2 Kings chapter 22. We will begin at verse 10. Then Shaphan the scribe showed the king, saying, Hilkiah the priest has given me a book. And Shaphan read it before the king. 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 Shiphon, Achbor the son of Micaiah, Shaphan the scribe, and Esaiah the servant of the king, saying, Go, 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 Huldah 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. 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, then 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 in peace. and your eyes shall not see all the calamity which 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 the king went up to the house of the Lord with all the men of Judah, and with him all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the priests and the prophets and all the people, both small and great. And he read in their hearing all the words of the book of the covenant which had been found in the house of the Lord, Then the king stood by a pillar and made a covenant before the Lord to follow the Lord and to keep his commandments and his testimonies and his statutes with all his heart and all his soul to perform the words of this covenant that were written in this book. Then all the people took their stand for the covenant. And the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest, the priests of the second order, and the doorkeepers to bring out of the temple of the Lord all the articles that were made for Baal, for Asherah, and for all the host of heaven. And he burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of Kidron, and carried their ashes to Bethel. Then he removed the idolatrous priests, whom the kings of Judah had ordained to burn incense on the high places in the cities of Judah, and in the places all around Jerusalem, and those who burned incense to Baal, to the sun, to the moon, to the constellations, and to all the hosts of heaven. And he brought out the wooden image from the house of the Lord to the brook Kidron outside Jerusalem, burned it at the brook Kidron and ground it to ashes, and threw its ashes on the graves of the common people. Then he tore down the ritual booze of the perverted persons that were in the house of the Lord, where the women wove hangings for the wooden image. And he brought all the priests from the cities of Judah and defiled the high places where the priests had burned incense, from Geba to Beersheba. Also he broke down the high places of the gates which were at the entrance of the gate of Joshua the governor of the city, which were to the left of the city gate. Nevertheless, the priests of the high places did not come up to the altar of the Lord in Jerusalem, but they ate unleavened bread among their brethren. And he defiled Topheth, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, that no man might make his son or his daughter to pass through the fire to Molech. Then he removed the horses that the kings of Judah had dedicated to the sun at the entrance to the house of the Lord by the chamber of Nathan Melech, the officer who was in the court, And he burned the chariots of the sun with fire. The altars that were on the roof, the upper chamber of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and the altars which Manasseh had made in the two courts of the house of the Lord, the king broke down and pulverized there, and threw their dust into the brook Kidron. Then the king defiled the high places that were on the east of Jerusalem, which were on the south of the Mount of Corruption, which Solomon, king of Israel, had built for Ashtoreth the abomination of the Sidonians, for Chemosh the abomination of the Moabites, and for Milcom the abomination of the people of Ammon. And he broke in pieces the sacred pillars, and cut down the wooden images, and filled their places with the bones of men. Moreover, the altar that was at Bethel, and the high place which Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel sin, had made, both that altar and the high place he broke down, and he burned the high place, and crushed it to powder, and burned the wooden image. As Josiah turned, he saw the tombs that were there on the mountain, and he sent and took the bones out of the tombs, and burned them on the altar, and defiled it according to the word of the Lord, which the man of God proclaimed, who proclaimed these words. Then he said, what gravestone is this that I see? And the men of the city told him, it is the tomb of the man of God who came from Judah and proclaimed these things which you have done against the altar of Bethel. And he said, let him alone. Let no one move his bones. So they let his bones alone with the bones of the prophet who came from Samaria. And Josiah also took away all the shrines of the high places that were in the cities of Samaria, which the kings of Israel had made to provoke the Lord to anger. And he did to them according to all the deeds he had done in Bethel. He executed all the priests of the high places who were there on the altars, and burned men's bones on them. And he returned to Jerusalem. Then the king commanded all the people, saying, Keep the Passover to the Lord your God, as it is written in this book of the covenant. Surely such a Passover had never been held since the days of the judges who judged Israel. nor in all the days of the kings of Israel and the kings of Judah. But in the 18th year of King Josiah, this Passover was held before the Lord in Jerusalem. Moreover, Josiah put away those who consulted mediums and spiritists, the household gods and idols, all the abominations that were seen in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, that he might perform the words of the law which were written in the book that Hilkiah the priest had found in the house of the Lord. 