I am fond of engaging in public discourse on Twitter. Since August 4th, 2019, a day of infamy in the history of our country, the public discourse in the media has been dominated by calls to address the root causes of what led to the two mass shootings that occurred within a 24-hour period. The problem is - - few are getting down to the root cause.
Today's reading is from 2 Kings 22-23 and 2 Chronicles 34-35, the story of King Josiah. You may have studied King Josiah in Sunday School when you were young, as did I. This Bible story has long been a favorite of Sunday School curriculum developers for children, because King Josiah was a young child when he inherited the throne of the kingdom of Judah. He was a mere 8 years old.
By this time, in 640 BC, King David had been dead for 330 years. His glorious kingdom had been perpetuated by one of his sons, King Solomon, during whose reign the magnificent Temple had been built. The heirs of Solomon and their descendants however, had been pagan kings, who had led Israel to split into two kingdoms, the northern kingdom, called Israel, and the southern kingdom, called Judah. This was largely due to the pagan religious practices of the many wives and concubines King Solomon brought into Israel during his reign as king. For such a wise king, as the Scriptures say, this was not a wise move.
When Josiah took over the throne at age 8, obviously the kingdom was ruled by his senior advisors for 18 years. However, when he was in his mid-20s, Josiah began to be bothered by the state of disrepair of the Temple. The people were being taxed to maintain it; yet, the silver they paid was not going to its intended purpose. Josiah gave a command to reverse that, and in the refurbishment, the book of the Law, that is the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Old Testament, the Torah) was found. AND, it was Moses' original copy; it was "written in his own hand". Imagine that! When it was found, the high priest ordered it taken to the king, who commanded it be read in his presence.
When the king heard the words of the law, he tore his clothes.
2 Chronicles 34:19 (CSB)
What a revelation! There was a lot of eye-opening information in that scroll!
"Rending the garments" was, in those days, a sign of extreme sorrow, anguish and repentance. The words of the Law revealed to Josiah just how enmeshed in sin the people were, how far they had strayed from God's commands in The Torah. The disarray of the Temple was merely a symbol. So, Josiah went on to cleanse the land of the pagan worship, which was extensive. Many false gods were being worshipped, including those who burned babies on fiery altars and practiced male prostitution in their houses of "worship". (2 Kings 23:4-14)
In the vacuum this purging created, Josiah re-instituted the Levitical practices that the Lord, through Moses, commanded. Now, here is where I learned something, reading this account yesterday. There is little mention of King David celebrating Passover. The same is true of King Solomon. According to 2 Kings 23:22-23, in the first Passover of Josiah, the Passover had not been celebrated in such an original fashion since the days of the prophet/judge Samuel, (also see 2 Chronicles 35:18) whose leadership brought forth a revival of keeping the sacred festivals God had commanded for His chosen people.
Isn't that fascinating?! See, I had just thought that, after God commanded Passover in Exodus 12, it had been "kept" or celebrated consistently down through the centuries. But, this is not so. Through the years, the Hebrews waxed hot and cold in their worship of Yahweh. When they were enmeshed in pagan worship, the true "holy convocations" of Passover, Feast of Tabernacles, etc. became lost. It is believed that the priests had even forgotten about them. After the days of Samuel, the next time Passover is recorded in scripture having been celebrated is in the days of King Hezekiah. And, then a few years later - - Josiah.
There was a great revival during the reign of King Josiah. We are told that the people covenanted with the king, who made a covenant before the Lord, to keep His commandments and His Law. And, for the remaining 13 years of his reign, the Lord God was worshipped supremely in Judah.
What relevance does this have to us today? All the talk today about preventing further incidences of mass murder focus on restricting access to guns, or increasing services to those with mental illness. Mental illness is certainly present in the men who perpetrate these acts. However, evil is also present. Evil is not born out of a mental disorder. Evil is a cancer of the soul. It grows out of a heart, dark and devoid of God.
If you are old enough, think back with me. 30 or more years go, did you fear going to shop at your local grocery store or worship at your local church, afraid you'd be mowed down by a demon-possessed lunatic? No, you did not. This type of behavior grows out of a culture that has banished God from "the public square", a society that has relegated God to Saturdays or Sundays, if even on those days. Our youth are taught in public school that if you are a person of faith you are "dumb", that being bright and intellectual is antithetical to being a Christian. Instead of making the Savior central to our lives, we fill our minds and spirits with filth and our bodies with the dietary equivalent of the same. We are forced to look at the people who worshipped Chemosh, the demonic false god of the ancient Moabites, by throwing live babies into a fiery pit, and confront our society's scourge of abortion, which is basically the same.
And, we wonder why we have mass murders? Our laws condone the devaluing of human life to the extent it is legal to murder our own babies in the womb. Thousands are murdered every, single day.
It's not the guns, People.
Those possessed by evil will always find a way. Pray for Nigerian Christians, who are being slaughtered for their faith daily, by machete and fire.
https://www.abcactionnews.com/news/world/hundreds-of-christians-killed-in-nigeria-attacks
If you are truly concerned about the state of our nation, get on your knees with me and beg God for an honest-to-goodness, Holy Ghost revival to sweep over our land and for it to start with us, the Body of Christ.
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