Action Plan: Spiritual Renewal. Rom. 12:1-2; 2 Kings 23:4-21
We have looked at some summary points on the spiritual renewal that was taking place in the kingdom of Judah under King Josiah. What led up to this was that when he was eight years old young Josiah became the king of the southern kingdom of Judah. He was preceded by a horrible year and a half reign of Amon who was just as evil as his father Manasseh. Manasseh had reintroduced all of the horrible idolatrous religions that were manifest among the Canaanites into the spiritual life of Judah. He brought in all of the worst religions of Canaanites and Phoenicians, the worship of Baal and Asherah, he completely desecrated the temple of God in Jerusalem, and he did away with all of the wonderful reforms that his father Hezekiah had made. When Josiah came to the throne he, though he was only eight years old, had a focus on divine priorities and even as a young boy he began to institute some reforms in the southern kingdom of Judah. But these reforms did not shift into high gear until he was eighteen years old when the book of the Law was rediscovered within the temple. During the time of Manasseh and Amon the Mosaic Law had been forbidden.
It was that rediscovery of the Law, and especially that rediscovery of God's promise of punishment, of judgment, on the southern kingdom for their idolatry that awakened the people. And the point that has been made in terms of application for the spiritual life in any dispensation or era always begins with the Word of God. When the Word of God is taught and understood it is that teaching, the reality of the truth of God's Word in the thinking of people that is the primary change agent. In the church age, of course, we know that that is not separated from the ministry of God's Holy Spirit, but we can think of many historical examples of this truth. The one that stands out the most is the time of the Protestant Reformation in the early 1500s. At that time most nominal Christians, those who were aligned with the only church at that time, the Roman Catholic church, had little if any direct knowledge of Scripture. For one reason, for most of the period of time prior to the 1500s people did not have their own copiers of Scripture. It was not available. Once it was possible to mass print the Scriptures so that individuals could have their own copy then that was one factor that led to the Protestant Reformation. A second factor was that under the Roman Catholic church it was forbidden to translate the Latin Vulgate into the language of the people so that they could understand what the Scriptures said. The Word of God was not accessible to people. It became accessible through translations that began prior to the Reformation with various attempts under people like John Wycliffe. Then as the Word of God came to be translated into the language of the people and was printed in ways that people could have access to it this then began to change theology and it led to the Protestant Reformation. It is the study of God's Word that is the primary change agent in the lives of people.
Only when we know the Word of God—not just abstract doctrines, not just theology. This is why it is so important when people in their individual spiritual lives should be reading the Bible on a regular basis. Sure, there are things that we will not understand but if we get a good commentary, like the Bible Knowledge Commentary, we can look up some things and find answers to some of our questions; also a good Bible dictionary. With these we can answer some questions as we read through the Scriptures. And just like learning any other subject in life, when we begin to study we have a lot more questions than we have answers; but that is how we grow, that is how we learn in any academic discipline in the study of any subject. So we begin by reading the Bible.
We live in an era today that is in a number of ways the direct heir of those shifts that occurred prior to the 16th century and the Protestant Reformation, a time when there is an access to the Bible and the Word of God that goes far beyond anything the Reformers ever imagined. People like William Tyndale would just be astonished at the access that everybody has to the Word of God. If we go to some good places on the Internet that have a lot of scholarly material on the Bible it is just amazing how much is available today. Then through computer programs and electronic books we have access to almost everything that has been written and published since the Protestant Reformation and even beyond that. We have access to literally hundreds of translations of the Bible into every-day language and many of them are very good. We have access to some of the best Bible teaching throughout the history of the Christian church via the Internet, and yet our culture is one of the most perverted and depraved cultures in all of history. And it is getting worse. This is a sign of judgment upon this nation and on western civilization that the more access our culture has to the Word of God the more biblically ignorant and illiterate it is—not just the culture but the church. People in congregations in churches that believe that they are biblical, that emphasize Bible study, and these are unfortunately pretty shallow, superficial and sometimes just barely a notch better than a Christian self-help group. People don't get into the Word.
