Lesson 374 - Junior

Memory Verse

"The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart;  and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit" (Psalm 34:18).

Notes

The Establishing of the Passover

The Israelites were supposed to live by the rules God gave them when they came from the land of Egypt. On their last night in captivity, they had eaten the Passover Feast for the first time. At that time God said: "This day shall be unto you for a memorial; and ye shall keep it a feast to the LORD throughout your generations; ye shall keep it a feast by an ordinance for ever" [EXO:12:14]). It was to remind them of their deliverance from Egypt, and also to be a type of the Lamb of God, Jesus, who would come to deliver men from sin.

Among God's rules was one that told the parents to teach their children the laws of God" "And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up" [DEU:6:7]).

God's Law Not Kept

For many years the children of the Israelites had not heard the laws of God. Their parents did not talk to them about God, nor go to the Temple where God had promised to meet them. Through the reigns of two kings, the people had worshiped idols, and few knew what the laws of God were. The Passover Feast, which was to have been a memorial and to have been kept every year, had not been kept for a long time. Think how dreary the world would be if there were no churches to go to, and no one ever talked about God! What if there were no one to tell you right from wrong?

God had threatened the Israelites that if they did not obey Him but worshiped idols instead, He would let heathen nations come into their land and take them captive. Prophets had warned that God was noticing all their wickedness, and soon the time would come when those warnings would be fulfilled.

Josiah's Birth

Into all this sinfulness and spiritual darkness, Josiah was born. When he was only eight years old he became king. When Josiah was sixteen years old "he began to seek after the God of David his father" [2CH:34:3]); and by the time he was twenty he had begun to tear down the heathen idols and all the groves where people went to make sacrifices. Josiah wanted the people to worship God, but first they must get sin out of the way.

Repairing the Temple

After Josiah had destroyed the idol worship, it was time to prepare the House of God for worship. Because no one had gone to church for so long, no doubt weeds were high around the building, and the windows were broken and doors off their hinges. It took many workmen -- builders, carpenters, and masons -- to again make the Temple the beautiful house of God that would be a worthy place of worship. It cost very much money, too, for the repair work, but the people gave willingly and the workmen honestly put all the money into the work even though no one kept accounts.

It was a good thing to have a beautiful place in which to worship, but something else of even greater importance was necessary. The hearts of the people had to be beautified.

The Need for a Clean Heart

Some people today realise that they should change from their sinful ways, so they start to go to church and they mix with "good people." But they do not repent of their sins, so, of course, do not find favour with God. In order to enjoy real Christianity, one must first put away sin. When the heart is clean, then we know the joys of salvation and can live a life of victory over sin. Jesus alone can make our hearts clean, and he does it when we repent.

Instructions Found

How could the Israelites know what God wanted them to do? how they should live? Maybe even the parents of the children had not heard the laws of God, because it had been perhaps 50 years since they had had a king who served the Lord.

Just when the people needed instruction the most, the priest found a copy of the Law of God written in a book. If a person is honest, and wants to know the will of God, God will lead him to the truth and give him an opportunity to do the right thing.

Not everyone could read and write in those days, so Shaphan the scribe, whose business it was to read important papers, took the book to the king and read the words of the Lord to him. Josiah had prayed to God to know His will, and here was the answer.

In the book wee written the judgments that were to come upon Israel if the Law of God was not obeyed. When Josiah heard them, he became frightened and thought surely all Israel was doomed. Israel had not kept the Law of God and deserved to be punished.

When people want to do the right thing, they are deeply concerned when they find that laws have been broken. Other people, whose hearts are hard and who do not want to be Christians, can read the judgments of God and never be moved. May God keep our hearts tender so that we will listen to His warnings, and prepare our hearts to be ready when Jesus comes! Jesus said when He was on earth: "He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day" [JHN:12:48]).

