May 31, 2024

Josiah might be my favorite king, aside from David and our ultimate King, Jesus. He called all the noble people and the common people of Judah and Jerusalem to come to and hear the Covenant found in the temple; they stood up to hear it read. He then restored the Passover, which hadn’t been done since the judges. Josiah made a covenant to walk after the Lord and keep his commands. 

He honored God by demolishing every high place, altar, idol, and grove. He thoroughly cleansed the temple of everything that honored other gods, slew all the priests that were involved, and burned them on their high places and altars along with other human bones to make their worship of other gods putrid to the people who worshipped there. He devoured anything and everything in Judah and Jerusalem that might have even hinted at disgust to God. Unfortunately, he died in a battle that he shouldn’t have been involved in. However, when he died, he was at peace with God, as was prophesied by Huldah, the prophetess in 2 Kings 22. His son became king in his place but was carried off to Egypt, where the Egyptian king replaced him with his brother. According to the scriptures, both of them were evil. 

Remember, our temple is our body, and anything in it that dishonors God must be removed. When we accepted Jesus, he came in and wiped it clean, so we are clean, but if we keep living our lives like we have no God and keep dishonoring Him, are we really saved? You must do an about-face and turn away from the evil you were involved in before you trusted Jesus as your Savior. Be like Josiah and remove anything that might stand in the way of your salvation. 

And like unto him was there no king before him, that turned to the LORD with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his might, according to all the law of Moses; neither after him arose there any like him. 2 Kings 23:25