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Sunday October 19, 2008 "Josiah: The Restoring King" 2 Kings 22:1-13, 23:1-3 |
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Location: Blogs Brad's BlogBrad's Sermons |
 | | Posted by: Brad Miller | 10/21/2008 8:21 AM | My mother used to talk about folks who were “good people.” Those folks who were the first to be there to help. Those folks who never sought any attention. Those folks who just lived right. “Good people.”
Have you ever known any “good people?” Of course you have. Some of the folks who fit that category are sitting in this room right now. And a lot of times you see families that all exhibit these traits. When a parent does what’s right and sets a good example for their kids, it’s easy to understand how “good people” characteristics are passed from generation to generation.
But what of the person who does not have that example? What of the person who grows up in a household where bitterness and self-centeredness and even violence are the norm? How do you explain when a child that comes from that kind of unstable situation turns out to be “good people?”
Amos Brown was one of those people in my life. When I was a freshman in college, a friend and I decided to room together. When we arrived at school that fall, we discovered that because of a record number of freshmen acceptances, our dorm room was going to be a “triple”, at least until a few people dropped out, as they inevitably would and the rooms were reassigned.
When Kerr and I walked into our room, Amos Brown was there to greet us. The first words of out of Kerr’s mouth were “I know you! You’re Amos Brown!” Amos smiled shyly, and said “Yes, that’s me.” You see Kerr was an all-state cross country runner in high school and Amos had run for Detroit Northern High School and had been the state champion a couple of years earlier.
Upon graduation from high school, Amos joined the Army, ran for them for a couple of years, and then upon getting his discharge, accepted a joint ROTC and cross country scholarship to Michigan State.
He was slight, always smiling and as I got to know him, I realized that his graciousness and good spirit were absolutely authentic. He would do anything for anyone. He shied away from the spotlight, which was sort of hard to do as he began to make his mark at Michigan State.
Kerr and I would hitchhike out to the golf course where the cross country meets were held and when the races was over, Amos would slip away from reporters and well wishers and come over and thank us for being there. Since he knew we had hitchhiked out there, he would try and find someone to give us a ride back to campus. Once he even got the Athletic Director to give us a lift!
As I got to know more about Amos, I was astounded at what a good person he was. He grew up in a terribly abusive home. He never told us that, but friends of his would tell us what an absolutely awful situation he came from. Absolutely no parental supervision or guidance. No support for the natural athletic gifts he had been given. Illegal activities going on in the house at all hours. Uncontrolled outbursts of physical and verbal abuse. And when he turned 18, Amos joined the Army and never looked back. But Amos never disparaged his parents in front of anyone, never showed anger toward them, just focused on what he needed to do and kept on going.
About 2 months into the school year, Amos was told that there were openings so that he could move out. He chose a small, single room on our floor, and I for one, was glad he did.
I always wanted to ask Amos how he did it. How could he be such a good man, when every family example he had was bad, maybe even evil. But I never did. I didn’t want to break the confidence of his friends, and I didn’t want to pry into his personal life. I did ask him how he stayed so upbeat all the time and he just smiled and shook his head and said, “It’s the only way I know to be.”
We stayed in touch until graduation, when he re-enlisted in the Army, this time as a second lieutenant. I really don’t know what happened to him after that.
Josiah, the king of Judah, was a lot like Amos Brown. As we continue to look at kings in the Bible and try to discern lessons from these kings, Josiah is a fascinating study. Like Amos, he was “good people”. And like Amos, he came from a background that makes us scratch our heads as to just how he became “good people.”
Josiah’s story starts with his grandfather Manasseh,who reigned as the king of Israel for 55 years, and we are told, was Israel’s most wicked king.
