Word of Salvation – Vol.46 No.19 – May 2001

 

Lost & Found

 

Sermon by Rev S Bajema on 2 Kings 22

Scripture Reading: 2 Kings 21:19 – 22:20

 

Beloved in the Lord,

What do you feel when you’ve come to the end of the line?  That’s a time when we have to give something up, isn’t it?  Perhaps it was a job or business we had, or a course we were trying to study.

We’ve tried our hardest.  We got whatever advice and help we could at that time.  We went as far as we could do.  And then some more.

It was all too much though.  No matter how much we did then, it was too late.  All our effort was in vain.  In the end we had to face the facts.  And then, as well as those facts, wasn’t there our pride as well?  We don’t like to fail.

But often it isn’t us.  It was a series of bad seasons.  Perhaps cheap imports flooded the market.  There was just no more work in that trade.  It isn’t where your talents are.

What it means, though, is the end of that road.  You have to try something else.  The hardest thing is acknowledging that, and moving on.

Imagine, however, congregation, if the position that you have means that there simply can’t be another start at all.  This end of the road is it – FULL STOP!  Everything – and I mean absolutely EVERYTHING – closes up shop after this!

This is what confronted King Josiah right when he was just getting everything going.  You see, looking on the outside this was no end of the road at all!  It was obviously a new beginning!  Judah had a God-fearing king.

In fact, wasn’t Josiah such a faithful king that we read about him, “He did what was right in the eyes of the LORD and walked in all the ways of his father David, not turning to the right or to the left”?  (2 Kings 22:2)

Still, it’s the end of the line.  It was all just too late.  God’s people in the Old Testament had showed that they didn’t have what it takes.

So, congregation, there are two questions which our text lays before us.  The first question is perhaps not so obvious.  For instead of looking to what was found in the text, we ask…  WHAT HAD BEEN LOST?

So, WHAT HAD BEEN LOST?

How could it be that there could be no new start for Judah’s royal family – the very line which the LORD had prophesied as bringing about the ultimate King?  The lineage which would make Israel great forever!

Well, we do pick up an indication of what had been lost when a certain something is found.  Because what was it that had been lost?  The Law of God – no less!  The very framework YAHWEH had given to His people before they entered the Promised Land so that they would be blessed before Him in that land.  The very words which clearly condemned all that Judah had now become.

And here we don’t need to debate whether this writing was so many chapters of Deuteronomy or the whole five books themselves.  It was a writing substantial enough to make clear how they were meant to worship and serve the LORD their God.

For while Josiah was a good king, raised by a godly mother, up until the point of hearing that Law, Judah hadn’t really changed that much from how things had been for centuries already – in fact, how things had been since Solomon himself!

In fact, when that Law is read out to him, he is utterly cut to the heart.  He sees straightaway what it means.  It’s the end of the line!

WHAT HAD BEEN LOST?  Congregation, to hear those words of the Law then for Josiah was to be confronted with his own death sentence.  Because that Law itself was meant to be read at least every seven years.  He would have heard that!  That reading itself would have been done when Israel followed the annual cycle of Feasts the LORD laid down for them in His Word.  And he certainly knew that wasn’t being done.

On top of all that, he would have heard the LORD God’s curse on Israel when she was disobedient and followed the ways of the nations around her.  Josiah would have known the history of the northern kingdom well enough on that score.  And now he knew Judah was condemned, too.

WHAT HAD BEEN LOST?  Well, put simply, congregation – the blessing had been lost.  The special presence and guidance of the covenant God Himself, His constant calling them back through the prophets, His raising godly kings, and His showing them decisively time and again that there could only be true peace and joy in His worship and service – it was gone!

I feel sorry for Josiah.  He was the king God’s people should have had all along.  If anyone fulfilled the requirements for kingship based on the book of the Law, it was this man.  But that Law now condemned him.  So, what do you think your reaction would be if you heard your future spelled out like this?  It’s the end of the line brother!  You and your lot have got to go!  It’s the big boss who came and told you so!

What do you reckon – time to take that trip to Disneyland?  Try and live it up while you’ve got the redundancy still and a bit of the super?  There’s no use hanging ‘round here.

Of course we can’t equate Josiah’s situation with anything which happens today.  But there are universal types of reactions when you get this bad news.  Your reaction can make you or break you.  You can pick yourself up and get on with what you believe you ought to do, or you can just fold up, blame yourself or blame anyone and anything else.

I think it says something that Josiah’s servants make a point of reading it to their king.  Any other king and it would most likely have been buried even further into the junk under the temple.  But they took it to this king even though I’m sure they knew what it meant to him.  That says a lot for the trustworthiness of these men, but especially for the godliness of the king who had put them there and who had reigned that way since he was just eight years old!

WHAT HAD BEEN LOST?  It wasn’t long before they found that out well and truly.  Josiah was quick to seek the LORD’s guidance for his desperate quandary.  His faithful servants were sent to find a prophet of the LORD.  And they found her.  Yes, her – a woman.  A rare event.  Actually, because it is a woman referred to here, even the liberal scholars accept this as true.  They say someone trying to make this story up would have referred to a prophet like Jeremiah or Zephaniah, who were both around at the time.  It shows they should really believe the Bible after all!

