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Good morning If you have your bibles open up to 2 Kings 23:1-20.
The Series as a whole is title Josiah a man of Reform, and the title today is Reformed.
If you haven’t been with us or listened online the last few weeks i would encourage to do so.
Because during our study we have seen a great transformation in the life of King Josiah
Also for those who may be joining online we are thankful for you, but i would encourage you to come worship with us in person.
The church is made to gather together in person.
We understand we live in unique times, and sickness happens, but the Lord calls us to worship together.
We have a place for your whole family here at Agape.
I would encourage you to come in person if you can.
Two weeks ago we began to lay the foundations of the study seeing that Josiah was a man of God.
Seeing that he was King after God’s heart.
And being a king after God’s heart he walked the narrow path not turning to right nor the left.
But also he destroyed Idols along the way.
A man truly seeking God.
Last week we learned that King Josiah had a proper response to the word of God, and that response brought him peace despite the judgment that was to come.
Last week we briefly covered some of this text, but today we see a more full response from Josiah.
Last we focused on making a response, and this week in the the text Josiah shows you what that response is.
Repeat
read 2 kings 23:1-20
Main Idea: A Reformed person is commited and changed.
If we had to say a few things about Josiah it would be two things.
He was commited and he was changed.
Two things that I long for personally, and for this church.
A reformed person is commited and changed.
If you are going to write down this morning or make note of few things or look in your bulletin i would want you to take note that reform takes commitment.
Reform takes commitment
Coming off the heels of his response.
Josiah wants to make a public statement.
So he gathers some important people for this statement that was going to be made.
He took the elders of Judah, and Jerusalem to house of God, they were joined by many others as well.
It was a great gathering of many people.
Last week we talked about him making this covenant and that the people of God did the same, but I wanted to take time to go back and to focus on the commitment that Josiah and the people had.
This commitment was spurred by the reading of Gods word.
In verse 2 it talks about him reading all the words of the book of the Covenant.
Most people agree that this is referring to the first five books of the bible.
Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy.
And after reading these words the king wanted to make a commitment.
Not only to God, but to all the people of Israel.
In verse 3 he did so. he stood by the pillar and made a covenant a commitment.
The pillar was a place that would be high up a raised platform where others could see him make this commitment.
And his covenant and commitment came with the promise to follow God, but as we discussed during our study this following of God was not just some weak following.
It was a following of God from a committed person.
It was a promise to keep the commandments of God, to keep his testimonies and to keep his statues.
But in such a way that he did so with all his heart, all his soul, to perform the words of this covenant that were written in this book.
He wanted to be sold out of God, and his response was joined by all of the people who Josiah brought to the temple.
Amazing transformation, not only of Josiah, but the nation as a whole.
Because they decided to collectively as a whole follow God.
But in order to follow God they had to first make the commitment.
and this commitment brought about change.
Being reformed brings change.
So Josiahs response, brought peace, spared him from judgement, drove him to commitment, and now driving him to change.
The change he was bringing was to rid Israel of everything that did not honor the Lord and honestly that was a major task, but his commitment motivated him to make that change possible.
The first thing he did was clean up the house of God.
See the house of God was not being used for proper worship.
The text says here that the Priest, and the second order priests, and the keepers of the threshold were tasks to remove the idols in the place of worship.
Now it appears the idols that dominated the temple were those related to the cannanite religion which scholars believe were practiced during the time before Josiah came to power.
These God’s worshiped in the temple were fertility Gods.
You see two in the text Baal and Asherah, In the canninite religion Baal is the son of Asherah.
Asherah is the mother of seventy deities including Baal, and these false gods were replacing the one true God In his house.
And Josiah was going to destroy these idols.
Like we have already learned about Josiah he deals with idols in a way that most of us dont.
He doesn’t give them the opportunity to be revived he destroys them.
And in the case of the temple gods he burned them, not in the temple but outside of Jerusalem in the fields of Kidron.
The Kidron was located in the lower valley.
After they burned them he took them to Bethel.
And whats significant about Bethel is that is was associated with apostate worship, and he wanted to take the ashes there.
Not only did he take care of the physical idols, but removed those who made sacrificed to the false Gods.
These were not levities, but priests that were never worshiping the one true God.
These priests sacrificed to more than just the fertility Gods they worshiped the sun, moon, and even the stars, yet Josiah disposed of them all.
He continues to bring out these false gods by bringing out them out of the temple burning them and beating them into dust and spreading there ashes.
And he spread the ashes on the common peoples graves, and whats significant about these was it was the common people who were worshiping these false gods.
Proving that these gods had no power over the dead.
and he doesn't end there He breaks down the houses of these male cult prostitutes that were in the house of the Lord.
and also destroys the clothes that these women are making for these false idols.
He’s cleaning up the temple.
Cleaning up the house of God.
But he doesn’t end at the temple.
He is going into the land to bring change.
The text says starting in verse 8 that he brings out all the priests out of the cities of Judah.
And in doing so he defiles all these additional places so that these false gods could not be worshiped anymore.
Even after tearing down idol after idol he continues to change Israel.
After he goes to the high places, he breaks down the high places of the gates, but this time he comes alone while the priests ate unleavened break.
Then he difiled Topheth.
( Topheth was known for loud drumming) It was a place where they would offer child sacrifices to Moleth.
( they had these large fire pits where they sacrificed children a terrible place indeed ) He destroyed these places.
He continued by remodeling the entrance of the temple.
See the temple reserved for the lord had images of false gods on it.
One Scholar says there were Horses that were used in the worship of the sun god (Shamash); in Mesopotamia the emblem of the sun god rode a horse-drawn chariot on festal days.
The small decorated cult stand from Taʿanach (in the southern corner of the Jezreel Valley) features a flying sun as one of the depictions of deity.
Beneath the sun is an animal identified as a horse.
One of the registers is an empty space between two sphinxes, which may indicate that this stand depicts the invisible Yahweh.
And he removed those things that did not honor God.
He continued removing all the alters on the roof, and courts that the previous kings had made.
And he pulled them down and broke them into pieces and cast them into dusk and threw them into the fire.
Very intense imagery.
and if you thought the king was done he wasn’t he continued.
Even the great soloman brought idols into the place where God was supposed to be worshiped.
Soloman had brought in gods from all over the world and Josiah was going to rid Israel of them, and thats what he did.
Josiah teaches us that idols are to be destroyed so they dont come back.
It doesn't matter who brings them in both good people and bad if it doesn't honor God destroy it, and put in its proper place like Josiah did with its idols over and over again.
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