Sat.’s Devo - Cleansing the Land of Idolatry

Josiah became king when he was 8 so 18 years later he started restoring the Temple. He would have been 26 years old. He took the money that the gatekeepers collected every Sabbath and gave it to the construction supervisors and trusted them to do their job without any accountability. He said that they were honest and trustworthy men. In the restoration, the high priest found a copy of the law and gave it to Josiah’s court secretary to read. He read what it said, and took it to Josiah. When Josiah read it he tore his clothes in despair as he realized all the things that had been done for years in Judah were blasphemous to God and he would have to punish them. He was probably reading Dueteronomy 28-30 about the curses and the blessings. They were definitely doing what would give them the curses. They went to the prophet Huldah to ask her what God would say to them. She sent back word that God was indeed very angry because they had rebelled against him and he would destroy Jerusalem but it would not happen in Josiah’s time because he had repented. Josiah called all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem to the Temple where he read to them the entire Book of the Covenant. He pledged to obey the Lord and keep His commands with his whole heart and soul. The people agreed also. Then they started a huge campaign to cleanse the land of idolatry. They got rid of the prophets of Baal and all worship of Baal and Asherah and the powers of the heavens taking everything used in these practices down to the Kidron Valley and burning them. Josiah also tore down the pagan shrines throughout his land. He defiled the altar of Topheth in the valley of Ben-Hinnon so no one could offer their children in the fire to Molech. He destroyed the horse statutes and the chariots that former kings had used in worshipping the sun. They tore down the altars Manasseh had built in the courtyards of the Lord’s Temple. He desecrated the shrine east of Jerusalem and south of the Mount of Corruption where King Solomon had built shrines for Ashtoreth and Chemosh and Molech. He tore down the altar at Bethel, the golden calf that Jeroboam had built then Josiah ordered that the bones of the tombs by this altar to be brought out and burned on the altar at Bethel to desecrate it. There was a monument that caught Josiah’s attention and when he asked about it, he found that it was the grave of the prophet that had prophesied this very day 326 years before (I Kings 13:2). The had even called Josiah by name. Josiah told his men to leave his tomb and not take his bones. Josiah cleaned out the idolatry out of Samaria also and executed the priest of the pagan shrines on their own altars. He then ordered the nation to celebrate the Passover like God had set it up to be celebrated. Josiah even got rid of all the psychics and household gods and every evil practice in his nation. Never before had a king turned to the Lord with all his heart like Josiah and there has never been one since. Even so, God did not repent of his curse on Jerusalem and the Temple because of the evil things Manasseh had done. The king of Egypt and the king of Assyria joined together to fight against Israel. They met at Megiddo where Josiah was killed. His son, Jehoahaz was made king. In Acts, Paul asked the commander who had rescued him from the mob if he could talk to the people. He talked to the commander in Greek, then addressed the people in Aramaic. He also knew Hebrew. Paul was a very smart man. The commander let him speak. The people were hushed and quietly listened while he told his testimony. He told them of his education and devout study of the Law of God. He told them of his zeal to kill Christians, but then how God revealed himself in a bright light that kept him blind for three days. He told of how Ananias came and prayed for him to see and told him that he was to preach the Good News to everyone. Then he told them to get up and be baptized and have their sins washed away in Jesus name. Lord, thank you for people like Josiah who was such an example of a godly leader. Raise up godly leaders to lead our nations who need no accountability because they are honest and trust in you. May we rid our lives of all ungodliness like Josiah rid his nation of sin.