so to speak, penetrates the heart of the king, it is an arrow that has on its tip the name of Josiah.

And here is the frowning providence. God has decreed that that shall happen. But behind the frowning providence He hides a smiling face.

Josiah's salvation is not in question whatsoever. When a man dies, it's his body that decays and lies emoldering in the grave. His soul goes marching on.

And into the presence of God went the spirit of Josiah. But his life at the human level was terminated prematurely. And so Jeremiah laments.

He laments over a death thought unnecessary. And today, my dear friend, it is required of you and me that we thoughtfully examine what is God's will for our lives. That sometimes also we back off when God allows certain things to happen which we don't understand and become unpalatable to us.

God is working His purposes out. As year succeeds to year, I am not a prophet nor a prophet's son. Though occasionally I believe God gives me some intuitive shaft in my mind that indicates His will in pastoral situations from time to time.

I say that to His praise and not out of presumption. I do not know what will happen in the gulf situation. I pray that there may be peace yet and that all the forces that have crisscrossed the world will go back to the place of their own homes.

But if not, God will work out His purposes for He is utterly sovereign. Jeremiah weeps over the death of a life judged worthy. Secondly, over the death of one whose demise was considered unnecessary.

Thirdly, Jeremiah weeps over a future perceived more serious. You see, when some men die and at the human level the world loses their influence, then you might well think that the world will be worsened as a result of their passing. That is the case with Josiah.

Go again to that 33rd verse of the previous chapter and take the last sentence. As long as he lived, they did not fail to follow the Lord, the God of their fathers. All right? Now concentrate.

And stand that on end. As long as he lives, they will not fail to follow the Lord, the God of their fathers. But with Josiah out of the way, then what is the future of Israel? What is the future of Judah? So here is Jeremiah, you see, and he is a prophet.

He has insight. He is like the Son of God who later when he looks over Jerusalem perceives the coming of the Roman armies and knows of the cannibalism that will beset Jerusalem and the problems that the people will have. He sees the despoiling of the sacred places and thus the tears course down his cheeks and Jeremiah laments in a similar way.

With Josiah out of the scene, the problem will be that life in Judah will disintegrate and the speed of that spiritual deterioration is unbearable. And so Jeremiah when he writes his lament in the twenty-second chapter of the prophecy that bears his name, says in the tenth verse, Do not weep for the dead king or mourn his loss. Then for whom, good prophet Jeremiah, should we weep? Weep bitterly for him who is in exile because he will never return nor see his native land again.

You see the point? Jeremiah weeps over a future perceived more serious with the passing of this king. Jeremiah, I remind you, weeps over the death of a man whose demise was considered unnecessary. Jeremiah sorrows over the death of a man whose life was judged worthy.

My friend, does God weep today? Did you hear that question? I didn't say, Do you weep? I take it for granted you do. Is there reason for God to weep? Are there tears, so to speak, in the heart of God today? I think the answer must definitely be, Yes. Why should God weep? God should weep over his church.

You see here is Jeremiah and he speaks as a representative of God and in those days the temple stood for the church and Judaism for Christianity, so to speak, historically. The place where God's name was to be known was the temple. The temple will soon be trodden underfoot by the pagan Gentiles.

The name of God would be brought into disgrace, so to speak, at least the reputation that God had amongst the Jews because of the way that they have fallen foul of all that God intended them to be and to do. Now look, when the church—I'm back to my original argument to the commencement of this book's ministry, as far as I was concerned, my contribution. When the church fails to be the church, God weeps.

Josiah is dead. Jesus said that without salt the world will be savourless. Without light the world will be spiritually dark.

Who brings salt to the world? Who brings light to the world if it is not the church of Jesus Christ? So if the church refuses to be the church, then the world can never benefit by the revelation of God. And when the church bypasses the gospel and brings in some philosophy, when it pontificates politically but will never spell out so others can understand the reason behind the death of our Lord Jesus Christ and His mighty resurrection, then I tell you that God in glory weeps. He weeps for the church, for leaders of the church who betray their very ordination by refusing to proclaim in its entirety the Word of God and sometimes taking from this book little verses that they then apply nationally which never had that context whatsoever.

God weeps. He weeps over His church. He weeps over His church's leadership.