In 17th century Massachusetts only two to three per cent of the population could not read. They were motivated to learn how to read because ultimately they knew how to read the Word of God, and they knew what God had to say to them. And so parents and local communities emphasized the ability to read so that everyone could openly read the Bible. Once that motivation is lost there is no longer a spiritual motivation to learn how to read and it becomes simply learning to read so you can make money, and that just doesn't have the eternal perspective and motivating factor that our eternal destiny has. So we have a much lower rate of reading ability today than they had at that time. Then everybody could read and read well, and they had great vocabularies and a great education system. Pastors taught the Word of God in depth and everybody understood it. That is really convicting because people today don't have the education to go back and read those sermons and understand what they said. They can't understand it because a) they don't have the biblical literacy to understand it, and b) they can't understand it because they don't have the education background, the vocabulary, etc. to understand it. It is not that the preachers then were preaching over people's heads, it is that the people of that time had an understanding and appreciation of the Bible and for education.
So the first principle is that the Word of God is taught and understood, and that is the primary change agent. Second, the people have a choice to obey or disobey. When we hear the Word of God we have a choice to make a decision in our head whether or not we are going to take this seriously and apply the principles in our thinking and in our life or not. Ultimately the responsibility is on us. And third, when we choose to obey obedience means action. That action may be a mental action or it may be an overt action. Many times it involves both. We have to change our thinking which leads to a change of action, and that is what we see in the remaining section of 2 Kings 23—the action plan that Josiah enacts in order to implement the changes that are demanded by the Word of God as he read the Word of God.
We learn a principle here in terms of application to our spiritual life, and that is that as we go through these points and the way in which he enacts the Law we learn that as believers when it comes to application we begin with the most obvious and overt contradictions that we see in our thinking and in our life through the Word of God, and then we move out from there. We start with the most obvious and the most central aspects and move out from there.
Romans 12:2 NASB "And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect." This is the primary mission statement for the believer's spiritual life. "Do not be conformed to this world," i.e. do not be pressed into the mold of the thought systems of the culture around you; "… but be transformed," which has to do with a metamorphosis, a complete transformation, "by the renewing," the renovation, overhaul of your thought system. It is not what you think but how you think; "that you may prove," give evidence or to exemplify something positive, a positive demonstration of something; "that the will of God is good, acceptable and perfect" in the sense of complete.
This principle is what we see enacted in the time of Josiah. He recognizes that it is the world system of that day that has pressed and conformed the people of Judah into the mold of the pagan religions of the nations and cultures around them. So in order for them to be transformed there has to be a change in thinking and a change in action. We see this first in 2 Kings 23:4 NASB "Then the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest and the priests of the second order and the doorkeepers, to bring out of the temple of the LORD all the vessels that were made for Baal, for Asherah, and for all the host of heaven; and he burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of the Kidron, and carried their ashes to Bethel." In that decision they are starting with the temple, at the center of Jerusalem. The first four actions that we see taking place in this action plan start at the center of the spiritual life of the nation Israel. The point of application is that when we get serious about the Lord in our life we have to start at the center of our thinking. That relates ultimately to our thinking about reality: who God is and what God has done and provided for us, especially in the plan of salvation. For them that meant they had to cleanse the temple, they had to take the idols that had been put in there by Manasseh and by Amon out. The Asherah was the female consort of Baal and all of this involved a lot of perverted sexual rituals that were part of the fertility cult. The host of heaven referred to the astral deities who were often associated with planets and stars. They carried the ashes to Bethel because Bethel is not in the kingdom of Judah, it is just to the northern border and the southernmost part of the kingdom of Israel which had already been destroyed. So they are removing this from their domain. There is a physical removal of these overt indications of sin and rebellion against God from their presence.
The second thing that happened was that he stopped the actions of the idolatrous priests whom the kings of Judah had ordained to burn incense to Baal, to the sun, moon and constellations. These priests had been allowed to operate since the time of Solomon. Even though there had been various reforms that had taken place at different times they were never carried through to the same extent that Josiah carried out. He removes these priests completely. This had never happened before, even under Hezekiah. 2 Kings 23:5 NASB "He did away with the idolatrous priests whom the kings of Judah had appointed to burn incense in the high places in the cities of Judah and in the surrounding area of Jerusalem, also those who burned incense to Baal, to the sun and to the moon and to the constellations and to all the host of heaven." The Hebrew word that is used here for the pagan priests is an interesting word. It is the word kemarim, used elsewhere in the Bible in Hosea 10:5 and Zephaniah 1:4, and it refers specifically to priests who were prostrating themselves before idols.
The third thing that he did was remove the wooden image, the Asherah pole, from inside the temple. 2 Kings 23:6 NASB "He brought out the Asherah from the house of the LORD outside Jerusalem to the brook Kidron, and burned it at the brook Kidron, and ground {it} to dust, and threw its dust on the graves of the common people."
