Second Kings chapter 22. Josiah was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned 31 years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Judiah, the daughter of Adiah of Bozcah. And he did what was right in the sight of the Lord, and walked in all the ways of his father David, He did not turn aside to the right hand or to the left. Now it came to pass in the 18th year of King Josiah that the king sent Shaphan the scribe, the son of Azaliah, the son of Meshulam, to the house of the Lord, saying, Go up to Hilkiah the high priest, that he may count the money which has been brought into the house of the Lord, which the doorkeepers have gathered from the people. and let them deliver it to the hand of those doing the work who are the overseers in the house of the Lord. Let them give it to those who are in the house of the Lord doing the work to repair the damages of the house, to carpenters and builders and masons, and to buy timber and hewn stone to repair the house. However, there need be no accounting with them of the money delivered into their hand, because they deal faithfully. Then Hilkiah the high priest said to Shaphan the scribe, I have found the book of the law in the house of the Lord.' And Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan, and he read it. So Shaphan the scribe went to the king, bringing the king word, saying, Your servants have gathered the money that was found in the house, and have delivered it into the hand of those who do the work, who oversee the house of the Lord. Then Shaphan the scribe showed the king, saying, Hilkiah the priest has given me a book. And Shaphan read it before the Lord. Now it happened, when the king heard the words of the book of the law, that he tore his clothes. Then the king commanded Hilkiah the priest, Ahicham the son of Shefan, Ackbar the son of Micaiah, Shaphan the scribe, and Esaiah a servant of the king, saying, Go and inquire of the Lord for me for the people and for all Judah concerning the words of this book that has been found. For great is the wrath of the Lord that is aroused against us, because our fathers have not obeyed the words of this book, to do according to all that is written concerning us. So Hilkiah the priest, Ahicham, Achbor, Shaphan, and Esaiah went to Hola the prophetess, the wife of Shalom, the son of Tikva, the son of Harhas, keeper of the wardrobe. She dwelt in Jerusalem in the second quarter. And they spoke with her, and then she said to them, Thus says the Lord, God of Israel, Tell the man who sent you to me, Thus says the Lord, Behold, I will bring calamity on this place and on its inhabitants, all the words of the book which the king of Judah has read, because they have forsaken me and burned incense to other gods, that they might provoke me to anger with all the works of their hands. Therefore my wrath shall be aroused against this place and shall not be quenched. But to the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of the Lord, in this manner you shall speak to him. Thus says the Lord God of Israel, concerning the words which you have heard, because your heart was tender, and you humbled yourself before the Lord when you heard what I spoke against this place and against its inhabitants, that they would become a desolation and a curse, and you tore your clothes and wept before me, I also have heard you, says the Lord. Surely, therefore, I will gather you to your fathers, and you shall be gathered to your grave in peace. And your eyes shall not see all the calamity that I will bring on this place.' So they brought word to the king. Then the king sent them to gather all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem to him. And on it goes in chapter 23 describing how Josiah responded to the word of the Lord. He made a covenant, and then he destroyed all the monuments of idolatry found throughout Judah and Israel. We'll pick it up again at the summary of his reign in verse 25. Now 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, according to all the law of Moses. nor after him did any arise like him. Nevertheless, the Lord did not turn from the fierceness of his great wrath, with which his anger was aroused against Judah, because of all the provocations with which Manasseh had provoked him. And the Lord said, I will also remove Judah from my sight, as I have removed Israel, and will cast off the city Jerusalem which I have chosen, and the house of which I said, My name shall be there. Now the rest of the Acts of Josiah and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? In his days, Pharaoh Necho, king of Egypt, went to the aid of the king of Assyria to the river Euphrates. And King Josiah went against him, and Pharaoh Necho killed him at Megiddo when he confronted him. Then his servants moved his body in a chariot from Megiddo, brought him to Jerusalem, and buried him in his own tomb. And the people of the land took Jehoahaz, the son of Josiah, anointed him, and made him king in his father's place. Thus far, the reading of God's word. Let's pray. Almighty God, we beg your help and strength to understand this text. Show us your truth. Show us your might. Show us your power and greatness. Teach us, Holy Father, that we might apply our hearts to wisdom as we see the reforming work of King Josiah, as we see his tragic end. Show us Christ, we ask, in Christ's name. And all God's people said, Amen. Why do you serve God? That's the question that the story of the life and death of King Josiah forces us to ask. Josiah served God personally, even though he knew that corporately speaking, it wouldn't do any good. Judah was destined for calamity. Now, if you could know with relative certainty, well, the temple was destroyed about 25 years after the death of Josiah. If you could know with relative certainty that the American church would perish