He weeps over His world. Did any of you see, probably not, it's rare that I ever see children's television, Blue Peter. They sent a couple of sensitive folk, a young lady and a cameraman into Romania.

They showed us last week shots of little kids in orphanages who, though lacking essential cleanliness of nappies and so on and so forth, whose greatest lack was for human love. Little kiddies in carts tossing themselves from side to side. We were told a sort of psychological way of trying to compensate from not having the embrace of a mother's love or a father's care.

A TV cameraman can weep at that scene. Some casual observer like myself can weep at that scene. Do not think that God weeps that in the world where there is a surfeit of food, a largesse within the hearts of many people to show love to kids.

The situation in Romania and Albania and in a hundred Romanias and Albanias exists in our world today. Who do you blame? For the greed and the harshness of society? Oh, you say that's a very grim thought to send us away with. And in one sense it is, but let me tell you, my friend, that the final aspect of the story of the Bible is that the day will come when all weeping and when all sorrow shall be taken away because the future of our world, as in Israel's day, did not exist, was not within the province of Goliath, nor is it in our day within the province of Gaddafi.

It was not within the providence of Belshazzar, neither is it within the providence of Bush. The future of our world is left within the hands of our God who has ultimately given authority to our Lord Jesus. And you read in Revelation in chapter five of the final outcome of the human story when in the fourth verse of the fifth chapter of the last book of the Bible you find John, the one-time apostle and close associate of our Lord Jesus, absolutely in convulsion because there is no one to meet, as he expresses it in metaphorical language, the needs of the human race.

He says, I wept because no one was found worthy to unroll the scroll or look inside. Then one of the elders said to me, Do not weep, see the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, hath triumphed. He is able to open the scroll and its seven seals.

What does it mean? It means that the death of that man on the cross of Calvary and his mighty resurrection and his kingly reign in heaven at this moment will one day have its consummation on this earth. How many times have I told you God is not through with this world. The day is coming when there will be neither sorrow nor crying nor hunger nor the wailing of little orphan boys and girls in Albania nor the premature termination of life as has happened in a dozen wars this century.

Here, John, again in his metaphorical language, they are before the throne of God and serve him day and night in his temple and he who sits on the throne will spread his tent over them. Never again will they hunger. Never again will they thirst.

The sun will not beat upon them nor any scorching heat for the lamb. At the center of the throne will be their shepherd. He will lead them to springs of living water and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.

Now is the day of great sorrow for sensitive and spiritual people. As much reason to weep as there was for Jeremiah on the passing of King Josiah. But the day is coming when there needs to be no more weeping, no more sorrow, because the victory of our Lord Jesus Christ shall be worked out in its implications around this world, in this universe.

Are you ready for that day? Are you at peace with your Maker? Have you confessed your sin? Are you remembering Jesus through the taking of bread and the drinking of wine and dedicating your life to the furtherance of the purposes of God as you live here, the allotted span that God has contracted to give you? Let us pray. Father, in Thy most incredible fashion, we have found that Your Word lines up against the modern situation. We say no more but ask that it may be worked through in our lives, that You will tell us when to weep and when to rejoice, when to feel the despair, the pulse beat of humanity, and when to put our hand into the hand of Jesus and feel the pulse beat of eternity and appreciate that one day weeping shall be given over to great joy because of all that He has done.

Hear us, beloved God, as we pray for one another, as we pray for our world, as we pray for the gulf, as we pray for loved ones, some of us, who have men and women in the gulf area and we wonder how it will go for them. Lord, embrace such, we pray. Embrace parents.

Embrace our world in Your arms, not because we have any rights but because You are a loving and a compassionate God who longs not for the destruction of humanity but for its salvation. God of tears, minister to any distressed heart this morning. God of forgiveness, absolve us from the guilt of our folly and enable all of us here to walk in the light and to shed the light, to take the salt and to give savor to others until the day dawns, when the blessed Christ returns.

Hear us, great God, for Your mercy's sake. Amen. God of tears, minister to any distressed heart this morning.

God of forgiveness, absolve us from the guilt of our folly and enable all of us here to take the salt and to give savor to others until the day dawns, when the blessed Christ returns. Amen.