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 this 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 Father, We pray that you would help us to respond to your word as Josiah King of Judah did. Help us tonight to listen and to respond. Free us from distraction. Focus our hearts on what it is that you are saying to us, your people. We beg in Jesus' blessed name and all God's people said, amen. Well, tonight's message is not, Josiah did this, therefore you should do this. It kind of is. But that's not why you should do this. Josiah responded rightly to God's Word. And as you can see in the sermon outline, the sermon is a list of the ways that Josiah responded to God's word, and then a set of challenges. That you respond in all the nine ways that Josiah responded to the word of God. But the message is not, how great is Josiah, be like Josiah. Remember, this book of Kings, like the whole Bible, was written primarily to tell us what God is like. Every time you read a chapter, you should say, what did that tell me about God? Obviously, Bronze Age historical details are of interest to some people. I guess this is now the Iron Age by this point in Kings. If you're into the Iron Age and you want to read this for history, that's fine, but that's not why it was written. It was primarily, in the first instance, written to tell us something about God. And what does this passage that we read tell us about God? It tells us that He loves it when we submit to His Word. This section on Josiah and how he responded to the Word of God is just about as long as the rest of the book that explains what became of Judah over the next 25-35 years. Why? Because God wants us to know that He really appreciates it when we listen to His Word and obey His Word. None of us, of course, likes to be ignored. Most of us find that pretty hard to take when we say something and the person we're talking to just completely blows it off. Acts like we didn't even say it. Well, God, of course, likes us to listen when he speaks. And Josiah here is clearly presented as a model for us to imitate. Josiah did what God loves. And so if we do what Josiah did, we too will be doing what God loves. These chapters set forth Josiah's response to the Word of God as a model for us to imitate. So how did Josiah respond to God's Word? As I said, there are really nine different facets of his response that are highlighted here. The first one in verses 10 and 11 of chapter 22 is that he listened to God's Word. Shaphan showed the king, he read it to the king, and as the king heard the words, he tore his clothes. It doesn't say, as the king heard the words, he looked out the window. As the king heard the words, He daydreamed about his palace addition. As the king heard the words, he thought about the situation on the Egyptian border. As the king heard the words, he thought about lunch. Name it. No. What did the king do? He listened to the words and he showed that he had understood them because he tore his clothes. He got the basic points. that he was under judgment, that his nation was under judgment, that they were headed for trouble, and so he did the universally accepted sign of mourning and repentance, ripping his clothes open. Josiah listened to God's word. That was his first response. To understand it, to pay attention to it, and then to change what he was doing based on what he was hearing. And then once he listened to God's word, he sought God's word. We talked about this a little bit last week. He sends this five-man delegation over to this official prophetess, Hulda, and he asks her for a reading. Can you tell me what God is really thinking? And what does Hulda say? Well, as a matter of fact, God is really thinking exactly what you just read in that book. Word for word. Now how do we seek God's word? There are no prophets that we can go inquire of for a word from God, at least not in our circles. So we seek God's word by picking up the book and seeing what it says. Seek it. And that's, of course, exactly what Josiah did. He sought it. And then, once he had sought it and figured out what it truly said, he proclaimed it. Verses 1 and 2 of chapter 23. He gathered the elders, he gathered the priests, he gathered the prophets, he gathered the people. All the groups of Judean society were there. The civil leaders, the religious establishment, the