2Ch 34:31 And the king stood in his place, and made a covenant before the LORD, to walk after the LORD, and to keep his commandments, and his testimonies, and his statutes, with all his heart, and with all his soul, to perform the words of the covenant which are written in this book.
2Ch 34:32 And he caused all that were present in Jerusalem and Benjamin to stand to it. And the inhabitants of Jerusalem did according to the covenant of God, the God of their fathers.
2Ch 34:33 And Josiah took away all the abominations out of all the countries that pertained to the children of Israel, and made all that were present in Israel to serve, even to serve the LORD their God. And all his days they departed not from following the LORD, the God of their fathers.
At the Gold City Gem Mine in Franklin, North Carolina customers pay a small fee for a "bucket of dirt" out of the mine, the dirt contains rocks, usually worthless, the joy of treasure hunting and occaisionally a real gemstone out of the mine. In July of 1995, a third-grader name Griffin McCurry, paid for just such a bucket of dirt. As you might expect it didn’t look as if there was any hidden treasure, but there was a rock in it that the boy kept just because he liked the shape. People magazine reported that it was a saleswoman from the Jewelry store at the mine who noticed the rock and gave it a closer inspection. As it turned out the 1104 carat saphire had a value of approximately $45,000.
Everybody likes a good treasure story, and the story of the discovery of the Law in the Temple during Josiah’s rennovation is about as good as they come, because God’s word is a treasure that is priceless.
At 20 years old Josiah’s actions brought about had the greatest revival up to that time. For 6 years he turned he turned his world upside down. Jeremiah started preaching at 14 during josiah’s revival.
Josiahs father was evil his grandfather Manasseh seduced the nation of Israel to do evil. God became so angry that god allowed the assyrians to take them into captivity.
Isaish the prophet was sawed in half because ofhis preaching against the sins of Manasseh.
God was so angry with this people he said he would wipe them away as a man wipes off a dish. But here comes along Josiah desiring a move of god.
This nation came back from the greatest decline and sin to thegreatest revival
God is not through with your situation god id not though with this church you are not too far away that god cannot make you into a great man or woman of god.
It was many years since anybody was concerned with God so one of the things Josiah wanted to do was clean up the temple.
So as they were cleaning up they find a book. As they dust it off they find that it is the word of the lord.
This book has not been mentioned for 320 years and has not been read for even longer.
Josiah is not just working with a bad family situation and he is just not working with a backslidden nation
He is working with a people who are totally lost
When they found the book to them it was a beautiful find. But to Josiah who the scripture says had a tender heart and who humbled himself this was extremely important.
He reached up and grabbed his king’s garment and ripped it off of his back. This again was a showing of humilty and sorrow over his nation’s sin.
Josiah said we are getting ready to do all that is in that book.
Jeremiah knew well when he wrote in Lam 4:20 The breath of our nostrils, the anointed of the LORD, was taken in their pits, of whom we said, Under his shadow we shall live among the heathen.
He saw that Gods people would again be in bondage because of their backsliding, he said we are going to live because of Josiah having saved the wonderful word of god the very inspiration of our lives.
Because of josiahs (fire of the lord, founded and healed by the lord) revival jeremiah was called to prophesy and preach
A couple of others that came out of this revival
Daniel was born
Eziekel sharach mesheck and Abednego
Around 20 years old he began to tear down altars and burned then with fire and even through the ashes out
An 800 year old problem taken care of by Josiah who had the fire of god
He Went throughout the whole nation of juda and everywhere he found a grove or highplace or idol he broke it down
He broke down altars of baal and through the powder on the graves of the false prophets. He was in there faces showing them that their false prophets were weak. And his god was strong
Josiah was sold out for god
Josiah gets Judah cleaned up and then moved to clean up the northern kingdom and cleansed the land.
342 years before Solomon had built shrines for his wives and josiah tore them down.
Josiah was serious about revival. Judah was in worse shape than America and one man brought revival.
Are we to believe that we are to go down weak and backslidden while allowing the enemy to seduce our nation into whole hearted apostacy and immorality.
Josiah then called for 30,000 lambs, 33,000 bullocks ,7600 cattle, and 800 oxen as an offering unto god.
Renewed their Promise
The king stood by the pillar and renewed the covenant in the presence of the LORD—to follow the LORD and keep his commands, regulations and decrees with all his heart and all his soul, thus confirming the words of the covenant written in this book. Then all the people pledged themselves to the covenant.
First of all they took a stand. They said look we’ve been going in the wrong direction, but right here, right now, we’re going back on the right track. We’re renewing our covenant with the Lord. We will follow, we will serve.
They renewed their Promise. Next they...
2. Remembered God’s Providence
v. 21 The king gave this order to all the people: "Celebrate the Passover to the LORD your God, as it is written in this Book of the Covenant."
Note that this is the first time Passover was correctly celebrated since before the time of David. The Passover was all about remembering God’s help in ages past. It was all about recalling God’s saving deeds for His people. The significance of this act is the role it has in helping to renew the faith of the people--the God who worked miraculously on our behalf in the past is a God worthy to be trusted now.
We have a need for the same type of remembrance.
3. Reformed their Practices
v. 24 Furthermore, Josiah got rid of the mediums and spiritists, the household gods, the idols and all the other detestable things seen in Judah and Jerusalem. This he did to fulfill the requirements of the law written in the book that Hilkiah the priest had discovered in the temple of the LORD
4. Rekindled their Passion
v. 25 Neither before nor after Josiah was there a king like him who turned to the LORD as he did—with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his strength, in accordance with all the Law of Moses.
Josiah, the Scripture is careful to note, was passionate in his devotion to the Lord.
In 1746 Jonathan Edwards published a book, The Religious Affections, in which he argued that "true religion must consist very much in the affections," Edwards believed that one of the chief works of Satan was to convince men that emotions have no place in spiritual life, that emotional responses are to be guarded against. This mindset, he warned, will "bring all religion to a mere lifeless formality, and effectually shut out the power of godliness" Edwards went on to say, "There is no true religion where there is no religious affection….If the great things of religion are rightly understood, they will affect the heart ."
One of the undeniable features of revival is that God’s people get passionate about serving God, with all of their heart, soul and strength. When we understand what Christ has done for us, we can’t help but be filled with inexpressible joy.
Revival is by necessity a heart centered activity, love is the motive of repentance.
The New Yorker had a cartoon where a young boy in math class is standing at the chalk board with other students. The teacher has written the problem on the board for each student: 7 x 5 = __ . All the other students have the answer right: 35. But this boy has written 7 x 5 = 75. The teacher has obviously told him it’s wrong, and he says to her, “It may be wrong, but it’s how I feel.” That is a perfect metaphor of our culture. Responding to the cartoon’s message, Stephen Carter, a professor of law at Yale University says, “Faith is dead, reason is dying, but ‘how I feel’ is going strong.” We are not interested in the Word of God because we are not interested in the truth. We are not interested in God’s will, because we are wrapped up in our will and doing what we want to do. We want to go by our feelings which are much more to our liking. The Word of God must reemerge in our lives.
350 years before Josiah was birthed prophesy came stating 1Ki 13:2 And he cried against the altar in the word of the LORD, and said, O altar, altar, thus saith the LORD; Behold, a child shall be born unto the house of David, Josiah by name; and upon thee shall he offer the priests of the high places that burn incense upon thee, and men's bones shall be burnt upon thee.
