Written by: John Sernaque
Call to Worship
2 Kings 22: 10-11
22:10 And Shaphan the scribe showed the king, saying, Hilkiah the priest hath delivered me a book. And Shaphan read it before the king.
22:11 And it came to pass, when the king had heard the words of the book of the law, that he rent his clothes.
Josiah’s Repentance Points to Our Work—
When Josiah heard the words of warning and condemnation because Israel had trampled upon the precepts of heaven, he humbled himself. He wept before the Lord. He made a thorough work of repentance and reformation, and God accepted his efforts. The whole congregation of Israel entered into a solemn covenant to keep the commandments of Jehovah. This is our work today. We must repent of the past evil of our doings, and seek God with all our hearts. We must believe that God means just what He says, and make no compromise with evil in any way. We should greatly humble ourselves before God, and consider any loss preferable to the loss of His favor (The Review and Herald, January 31, 1888). {2BC 1038.5}
Here was a lesson not only for Josiah, but also for all of Israel. Israel was failing as a nation and the LORD began to cut Israel short. Many of the Kings had done evil in the sight of the LORD. When Josiah heard the words of the book of the law, he rent his clothes. He humbled himself and wept before the LORD. The LORD heard Josiah’s cries and promised him peace and that he would not see the evil that was to come. Josiah removed all the High Places and idolatrous things from Judah, including the idolatrous priests. There was total repentance on his part. He turned to the LORD with all his heart, soul, and might according to all the Law of Moses. The power of the Bible leads to repentance, reformation, and revival. Josiah did a good work in removing and uprooting idolatry. Unfortunately, Josiah died in battle. Why? Because he did not heed the word of the LORD that said, he would die in peace. Josiah made war with the King of Egypt without any order coming from God. Josiah became self-confident and went against the word of God. Josiah went his own way and God could not protect him from his act of disobedience. The lessons of Josiah and Israel are to bring light and hope into the world. Righteousness is of the LORD and it will not perish. Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. In this, the world may know the Blessed Hope that Christ Jesus will return.
Our kind and gracious heavenly Father,
We humbly come into Your presence in thanksgiving and bring our petitions before thee. We thank You for giving us another opportunity to lift up our prayers up to Your throne in heaven. We thank You for always being there for us to receive our prayers and commune with us no
matter when and where we come. We look forward to the day when we can see You face to face in heaven. What a joyful day that will be. We thank You for giving us the Blessed Hope of Your return for us to take us home to New Jerusalem where there will be no pain or sorrow. We thank You for the Bible and all the lessons provided to us for our edification. Lessons that instruct us in the way we should go, and not go. Your words of warning and condemnation. Josiah was ignorant of the Law of Moses and all the evil that abounded around him. We thank You for all of Your commandments that keep us on the strait path to heaven. We pray to receive Your righteousness. We are sorry and repent of our sins and pray You forgive us of our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. We pray for reformation and a revival in this world that it may hasten Your second coming. There is so much evil and immorality in the world today. Please help each one of us do our part in bringing the everlasting gospel to those who are in the dark. We pray Your light enters into their hearts, minds, and souls. Help us to remove the idols out of their life and instill Your saving truth in its place. We pray to bring Your light and hope into this world. We pray for a plentiful harvest. We thank You for hearing and answering our prayers, in the name of Christ Jesus, we pray. Amen.