religious outsiders, the prophets, they're all there. Josiah brings them all together and he reads the Word of God out loud to them. So he proclaimed God's Word. He sought to do his best to make the Word available and understandable to the people who were under his charge. And then he covenanted to obey God's Word. He stood up in front of everybody and swore a solemn oath to God, entered into this covenant relationship, a bond in blood, sovereignly administered, and said, Lord, I see what you say in your word, and I'm going to do it. I promise, right here, by this pillar, in front of everyone. And then he invited the people to stand up if they too were covenanting with God. And all the people took their stand for the covenant. He stood up as a way of signifying assent. Yes, that's my covenant too, King Josiah. I will follow God. And then he led God's people to God's word. He personally did it, personally took that covenant, oath, and then invited everyone else to do it with him. He obeyed God's word then, verses 4 to 14, specifically with respect to removing all the monuments of idolatry that were littered around the landscape of Jerusalem and Judah and northern Israel. There was stuff right inside the main gate of Jerusalem. There was stuff in the temple courtyard. There were booths for male cult prostitutes on the temple grounds. Verse 7. There were horses that his ancestors had dedicated to the sun and chariots of the sun. There were relics of idolatry and paganism all over the place. Of course, in some countries of the world today, some cities of the United States, you can still see such sites where there's a pagan temple here and a little god by the roadside there and a big god standing in the square over here and people leaving offerings for him and prostrating themselves before them. Josiah said, that has no place in my territory. He went around and systematically destroyed it. Nothing was left in the name of art, culture, history, aesthetic value. King Josiah is in fact, a major inspiration to the iconoclasts. Because, clearly, this is presented positively. Not, oh, Ezeel got a little carried away and he destroyed some priceless art figurines. Why is this? Well, because, clearly, from the narrator's point of view, the word of God and obedience to God's word is more important than anything else. So Josiah obeyed God's word specifically in the area where his ambient culture was the weakest. And that's what gets the most space in this chapter. Where was his culture weakest? Well, in physical idolatry. And that's exactly then where Josiah concentrated his obedience. People around me are making images and gods and worshiping them. So I'm going to take the power of the state and systematically pull down and destroy those gods, because God's Word is more important to me than anything else. He fulfilled God's Word, verses 15 to 18. If you remember way back in 1 Kings 13, we heard about this at least a year ago, probably more, there was a prophet who came up from the south, from Judah, and declared that the altar that Jeroboam built in Bethel would be destroyed. There was this whole involved story. Anyway, that prophecy is fulfilled right here. Josiah destroys that altar. Now why is it that it constantly says he took the bones out of the tombs, verse 16, and burned them on the altar? Or he scattered the ashes on the graves of the common people. verse 6. What's the idea? Basically the idea is that if you destroy the altar, the high place, the image, it'll simply be made again. So what Josiah did was render the sites ritually unclean, ritually impure. It was held, I guess, by the Canaanite worshippers of that time that anything that had had human ashes scattered on it or that was scattered on a grave was no longer a fit site for worship. And so Josiah not only destroyed what was there, but he did his best to make the site such that no self-respecting Canaanite would want to worship their false gods there anymore. So again, just the point is that the destruction was as thorough as he could make it. He wasn't simply tearing down houses but leaving the foundation so that something could be erected again pretty quickly. He was deliberately trying to render these places totally unfit for worship. Take this and turn it into an EPA super fund site in our modern lingo. Make it the kind of place where the government will fine you millions of dollars if you try to build anything there. That's what Josiah was doing. He fulfilled God's word. He sealed God's word with God's sacrament. Verse 21. Indeed, he did more to keep the sacrament than anyone had before him. Such a Passover had not been held since the days of the judges, nor in the days of the kings of Israel and the kings of Judah. But in the 18th year of King Josiah, this Passover was held before the Lord. When Josiah saw God's word, he listened to God's word, and he added to it God's sacrament. He said, we have the word. the written word, the heard word, the spoken word. Let's add the visible word, which is the sacrament. The sign and the seal that every word of God is true. And then, finally, he valued God's word above all other words. Verse 24, mediums, spiritists, household gods, and idols. He put those things away. What are those things good for? Well, they give oracles. They give horoscopes. They tell you a little bit about the future and whether this particular day is auspicious or not. Whether this particular time is a good time for you if you were born under a certain zodiac sign. Josiah wasn't interested in those kinds of words from beyond. He valued God's word more than any word that the mediums and necromancers could pass on to him. That was how he responded to the Word of God. Again, clearly the point is that the narrator approves, that God approved. 