JOSIAH FINDS GOD'S LAW

MEMORY VERSE

Galatians 3:13a, ESV

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us...

DAY 1

2 Chronicles 34:1-7, NIrV

1 Josiah was eight years old when he became king. He ruled in Jerusalem for 31 years. 2 He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord. He lived the way King David had lived. He didn’t turn away from it to the right or the left.


3 While he was still young, he began to worship the God of King David. It was the eighth year of Josiah’s rule. In his 12th year Josiah began to get rid of the high places in Judah and Jerusalem. He removed the poles used to worship the female god named Asherah. He also removed the statues of other false gods. 4 He ordered the altars of the gods that were named Baal to be torn down. Josiah cut to pieces the altars above them that were used for burning incense. He smashed the Asherah poles. He also smashed the statues of other false gods. Josiah broke all of them to pieces. He scattered the pieces over the graves of those who had offered sacrifices to those gods. 5 He burned the bones of the priests on their altars. That’s the way he made Judah and Jerusalem pure and “clean.” 6 Josiah went to the towns of Manasseh, Ephraim and Simeon. He went all the way to Naphtali. He also went to the destroyed places around all those towns. 7 Everywhere Josiah went he tore down the altars and the Asherah poles. He crushed the statues of gods to powder. He cut to pieces all the altars for burning incense. He destroyed all those things everywhere in Israel. Then he went back to Jerusalem.

BIBLE STUDY

If you became king at 8 years old, what would you do? Make school illegal, ban bedtime, or order your parents to clean your room? That's not what Josiah of the kingdom of Judah did. He became a kid-king when his father was killed by his enemies. Josiah believed in the God of Israel and wanted to walk in the footsteps of good King David. Because of the wicked kings who ruled before him, Josiah’s land was filled with altars and statues used to worship all sorts of other pretend gods. So Josiah sent his servants out to track down every one of these wicked things and smash them to bits!


+ How old was Josiah when he began to worship the Lord? (vs. 3)


+ What did Josiah have his servants do with all the things used to worship false gods? (vs. 4-7)

DAY 2

2 Chronicles 34:8-13, NIrV

8 In the 18th year of Josiah’s rule, he decided to make the land and temple pure and “clean.” So he sent Shaphan, Maaseiah and Joah to repair the temple of the Lord his God. Shaphan was the son of Azaliah. Maaseiah was ruler of the city. And Joah, the son of Joahaz, kept the records.


9 These men went to Hilkiah the high priest. They gave him the money that had been brought into God’s temple. The Levites who guarded the gates had collected it. They had received some of the money from the people of Manasseh and Ephraim. They had also received some from the other people who remained in Israel. The rest of the money came from other people. It came from all the people of Judah and Benjamin and the people living in Jerusalem. 10 Men were appointed to direct the work on the Lord’s temple. All the money collected was given to them. These men paid the workers who repaired the temple. They made it look like new again. 11 They also gave money to the builders and those who worked with wood. The workers used it to buy lumber and blocks of stone. The lumber was used for the supports and beams for the buildings. The kings of Judah had let the buildings fall down.


12 The workers were faithful in doing the work. Jahath and Obadiah directed them. They were Levites from the family line of Merari. Zechariah and Meshullam also directed them. They were from the family line of Kohath. The Levites were skilled in playing musical instruments. 13 They were in charge of the laborers. They directed all the workers from job to job. Some of the Levites were secretaries and writers. Other Levites guarded the gates.

BIBLE STUDY

The evil kings who ruled before Josiah let the kingdom of Judah become filthy with sin. To clean up his land, Josiah sent his servants on a mission to seek and destroy all the altars and idols of the false gods. This mission was a smashing success! But after years of breaking, it was time to start building. The temple was the “house of God,” built by King Solomon over 300 years earlier. Because the wicked rulers before Josiah had not taken care of it, the once-beautiful temple was now starting to look like a dump! So Josiah ordered this three top servants to work on making God’s temple shine again.


+ Why did the temple need to be repaired?