sometime in the 2030s, would you stop serving God? Now that's the question here. Josiah knew that it wouldn't change anything if he expended his entire reign seeking reformation. God's judgment would still fall and completely crush Judah. And yet Josiah spent his life reforming God's worship and reforming Judah anyway. And in this he was like the Lord Jesus Christ who knew that God's wrath would fall on him no matter what he did. All of us have been in the position where we've done something wrong, realized it, and then said, well, I already have to be punished. I might as well sin some more. But Josiah didn't say that. Christ didn't say that. Yes, I will be punished. Yes, I will bear the Father's wrath no matter how I behave. And yet, Josiah, and much more so the Lord Jesus, walked in all the ways of David and did not turn aside to the right hand or to the left. In other words, the point of this chapter and the next is to say God will judge his people and that should motivate you to even greater obedience and zeal in God's service. Because God will judge his people, that is a motive for us to serve God even more faithfully. Now we can ask, how does that work? What, I know judgment is coming, so I should be more active, more zealous, more faithful? And the answer is absolutely. Number one, God loves to spare individuals who turn back to him, even when judgment falls corporately. Number two, God's corporate judgment has already fallen on an individual at Calvary. And number three, we serve God because He deserves it. God loves it when we serve Him just because. You'll see those truths in the life of Josiah. God will judge His people, and that is in itself a motive for us to serve Him faithfully nonetheless. The Reformation Josiah brought about was not wasted at all. Well, after our sin-soaked chapter last week where we saw Manasseh and the grinding reality of sin under him and Amon, verse 1 is a breath of fresh air. Or verse 2, Josiah did what was right in the sight of the Lord and walked in all the ways of his father David. At last, after 57 years of misery in Judah, under wicked King Manasseh who filled Jerusalem with innocent blood from end to end, and under wicked King Amon who attempted to imitate his father and do as much evil in two years as his dad had in 55, now at last we have a faithful, righteous king. Wouldn't you love to have this on your tombstone? He walked in all the ways of the Lord and did not turn aside to the right or to the left." How would you like to be able to say that about your church? Or about your child? This is an amazing testimony that's witnessed of Josiah. The story cuts directly to his 18th year, verse 3. For those who know Hebrew, this story has been described as the wind in the willows of the Old Testament. The name Shaphan means rock badger. Two of the other names that appear frequently in this story mean rat and mole. So if you're a fan of badger, rat, and mole and their adventures, you will love this story. The king is repairing the temple. That's what kings do. We saw, of course, that Joe Ash did that back in Chapter 12, and it appears that Joe Ash's system for capital improvements is still functioning. Josiah's using this money that comes in for not regular maintenance, but for true remodeling. and he sends Hilkiah the high priest, Shaphan the scribe, and some of his officials to make sure that that works, that everything is happening at the temple like it should be. Building the temple is not just an activity of kings. Building the temple is ultimately an activity of Messiah. Zechariah 6, behold my servant the branch, he shall build, yes, he shall build the temple of the Lord. So Christ says it explicitly, I will build my church. Josiah as a temple builder is like Christ the temple builder. And of course that asks us the question, what are you doing for the temple? If you bear the name Christian, little Christ, how are you seeking to build the temple? And I know that all of you are. In fact, that's something that you should very much be commended on. Your imitation of Josiah, who is an imitator of Christ, in seeking to build the place for God to dwell with His people. How do we build God's temple today? Well, we do the mundane, right? Pick up the trash in our row. We do the difficult. maintain friendships with people who are going through brutal divorces or suffering domestic violence and everything in between. To build the church is simply to be committed to doing in the church what you can for the glory of God and for the edification of your fellow members. We've talked about this a lot in the morning services recently. Josiah built the temple. And we continue to build God's temple, not necessarily with capital expenditures and building beautiful architecture, sometimes that's true, but much more often, we build a place for God to live by his spirit, by loving one another, by training our children, by confessing our sin, and seeking forgiveness, by showing hospitality. Of course, by the obvious ways of volunteering in the local body. All of these are ways that we, like Josiah, build the temple. What happened when Josiah built the temple? He was serving God faithfully, and an opportunity for more faithfulness arose because the word of God was found tucked away in some back corner in the house of the Lord. Many people think it was inside the law or inside the wall or something like that because it wasn't found until they were remodeling the temple. Now Deuteronomy is called the book of the law repeatedly in Deuteronomy and then of course in the beginning of Joshua this book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth So it seems that Shaphan found, or Helkiah found, Deuteronomy. And he brought it and gave the book to Shaphan, who read it and who said, the king needs to read this. Part of the contrast in the story is