The Word convicts

[Nana54]

 

The Word convicts

When the king heard what was written in the law, he tore his clothes in despair.

2 Chronicles 34:19 NLT

A rampage of revival

If Josiah, kind of Judah, had kept a journal, we might have noted this first significant entry: "Eight years old today" (2 Chronicles 34:1). At that tender age, Josiah had a scepter thrust into his hand. Yet he didn't let the super-responsibilities of those years allow him to forget his Creator. Rather, he "did what was pleasing in the Lord's sight." (34:2)

Another important entry might have been "Sixteen years old today" (2 Chronicles 34:3). That's when Josiah began to rid his country of the pagan shrines, idols, and images that had accumulated during the reigns of prior kings. After he purified the land, Josiah ordered the repair and restoration of the temple.

"Twenty-six years old" (2 Chronicles 34:8) was the midpoint of Josiah's 31-year reign. It was also Back-to-the-Word time. When Hilkiah the high priest stumbled across the "Book of the Law of the Yahweh as it had been given to Moses" (34:14) and had it read to Josiah, the king was devastated.

Josiah went on a rampage of revival, first making his people covenant to obey the Lord and his laws. Second, he destroyed all idols and required everyone to worship Yahweh. And third, he initiated a Passover celebration on a scale that hadn't been seen since the time of the prophet Samuel.

Josiah did everything he could to bring Judah back to Yahweh and the treasury of his Word, but the clock of Yahweh favor was running out. Sadly, because the people tired of Josiah's revival, within twenty-five years of Josiah's death, Jerusalem was destroyed and all it people taken in to captivity.