hey all,
well...im in 1chronicles, but at the (God forgive me..) slightly boring part at the begining that lists geneologies. so i figured i'd go back to 2nd kings for happy wed material this week. I tend to focus on a couple of key characters in each book of hte old testament, for 2nd king it usually tends to be elisha and hezekiah, this time around i finally noticed hezekiah's great grandson Josiah (2 King 22-23) - king of judah:
the kingdom of judah was doomed: surrounded by enemies on all sides, israel had already fallen to assyria, ppl fallen into idolatry, and now it's been prophesied that babylon would take over the country (in fact, this happens a few chapters later). In spite of all this, when the book of law was found and brought to josiah, his reaction was immediate and extreme. He tore his clothes in mourning for the sins his country has fallen to. After reading through the book of the law, he initiated the greatest eradication of idolatry in judah's history. In the past, god-fearing kings would take down the foreign idols in their country - but always compromise on one point or another and eventually fall into some form of sin. Josiah was different! chapter 23 gave a long litany of idols, asherah poles, high places, and altars he destroyed. He was ruthless in his efforts to remove idolatry from his nation - even destroying altars/idols set up by solomon and jeroboam, probably national icons by this time and presumably left untouched by past national cleansings.
How aggressively do we attack the sins and idols in our own lives? do we compromise? do we protect the very things that causes us to stumble (a relationship, the internet, television, etc)? josiah was told even the eradication of idolatry wont save his country from invasion; yet he did all of this solely to please God! In the midst of disaster and trials in our lives, let this story be an inspiration to us to not be distracted from our purpose in Christ. Pray and hope, but also remember to repent! I feel like we as christians often forget this important spiritual discipline. Repentance is a two step process, first the admission of sin and need for help, and second is taking steps to remove that sin from our lives - we can not fully do one without the other. we should repent not because it mite get us out of hot waters, or curry favour with God, but simply because we must realize how desperately short we fall of God's holy standards and recognize our need for Him. Ask for strength and discipline to completely remove all traces of sin from ur life as josiah did.
Have a happy wednesday and a blessed week =)
edward
Gaah...i wanna do this at work!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_aCWt9taCNQ
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