undoubtedly with the behavior of the king to whom Jeremiah brought God's Word. Later on, Jeremiah read some of God's Word, and that king would do what? Cut a strip off the scroll and throw it in the fire as soon as it had been read to him. As if to say, I reject this. I don't want what this says. I completely and totally disagree with this. and find it to be utterly worthless for my purposes and for my kingdom." Is that how Josiah responded to the word of God? Verse 11, when the king heard the words of the book of the law, he tore his clothes. The king showed the sign of mourning. that they showed in that culture. Remember, Middle Eastern culture, to this day, is far more physically and outwardly expressive than we are, as white people at 45 degrees north latitude. We don't tear our clothes and throw dust on our heads. They do, to say, I'm in trouble. This is bad. We are headed for disaster. And then the king commands these six officials, Hilkiah, Ahicham, Achbor, Shaphan, and Esaiah, five officials. Why? To make it official. He didn't just send a messenger boy across town to Huldah and say, hey, go ask the prophetess about this. He sends five cabinet members to go and get the official word on what the book of the law means for them today. The delegation of five cabinet members is a sign that the leadership in government takes the issue seriously, that this is a top priority politically for the administration. And that's the message here. Josiah isn't saying, well, you know, kind of an interesting message in an ancient book that was found while doing temple repairs, but I've got a Syria policy to think about. No, not at all. The word of God became his top priority. The five cabinet officials going to the prophetess were simply an obvious reflection of that to the entire city. Everyone in Jerusalem would know as they see these five cabinet members going to the second quarter, the king is interested in hearing what the prophetess has to say. What is Josiah pretty sure that the message is? Wrath. Go inquire of the Lord for me, for the people and for all Judah, This is not just a personal royal thing, it's not just his curiosity, it's for the people, it's for everyone. This concerns the entire nation. Concerning the words of this book that has been found, for great is the wrath of the Lord that is aroused against us, because our fathers have not obeyed the words of this book to do according to all that is written concerning us. He heard the part about love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. He heard the part about not building idols and not worshiping false gods. And he heard the part about the curses that will come on those who do such things. And he said, based on my understanding of the word of God, we are headed for wrath. And what did Hulda say? Yes, king, that's correct. You are headed for wrath. Thus says the Lord, verse 16, behold, I will bring calamity on this place and on its inhabitants, all the words of the book which the king of Judah has read. Disaster is coming. Yep, Josiah, you got it. You understood the book correctly. Judgment will fall very soon. Why? Because they have forsaken me and burned incense to other gods that they might provoke me to anger with all the works of their hands. Therefore, my wrath shall be aroused against this place and shall not be quenched. In other words, Judah, you are past the point of no return. You cannot turn around now. There is literally nothing you can do to stop this. Judah has received the death sentence and there is no appeal. Too much idolatry, as we said last time, has overloaded the Levitical system that purged sin so that they could live in the land. It's overloaded that Levitical system and it's shutting down. This system will self-destruct in 25 years. That's God's message to them. You will be judged. But, to the King of Judah, because your heart was tender and you humbled yourself before the Lord when you heard what I spoke against this place and against its inhabitants, I have heard you. Therefore I will gather you to your fathers and you shall be gathered to your grave in peace and your eyes shall not see all the calamity which I will bring on this place. So just as with Hezekiah we see judgment announced and then we see judgment postponed. We see the absolute justice and also the goodness and mercy of God. Both writ large in this text. Behold now the goodness and severity of God, as Paul says. God's severity. I will judge you for your idolatry. Your tenure in the land is over. But also God's mercy. I will postpone it so that you, Josiah, won't see the disaster in your own time because your heart was tender And you turned in repentance. So when you hear a message of corporate judgment, how should you respond? Certainly at the very least with individual repentance. Yes, maybe the American church will go down in flames. But I at least can repent for my part in that. turn around and say, I've sinned, my fathers have sinned, and do what you can as Josiah did according to his place and calling for the work of reformation. Josiah was moved to action by God's justice and mercy. He heard of the doom that was pronounced, and the rest of chapter 23 explains how he responded. We'll look at that in detail next week. How he listened to the word. How he celebrated the sacrament. Chapter 23, verse 21. How he destroyed all the monuments of idolatry that he could find. How he spared the bones of the old prophet from Bethel. We read about way back in 1 Kings 13. That's all here. Josiah was moved by what he saw of the character of God in this announcement of judgment, coupled with mercy. And so we have 24 verses in chapter 23, going on and on and on and on about all the good things Josiah did. And then the narrator drops verse 26 on us. Right, verse 25, summary statement, now 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, according