2 Kings 23:1-20

Introduction

Today’s talk is about a king and idolatry. This seems totally removed from our modern Australian life where if you talk about idolatry, people would look at you as if you came from Mars. We are secular, we are not religious as the ABC reminded us this week from the census.

Now that Labour party are back in power, talk of Australia becoming a Republic is back in the air. Kings are old fashioned. But are we really that irreligious and that anti-monarchy?

Outside Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane is a statue of the King, Wally Lewis. John Farnham was known as the king of Pop; John Laws, the king of radio; Graham Kennedy, the king of Television. We want to have someone to look up to, trust. Yet these kings have no power. Even the Queen in our constitutional Monarchy has no real power.

Gary Ablett Snr used to be known in Melbourne Aussie Rules circuits as God because of the many seemingly miraculous things he could do on the Footie field. There was Australian Idol on TV. People talk of people they admire as their idol.

So even here in Australia, we want someone to rule over us and we want to worship people or things.

1. Josiah reads and renews the covenant. Vv 1-3

Evaluation of David

He did what was right in the eyes of the LORD and walked in all the ways of his father David. 2 Kings 22:2

The high priest Hilkiah told the court secretary Shaphan, “I have found the book of the law in the LORD’s temple,” 2 Ki 22:8.

Hilkiah finds the Book of the Law.

Hilkiah specifies to Shaphan that he has found the Book of the Law.

This Book of the Law is generally believed to the be the Book of Deuteronomy.

2 Kings 22:10–11 CSB

Then the court secretary Shaphan told the king, “The priest Hilkiah has given me a book,” and Shaphan read it in the presence of the king. When the king heard the words of the book of the law, he tore his clothes.

Why did Josiah react this way?

Deuteronomy 17:18–20 (CSB)

When he is seated on his royal throne, he is to write a copy of this instruction for himself on a scroll in the presence of the Levitical priests.

It is to remain with him, and he is to read from it all the days of his life, so that he may learn to fear the Lord his God, to observe all the words of this instruction, and to do these statutes.

Then his heart will not be exalted above his countrymen, he will not turn from this command to the right or the left, and he and his sons will continue reigning many years in Israel.

In stating that the king of Israel was to write for himself in a book a copy of the law. It was to induce in the king the fear of the Lord his God, which would lead him to keep the law, humble himself before his brothers, and continue long in his kingdom.

So Josiah knew that the kingdom of Judah was in great danger of rightful judgment both because of the actions of the king and his subjects. So he sent messengers

2 Kings 22:16–17 CSB

16 ‘This is what the Lord says: I am about to bring disaster on this place and on its inhabitants, fulfilling all the words of the book that the king of Judah has read, 17 because they have abandoned me and burned incense to other gods in order to anger me with all the work of their hands. My wrath will be kindled against this place, and it will not be quenched.’

This was not the news that Josiah nor the people wanted to hear but Huldah had a further prophecy for Josiah himself.

2 Kings 22:18–20 (CSB)

Say this to the king of Judah who sent you to inquire of the Lord:

‘This is what the Lord God of Israel says: As for the words that you 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, and because you have torn your clothes and wept before me, I myself have heard’—this is the Lord’s declaration.

‘Therefore, I will indeed gather you to your ancestors, and you will be gathered to your grave in peace. Your eyes will not see all the disaster that I am bringing on this place.’ ” Then they reported to the king.

How would Josiah respond to these two messages from Huldah the prophetess? Would he respond as Hezekiah did previously, congratulating himself that all would be well in his life and ignore what was to befall the people?

No, this pious and patriotic king, not content with the promise of his own security, felt, after Huldah’s response, an increased desire to avert the threatened calamities from his kingdom and people.

Josiah set about reading the Book of the Covenant to all the people and renewing the covenant.

The covenant is a a bond in blood sovereignly administered.

Also The Covenant of Redemption is an intimate relationship, sovereignly initiated, maintained and fulfilled by God alone and involving a comittment for life and death by both God and man.

2. Josiah sets about reversing centuries of idolatry. Vv 4-20

Beginning at the Temple Vv 4-7

In the Temple of God was the idols of Baal and Asherah and the vessels for worshiping them and the host of heaven.