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 mind, according to all the law of Moses. Nor after him did any arise like him. Well, that's a very brief summary of how Josiah responded to the Word of God. And the question for us is obvious. How do you respond to the Word of God? Do you listen to God's Word? The most obvious test for this is after reading a chapter and you give the gist of it to your spouse, to your siblings, to a co-worker. You know, if someone says to you, what have you been reading in the Bible? And you say, oh, I've been reading 2 Kings 23. person says, well, what is it about? And you say, uh, um, uh, well, uh, you know, I think I better look it up. Most of us have had conversations like that. Well, that's a sign that you're not listening. You might have let your eyes run over the words. You might have turned it on and had it playing in the background. But if you can't give the gist of it, you missed it. Josiah heard God's Word and he got the gist of it. The gist of it was God is going to judge this place. And he responded appropriately. You and I have to begin right here. Do we listen to the Word of God? Do you seek God's Word? That is, do you have a viable plan of getting the Word of God into your life? Do you have a daily Bible reading plan? Is the Bible part of your routine in some meaningful way? Maybe you pull up your phone and listen to a chapter while you shave every morning. Do your hair. Maybe you sit down before bed and read a chapter. Something like that. But if the Bible is not part of your routine, then you're not seeking it like Josiah did. You're not doing what pleases God. He loves it. when we seek His Word. The best way to do that is to build it into the very structure, the rhythm of our daily lives. Do you know it well enough to find answers without hold of the prophetess? What does God's Word actually say? Josiah could ask his court prophetess. We don't have one. We want to know what the Bible actually says. We have to know it well enough to look that up? And do you proclaim God's Word? Do you read the Bible to the people under your charge? If you have children, employees, obviously there's not necessarily a place for a staff meeting where you say, we're going to read the Bible at work today. Do you make it available? Could someone work for you for a year, work with you for a year, and not know at the end of that time that you make your decisions based on what the Bible says. Here's what I'm going to do, and I'm going to do it this way because of what's written right here. Is that how you talk? Do you proclaim God's Word? You know, if you can tell people more about Marvel Studios than you can about the Bible, something's wrong there. If people talk to you after church, and by the conversation no one would know that you've ever read the Bible, again, that's a problem. That's not how Josiah did it. Have you covenanted to obey God's Word? And the answer, of course, if you are baptized and partake in the Lord's Supper, which all of you have, is yes. Every time you partake of the sacrament, you're renewing your covenant obligation to obey God's Word. And that's wonderful. But again, this is not just a once-for-all thing. This is something that can and should be repeated. Lord, I said last week I'm going to obey You. I'll say it again this week. You don't want to be like the Dutchman who was so madly in love with his wife that he almost told her. You need to be a little more open than that. You need to be willing to say, Lord, I'm going to obey You. I'm going to keep Your Word. And say it again. Do you lead God's people to God's Word? And again, this is like proclaiming God's Word. Does your conversation here at church lead your fellow believers back to the Bible? Does my conversation do that? Do you ever ask your fellow saints what they've been reading lately in the Word? Do you talk about what the Lord has been teaching you? If you hear something really weird coming out of a fellow Christian's mouth, do you ever say, but wait, doesn't the Bible say? And then quote a passage? Again, if the answer is no, no, no, and no, you're not doing it, I'm not doing it, like Josiah did. Josiah led God's people to God's Word. Do you have enough of the Word with you at all times that you can have an intelligent conversation about it? And then of course, the big question, do you obey God's Word? Especially