The Word is Found Again - The Books of 2 Chronicles & 2 Kings

In this Bible Story, Josiah becomes King over Judah at eight years of age. However he clings to the wisdom of God, and becomes beloved as the righteous king of Jerusalem. He restores the temple and repentes on behalf of the people. This story is inspired by 2 Kings 22 & 2 Chronicles 34:1-32. Go to BibleinaYear.com and learn the Bible in a Year.

Today's Bible verse is 2 KIngs 22:8 from the King James Version.

Episode 153: As Josiah finished reading the scroll of God to the people, he cried out to God on their behalf and led them in making a covenant to God. After the people went home, he ordered Hilkiah and his men to banish any remaining priests of Baal they could find. Josiah even went to the forests to tear down the high places that generations of kings had erected there! Josiah did great things for his people to lead them back to their God.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Let us pray, and Hilkiah, the High Priest said, unto
Chaeffan the scribe, I have found the Book of the
Law in the house of the Lord. Then Hilkiah gave
the book to Chaeffan, and he read it. Second Kings
twenty two eight. Dear Father, I will not allow my

(00:21):
age or the maturity of my knowledge in my given
space to stop me from relying on you and your word.
Give me the heart of King Josiah. Give me the
passion and dedication to observe your ways no matter what
I face or what I may be going through. Like

(00:44):
the reading in Second Kings twenty two and Second Chronicles
thirty four, I too am making the decision. I too
am making the decision to seek after and to stay
in your Holy Word. I will praise you as I
read through the Bible, knowing that between the pages are

(01:04):
promises forevermore. Today I will rejoice in what you rejoice in.
I will cry over what grieves you, because I now
know that the level of my activity is connected to
the level of my purity. Therefore, realign my sight, fix
my focus on you, and give me the strength to

(01:29):
tear down any walls that hinder me from living in
your presence in Jesus name, Amen, thanks for making prayer
a priority in your life. To hear the Bible come
to life. Stay tuned for the Bible in a Year,
brought to you by Bible in a Year dot com.

Speaker 2 (02:01):
The word is found again. In our last story, we
learned of the wicked kings Manassa and Aman. Their evil
knew no limits. They openly sacrificed their own children at
the altar of false gods and marked God himself. They
provoked him and beckoned him into conflict. Manassa learned his lesson,

(02:23):
but Ahman did not. Now out of the evil seed
of Manassa, a redeeming force for good emerges. King Josiah
is raised up as a pillar to Judah. His devotion
to God and dedication to kindness begins to restore Judah's heart.
Inspired by the Book of Second Chronicles and Second Kings.

Speaker 3 (02:47):
Hello, this is Jack Graham, and I'm so glad that
you've joined us once again for today's episode of the
Bible in a Year. In our last reading, we heard
how Manassa lived in wickedness and darkness for years, mocking, blaspheming,
angering God, with his idolatry and murderous ways. And yet
when he turned back to God in genuine repentance, God

(03:10):
showed him mercy and restored Manassa to a relationship with him.
It's a reminder to us that God is not willing
that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
According to the scripture, he is always ready to forgive
when we turn our hearts to him. Today we'll hear

(03:30):
about King Josiah, the grandson of Manassa, who lived as
a righteous man. A god fearing King Josiah would usher
in a new era of prosperity and faithfulness to God
in Judah. So let's now turn to God's word.

Speaker 2 (03:46):
One afternoon, little Josiah was playing in the courtyards of
the palace. He chased butterflies and pretended to be a
mighty warrior. He was a mere boy of eight, filled
with laughter and joy. He had no eye idea that
his father was laying in his bed, assassinated only a
few yards away. King Aman's life had ended the night before,

(04:08):
along with Josiah's childhood. Later that morning, Josiah was swept
away in a flurry of meetings and ceremonies. Before the
day had ended, Josiah was crowned king over Judah. Eight
year old Josiah was now responsible for the entire well
being of God's people. The title of king was daunting

(04:29):
for any man, let alone an eight year old boy.
If Josiah was to lead, he needed aid not just
from counselors and elders, but from God. Josiah leaned on
the wisdom of the Lord in many ways. Josiah was
able to maintain a childlike faith towards God because he
was a child himself. The pride and lust that gripped

