Josiah

The passages for today introduce us to Josiah, one of the most godly Kings of all Israel. He was the great-grandson of Hezekiah and was preceded by two evil kings who undid all of the work Hezekiah did to restore monotheism in Judah. Mannasseh had a change of heart late life but not before his influence was felt by his son Amon. Perhaps God preserved Josiah's purity of heart by taking Amon out early in life, before Josiah was old enough to be permanently tainted by his father's poor character.

If we think back to all of the previous kings of Judah, even the godly ones, there seemed to be a pattern of partial obedience. A typical godly king would destroying some faction of pagan worship but never all of it. For example, one might burn the Asherah poles and idols but leave the pagan shrines, or destroy the altars but allow the golden calves to remain. As I read through the brief synopsis offered of each king's reign, I remember thinking ,"why doesn't someone just get rid of everything? Why do even the godly kings keep some remnants of idol worship around when they know the one, true God?". But when I translated the phenomenon into our modern world, I realized what a big deal it actually was. Could you imagine a president outlawing all forms of religion except Christianity?! Demolishing the Jewish Temes and Muslim Mosques and every other non-Christian establishment? The thought is outlandish, even to me as a Christian! But it does help put into perspective the magnitude of what these godly kings accomplished. What Josiah did, was impressive.

Aside from eliminating pagan worship, Josiah burned on the altar the bones of the pagan priests, as had been prophesied in 1 Kings 13:22. More than three centuries earlier, during the reign of Jeroboam ( the first king of Israel following the division of the kingdom), a man of God prophesied the following...

"At the Lord's command he shouted, 'O altar, altar! This is what the Lord says: a child named Josiah will be born into the dynasty of David.
On you he will sacrifice the priests from the pagan shrines who come here to burn incense, and human bones will be burned on you." Pretty astounding.

Tomorrow's reading: Jeremiah 2:23-5:19