week of 2/5/08

quite an interesting night at roots this week. as we prepared for our fast to begin on wednesday, we looked at King Josiah to find some inspiration.

Josiah's story can be found in 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles.

Story opens with Josiah's father Amon being assasinated by some of his servants. Josiah is annointed King at 8 years old.

At 16 years old, he begins to seek after God. Altars to false Gods, are destroyed, their high places are torn down, and he begins to correct some of the spiritual problem that faced Judah. He corrected what he knew was wrong. No excuses, no justification, he did what he knew was right.

At age 26 Josiah begins to repair the temple. As they are working, they find the Book of the Law, which had previously been lost. Immediately they take the Book to Josiah and he tears his clothes in despair because Judah was so far away from God. They had disobeyed and walked away from God in every way, and Josiah was immediately in mourning for his people's sin.

Josiah gathered all the people, read the Book of the Law, and renewed his covenant to God, and made the people pledge themselves to God as well. They then had the greatest Passover party that the world had ever seen.

Because of his humility and brokenness over sin, God's judgment did not fall on Judah until after Josiah died.

There are some connections here that we can make as we begin our fast.

1) Josiah pursued God.
2) Josiah fixed what he knew was wrong.
3) When truth was revealed to Josiah, he immediately responded with mourning and obedience
4) By utterly destroying the altars and killing the false priests, Josiah burned the bridges - there was no going back to the wicked way

During our time of fasting as we focus on God, we can also fix the areas of our lives that we know are wrong. We can no longer justify or pretend or lie to ourselves about areas that are clearly breaking our intimacy with God - we must tear them down and destroy them. Some of those things that are idols need to be utterly destroyed so there is no going back. Other things, God may allow us to enjoy but we can never allow those things to take His place.

As truth is revealed to us through the Spirit of God and the Word of God we must also be quick to respond. Obedience is what set Josiah apart as the King of Israel who followed God more than any other. In our lives, sacrifice can be a sign of our love, but sacrifice is meaningless without obedience. Obedience brings irreplaceable intimacy.

courage my friends, our journey begins!
-davey