(04:52):
most king's hearts had no effect on him. He was
a boy in need of love, and the Lord provided it.
Josiah please God with all he did. He did not
turn to the right or to the left. When Josiah
was sixteen, he began to dive deep into the law
and worship of God. He filled his mind with useful

(05:12):
philosophy and history. He sat in the presence of the
priests and learned about the ways of the Lord. At
age twenty, Josiah began a purge of all the idols
erected by his father. He knew that it was not
enough to throw away these idols, he had to make
a statement. So Josiah chopped down the altars of Bales

(05:33):
and ground them into a powder as a symbol of
their demise. He scattered the powder over the graves of
dead pagan priests and worshippers. Josiah went from city to city,
destroying every idle and false god he could find. He
did as his great grandfather Hezekiah did. He knew that

(05:53):
the minds of the people were clouded with those idols.
In the eighteenth year of Josiah's he had cleansed the
land of all its idols. He sent his governors Chaffin
and Masaiah to repair broken parts of the temple. They
hired stone masons and carpenters to repair the shattered altars

(06:13):
and broken beams. The plan was to pay all the
workers with some of the wealth and the temple. Sohlkaia,
the priest, went deep into the temple to find some
of the gold stored down below. This part of the
temple was dusty and hidden. Some of the priests had
kept its secret while the wicked king Amon was in power.
As Hilkiah was collecting some coin to pay the workers,

(06:36):
he stumbled upon a large, dusty scroll resting on the
edge of an altar. Helkaia's eyes were fixed on it
and drawn to it. He walked slowly towards it and
loosened the bindings gently. The scroll was old and had
collected a large amount of dust. As Hilkia scanned the
scroll's contents, his eyes lit up. Helkaia rolled up the

(06:58):
scroll and ran up to Schaffen. I have found it,
Hilkiah yelled, I have found the Book of the Law
written by Moses. The entire sanctuary erupted in gasps and applause.
The scroll had been lost and forgotten for a long time.
In it was documentation of the covenant between God and
Israel in the wilderness. It was one of the original

(07:20):
documents preserved from Moses and a precious reminder of God's
love for his chosen people. Chaffin brought the scroll to
the king. Together they read it in its entirety. Josiah's
eyes glared at the pages with curiosity and amazement. For
decades the people had been without this specific document. Josiah

(07:41):
could hardly help but cry. Chaffin looked at Josiah as
he wept. At first, he thought they were tears of joy,
but soon realized they were tears of sorrow. What troubles
the king? Chaffin asked, isn't this a happy thing? Josiah
shook his head. He placed his hand on the written
word and said, this book speaks of promises unkept. The

(08:04):
king looked at the governor intensely. Our fathers made a
covenant with God, the covenant that God was faithful to keep. However,
our fathers from Jerusalem to Samaria have done nothing but
disobey him. Josiah slid his fingers across the words. He
was troubled by Judah in Israel's departure from God. We
must repent before wrath comes upon us. Lord knows we

(08:29):
would deserve it. Quick go find someone in the land
that can hear the voice of God. We must have clarity.
So Chaffin left in search of a prophet. Days had passed,
and Josiah's anxiety had increased. He wrestled in his heart
regarding Judah's future. He loved his country, but he also
knew that they had strayed from God far too many

(08:50):
times to go without consequence. If God would not punish them,
certainly he would at least allow for their past sins
to catch up to them. As Josiah pays in his chambers,
the doors opened Chaffin into the room with a woman
by the name of Holda. She was a woman of God,
well respected and a prophetess. Josiah had her sit, and

(09:12):
the too spoke of what was to come. Josiah poured
out his heart before her. He spoke of his fear
that the Lord would punish Judah as he did Israel.
Holda looked at her king with admiration and pity. Listen
to the word of the Lord, she said softly, Disaster
will come upon Judah because they have forsaken me. They

(09:32):
continually slip into idolatry and openly provoke me with their wickedness.
I will pour out my wrath like molten fire, and
it shall not be quenched. A chill shut up Josiah's spine,
and his heart began to break. However, she was not finished.
Because your heart was humble before God, and you have

(09:52):
done your best to reconcile the people to me, Destruction
shall not come in your lifetime. Josiah raised himself up
and beckoned the elders of Israel to the temple. He
would not allow this word to quench his devotion to God.
He had the priests lay out the scroll before the
elders and read from it. The words danced out of