Fourth, he tore down the ritual booths of the perverted people. These ritual booths were little temporary lean-to type things or tents that were set up all throughout the temple precinct where the temple prostitutes would ply their trade. This activity was supposed to inspire the gods to make you prosperous and fertile in business, in agricultural endeavors, or whatever it might be. So there was a complete removal of these ritual booths where these practices were carried out.
Fifth, after cleansing the temple area at the very center he begins to move out into other areas in the southern kingdom of Judah. 2 Kings 23:8 NASB "Then he brought all the [Levitical] priests from the cities of Judah, and defiled the high places where the priests had burned incense, from Geba to Beersheba; and he broke down the high places of the gates which {were} at the entrance of the gate of Joshua the governor of the city, which {were} on one's left at the city gate." This describes from the northern border of Judah to the southern border of Judah. Everything that was related to idolatrous worship was completely destroyed. At the entrance to all of the cities were the city gates, and this is typically where the city council would meet, where the mayor would meet, where judges would meet, and courts were held in this location. What the city gates refers to is the government operation centers in each of the local towns and cities. In order to please the gods they had altars set up there where the city councils met and this indicated that the whole city was devoting itself to the various false gods. Those were all destroyed.
Sixth, we are told that he defied the place where the child sacrifices were made. 2 Kings 23:10 NASB "He also defiled Topheth, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, that no man might make his son or his daughter pass through the fire for Molech." Topheth is the area that is associated with Gehenna which is the valley which runs into the Kidron from the west and this is where they would set up idols to Moloch or Chemosh (different names for the same deity). It was a stone idol and they would build an enormous fire in his belly. Its arms would be outstretched and they would bring their infant children and place them into the arms of Moloch to be consumed by the fire. This was to placate the gods so that they could be prosperous. They were sacrificing their children, their families, so that they could be prosperous and wealthy. This is one of the most extreme forms of prosperity worship in human history. We do the same thing today; it is just not as overt. People today sacrifice their families, their children in many other ways so that they can be a financial success, so that they can achieve social status and many other things, and the result is that their children are victimized and destroyed in many ways by the actions of the parents.
Seventh, he removed the ornamental horses that were dedicated to the worship of the sun, along with the chariots. Chariots were used to depict the travel of the sun. There is the same kind of thing in Greek mythology where the sun god would traverse the heavens in his chariot.
Eighth, 2 Kings 23:11 NASB "He did away with the horses which the kings of Judah had given to the sun, at the entrance of the house of the LORD, by the chamber of Nathan-melech the official, which {was} in the precincts; and he burned the chariots of the sun with fire."
Ninth, he destroyed the roof-top altars used to worship the astrological deities. 2 Kings 23:12 NASB "The altars which {were} on the roof, the upper chamber of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and the altars which Manasseh had made in the two courts of the house of the LORD, the king broke down; and he smashed them there and threw their dust into the brook Kidron." Manasseh constructed his within the temple itself.
Tenth, Josiah then destroyed the altars to Chemosh and Milcom on the mount of corruption. 2 Kings 23:13, 14.
Eleventh, Josiah destroyed the altar at Bethel. So he is moving out. He has cleaned up Judah and now he is moving north out of his specific territory. The northern kingdom was destroyed by the Assyrians in 722, ninety to one hundred years prior to Josiah. This territory is under the control of a governor from Assyria but even though it is governed by a foreign power Josiah recognizes it is still the land that God promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and therefore he had a right to cleanse the land of idolatry even though it wasn't under the political control of the southern kingdom of Judah.
What is the application from that? The Old Testament recognizes that it doesn't matter who has political control over the land that God gave to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, it is still the land that God gave and it still needed to be cleansed no matter who the political power was that dominated or controlled it at that time. Bethel was in the southern part of the kingdom of Israel and then Dan was in the extreme north. These were the two areas where the idols had been set up by the kings in the northern kingdom.
Twelfth, he removed all of the shrines and idolatrous worship sites in the north. 2 Kings 23:19 NASB "Josiah also removed all the houses of the high places which {were} in the cities of Samaria, which the kings of Israel had made provoking the LORD; and he did to them just as he had done in Bethel."
Thirteenth, he executed all of the false priests. This wasn't even in his political control but he understood what his spiritual responsibility was under the Mosaic Law and that was to execute anyone who led the nation into idolatry, anyone who claimed to be a spokesperson for God, a prophet for God who wasn't a prophet for God. So he is cleansing the nation. Think about the time period for all of this action. It takes time when we have been enmeshed in sin for cleansing the actual action; the practical aspect, not the confession. It takes time to grow and advance and to root out all of the garbage that is in the soul, and all of the false ideas and false teaching. The ideas need to be removed completely and totally and absolutely destroyed; it is not something we go back and play with, it is something we execute and remove.