to all the law of Moses, nor after him did any arise like him. Josiah is the best we've ever had. By far, no one similar to him. Nevertheless, the Lord did not turn from the fierceness of His great wrath. And the Lord said, I will also remove Judah from my sight, as I have removed Israel, and I will cast off this city, Jerusalem, which I have chosen, and the house of which I said, My name shall be there. After all this faithfulness, Nothing had changed. A wasted Reformation, right? Josiah knocked himself out for the last 13 years of his reign to follow God as wholeheartedly as he possibly could. God's verdict at the end of that time was, nope, you're still going into exile. But the Reformation wasn't wasted. Because it's still right to serve God just because He's worthy, just because He deserves it. And He loves it when we serve Him for that reason. That's the message here. Don't look at Josiah's career and say, well that was dumb. Why bother serving God? Now look at Josiah's career and say, God loves it when we serve Him, even if in one sense it doesn't do any good. It didn't save Judah, but it's still right to serve God, because we don't serve God based on what we're going to get out of it. We serve God based on who He is. His wrath and His mercy. So will you keep serving God even if judgment is certain? That's what this chapter asks. Josiah did and he's clearly commended for it. Now the rest of the Acts of Josiah and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? And then we have this little statement about Josiah's inn. Just like Hezekiah, just as doom was pronounced and then doom was delayed, so once again we have doom pronounced and doom delayed in the case of Josiah. We also see Josiah's inn mirroring Judah's inn. How does Josiah die? In an absolutely stupid fight that he couldn't win, picked with Pharaoh, because Pharaoh wanted to fight Assyria. If Pharaoh wants to fight Assyria, let Pharaoh fight Assyria. But what does Josiah do? He marches out in the pride of his heart, Chronicles says, marches out to the aid of the king of Assyria, And Pharaoh Necho killed him at Megiddo when he confronted him. So, sorry, excuse me, it's not Necho fighting against Assyria, he's fighting for Assyria. Josiah wanted to prevent that. And there he died, and of course that's how Judah perishes, as we'll see in a couple of weeks. God says, don't fight Babylon. And Judah says, I'm going to fight Babylon. God says, don't do it. And Judah says, I think I will. And so Judah goes up in flames in this absolutely senseless confrontation with Babylonian forces. The end of the story of Josiah, in other words, catapults us forward into the bitter end. So Josiah comes to his end and things are just sort of hanging. Verse 27, God said, I will remove Judah from my sight and I will cast off the city which I have chosen and the house of which I said my name shall be there. But God had promised to choose Jerusalem forever, to dwell in the temple forever, to preserve Judah forever. So when Josiah heard these words, nevermind, my name won't be there forever. I won't dwell there forever. This temple won't be here forever. Judah won't always be my choice. What was he supposed to make of that? Obviously, 600 years later, the New Testament would be written and explain that God's promise has been relocated. That the one to whom God made eternal promises was ultimately Christ. And that the promised land is ultimately heaven. But Josiah didn't have the New Testament. He just had the word of judgment. Yet he didn't say, well it's clear that God can't be trusted. God doesn't keep his promises. God says he's going to cast us off before he said he would never cast us off, therefore I give up. I can't serve a deity like this. It's not what Josiah said, and the same goes for us. When we see God doing things we thought God would never do, when it looks, as far as we can tell, like God has definitely broken a promise, how will you respond? Will you keep being faithful? I commended you for seeking to build the temple. What do you do when you've been pouring into building the temple, when you've been seeking to support the church, and you find out that the church you were supporting is no good, that it has bad leadership, that it has a terrible pastor, that it was doing behind your back things you didn't want it to do? You know, as far as I know, that's not true of Harvest. But it could be someday. It could be in some other church. Will you serve God faithfully? Not only when you know judgment is coming, but when, as far as you can tell, God is unreliable. Josiah did. God still rewards those who trust him. Josiah believed in the Lord and it was counted to him for righteousness. And that's his call on us too. Trust me. Even when judgment's coming. Even when life is hard. Even when it looks like God has broken a promise. Josiah turned to the Lord with all his heart, with all his soul, and with all his might, according to all the law of Moses. Can you do the same? Will you serve him, not for anything you can get out of it, but simply because he's worth serving? Let's pray. Our Father, increase our faith. Help us to serve you even when we know judgment's coming, even when it looks like you've broken your promises. Father, teach us to believe, to know in our heart of hearts that you don't break your promises, that you always keep them. Father, we ask that our epitaph might be Josiah's. That we would turn to you with all our heart, with all our soul, and with all our might. That we would do what was right in your sight and walk in all the ways of David, never turning aside to the right hand or to the left. Grant us the grace to trust you to live our lives based on your judgment and your mercy knowing that you are always faithful help us increase our faith we pray in Jesus name amen