Good Tuesday to you my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
Are you a heritage chain breaker?
I live now in a town where our public schools have a very large percentage of kids growing up in absentee father homes. In many cases these kids have no idea who their biological father is! We even have many kids being raised by grandparents or foster homes because their biological home is such a mess the kids would not be safe with their parents! Perhaps it’s the same in your city.
Perhaps that’s your story and now as an adult you are a ‘chain breaker’ making sure your children do not grow up in the mess you experienced.
Yesterday we met the boy king Josiah and even though he was a prince, the son of the king of Judah, his home was a mess. It was so bad, young Josiah’s family became a single mother family when he was 8 because his father King Amon died at the hands of his officials who assassinated him! Suddenly an 8-year-old boy was elevated to the throne and declared King in Judah! We know virtually nothing of the first few years of his kingship, but when Josiah was 16 years old, he did something very significant.
The Biblical record says: “In the eighth year of his reign, while he was still young, Josiah began to seek the God of his ancestor David.” (2 Chron. 34:3a) We don’t know who the major spiritual and moral influencers were in young Josiah’s life, but we do know his search for God motivated him to take action, bold action, in cleaning up the moral mess caused by his father! The record says: “In his 12th year of reign, Josiah began to purge Judah and Jerusalem of high places, Asherah poles and idols.” (2 Chron. 34:3b)
Now let’s pause just a moment or two. We ended our time together yesterday with some questions, remember? I wonder, are you a ‘chain breaker’? Have you sought to know God and understand God’s role for you in cleaning up the mess in the part of the world where God has placed you?
Was the mess your family of origin or your neighborhood or your school or workplace or even a church that you were a part of that was a mess? What has God done IN you and THROUGH you to clean up the moral mess and dysfunction? Have you actually been led by God to be a ‘chain breaker’ several times in several different places during your lifetime?
Let’s walk with young Josiah for the next few days and learn from what God did in and through this remarkable young man.
Josiah’s story is found both in 2 Kings 22 and 2 Chronicles 34. Remember please Josiah’s male heritage is quite remarkable: Josiah’s father was wicked King Amon, so bad his officials killed him after only two years as king in Jerusalem. (2 Chron. 33:24) Josiah’s grandfather was King Manasseh, the longest reigning king in Israel’s history, 55 years! Most of his reign was terribly wicked. (2 Kings 21:1-6) Josiah’s great grandfather was the remarkable God honoring King Hezekiah who reigned in Jerusalem 29 years. (2 Chronicles 29:1,2) During Hezekiah’s reign Jerusalem experienced the powerful and miraculous protection and provision of God in amazing ways! But the first years of Hezekiah’s reign were spent aggressively cleaning up the moral mess his father King Ahaz had made of Jerusalem. Wicked Ahaz had even closed the great Temple and outlawed worship of the God of Israel!
I imagine Josiah was well informed by his mother and court recorders of his royal heritage. Perhaps it was young Josiah’s fear that without God’s help he would naturally follow in the footsteps of his wicked, immoral, decadent, violent ancestors. Perhaps it was because the people begged young Josiah to seek God and clean up the mess of their city Jerusalem and their small kingdom Judah.
However, it happened… Josiah was a chain breaker from early in his life and the history of Israel and Jerusalem owe Josiah a great debt of gratitude for his courage and determination to shape a different future from what the past had been.
The record of 2 Chronicles 34 gives us some detail of the challenge facing young Josiah in breaking the horrible influence of his wicked father and grandfather as previous leaders in Jerusalem. “Under Josiah’s direction the altars of the Baals were torn down; he cut to pieces the incense altars that were above them and smashed the Asherah poles and the idols. These he broke to pieces and scattered over the graves of those who had sacrificed to them. He burned the bones of the wicked priests on their altars, and so Josiah purged Judah and Jerusalem…” (2 Chron. 34:4,5)
Do you see that it wasn’t enough for the new King Josiah to make kingly proclamations or spend money refurbishing the Temple or maybe even passing some new laws? Josiah understood the history of Jerusalem and the havoc and wickedness his royal ancestors had brought into Jerusalem. Josiah stood up and courageously assumed personal responsibility for the mess and for cleaning out the mess caused by his ancestors!
What Josiah did is amazingly similar to what his great grandfather King Hezekiah had done when young Hezekiah ascended to the throne at the death of his wicked father King Ahaz, and Hezekiah began immediately purging Jerusalem from the wickedness his father had nurtured there. (2 Chron. 29:1-11)
Pause for a moment friends and consider your family heritage, or the heritage of the business which employs you or the school in which you teach, or where your children attend school. Think about the heritage of the neighborhood in which you live and the church you are a part of. What do you know of the wickedness or immorality of the past of the places where you are now involved?
Is God asking you to take action as both Hezekiah and Josiah did? If so, what action? Have you been seeking to know God’s evaluation of your family, your workplace, your school, your neighborhood, your church?
It appears this purging work of Josiah took quite some time, for it was in the 18th year of his reign, when he was 26 years old, that finally Josiah’s focus turned to restoring the great Temple in Jerusalem to glory and grandeur once again. Money was given to craftsmen, and a significant restoration project was undertaken to bring much needed repairs to the great Temple of God which had suffered from neglect for nearly 60 years! In the process of this restoration work a great discovery was made which changed everything for the city of Jerusalem, Josiah’s kingship and the history of the nation of Israel.
Tomorrow we’ll look closely at what that discovery was. For today, let’s close by wrestling with the lesson of the dual work that Josiah was leading. First was purging the city of deeply rooted and widespread evil. Second was restoring the worship of Almighty God by restoring the Temple. Can we apply this to our lives, our families, our workplaces, our schools and our churches today my friends?
Is there some major clean-up work needed to remove the wickedness and bring back a sense of the presence of God; and is there some restoration work needed to bring the priority of God and the worship of God back into your world?
Here’s a song to help us consider Josiah’s actions and the needs of our world, and I’ll meet you right back here tomorrow. . .
Today’s Scripture: 2 Chron. 34:3-5.
Choose below to read or listen.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
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Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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