in the areas where the ambient culture is the weakest. This is a matter of degree for all of us. All of us disobey God's Word. Josiah disobeyed God's Word. Verse 29, went up and picked a fight with Pharaoh, which Proverbs says not to do. But part of obeying God's word is obeying it by repenting. Saying, Lord, I haven't sought your word like I should. Lord, I haven't obeyed your word in these other areas like I should. Please speak to me words of comfort and forgiveness from your word. Do you fulfill God's Word? Now again, we're not the subject of prophecy individually like Josiah was, but corporately we are. Are we fulfilling the prophecies in Scripture about the growth of the church? About the body edifying itself in love? Are we fulfilling those promises of sanctification that God has made to His people? He's promised to make us holy. Are we fulfilling that promise? Are we fulfilling the promise of the Spirit? Do our lives show the fruit of the Spirit working in us? Josiah's life did. Do you partake God's sacraments? Do you seal the word with the sacrament? And I know you do. And that's wonderful. The Word needs the sacrament in a certain sense. God has given us both. And neither one is to be neglected. It's not enough to say, as long as I partake the Lord's Supper weekly, I never need to crack the Bible open. But nor can you say, as long as I read the Bible daily, who needs the Lord's Supper? God has given His people both. Finally, Convicting one for all of us. Do you value God's Word above all other words? Which word do you know more of and live more by? The words of your favorite pundit, TV personality, film reviewer, book reviewer, author, comedian, politician, or God's Word. Which do you value more? If you can quote more of Jerry Seinfeld, Homer Simpson, or Rush Limbaugh, or name your pundit, name your fictional character, name your reviewer, name your voice out there that you enjoy listening to, you know more about that than you do about the Word of God. And if you quote and cite it more frequently and talk about it more often, then objectively speaking, you don't value, I don't value God's word above all other words. We just don't. The words that are actually in your mouth, the thoughts that are actually in your mind, the subjects that actually consume most of your mental energy, those are the ones that you value above all other words. So again, how do we respond to a sermon like this? God's Word coming to us and saying, listen to God's Word. Make God's Word part of the fabric of your life. The first answer is repentance. What was the first thing Josiah did when he heard the Word? He didn't reach around and pat himself on the back and say, ooh, attaboy Josiah. Have I obeyed this word or what? No, his first response was to tear his clothes and to say, I'm nowhere near what this word is asking for. This isn't my picture here. The picture that's here is of a picture of a king and a city and a people that are headed straight down the tubes to judgment. So his first response to hearing God's word was repentance. And if this sermon has hit you and you say, these nine things are not me, not where I'd like to be, not where Josiah was, repent. Say, Lord, I want Your Word to be a bigger part of my life. I want to value Your Word above all other words. I want to listen to it. I want to seek it. I want to obey it. I want to lead Your people to it. Please forgive me for not doing so. Because the word says that God is merciful. Josiah reigned for 18 years totally ignorant of the word of God. It was a revelation when it burst into his life at the age of 26. When he was 26. Maybe it's a revelation to you, maybe you've known it your whole life. Either way, the point is clear. God loves it when we listen to His Word. And the reason we can listen to His Word is because Christ died to give us His Spirit and open our hearts to understand this book. Do you want to know God, whom to know is life eternal? Then seek Him. in His Word. Make your attitude like Josiah's, and even if the church falls apart around you, you will flourish. Amen. Let's pray. Our Father, we stand convicted. Your Word is not as important in our lives as it should be. We don't respond to Your Word as with all our heart, all our soul, all our might, to every word that's in the law as Josiah did. Truly there has not been another like Him after Him. Father, we repent. We confess our sin before You. We pray that You would grant us the grace to respond to Your Word rightly. We thank You for Christ, Your true Son, who obeyed Your law, Your word in every detail, who responded to it perfectly in every way, who is the true King of Israel, who truly has the law of His God in His heart such that none of His steps ever slipped. Save us in Him. Deliver us in Him. Grant us, in Christ, to be like Christ, a true listener, a true hearer, a true doer, of Your Word. We need Your power, and so we ask for it, knowing that You love to give us the power to obey Your Word. We pray these things in the name of the Lord Jesus, the true faithful Israelite, and all God's people said,