Manasseh was committed to idol worship. He built altars to the pagan god Baal, he constructed an image of the Egyptian god Asherah in the holy temple in Jerusalem, he became a worshipper of Ra, the sun god. He at times worshipped the moon and the stars. He recognized the Ammonite god Molech in his pantheon of gods and even sacrificed one of his sons to Molech. He killed any and all who dared protest against him, and jewish rabbinic tradition says that Mannaseh gave the order to have the prophet Isaiah killed.
Finally, when Israel was overrun, he was deported to Babylon. He attempted some turn around near the end of his life, but his son Amon was king then, and learning from his father’s example, was having none of it.
Josiah’s father, Amon, followed Manasseh as king of the southern kingdom of Judah after the northern kingdom of Israel came under control of the Assyrian king. Amon may have been given his name to honor the Egyptian god, Amun, which might explain why his two year reign as king was marked by rampant and ever increasing idol worship. He was such a bad king that his own servants conspired to kill him! At this death, the eight year old Josiah ascended to the throne.
Our scripture this morning tells us that Josiah did was what right in the sight of the Lord. Like his ancestor David, he turned neither to the right or to the left. He was, in short, “good people.”
But how? How did this boy who grew into manhood with the mantle of royal authority on his shoulders turn out so well? With a father like Amon and a grandfather like Manasseh, how could have turned out to be such a Godly man? Because it wasn’t just that he was a good man, or a good king. Rather, it was that he had an innate sense of the one true God from a very early age.
Josiah did not have temple training like Hebrew boys of the past would have. Josiah did not have the practices of Hebrew Orthodoxy to learn from. Josiah was born into a world of rampant idolatry where everyone claimed there own god for their own purposes. Josiah became king in a time when people put their complete trust in tokens and wizards, or in their belief that their own abilities and actions would let them accomplish anything they wanted.
Yet, Josiah had a sense that what was going on was wrong. People couldn’t just ignore God and do what pleased them, accumulating wealth, seeking pleasure through pagan practices and rituals. Josiah knew from a young age that God must be honored, and that life of honoring God was simply the best way to live.
Josiah is known as the reforming king because of some pretty dramatic steps that he took to get Judah and Israel back on course. It started at a very young age, the age of 16 to be exact.
At 16, 2nd Chronicles tells us that Josiah “began to seek the God of his ancestor David.” Why? How? What clicked with him? How could he have put aside the context of his upbringing to see the reality of God’s presence? As my old testament professor was fond of saying, “The answer to most of the questions in the Hebrew Bible is ‘We don’t know.’” I like to think that Josiah would have answered those questions like my friend Amos, “It’s the only way I know to be.”
So at 16, Josiah had some sort of religious awakening and at age 20, he began a drive to cleanse Jerusalem and all of Judah of idolatrous object. He personally supervised the destruction of altars built to honor Baal, the incense altars, the wooden and carved images.
At the age of 26, Josiah ordered that the Holy Temple in Jerusalem, the temple built by his ancestor King Solomon, be cleaned, repaired, and as necessary, rebuilt. He ordered vast sums of money from the treasury to be paid to the carpenters and artisans who were doing the work. As always, Josiah showed himself to be single minded in his pursuit of honoring God, and in doing the right thing for the people who would make that happen.
During the repair and restoration of the temple, the workers found a book. But not just any book. The Hebrew Bible tells us that is was “the book of law.” Scholarly opinion and tradition are in virtual agreement in the view that this book of law was the Book of Deuteronomy, the fifth book of Torah, the compendium of the law of Moses.
Josiah’s reaction was quick and heartfelt. He tore his clothes and fell on his face and cried out to God for forgiveness.
I want you to really think about this for a minute: Josiah was a godly man, without any formal religious education. He tried as best he could to do what was right. He knew in his heart of hearts that there was only one true God. He also knew that idol worship and pagan rituals were not the way to honor that God. And then, one day, he received a document that not only confirmed that he was right, but that it was even worse than he could have imagined.
He knew that Judah and Israel had strayed, but he had no idea that they had strayed so far! He knew that God would not be pleased, but there in that book, the book of God’s law, a series of curses make it clear: God’s wrath would be visited upon those who bow down to false gods. God would judge harshly those who turn their back on the Mosaic covenant.
