THE WORD OF GOD IS DISCOVERED

Pastor James J. Barker

Text: II CHRONICLES 34:14-33




INTRODUCTION:


1.     King Josiah was the last good king of Judah.  He was only eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned 31 years (II Chron. 34:1, 2).   He began his reign approximately 639 BC.

2.     His father was Amon, a wicked king who had reigned for only two years (II Chron. 33:21-25).

3.     In the eighth year of his reign, “while he was yet young” (II Chron. 34:3), being about 16 years old, King Josiah “began to seek after the God of David his father.”

4.     This seeking after God was evidenced by King Josiah’s strong hatred of idolatry (II Chron. 34:3b-7).  King Josiah smashed the idols to little pieces, and then he strewed the dust and ashes upon the graves of the deceased idolaters. 

5.     In his zeal to cleanse Judah and Jerusalem from idolatry, King Josiah burned the bones of the idolatrous priests upon their heathen altars (34:4-7).

6.     By doing this, King Josiah was fulfilling a prophecy made over 300 years earlier (34:5; cf. I Kings 13:1-5; II Kings 23:14-20).

7.     It should be pointed out that King Josiah did not confine his campaign against idolatry to the southern kingdom of Judah.  He also tore down the idols in the northern kingdom of Israel.  Bethel (II Kings 23:15) had been the chief idolatrous sanctuary for the (now defunct) northern kingdom of Israel (cf. II Kings 23:15, 19).

8.     King Josiah also tore down the houses of the sodomites (II Kings 23:7).   This is one of the reasons why he is considered one of the greatest kings of Judah (cf. II Kings 23:25), along side King David and King Hezekiah.

9.     Notice that the sodomites built their homes close to the temple (II Kings 23:7).   These sodomites were religious prostitutes.  False religion has always been associated with perverted and lewd sex.

10. In shutting down the sodomites, King Josiah was obeying the Word of God (cf. Deut. 23:17, 18; Lev. 18:22).

11. During the reign of King Amon, Josiah’s father, and during the long reign of Manasseh, his grandfather, the temple in Jerusalem had been neglected and abused.  Therefore, King Josiah proceeded to cleanse and repair the temple (II Chron. 34:8). 

12. It was while they were repairing the temple that “Hilkiah the priest found a book of the law of the LORD given by Moses” (34:14).

13. Hilkiah reported this wonderful discovery to Shaphan the scribe, who then carried the book to King Josiah (34:15, 16).

14. I wouldn’t be surprised if construction workers doing renovation work in some backslidden liberal churches might find some old King James Bibles!  Wouldn’t it be wonderful if they would read it and get saved?

15. And wouldn’t it be wonderful if they would read it to the liberal pastor and he’d get saved?

16. “The entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple” (Psalm 119:130).

17. “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path” (Psalm 119:105).

18. Hebrews 4:12 says, “For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” 

19. My message this morning is entitled, “The Word of God is Discovered.”

 

I. KING JOSIAH’S REPENTANCE (34:18-21).

1.     When Shaphan read the Word of God to King Josiah, the king “rent his clothes” in dismay and consternation (34:19).

2.     In the Bible, rending one’s clothes always indicates great emotion.  Joel 2:13 says, “And rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the LORD your God.”

3.     King Josiah was repentant.  King Josiah was concerned about the wrath of God (II Chron. 34:21).

4.     Are you concerned about the wrath of God?  John 3:36 says, “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.”

5.     Revelation 6:16 refers to “the wrath of the Lamb.”  And then the next verse says, “For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?” 

6.     The day of God’s wrath is coming, and it is coming very soon.  King Josiah was concerned about the wrath of God.  Are you?

7.     Second Chronicles 34:2 says King Josiah “did that which was right in the sight of the LORD, and walked in the ways of David his father, and declined neither to the right hand, nor to the left.”

8.     Second Chronicles 34:3 says that while he was yet young (16), King Josiah “began to seek after the God of David his father.”

9.     In II Chronicles 34:27, the LORD commends King Josiah for humbling himself before God.

10. Sometimes people put on a good religious show but God knows when people are real.  Oftentimes I have seen people come up at the invitation crying and apparently broken over their lost condition or backslidden condition.  But then before you know it they go right back to their worldly ways.

11. King Josiah was not putting on some phony religious act.  He was deeply moved, as both his words and actions demonstrate (34:21).

