Day 114 - 2 Kings 23-25

ONE-YEAR JOURNEY OF THE BIBLE
Day 114 - 2 Kings 23-25 (Why Josiah was Israel's Greatest King)
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"Now the king sent them to gather all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem to him.  The king went up to the house of the LORD with all the men of Judah, and with him all the inhabitants of Jerusalem--the priests and the prophets and all the people, both small and great. And he read in their hearing all the words of the Book of the Covenant which had been found in the house of the LORD.  Then the king stood by a pillar and made a covenant before the LORD, to follow the LORD and to keep His commandments and His testimonies and His statutes, with all his heart and all his soul, to perform the words of this covenant that were written in this book. And all the people took a stand for the covenant." (2 Kings 23:1-3)

Yesterday, we learned how king Josiah humbled himself before God when he heard the Scriptures.  In our Scripture reading today, we learn how Josiah acted upon his commitment to God by leading the people to return to the true worship of Jehovah.  

The first thing Josiah does as we read from our text above is to gather all the people and personally read the Scripture to them.  A basic duty of every godly leader is to gather the people he leads in order to teach them the truth of the Word of God.  The best definition of a leader is that a leader leads.

Then, Josiah set the example as the leader in making a "covenant before the LORD, to follow the LORD and to keep His commandments and His testimonies and His statutes, with all his heart and all his soul, to perform the words of this covenant that were written in this book. And all the people took a stand for the covenant." (2 Kings 23:3)  Parents, husbands and church and goverment leaders need to set the example of what it means to follow the Lord before the people we lead.  Leaders who lead by example are rare and the world is in dire need of them.

Next, Josiah rid the Temple and all the land as far as Samaria of all altars and idols and executed all the priests of those foreign gods and even dug up the bones of those who worshipped idols and burned them along with their altars.  A great leader will have the will, determination and zeal to do the right thing at all cost.  

Last, but not the least, Josiah reinstituted the Passover to the Lord.  By reinstituting the Passover, Josiah was instilling in the minds of the people the importance of true worship of God and fellowship of God's people.  

Because he humbled himself before God in repentance for his own sin and the sin of his people, lead in the reading and teaching of Scriptures, set the example of what it meant to follow God, destroyed all idolatry in his kingdom, and reinstituted the Passover to the Lord, God's epitaph on the life of king Josiah describes his as the greatest king Judah and Israel ever had:

       "Now before him there was no king like him, who turned to the LORD with all his heart, with all his s           soul, and with all his might, according to all the Law of Moses; nor after him did any arise like him. (2         Kings 23:25)

That is the epitaph I desire for God to say about my life.  I hope it is yours as well.