“For in the eighth year of his reign, while he was yet young, he began to seek after the God of David his father: and in the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem from the high places, and the groves, and the carved images, and the molten images.” (2 Chronicles 34:3)
Josiah stands out above all the other Kings of Judah. His life seems to shine as brightly as David’s did, and under his rule the nation passed through 3 very distinct stages: Revelation, Repentance, and Revival. Our verse today is the seedbed for the reforms done in the nation. This change was brought about by a single young man who “Began to seek after the God of David his father.”
National reform did not start in the courts of Israel but in the heart of a single young man who had heard what God did for his father David. He, being of the line of that great man, and realizing that it was the God of that man that made him great, began to search for this God. This is where all meaningful change begins to take place, in the hearts of individuals who will endeavor to know the God of David, the God of Paul, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It would do us good to rehearse the testimonies of godly men of days gone by; those testimonies have been the flames that have kindled others of the following generations to trust God as those before did. Have you ever read of what God did in London with Spurgeon? Or what he did in Chicago with Moody? Surely you have read of what he did with Paul in Macedonia and Asia! What about Livingstone in Africa or Judson in Burma? Josiah had heard of the days of glory and how God had raised up David from the sheepfolds to become the king of a nation and brought victory and peace to the troubled nation, and he began to long for such a relationship with God.
This desire that began in his heart didn’t stay there; those desires of his heart became work for his hands. His love for the Lord bred in him a holy hatred for the idolatry that surrounded him from the time of his birth, so he began to break down the images and burn up their altars. So it is with every person that will follow the Lord with all their heart; your love for the Lord does not have any room for adulterous relationships with other gods. Those things that rob our one true love of his time, affections, and worship must be cast down. Sometimes it is a sinful habit, sometimes it is a time-consuming hobby, other times it could be a seemingly innocent pleasure, but the second it begins to steal my heart away from the Lord, it must be cast down! This is what a heart in love with the Lord does; it begins to cast out every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God and brings into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ [2 Cor 10:5].
Although it is not mentioned in our verse today, we cannot miss mentioning Josiah’s discovery and devotion to the Word of the Lord. He had served the Lord for the first few years of his reign with zeal for the Lord, but it wasn’t until the eighteenth year that he discovered the word of the Lord. No longer would he have to serve God according to his own zeal and devotion, but according to the word of the Lord. Isn’t this how most of us started serving the Lord? With very little knowledge of what His word said? In our youth, we had zeal for God and did many wrong things for the right reasons, but God is faithful to help us discover His Word. While they were repairing the house of the Lord, they found a copy of the law. In their attempt to serve God, He gave them what they needed to serve Him more perfectly. That is precisely what God will do for those who long with all their hearts to serve Him. While we are endeavoring to do so, He will shed light upon our path, guide, and instruct us more perfectly than our zeal and ambition ever would have. Our ambition and zeal wax and wane like the moon, but His word never changes. If real change is going to be wrought, it won’t be by the ambitions of a zealot but by the obedience of a person whose heart is rent by the word of God and made obedient to the light thereof.
It shouldn’t be hard to apply this verse today. Look around you, sin abounds on every hand, the church of God has been turned into a concert hall, pastors can’t be told apart from icons of this world, and the word of the Lord has been nearly lost in disregard from the world and much of the church. In these late hours, we need some Josiahs who will get a heart for the God of David. That’s where the revival of families, churches, and even nations begins, in the heart of an individual who loves the Lord with all his heart, his soul, and his mind. Revival starts in the heart, works through our hands, and goes out to affect humanity.
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