Before this morning, did you ever hear of King Josiah?

Do you ever recall, hearing a sermon preached about him?

Do you remember ever having a Sunday School lesson about him?

And yet scripture tells us,

"Before him there was no king like him, no king turned to the Lord with all his heart, with all his soul, and with all his might,....nor did any like him arise after him."

You have to wonder, why King Josiah, who had no equal, is such an unknown. Skipping over King Josiah’s reign in Judah, would be like trivializing the term of President Lincoln in American history. Yet, aside from 3 places in the Old Testament Josiah is not mentioned at all.

So who is King Josiah?

King Josiah was the 18th king of Judah, Judah being the Southern kingdom of the Israelites. Fortunately Josiah, did not take after his father King Amon, because scripture tells us that King Amon,

"did was what was evil in the sight of the Lord, as his father Manasseh had done."
(2Kings 21:20)

King Josiah, was like his great-grandfather, whom he never met, namely Hezekiah. Both had a close personal relationship with God. Both were passionate reformers, making valiant efforts to lead their people back to God. They have been described as, "bright flashes of obedience to God among kings with darkened consciences, who seemed bent on out doing each other in disobedience and evil."

Both Josiah and Hezekiah are praised in scripture for their reverence toward God.

In a short biographical description of Josiah, which I read in the New Application Bible, Josiah’s life is described as,

"an example of God’s willingness to provide ongoing quidance to those who set out to be obedient. At a young age, Josiah already understood that there was spiritual sickness in his land, idols were sprouting in the countryside faster than crops."

Josiah began his reign by destroying and cleaning up whatever he recognized as not belonging to the worship of the true God. In doing this, the book of the Law was discovered in the temple. The book referred to in 2 kings 22, may have been the Pentateuch, which is the first 5 books of the Old Testament, Genesis through Deuteronomy, OR just the book of Deuteronomy itself. Nevertheless, as Josiah read this book he was shocked, frightened, and humbled. 2 Kings 22, gives us a picture of Josiah tearing his clothes, putting on sack cloth, laying in ashes fasting and weeping, all signs, back in his day, of repentance.

The more he read from the book of God’s law the more he realized the gap which existed between God’s law and the people’s lives. This is what led Josiah to make a covenant with God.

"The king stood by the pillar and made a covenant before the Lord, to follow the Lord, keeping His commandments, His decrees, and His statutes, with all his heart and his soul, to perform the words of this covenant, that were written in this book. All the people joined in the covenant." (v3,4)

As I read this story, which took place in the 600 years before the birth of Christ, I couldn’t help but feel, that today’s society is no different. Today you hear about car jacking, shootings in school, babies being born and found abandoned in bathrooms, violence in sports.

You hear people asking, "What is this world coming to." Who is responsible for all this. Just yesterday at my nephew’s graduation party we got into a conversation about children and guns.

In our conversation, the finger of guilt was pointed at the news media, at the entertainment business, at the increasing of divorces, at the lack of parenting, the decline of values, a lack of respect for life itself at the insatiable appetite of the American people to have more and more possessions and money.

As I reflected on that conversation, and others like it, I remembered a grisly but effective means Eskimos used for killing wolves that ravaged their traps and dog teams.

They would coat a very sharp knife with animal blood and allow it to freeze. Then they would add layer upon layer until the knife was completely concealed. The knife would then be placed in the ground blade up. The wolf would get the scent and when it found the knife would begin to lick it. The more he licked the blood the greater his desire for more. He would lick and lick until eventually the wolf was lapping the blade itself. The wolfs ravenous thirst for blood, caused it not to realize it was licking his own and eventually it would cut his tongue so severely it would bleed to death.

One has to wonder if our own lusts which consume us will not become our own demise.

As we look for reasons, perhaps we need to look no further then Josiah, who saw the sorry state of affairs of his people and attributed it to a lack of obedience to the law of God. Today many people may have Bibles in their homes, but too few people allow their lives to be affected by the truths found in God’s Word. The Word of God should cause us, like Josiah, to take action immediately to reform our lives and bring them into harmony with God’s will.

Josiah,
"Before him there was no king like him, who turned to the Lord, with all his heart, with all his soul, and with all his might,... nor did any like him arise after him."

This story raises some serious questions which need to be answered.

How would you describe your relationship with God?

Are your efforts at holiness feebly based on the desire to go along with a well-liked leader or popular opinion? Or are you like Josiah, deeply humbled by God’s Word, realizing the great gap between your life and the kind of life God expects, realizing your deep need to be cleansed and renewed by him?

Do you allow God’s Word to truly humble you and change your life for the better?

How do you want to be remembered?

Josiah is remembered as Judah’s most obedient king. He recognized sin. He eliminated sinful practices. He attacked the causes of sin.

Are you willing be able to recognize the sin in your relationships, your situations, your routines, your patterns of life that lead you to the door of temptation?

Are you willing to eliminate those sinful practices?

Are you willing to be an obedient follower of Christ?

Only you can decide for yourself, but remember that blessing or consequences come with your decision.

So, how do you want
to be remembered?

AMEN

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