Baal was a nature deity who was mythically in conflict with death, infertility and flood waters and emerged victorious. So he could give life and provide for his worshipers.

The Asherah was a fertility goddess associated with the Baals.

Modern equivalent - pornography industry.

There were also the hosts of heaven. In the CSB they are translated as the stars in the sky. The hosts of heaven is an ambiguous term because it could refer to stars or angels or it could be both.

Then Jerusalem and the cities of Judah vv 8-14

From verse 10 we learn that Josiah defiled Topheth where people had offered child sacrifice to Molech aka Milcom (the detestable god of the Ammonites, in other places in the Bible).

This is where we think, how primitive were these people to sacrifice their children. We might think how superior we are in our enlightened world today. And we would totally wrong.

If you have listened to any news in the last week, you could not help knowing the SCOTUS this week overturned Roe V Wade.

People are going around encouraging women to celebrate their abortion/s.

61 million people have been killed/murdered in the United State alone since 1973.

If we think that this is only in the world. I have a friend who was a Chaplain at a prestigious Religious Girls school. I say was because he was asked to leave by the Principal of the school after expressing anti-abortion views. This was not acceptable to the school and he was terminated.

To what idols are these children being sacrificed? Convenience, Finacial (both individual and corporate). Science.

Science has become a big idol in the world today. Dr Anthony Fauci has even equated himself with Science.

Getting back to our text, from where did all this idol worship in Jerusalem originate. We are shocked to read in verse 13 that it originated with Solomon and all his many wives.

1 Kings 11:5–8 CSB

5 Solomon followed Ashtoreth, the goddess of the Sidonians, and Milcom, the abhorrent idol of the Ammonites. 6 Solomon did what was evil in the Lord’s sight, and unlike his father David, he did not remain loyal to the Lord. 7 At that time, Solomon built a high place for Chemosh, the abhorrent idol of Moab, and for Milcom, the abhorrent idol of the Ammonites, on the hill across from Jerusalem. 8 He did the same for all his foreign wives, who were burning incense and offering sacrifices to their gods.

Finally Israel Vv 15-20

1 Kings 12:28–29 CSB

28 So the king sought advice. Then he made two golden calves, and he said to the people, “Going to Jerusalem is too difficult for you. Israel, here are your gods who brought you up from the land of Egypt.” 29 He set up one in Bethel, and put the other in Dan.

Avoiding the tomb of the prophet

1 Kings 13:2 CSB

2 The man of God cried out against the altar by the word of the Lord: “Altar, altar, this is what the Lord says, ‘A son will be born to the house of David, named Josiah, and he will sacrifice on you the priests of the high places who are burning incense on you. Human bones will be burned on you.’ ”

This is an interesting story in itself but I will leave this for you to read for yourselves when you get home after Church. Suffice to say that this shows God’s sovereign knowledge and control down to the detail of naming hundreds of years before the name of king and exactly what he would do.

For all of this he allows the prophet of Judah to rest in peace and does not defile his grave as he does others.

Application

We are in covenant with God through the New Covenant in Jesus blood.

Are we neglecting our covenant relationship?

Do we need to renew our covenant relationship with God?

As God’s people in the Old Testament worshiped idols, are we worshiping idols?

What is the most important thing in our lives?

If it is not Jesus, there is our idol.

What must we do if we do identify an idol in our lives?

As Josiah radically dealt with the idols in the land, so we must deal radically with idols in our lives.

This is the easy thing to do as a preacher, tell people what to do. They try to do it and we feel good about ourselves for what we are doing but our hearts are not necessarily changed. Jesus in a slightly different context told the parable.

Matthew 12:43–45 CSB

“When an unclean spirit comes out of a person, it roams through waterless places looking for rest but doesn’t find any. Then it says, ‘I’ll go back to my house that I came from.’ Returning, it finds the house vacant, swept, and put in order. Then it goes and brings with it seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and settle down there. As a result, that person’s last condition is worse than the first. That’s how it will also be with this evil generation.”

In Christ there is always forgiveness for sin. Seek his forgiveness through true repentance.