+ What three men did Josiah put in charge of fixing up the temple? (vs. 8)

DAY 3

2 Chronicles 34:14-18, NIrV

14 The money that had been taken into the Lord’s temple was being brought out. At that time Hilkiah the priest found the Book of the Law of the Lord. It had been given through Moses. 15 Hilkiah spoke to Shaphan the secretary. Hilkiah said, “I’ve found the Book of the Law in the Lord’s temple.” Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan.


16 Then Shaphan took the book to King Josiah. He told him, “Your officials are doing everything they’ve been asked to do. 17 They have paid out the money that was in the Lord’s temple. They’ve put it in the care of the directors and workers.” 18 Shaphan continued, “Hilkiah the priest has given me a book.” Shaphan read some of it to the king.

BIBLE STUDY

Finding a copy of God’s Word to read isn’t very hard. The Bible has been printed in paper books billions of times and is available on just as many digital devices! But in Josiah’s day, God’s Words had to be copied down by hand onto scrolls. Because they didn’t have billions of copies, these rolled-up pieces of writing were treated with special care. Sadly, the evil kings before Josiah cared nothing about God and his words. They let these precious scrolls become lost for years and years. But like uncovering buried treasure, one of these forgotten scrolls was found during the temple repairs.


+ Who found the lost scroll of God’s Word? (vs. 14)


+ After bringing the scroll to Josiah, what did Shaphan do? (vs. 18)

DAY 4

2 Chronicles 34:19-21, NIRV

19 The king heard the words of the Law. When he did, he tore his royal robes. 20 He gave orders to Hilkiah, Ahikam, Abdon, Shaphan the secretary and Asaiah. Ahikam was the son of Shaphan. Abdon was the son of Micah. And Asaiah was the king’s attendant. Josiah commanded them, 21 “Go. Ask the Lord for advice. Ask him about what is written in this book that has been found. Do it for me. Also do it for the people who remain in Israel and Judah. The Lord has been very angry with us. That’s because our people before us didn’t obey what the Lord had said. They didn’t do everything written in this book.”

BIBLE STUDY

Many people who study the Bible believe that the lost scroll Hilkiah found contained part of the book of Deuteronomy. When Shaphan read it to Josiah, the king heard God’s commands (what he wanted his people to do) and his curses (what would happen if they disobeyed). As King Josiah listened to these commands and curses, his young heart sank. Why? Because he knew his people had broken God’s commands and earned God’s curses! So he sent his men to ask God what they should do. And when you needed an answer from God, who did you go see? Why, a prophet, of course!


+ What did Josiah do when he heard the words of the Lord? Why? (vs. 19)


+ Why did Josiah think God was angry with his people? (vs. 21)

DAY 5

2 Chronicles 34:22-28, NIRV

22 Hilkiah and the people the king had sent with him went to speak to Huldah the prophet. She was the wife of Shallum. Shallum was the son of Tokhath. Tokhath was the son of Hasrah. Shallum took care of the sacred robes. Huldah lived in the New Quarter of Jerusalem.


23 Huldah said to them, “The Lord is the God of Israel. He says, ‘Here is what you should tell the man who sent you to me. 24 “The Lord says, ‘I am going to bring horrible trouble on this place and its people. There are curses written down in the book that has been read to the king of Judah. All those curses will take place. 25 That’s because the people have deserted me. They have burned incense to other gods. They have made me very angry because of everything their hands have made. So my anger will burn like a fire against this place. And the fire of my anger will not be put out.’ ” ’ 26 The king of Judah sent you to ask for advice. Tell him, ‘The Lord is the God of Israel. He has a message for you about the things you heard. 27 The Lord says, “Your heart was tender. You made yourself humble in my sight. You heard what I spoke against this place and its people. So you made yourself humble. You tore your royal robes and wept. And I have heard you,” announces the Lord. 28 You will join the members of your family who have already died. You will be buried in peace. You will not see all the trouble I am going to bring. I am going to bring trouble on this place and the people who live here.’ ”


Huldah’s answer was taken back to the king.