Fourteenth, we see that after he had finished the cleansing of the nation he then returned to Jerusalem and he called for an observance of the Passover. Just as in the observance of the Passover which is the first day of the week-long feast of unleavened bread, just as there is a symbolic removal of leaven from the house prior to the worship of Passover depicting the removal of sin from the life of the person who is going to worship God, he has physically cleansed the nation now of idolatry so that it is prepared to come and worship at the Passover. This was one of the greatest Passover observances in the ancient world. Nothing like this had been seen since Solomon dedicated the temple. In 2 Chronicles 34 & 35 we see that he sacrificed 37,600 sheep. If one sheep is an average for one family or family group that would indicate around 376,000 people in Jerusalem. Furthermore, 37,600 sheep would produce a little over a gallon of blood each, and adding all of that up there would be about 40,000 gallons of blood. This helps us to understand that this isn't just some antiseptic process here; it is not just one priest killing three or four animals. This was a well organized, sophisticated process—sacrificing all of these animals, sharpening the knives, skinning, butchering, dealing with all of the blood, etc. It is to remind the people of the horrors of sin, that sin is something that is horrible and it has to be paid for in a way that is horrible. This doesn't actually pay for their sin, it is the ritual cleansing, but it depicts the work of Jesus Christ on the cross that fulfils or completes what these sacrifices foreshadowed. There were 3,800 bulls sacrificed. At about 10-gallons of blood per bull meant that there was about 41,000 gallons of bull blood. This required a tremendous amount of water and so they were bringing water in from springs. All of this had to be organized and it had to be sophisticated, and it was all related to their spiritual life.
We learn from this that the same principle applies to us. In our spiritual life when we become honest and serious with the Word of God it demands a change. It is not just an overt change, it is a change that starts with our thinking—Romans 12:2. We renovate and overhaul our thinking in our soul, and that only occurs today under the power of God the Holy Spirit who enables us to apply those principles on a regular basis. We start with the most obvious areas in our life and we start with the core issue which has to do with our view of ultimate reality. That is why the whole doctrine related to creation and evolution is so important. The god who uses evolution as a process for creation is a god who uses death and suffering as his normal modus operandi to bring about advance. That is not the God of the Bible. The God of the Bible says that death is abnormal, death is the result of sin, death only came into creation as a result of Adam's original sin, and death needs to be dealt with so that man can have eternal life. That penalty was paid for by Jesus Christ on the cross so that we can have eternal life. That life begins the moment we are saved, it is no a life that is simply eternal in terms of its length but it is eternal in terms of its dimensions. So we have to begin to grow in the grace and the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ from the instant that we are saved. And that means learning the Word and applying it in our life.
In terms of the conclusion with Josiah God has promised him that he will not go through the judgment on the southern kingdom of Judah that God had promised. God said that their evil was so great that He would have to remove them from the land, as he had promised in Leviticus chapter twenty-six. So at the end of his reign there is a major war that breaks out between the Assyrians and the Egyptians. Pharaoh Necho heads north through Judah and Israel to go to Charchemish where he is going to do battle with the Assyrians. Josiah engages him in battle at Megiddo and this is where he is killed in battle.
2 Kings 23:28 NASB "Now the rest of the acts of Josiah and all that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? [29] In his days Pharaoh Neco king of Egypt went up to the king of Assyria to the river Euphrates. And King Josiah went to meet him, and when {Pharaoh Neco} saw him he killed him at Megiddo. [30] His servants drove his body in a chariot from Megiddo, and brought him to Jerusalem and buried him in his own tomb. Then the people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of Josiah and anointed him and made him king in place of his father."
From this point we are on a down-hill trajectory in terms of the spiritual life of the southern kingdom. The people do not maintain their loyalty to God, they follow the evil leadership of the sons of Josiah and the end result is going to be the destruction of the southern kingdom of Judah.
If people exercise their volition positively towards God then there is positive growth in a nation and in a culture. But if they reject the Word of God either individually or as a nation then there is destruction to the individual and the nation and they become a culture of death rather than a culture of life. As Joshua said as the Israelites entered into the land: Now it is up to you to choose life or death. Life is defined in Scripture; death is when you reject Scripture.