As I was reading this today it really spoke to me. This king of Israel, Josiah, began his reign at the age of 8, his father Amon was no example of a Godly man, nor his grandfather Manasseh before him. Both of them did great evil in the eyes of the Lord. But Josaih did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, and walked in all the ways of David. After ruling for 18 years, the Book of Law was found after being lost during the reign of the evil kings.
Upon hearing from the Book of Law he was incredibly distraught by all the things the Israelites were doing. He was grieved by how far the Israelites had strayed from God’s path. What did Josiah do you might ask? He changed the course of the entire nation. He went out and destroyed all the idols and shrines to all other gods. He brought ends to all sorts of wicked practices including human sacrifice.
The thing that struck me most about all of this is that Josiah managed to do what was right before the Lord without even knowing exactly what that entailed. I know that many times I do things I shouldn't, I am guilty of stumbling off the path. The worst part about that is that I have two bibles within arm’s reach at all times, and I still do it. Knowing fully what God desires from me and what path I should follow I don't even manage to successfully apply it to myself. Josiah was able to change an entire nation and to bring it in line with God's word. He practices obedience to God that is rivaled by no other king of Israel.
His actions can be summed up in three steps.
1. He recognized the sin.
2. He eliminated sinful practices.
3. He attacked the causes of sin.
The first one is the easiest of the three. Sin is generally hard to identify. Sin can be defined pretty generally as anything that separates you from God. Having access to God’s Word means we should know what we are not to do if we want to have a relationship with God. However, knowing what to not do and not doing it are two completely different things which brings me to the second point.
Eliminating the sinful practices can be a lot harder than recognizing them. There are many times when I’m doing something that I know I probably shouldn’t because I know they aren’t right, I know I’m not alone in this. It’s so easy to get caught up in doing something just because the people around you are doing it. Or because it’s something you’ve done for so long and you kind of just end up doing anyway. It could also possibly even be something society tries to tell us that it’s really not that bad and ok to do. Or maybe because it’s hard to change you just decide that you aren’t going to do it.
Making the necessary changes in behavior only goes so far. Removing causes of sin can be the hardest of them all. Sometimes it involves leaving a situation, possibly losing friends or giving up something you’ve done for years and love. We are called to leave worldly things behind, attachments that inhibit our spiritual growth and the furthering of our relationship with Christ.
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