What Huldah the prophetess spoke to Josiah from the LORD could only confirm the LORD’s Law.  The way of YAHWEH’s blessing through physical Israel had come to an end.  He himself would be the last godly king.

WHAT HAD BEEN LOST?  Congregation, any idea that God would bring about His deliverance through an earthly, physical dynasty was smashed forever!  It was beyond the point of no return!  A truth the Jews even six hundred years later still didn’t understand.  But the truth this text is very clear about.

You see what had been lost was that through the outward worship and practice of a particular race the LORD would fulfil His plan.  That’s not to say His plan was therefore a failure.  This part of His plan was perfectly setting up how His next stage was going to be.  That’s what Josiah could see.  And it’s what we see, too, in the words of the second question we ask of this text…  HOW WAS IT FOUND?

HOW WAS IT FOUND?

Now, when we read our text we naturally would answer this question – it was found in the Temple.  That’s where the Book of the Law was.

But there was a whole process happening before this Law was ever found.  Josiah was embarking upon the repair of the Temple, which was definitely in disrepair.  For while it was fifty years ago that Hezekiah had repaired it last, there had been some pretty bad kings in between!  During the reign of one of them, Jerusalem was even conquered and ravaged.  And then there was what else they had allowed to be worshipped in the temple besides the LORD God!

The text also notes that it was the eighteenth year of Josiah’s reign.  We can be sure that this wasn’t something he delayed doing but most likely this was the earliest peaceful period when he could turn his attention to doing such a major project.  We also know from 2 Chronicles Chapter 34 that he had begun some reforms earlier on.

Congregation… HOW WAS IT FOUND?  It was found when this godly king is doing what he believes the LORD would be pleased His people would be doing.  Which is that the place of His presence among His people is undefiled and in the best possible condition – in other words, spotless.  Can you give anything less to the LORD?

There is still something more, though, to ‘HOW WAS IT FOUND’?  Because what we have here is no accident.  For while Josiah is well aware now that it is the end of the line for David’s royal line in physical Israel – so His people would soon be in captivity, as per Deuteronomy – he is yet moved by God’s Spirit Himself to show a special, glimpse into the future beyond physical Israel.

Notice how Josiah is cut to the heart.  In verse 11 he immediately tears his robes when hearing that Law.  He’s really sorry – deep down!  A repentance the LORD’s prophet speaks about.  She says to him, “…your heart was responsive and you humbled yourself before the LORD when you heard what I have spoken…”

Congregation, while the Law of God is just and has to carry out punishment against those who deserve it, yet it shows us the Love of God that there are those who don’t deserve it.  This is the point of the apostle Paul when he writes about God’s Law.  He knows it can’t save anyone – Israel’s history proves it.

But he also knows it’s through the Law – God’s Word – that His salvation does come.  It’s this grace which is merciful to Josiah.  While he is still alive there will be the blessing.  The LORD holds off His angel of judgment.  That’s what Paul said in Galatians 5, “…if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law” (vs 18).

HOW WAS IT FOUND?  It was found through a child of the LORD God being forgiven and restored.  And then, while knowing the word of judgment of the LORD on His people, Josiah still went and carried out the most thorough reformation in all of Old Testament Israel’s history!  He even cleared up what was left of the northern kingdom as well!

While it was too late to change the heart of the people, what a wonderful pointer to the king of Israel who would change the hearts of His own in the new covenant.

Congregation, then before the LORD gave Josiah His law, it had been lost.  The people had a totally different way.  And even with a king like Josiah, it wouldn’t change that way.  For while Josiah was a son of David’s house, he wasn’t the greater son.  Despite the LORD’s blessing being used by Him in a cleansing of the promised land, yet Josiah was killed on a battlefield.  His followers all fell away.  He hadn’t been able to convert his own sons.  They were the same evil kings Judah had had so often before.  Except that they became the last of those kings with very short reigns indeed!

This was why Jesus Christ had to come.  He fulfilled perfectly what Israel and her kings and various priests and prophets could never do.  It’s because of this King of kings that we can be assured that everything is okay.  This was why Jesus Christ had to come.  He satisfied the justice of God with the perfect sacrifice – Himself.  It’s because of the King of kings that our hearts are struck, just like Josiah’s.  This is what Jeremiah spoke of when He prophesied, “This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time,” declares the LORD.  “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts.”

That’s the covenant we live in now.  The covenant which was fulfilled in full when that greater Son of David won the battle – the battle against all the forces of evil.  Now the question can never be…  HOW WAS IT FOUND?  Because the Law of God can never be lost!

Amen.

PRAYER: O mighty and marvellous God, how we stand in awe of your working.  For while Judah had blown it with you, out of your grace you still blessed them through Josiah.  But while Josiah could only bring that peace physically for 31 years, in your Son, Jesus Christ, we have spiritual peace and blessing that lasts forevermore!  Thank you Lord, and may we show that today it is your Spirit Himself who leads your people, because through Christ we’re not under the law anymore.  In His precious Name, we pray,

Amen.