November 29, 2015: Josiah’s Reform

2 Kings 22:1-20; 23:1-3

22 Josiah was 8 years old when he became king, and he ruled for thirty-one years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Jedidah; she was Adaiah’s daughter and was from Bozkath. ² He did what was right in the Lord’s eyes, and walked in the ways of his ancestor David—not deviating from it even a bit to the right or left.

³ In the eighteenth year of King Josiah’s rule, he sent the secretary Shaphan, Azaliah’s son and Meshullam’s grandson, to the Lord’s temple with the following orders: ⁴ “Go to the high priest Hilkiah. Have him carefully count^[a] the money that has been brought to the Lord’s temple and that has been collected from the people by the doorkeepers. ⁵ It should be given to the supervisors in charge of the Lord’s temple, who in turn should pay it to those who are in the Lord’s temple, repairing the temple— ⁶ the carpenters, the builders, and the masons. It should be used to pay for lumber and quarried stone to repair the temple. ⁷ But there’s no need to check on them regarding the money they receive, because they are honest workers.”

⁸ The high priest Hilkiah told Shaphan the secretary: “I have found the Instruction scroll in the Lord’s temple.” Then Hilkiah turned the scroll over to Shaphan, who read it.

⁹ Shaphan the secretary then went to the king and reported this to him: “Your officials have released the money that was found in the temple and have handed it over to those who supervise the work in the Lord’s temple.” ¹⁰ Then Shaphan the secretary told the king, “Hilkiah the priest has given me a scroll,” and he read it out loud before the king.

¹¹ As soon as the king heard what the Instruction scroll said, he ripped his clothes. ¹² The king ordered the priest Hilkiah, Shaphan’s son Ahikam, Micaiah’s son Achbor, Shaphan the secretary, and Asaiah the royal officer as follows: ¹³ “Go and ask the Lord on my behalf, and on behalf of the people, and on behalf of all Judah concerning the contents of this scroll that has been found. The Lord must be furious with us because our ancestors failed to obey the words of this scroll and do everything written in it about us.”

¹⁴ So Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam, Achbor, Shaphan, and Asaiah went to the prophetess Huldah. She was married to Shallum, Tikvah’s son and Harhas’ grandson, who was in charge of the wardrobe. She lived in Jerusalem in the second district. When they spoke to her, ¹⁵ she replied, “This is what the Lord, Israel’s God, says: Tell this to the man who sent you to me: ¹⁶ This is what the Lord says: I am about to bring disaster on this place and its citizens—all the words in the scroll that Judah’s king has read! ¹⁷ My anger burns against this place, never to be quenched, because they’ve deserted me and have burned incense to other gods, angering me by everything they have done.^{[a] 18} But also say this to the king of Judah, who sent you to question the Lord: This is what the Lord, Israel’s God, says about the message you’ve just heard: ¹⁹ Because your heart was broken and you submitted before the Lord when you heard what I said about this place and its citizens—that they will become a horror and a curse—and because you ripped your clothes and cried before me, I have listened to you, declares the Lord. ²⁰ That’s why I will gather you to your ancestors, and you will go to your grave in peace. You won’t experience the disaster I am about to bring on this place.”

23 ¹ The king sent a message, and all of Judah’s and Jerusalem’s elders gathered before him. ² Then the king went up to the Lord’s temple, together with all the people of Judah and all the citizens of Jerusalem, the priests and the prophets, and all the people, young and old alike. There the king read out loud all the words of the covenant scroll that had been found in the Lord’s temple. ³ The king stood beside the pillar and made a covenant with the Lord that he would follow the Lord by keeping his commandments, his laws, and his regulations with all his heart and all his being in order to fulfill the words of this covenant that were written in this scroll. All of the people accepted the covenant.

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Introduction:

I fluctuate between a great desire for order and cleanliness and being comfortable with chaos and ‘messiness.’ Whether it’s my office at work or various rooms at home, an unexpected visitor might find a jumble of books, papers and other items…or everything in its place. This devotion is not meant to probe deep into my psyche, but I’m sure there are plenty of reasons for this.  Usually I will allow things to get almost completely out of hand before looking around and realizing “Something has to change! This needs to get better!”  Then papers will be filed, books placed on shelves, and furniture dusted. Order is restored!

My experience with cleaning has some similarities with our lesson today. King Josiah of Judah decided to refurbish the Temple in Jerusalem and in the process he found out that more than the building needed a good overhaul: the life of the nation needed to be cleansed. Upon hearing the contents of God’s instructions for the people, Josiah realized that the relationship between the LORD and the people was broken and needed to be fixed. The promises of God had been ignored, the life that God had intended for the people was not present. 

Josiah looked at his land and said “Something has to change! This needs to get better!”

The Technical Stuff:

Josiah ruled the Southern Kingdom of Judah from 640-609 B.C.E. The Northern Kingdom of Israel had been conquered and destroyed many years earlier in 722 B.C.E. by the Assyrian Empire. Judah had survived, barely, and received many refugees from Israel after its destruction.  Almost all of Judah’s kings received “low ratings” from the writers of the bible: they oppressed the poor and led the people away from worship of the LORD. Again and again we hear that a king had done “what is evil in the LORD’s eyes” but Josiah (along with another king named Hezekiah) is a notable exception. Scripture says “He did what was right in the LORD’s eyes, and walked in the ways of his ancestor David – not deviating from it even a bit to the right or left.” (2 Kings 22:2)

Our lesson today gives an account of the origin of and motivation behind Josiah’s religious reforms which removed shrines, centralized all officially recognized worship in Jerusalem and made worshiping any deity other than the LORD illegal.  The “instruction scroll” mentioned here comes is believed to be an early addition of Deuteronomy that had been forgotten or discarded over the years. It is quite possible that Josiah’s reforms helped create the Pentateuch (first five book of the Old Testament) as we know it today.

Josiah was also a very powerful monarch with great political accomplishments. He expanded the Kingdom of Judah beyond its previous borders and brought a great deal of prosperity. 

What Does this Say to Us?

We drift in many different directions over the course of our lives.  Like the people of Judah our relationship with God can become stale and/or empty. We too can go through the motions and miss out on the central, important parts of our faith but there are certain times when we are able to sit up and take notice, realizing what is truly important: living a life of faithfulness and integrity, not lip-service. I have met many people who have reached a point in their lives where they know that a change needs to happen: they need to stop drinking or using a certain substance, or they need to put more time and effort into their marriage, or they realize that they need to stop being lazy, clean up their act and figure life out.

Where do these moments of recognition originate? I believe that God’s Holy Spirit is active and at work in our world: nudging us, pushing us, pulling us…even hitting us on the head from time to time in order to get our attention.  I also believe that God did not make us to be unthinking robots who had no other choice but to follow God…you can’t have a relationship with a robot who is programed to act a certain way and God is all about relationships. Instead, the Holy Spirit moves in us, just like I believe the Spirit moved in Josiah so many years ago. We don’t deserve the call we receive, we usually don’t expect it, but when it comes may God give us the strength and ability to respond!