Restore.
Are you to young to be used by God to do something amazing?
Are you?!
At what age do we qualify in becoming a revolutionary in Christ?
It shocks me how many revolutionary children there are in the Bible (not youths, but kids! - Jeremiah and Samuel are high in the list) but I have been blown away by the young Josiah.
Josiah's granddad was a terrible king who spent his 55 year reign corrupting the nation. His father was no better; he came to the throne when he was young but by the time he was 24 he had become so corrupt that his officials had him assassinated! This was Josiah's family, it was a bit of a mess; what chance did he have?!
Josiah was eight years old when he became king. He ruled for thirty-one years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Jedidah daughter of Adaiah; she was from Bozkath. He lived the way God wanted. He kept straight on the path blazed by his ancestor David, not one step to either left or right. 2 Kings 22:1-2 (Msg)
He was 8! Suddenly the responsibility of the nation was on his shoulders. It wasn't like he had just lost his dad and had to deal with kids taunting him in the playground at school; this child had to grieve the deaths in his family over the past few years and start ruling a country that was morally falling apart on every level!
Surely the NSPCC would do an advert about him or something - 'He's just a child...'
But he did OK. He held things together for sometime, but something was about to happen:
One day in the eighteenth year of his kingship... 2 Kings 22:1-3 (Msg)
Josiah had sent one of his officials to the Temple to ensure that it was in good keep. When he arrived the priest their announced an amazing discovery; in one of the back rooms they had found the Torah, God's law books (first five books of the Bible). They had not been seen for generations and as a result completely forgotten… even by the priests!
The priest then read it to Josiah. He was 26 at the time and he publicly broke down, it was too much to bear. He loved the nation to so much that he would have done anything to defend it, but all of sudden he realised that the point of it all was not for him to be king of Judah but for God to be!
He immediately took every foreign god out of the temple. He destroyed every place of worship to idols. He began a God Revolution, this young man who knew the fragility of kingship, used every moment he had to make a difference.
The king acted immediately, assembling all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem. Then the king proceeded to The Temple of God, bringing everyone in his train - priests and prophets and people ranging from the famous to the unknown. Then he read out publicly everything written in the Book of the Covenant that was found in The Temple of God. The king stood by the pillar and before God solemnly committed them all to the covenant: to follow God believingly and obediently; to follow his instructions, heart and soul, on what to believe and do; to put into practice the entire covenant, all that was written in the book. The people stood in affirmation; their commitment was unanimous. 2 Kings 23:1-3 (Msg)
Are you a revolutionary for God? Am I?
We should be.
Undoubtedly few [if any] of us are called to be kings here and now. Josiah new what position he had been put in and went all out to use it to its full potential [for God] while he had it (after all he knew that he could easily be assassinated before the day was out). We too have opportunities today that will not be available tomorrow.
What are we going to do?
The revolution is God's but the choice is ours.
Are you?!
At what age do we qualify in becoming a revolutionary in Christ?
It shocks me how many revolutionary children there are in the Bible (not youths, but kids! - Jeremiah and Samuel are high in the list) but I have been blown away by the young Josiah.
Josiah's granddad was a terrible king who spent his 55 year reign corrupting the nation. His father was no better; he came to the throne when he was young but by the time he was 24 he had become so corrupt that his officials had him assassinated! This was Josiah's family, it was a bit of a mess; what chance did he have?!
Josiah was eight years old when he became king. He ruled for thirty-one years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Jedidah daughter of Adaiah; she was from Bozkath. He lived the way God wanted. He kept straight on the path blazed by his ancestor David, not one step to either left or right. 2 Kings 22:1-2 (Msg)
He was 8! Suddenly the responsibility of the nation was on his shoulders. It wasn't like he had just lost his dad and had to deal with kids taunting him in the playground at school; this child had to grieve the deaths in his family over the past few years and start ruling a country that was morally falling apart on every level!
Surely the NSPCC would do an advert about him or something - 'He's just a child...'
But he did OK. He held things together for sometime, but something was about to happen:
One day in the eighteenth year of his kingship... 2 Kings 22:1-3 (Msg)
Josiah had sent one of his officials to the Temple to ensure that it was in good keep. When he arrived the priest their announced an amazing discovery; in one of the back rooms they had found the Torah, God's law books (first five books of the Bible). They had not been seen for generations and as a result completely forgotten… even by the priests!
The priest then read it to Josiah. He was 26 at the time and he publicly broke down, it was too much to bear. He loved the nation to so much that he would have done anything to defend it, but all of sudden he realised that the point of it all was not for him to be king of Judah but for God to be!
He immediately took every foreign god out of the temple. He destroyed every place of worship to idols. He began a God Revolution, this young man who knew the fragility of kingship, used every moment he had to make a difference.
The king acted immediately, assembling all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem. Then the king proceeded to The Temple of God, bringing everyone in his train - priests and prophets and people ranging from the famous to the unknown. Then he read out publicly everything written in the Book of the Covenant that was found in The Temple of God. The king stood by the pillar and before God solemnly committed them all to the covenant: to follow God believingly and obediently; to follow his instructions, heart and soul, on what to believe and do; to put into practice the entire covenant, all that was written in the book. The people stood in affirmation; their commitment was unanimous. 2 Kings 23:1-3 (Msg)
Are you a revolutionary for God? Am I?We should be.
Undoubtedly few [if any] of us are called to be kings here and now. Josiah new what position he had been put in and went all out to use it to its full potential [for God] while he had it (after all he knew that he could easily be assassinated before the day was out). We too have opportunities today that will not be available tomorrow.
What are we going to do?The revolution is God's but the choice is ours.
posted by Andrew at 8:51 am
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