BIBLE STUDY

Huldah was a prophet. Her job was to speak God’s messages to the people. On this day, Huldah did not have good news to deliver to Josiah’s men. Because they’d disobeyed his commands and worshiped other gods, the people of Josiah’s kingdom were doomed to be destroyed! God would send down on them all the curses and punishments that he had promised in the scroll of his law. However, Huldah did have a teeny-tiny bit of good news to share. Because Josiah’s tender heart felt sadness for the sins of his people, God would delay this disaster until after Josiah’s days were done.


+ Why was God going to punish his people with disaster? (vs. 25)


+ Why would Josiah be saved from the coming disaster? (vs. 27)

DAY 6

2 Chronicles 34:29-33, NIRV

29 Then the king called together all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem. 30 He went up to the Lord’s temple. The people of Judah and Jerusalem went with him. So did the priests and Levites. All of them went, from the least important of them to the most important. The king had all the words of the Book of the Covenant read to them. The book had been found in the Lord’s temple. 31 The king stood next to his pillar. He agreed to the terms of the covenant in front of the Lord. The king promised to serve the Lord and obey his commands, directions and rules. He promised to obey them with all his heart and with all his soul. So the king promised to obey the terms of the covenant that were written in that book.


32 Then he had everyone in Jerusalem and in Benjamin commit themselves to the covenant. The people of Jerusalem did it in keeping with the covenant of the God of Israel.


33 Josiah removed all the statues of false gods from the whole territory that belonged to the Israelites. The Lord hated those statues. Josiah had everyone in Israel serve the Lord their God. As long as he lived, they didn’t fail to follow the Lord, the God of their people.

BIBLE STUDY

This week, we’ve read about how King Josiah found a long-forgotten scroll containing the words of God’s Law. This law was first given to God’s people around 800 years before the time of Josiah. God himself spoke the words of his law to Moses, the leader of the Israelites, way up on top of a mountain called Sinai.

God’s law was a covenant: a very special promise or agreement between God and his people. In the covenant of God’s law, he told his people exactly how he wanted them to live. There were lots and lots of commands and rules to follow, both big and small. But all of God’s laws could be shrunk down to just two commands. The first: Love God with all your heart. And the second: love other people like you love yourself.

God’s covenant with Moses and his people came with blessings and curses. Blessings were good gifts God gave when his people kept his laws. And curses were punishments God promised to perform if his people broke his laws. After endless years of ignoring and breaking and completely forgetting about God’s law, the people of Josiah’s kingdom could be certain that dreadful curses were headed their way!

After his servants delivered Huldah’s message of doom and gloom to him, Josiah gathered the people together. He read to them every single word from the long-lost scroll of God’s law. And when he finished, Josiah made a covenant promise of his own. He promised to follow all of God’s commands with every last bit of his heart. And he ordered all his people to join him in making this promise.

Not long after Josiah died, his people returned to their law-breaking ways. As a result, God allowed their kingdom to be conquered and his people to be carried off to a far away land. The people simply could not escape the grasp of the curse of their sin.

This same sad story is true for you and me, too. Like the people of Josiah’s kingdom, we are lawbreakers and sinners. We’ve failed to love God with all of our hearts. And we’ve failed to love other people like we love ourselves. We’ve earned the dreadful curse of sin. Along with Josiah’s people of long ago, we are headed for disaster.

But like Huldah had good news for Josiah, I have good news for you! God loved law-breaking sinners so much, he sent someone to save us: his only Son, Jesus! To rescue us from the dreadful curse of sin, Jesus died in our place. He was punished and cursed instead of us. Because he was the powerful Son of God, death wasn’t the end for him. Jesus rose back to life on the third day. And here’s the best news of all: if we repent (turn away from our sins) and trust in Jesus, God will take the curse of sin away from us forever! We’ll live in a good kingdom with the greatest king of all – Jesus!


+ What promise did King Josiah make? (vs. 31)


+ How did Jesus save us from the curse of our sin?

© 2023 Andrew Doane. All rights reserved.