II Kings 23.29-30
Because he did what was right when the Book of the Law was uncovered in the temple, God had said to Josiah:
II Kings 22.19-20
"Because your heart was responsive and you humbled yourself before the LORD when you heard what I have spoken against this place and its people, that they would become accursed and laid waste, and because you tore your robes and wept in My presence, I have heard you, declares the LORD. Therefore I will gather you to your fathers, and you will be buried in peace. Your eyes will not see all the disaster I am going to bring on this place."
1. God Always Does What Is Right.
We can depend upon this.
He is righteous.
Psalm 9:8 He rules the world in righteousness and judges the peoples with equity.
Psalm 11:7 For the LORD is righteous, He loves justice; the upright will see His face.
We may not always see it, immediately.
Suffering makes it difficult.
Pain and sorrow - we need the LORD's Assurance (and we have it)
Psalm 34:18 The LORD is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.
Psalm 147:3 He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.
For the longest time we have severely underestimated the value of a broken heart. Songs have been written about it as a bad thing. We do every and anything we can to avoid it. We pity those who have to experience it. We seldom look at the benefits of it until it happens to us and we find ourselves still breathing, even though we walk with a limp. We are breathing and living and things are happening that are beyond our explanation.
Josiah was heart broken and grief stricken and horrified by what was read from the Book of the Law because of the spiritual condition of Jerusalem and Judah. It effected him deeply. He tore his clothes. He had a tender heart.
The tearing of clothing was a traditional expression of horror and astonishment. In the strongest way possible, Josiah showed his grief on his own account and on account of the nation. This was an expression of deep conviction of sin, and a good thing. Good grief!
Josiah's heart was broken over the sin of the people he led. He was in grief because God's Word had been ignored and His Name dishonored. He did all he could to see that situation corrected. He brought about reform in the nation.
We are seeing here the benefits of a tender heart.
* It is open towards the LORD.
* It is undivided.
* It is responsive to things that are wrong.
* It seeks to do God's will.
John Bunyan: The Advantage of a Tender Heart
(Author of Pilgrim's Progress)
1. Keeps you from sinning against God
2. It is yielded to prayer.
3. Repentance comes for the least of offense.
4. Contentment
5. Makes us wakeful and watchful
6. Ready to deny itself.
7. Is very forgiving.
Because of this God was going to let him rest in peace before the judgement fell on Jerusalem. I think of how blessed my brother Mark was to be with the LORD by the time 9-11 happened. As I moved my nephew to Astoria this week and came back on the BQE to the LIE I saw the skyline. I saw the new Freedom Tower. The Twin Towers were conspicuously missing. I thought how as you look at that skyline then think about America's spiritual condition today, the LORD brings a heaviness to your heart. And that is what separates the false teachers from those who proclaim God's Word today. Those who gather around them what their itching ears want to hear as opposed to those who hear the Truth, as difficult as it is to hear. A person who tells speaks the Truth in love is going to say things that bring comfort as well as things that make us uncomfortable. Positive truths energize us. Negative truths ground us. We need a balance of both.
God plainly told Josiah that the nation was not going to be spared. He told him this time the sins were too great and it would have to be judged but because he did what was right he would be spared.
Josiah becomes a type of believers today, in this time of tremendous uncertainty, dangerous threats being made and godlessness continuing to expand in our nation.
2. Many Times We Do Not Understand God's Ways.
Isaiah 55:8-9 Isaiah 55:8 “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, ”declares the Lord. "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts."
So often we try and figure out what God is doing in our lives. As the LORD deals with our lives so often we don't understand what He is doing. So often we wonder about events in our lives.
He made a promise to Josiah that he would not live to see the judgement and its destruction.
There are times when the mercy and Word of God are not seen for what they are or are not understood by those who watch.
I remember a particularly difficult time in my life when well meaning Christians were saying all kinds of things about my situation that were just not accurate. It taught me be quieter when someone suffers. When folks are suffering or when someone dies the best thing to do at times is to be there for them and not say a word.
How we need to pray continually: Psalm 141:3 Set a guard over my mouth, O LORD; keep watch over the door of my lips.
We cannot take back words once they are spoken.
The death of Josiah for many looking on must have left them wondering. After all the good he did and how he honored God he dies in battle at a young age and yet...
3. God Does What He Says He Will Do.
Often He does not tell us how. Habakkuk had trouble with the how.
Habakkuk 1.1-13
Habakkuk 1:12-13 LORD, are you not from everlasting? My God, my Holy One, You will never die. You, LORD, have appointed them to execute judgment; You, my Rock, have ordained them to punish. Your eyes are too pure to look on evil; You cannot tolerate wrongdoing. Why then do You tolerate the treacherous?Why are You silent while the wicked swallow up those more righteous than themselves?
God spares the righteous in times of judgement upon the unrighteous.
Isaiah 57:1-2 The righteous perish, and no one takes it to heart; the devout are taken away, and no one understands that the righteous are taken away to be spared from evil. Those who walk uprightly enter into peace; they find rest as they lie in death.
As we encounter perplexing things it is good to have the Word of God hidden in our hearts.
Josiah was 39 year old when he died.
The LORD kept His promise to Josiah. It is a interesting to realize it was his pride that brought into this battle. Chronicles tells us about this. He had been warned not to go. He died in it. God's promise was fulfilled even though it was Josiah's pride that was the cause of it. He did not see the destruction of Jerusalem and the exile.
II Kings 22.19-20
"Because your heart was responsive and you humbled yourself before the LORD when you heard what I have spoken against this place and its people, that they would become accursed and laid waste, and because you tore your robes and wept in My presence, I have heard you, declares the LORD. Therefore I will gather you to your fathers, and you will be buried in peace. Your eyes will not see all the disaster I am going to bring on this place."
God keeps His Word. He is faithful when we are faithless.
- He died before the great spiritual disaster and exile came to Judah.
- He was gathered to the spirits of his fathers, who were in peace.
- He died in God's favor, though by the hand of an enemy.
He is faithful to all His Promises.
God rewarded him for his faith, repentance and fervor.
God's work in us brings wonder and at times is mysterious in that we don't understand, but we think about His love and goodness and that He is indeed in control we will not just make it through but we will make it through victoriously.
Romans 8:37 Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.
Romans 8:38-39 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our LORD.
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