Josiah Rediscovers God's Word

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2+Kings+22%3A1-10%3B+23%3A1-3&version=NIV

Josiah was one of the rare 'good kings' in the post-David, post-Solomon, divided kingdom era.  Josiah became king of the southern kingdom when he was only 8 years old!  When he was 26, 18 years into his reign, he embarked on a 'cleanup' mission:  he directed his staff to go into the temple and begin the important work of repairing it.  His faithful workers find 'a book' buried and forgotten, and they bring it to Josiah.  It is the book of Deuteronomy - the laws of the people of Israel.  It has been forgotten and ignored for hundreds of years.  Imagine what it was like for Josiah and his people to read words like this:

Hear O Israel; The Lord our God, the Lord is one.  Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.  These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts.  Impress them on your children.  Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up....Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.  (Deuteronomy 6:4-9)

Instead of loving the Lord with all their heart, the people had begun to worship the gods of their neighbors.  They set up shrines to pagan gods.  They practiced child sacrifice.  They patronized temple prostitutes.  They cast the one true God to the sidelines.

Josiah changed all of that.  He called the people together and read from the Book of the Law, from Deuteronomy.  He destroyed their pagan idols.  And for several years, the people returned to the Lord.

We don't have pagan gods in the 21st century, do we?  We don't worship at the altar of idols.  But make no mistake:  we all have a god we worship.  We may worship our family.....our money....our success....or we may, every day, kneel at the foot of the Cross, ask the one true God to forgive our sins, and enter the day focused on how we can serve him.

As Martin Luther said, "We need to hear the Gospel [the good news of Jesus Christ] every day because we forget it every day."

We are not so different from the people of Josiah's day.  We need to open our Bibles every day, read God's word, and ask him to send his Holy Spirit to convict us of our sin and to be open to what he has for us that day. 

Thanks be to God for his love, his grace, and his mercy.