Josiah wasn’t sure exactly what to make of this, so he sent his lieutenants out to see what the seers and prophets thought of it. They took the book to a prophetess named Huldah and she confirmed his worst fears: God would indeed bring destruction to the people of Jerusalem and Judah. Because they had abandoned God and made offerings to other gods, God’s anger was provoked.
But there was more from the prophetess Huldah: Josiah, being “good people”, having torn his clothes and cried in anguish over this dire situation, would be spared. He had shown himself to be a repentant man, and God blessed him.
So, what was Josiah’s response: to do his best to turn the people of Judah back to God. He went to the temple and there read the words of the book of the law and made a covenant before the Lord to follow all of God’s commandments, his decrees, his statutes, with all his heart and all his soul. Then, Josiah invited the people of Jerusalem to join in the covenant and scripture tells us, “All the people joined in the covenant.”
Why did Josiah do this? God had condemned the people even as he spared Josiah. God’s word was clear: the destruction of Jerusalem was assured.
Why would Josiah then go out and work so hard to rid Judah of idols and idolatry? Why would he institute the reforms that restored the temple worship and the law of Moses as God’s law? Why?
Maybe Josiah would say, “Because it’s all I know to do.”
What lessons are we to learn from Josiah’s actions?
First, I think we learn something about what it means to be “good people.” It means that we do what is right, even when all odds are stacked against us. It means that when we have the chance and the ability, we are called to do for others, to do our best to get them on the right path. It means that even though we may be comfortable in our circumstance, that is no excuse to sit on our hands and be complacent. Others need to hear the good news. Others need to experience God’s presence. Others need to feel what it feels like to live right before God. Josiah was horrified at how far the people had turned away from God’s law! Could there be restoration and reconciliation? Maybe not, but still, it didn’t matter to Josiah. Even if reconciliation was not possible, there would still be reformation, because it was the right thing to do. It was the right way to live, no matter what.
I also think this episode raises some serious questions about our relationship to God. Does God punish us when we turn away? Or, rather, when we turn away do we become too infatuated with our own power and inevitably end up in bad straits? Is it God judging us or us simply making bad choices that leads to pain and ruin? I personally think it is the latter. When we stray from God’s way, we enter into a world of our own making, a world that we think we control, and that sense of control and power will lead us to make decisions that will hurt us in the end. Because turning away from God means turning toward idol worship. It is inevitable: something must fill what Rev. Jennifer has referred to as the “God shaped hole” in all of us. It might be wealth or drugs or sex or alcohol or power or prestige. But this much I know, none of those things will fulfill us like following God’s word.
Where do we put our faith? That is where we need to put our hearts and souls and minds. Josiah knew that.
Josiah knew that the best way to live was to honor God with everything we do. Josiah knew that following God for rewards, or to avoid harsh judgment was not the way. Josiah knew that following God and trusting in God’s goodness was its own reward, because it is simply the right thing to do.
How did Josiah know all this? He simply didn’t know any other way to be.
It is easy to get turned around. It is easy to let our relationship with God take a back burner when things are going well. Josiah reminds us that when the bottom drops out and we find ourselves experiencing that dark night of the soul, whatever our problems, whatever our demons, whatever the idols are that we bow down to, turning back is as easy as falling on our knees and saying, “Help me, God. I need you."
And when the dawn comes, and we feel the sun on our face and we realize that our way must be God’s way, we need to do one more thing: we must move into the world declaring God’s goodness and grace and inviting others to experience those same blessings.
Why? It’s the best way we know to be.
Let us pray: Help us God, we need you. The uncertainty of the world keeps on edge, always wondering where the next storm is coming from. We give ourselves to you, heart and soul. We know the right way to be and when we follow your way, we feel it in every bone in our body. Thank you, God. We need you. In the name of Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.
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