Hope

In the time of Josiah there was a righteous prophetess to whom God spoke. The book was taken to her to see if there might be some hope for Israel. If the people repented with all their heart, could they be spared? Or must they suffer at once for the sins of their parents and their own sins, too? She answered: "Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, . . . Because thine heart was tender, and thou hast humbled thyself . . . I also have heard thee."

God always sees the repentant heart. Whosoever will may come to Jesus. He never turns anyone away who is sorry that he has sinned, and wants to be forgiven. But one must repent with all his heart in order to find favour with God.

Josiah wanted the favour of God more than anything in the world, and God saw it. Judgment would still come upon the sinners, but not while Josiah lived.

Many times the righteousness of one man has held back the judgments of God for a time, giving others a chance to repent. What great mercy God shows to the children of men! But judgment must fall when the heart is unrepentant. God has spoken, and it shall come to pass.

A Righteous Nation

Josiah called all the people together to listen to the reading of the Law. Everyone came: the men and women, the children, the great and small. Josiah made a covenant before the Lord to obey all that God had commanded, and the people all stood with him, saying that they too would obey God's law. How wonderful Josiah must have felt, to know that all the Children of Israel would support him in a righteous reign! There have been very few times in the world's history when the rulers of countries have given themselves wholeheartedly to serve God, and when all the people have followed their example. What a happy world this would be if such a condition existed in all nations!

Now that Josiah knew the will of God, he really went to work to finish cleaning up the idol worship, which had been going on throughout all the cities and in the country.

The Golden Calves

Many years before, just after Israel had been divided into two kingdoms, Jeroboam had brought great trouble upon Israel by making two golden calves and setting them up for the Israelites to worship. One had been set up at Bethel, the place that is sacred to us as the place where Jacob dreamed he saw the angels ascending and descending on a ladder which reached to Heaven. Jacob felt the presence of God at that time, and said, "Surely the LORD is in this place; and I knew it not." But Jeroboam had profaned the place by setting up a golden calf, and God had sent a prophet to tell him that judgement would befall him.

When Jeroboam had stood up to burn incense to the golden calf, "a man of God" interrupted by saying, "O altar, altar, thus saith the LORD; Behold, a child shall be born unto the house of David, Josiah by name; and upon thee shall he offer the priests of the high places that burn incense upon thee, and men's bones shall be burnt upon thee" [1KG:13:2]). After about 350 years, that prophecy was fulfilled when Josiah took bones from the sepulchres and burned them upon the altar, besides tearing down the high places and grinding them to powder, and burning the groves where the idols stood.

Many times we see prophecy thus fulfilled in the Bible. It puts confidence into our hearts that all God has said shall come to pass. When the Bible states, "The soul that sinneth, it shall die" [EZE:18:4]), we know it means just that. No sinner will go to Heaven unless he has repented of his sins and God has forgiven him. If a person dies with sin in his life, he will be condemned before God.

Obedience Brings Rejoicing

What rejoicing filled the house of the Lord when all the evil was put away from among the people! God came down and met with them as they ate the Feast of the Passover. They had covenanted with God to keep His law, had prepared their hearts for His blessing, and now they were enjoying the outpouring of His love upon them. Never since the time of the Prophet Samuel had they enjoyed such a wonderful Passover Feast.

God honoured the man who led the people in the ways of the Lord. Listen to the words the Bible speaks of him: "Like unto him was there no king before him, that turned to the LORD with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his might, according to all the law of Moses; neither after him arose there any like him" [2KG:23:25]).

Questions

1. Who gave the Israelites rules to live by?

2. When was the first Passover Feast held?

3. How often was the Passover to be kept? and for how long?

4. What did the Israelites we are studying about know regarding the Passover?

5. What kind of king was Josiah, good or bad?

6. What did Josiah do when he was 16 years old? when he was 20?

7. How did Josiah and his people learn the law of God?

8. How did the people help Josiah?

9. What was the result of the people's hard work?

10. What does the Bible say of Josiah's reign?