 

II. GOD’S RESPONSE (34:21-25)

1.     King Josiah knew from reading the Word of God that the LORD’s commands had long been disregarded.  Furthermore, King Josiah knew that this disobedience would surely bring down the wrath of God (34:21).

2.     The Bible does not say which portion of God’s Word King Josiah read – only that it was “the law of the LORD given by Moses” (34:14).  It was probably a copy of the five books written by Moses.

3.     Some Bible teachers (e.g., ISBE) believe King Josiah read from the book of Deuteronomy with all of its promises of blessings and curses (cf. Deut. 28). 

4.     Reading these terrible warnings would surely make a godly king like Josiah rend his clothes and weep (cf. Deut. 28:15ff).

5.     God’s response to King Josiah’s enquiry is found in II Chron. 34:23-28.  God’s judgment was inevitable.

 

III. THE KING’S COVENANT (34:29-33)

1.     King Josiah made a solemn covenant before the LORD to walk after the LORD, and to keep His commandments…” (34:31).

2.     Furthermore, the king had all that were present stand to it (34:32).

3.     I wish I could get everyone at this meeting “to stand to it” but I’m just a preacher and not a king.  A preacher is not a king.  A preacher exhorts and encourages.

4.     When King Josiah promised God that he would obey Him “with all his heart and with all his soul” (34:31), he was doing what God wants every believer to do.

·        “But if from thence thou shalt seek the LORD thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul” (Deut. 4:29). 

·        “And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might” (Deut. 6:5).

·        “And now, Israel, what doth the LORD thy God require of thee, but to fear the LORD thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the LORD thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul” (Deut. 10:12).

·        “This day the LORD thy God hath commanded thee to do these statutes and judgments: thou shalt therefore keep and do them with all thine heart, and with all thy soul” (Deut. 26:16).

·        “And the LORD thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live” (Deut. 30:6).

·        “…turn unto the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul” (Deut. 30:10).

·        Matthew 22:37 and 38 says, “Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.  This is the first and great commandment.”

5.     King Josiah’s reforms included keeping the Passover (35:1).  In fact, 35:18 says, “And there was no passover like to that kept in Israel from the days of Samuel the prophet; neither did all the kings of Israel keep such a passover as Josiah kept…”

6.     Furthermore, King Josiah put away all of the witchcraft (cf. II Kings 23:24, 25).  Witchcraft and all of its “New Age” variations is sweeping across America, and is being promoted by influential celebrities like Oprah Winfrey.  The Bible calls this an “abomination” (II Kings 23:24).

7.     Go into any bookstore and you will see many books on the occult and new age mysticism.   These books are from the devil.

 

CONCLUSION:


1.     There is no happy ending to our story.  King Josiah died on the battlefield in the valley of Megiddo (II Chron. 35:20-27).  He was only 39 years old.

2.     But the saddest part of the story is that King Josiah’s repentance and weeping, and his reforms, and his covenant with the LORD were not enough to turn back the judgment of God.

3.     It was too late (cf. II Kings 23:25-27).

4.     Personally I think it is too late for the United States of America.  Consider the many ways our nation has defied God – apostasy in most of the churches, abortion, homosexuality, evolution taught in our schools as fact, pornography, adultery, drunkenness, drugs, etc.

5.     There is much corruption in Washington DC.  You may of read in the newspapers recently of a congressman named William Jefferson (D-La), who was caught on videotape taking $100,000 in bribe money.  The FBI found $90,000 stuffed in a freezer in his home.

6.     (I have heard of “cold cash,” but I didn’t know that’s what it meant.)

7.     The FBI got a search warrant signed by a federal judge and raided this crooked politician’s office as part of their bribery investigation.  But now all his fellow congressmen are howling, “You can’t do that!”

8.     We have crooked politicians making the laws for our country but they think that they are above the law.

9.     Another congressman, Patrick Kennedy, was so drunk he smashed his car into a barricade in Washington DC.  The police said that Kennedy had red, watery eyes, slurred speech and unsteady balance.

10. But the officers were instructed by a police official to take Kennedy home.  No sobriety tests were conducted at the scene.  If the average person would have done that he’d be arrested for drunk driving.  But not when you’re a congressman, especially a Kennedy.

11. With leaders like this, our country is going down fast. But though I think it may be too late for America, it is not too late for individuals to get things right with God.

12. We may never have another national revival like we had in the days of the Great Awakening but we can experience personal revival and our church can experience revival if enough of our members get serious about the things of God (cf. II Kings 23:25).



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