Slices
Prepare
How would you define the word ‘integrity’? The author Henry Cloud says it is ‘the courage to confront reality’. What aspects of reality are challenging you today?
Bible passage
19 Just as he had done at Bethel, Josiah removed all the shrines at the high places that the kings of Israel had built in the towns of Samaria and that had aroused the Lord’s anger. 20 Josiah slaughtered all the priests of those high places on the altars and burned human bones on them. Then he went back to Jerusalem.
21 The king gave this order to all the people: ‘Celebrate the Passover to the Lord your God, as it is written in this Book of the Covenant.’ 22 Neither in the days of the judges who led Israel nor in the days of the kings of Israel and the kings of Judah had any such Passover been observed. 23 But in the eighteenth year of King Josiah, this Passover was celebrated to the Lord in Jerusalem.
24 Furthermore, Josiah got rid of the mediums and spiritists, the household gods, the idols and all the other detestable things seen in Judah and Jerusalem. This he did to fulfil the requirements of the law written in the book that Hilkiah the priest had discovered in the temple of the Lord. 25 Neither before nor after Josiah was there a king like him who turned to the Lord as he did – with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his strength, in accordance with all the Law of Moses.
26 Nevertheless, the Lord did not turn away from the heat of his fierce anger, which burned against Judah because of all that Manasseh had done to arouse his anger. 27 So the Lord said, ‘I will remove Judah also from my presence as I removed Israel, and I will reject Jerusalem, the city I chose, and this temple, about which I said, “My Name shall be there.”’
28 As for the other events of Josiah’s reign, and all he did, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Judah?
29 While Josiah was king, Pharaoh Necho king of Egypt went up to the River Euphrates to help the king of Assyria. King Josiah marched out to meet him in battle, but Necho faced him and killed him at Megiddo. 30 Josiah’s servants brought his body in a chariot from Megiddo to Jerusalem and buried him in his own tomb. And the people of the land took Jehoahaz son of Josiah and anointed him and made him king in place of his father.
Explore
To ‘heart and soul’ (v 3) Josiah adds ‘strength’ (v 25). This man is absolutely determined to obey the Law of Moses in his role as king. His actions are deeply confronting for us today. How much more for the people of Judah who lived through and watched this reformation unfold in their community? Nothing and no one is spared.
Josiah’s passion reminds us of his ancestor, David (22:2). He is all in. No half measures. It is no surprise that he meets his end in battle (v 29). The pivotal word in this passage is in verse 26: ‘nevertheless’. Despite all of Josiah’s good work in cleansing his kingdom, it is too little, too late. This is the end of the covenant between God and his people. A new way will be needed that doesn’t rely on human strength.
Josiah is both a model and a warning. A good man gave it his best shot, and yet it wasn’t enough. We are called to love God with our heart, mind, soul and strength. We can never live up to that calling. We need a saviour! That is our reality.
Respond
Thank God for the gift of the Holy Spirit. He gives us the strength to confront reality and the faith to see past our circumstances. What is he calling you to confront today?
Bible in a year
Read the Bible in a year: Jeremiah 7,8; Psalms 114,115
Pray for Scripture Union
Please pray for the many children and young people who feel they have no one to talk to (research suggests as many as 59% of over-16s feel this way). Ask God to help them be seen and heard, and to raise up adults who will create safe, welcoming spaces for real conversation.
A child has started following Jesus. Help them keep growing.
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