(10:13):
the priest's mouth. They filled the air like a sweet aroma.
The elders of Israel were enthralled by the word of
God pouring into their hearts. Then Josiah led them in
a rededication to keeping the Lord's promises. Although the end
of Judah was near, God had a plan to redeem
his people. The old way was slowly passing and making

(10:35):
way for a new and better covenant, a covenant not
dependent on the obedience of man, but by the goodness
of God himself. Josiah's new promise to God was a
mere image of good things to come. However, this new
plan would not come without struggle, and there was still
much pain to endure.

Speaker 3 (10:57):
In today's scripture, we meet another young king, crowned as
ruler of Judah at just amazingly eight years of age.
Though he was very young, Josiah did not exhibit the
immaturity of many young people. Josiah sat with priest and
absorbed everything that he could. At an early age, he
was well studied in God's law, and his heart was

(11:21):
fastened onto the ways of God. There's no better way
for a young person to begin their life than this,
The Bible says, remember your Creator in the days of
your youth. When he was just twenty years of age,
Josiah began the task of undoing so much of what
his father Amon had done in defiling God's land and

(11:41):
his people. So Josiah tore down the altars of sin
and wickedness. But this was just the beginning. He symbolically
crushed the idols into dust and burned the bones of
the pagan priests. Josiah meant business. He was cleansing the
land of evil in God's name, and the Lord blessed
him for it. In the eighteenth year of his reign,

(12:02):
Josiah began to repair God's Temple. Like his ancestor David,
Josiah knew that although no structure could contain the Lord God,
the Lord desired and deserved a place of honor and
praise and recognition in the great city of Jerusalem. The
temple would call people to worship their God and the

(12:23):
one who is always faithful to his own as the
temple was being cleansed and repaired, a priest named Helkiah
came upon a treasure. It did not shine like gold
or emeralds, but it was a much greater treasure for
God's people. Helkiah found a scroll containing the law of Moses.

(12:44):
This may not seem like a big deal to you
and me, but to the people of Judah, this was
a reminder of the trustworthiness of God and the generational
connection they had with their past and the great leader
of the nation, Moses, who delighted to deliver God's law
and to keep God's law. But as joyous as this

(13:05):
discovery was, as the scroll was read aloud, Josiah tore
his clothes in a sign of mourning. Hearing all that
was in God's law, there was no missing the fact
that Judah had failed to keep it, not once, but
again and again. When confronted with this fact, Josiah sought
guidance from the Lord, saying in Second Chronicles thirty four

(13:27):
to twenty one, go inquire of the Lord from me
and for those who are left in Israel and in Judah,
concerning the words of the book that has been found.
For great is the wrath of the Lord that is
poured out on us because our fathers have not kept
the word of God to do according to all that
is written in his book. Josiah knew that they must

(13:49):
repent of all the wrong that they had done. Repentance
means that you're going in one direction the wrong way,
but you turn around and meet God and trust him
and go in a brand new direction with new conviction.
We may try to justify our sin, the way that
we're living our life, the direction we're going, but it's
always a mistake to run from God, to walk away

(14:13):
from God, and it's always the right thing to do
to return to him. Josiah sent Chaffon, one of his governors,
to find a prophet to inquire of the Lord. Chaffon
returned with a prophetess name Huldah. She heard Josiah's words
and his convictions and responded with the truth of God's word.

(14:33):
Judah had indeed been unfaithful and disobedient, and for this
they would be judged and feel the wrath of God.
But because of Josiah's earnest attempts to make things right,
disaster would not come in his lifetime. Though this may
have brought some comfort Unlike Hazekiah before him, Josiah was

(14:54):
grieved at the eventual judgment that would come upon his people.
He called the priest and the people to dedicate themselves
to the Lord and not turn again from him. Josiah
was committed to keeping the Lord's commandments, even though destruction
was coming to Judah ultimately. And while Judah would endure
punishment in God's wrath, the Lord had not abandoned his people.

(15:17):
Rescue would one day come, and God would send the
ultimate answer to the problem of sin and judgment in
the world. He would send the Messiah, the Savior. The
Lord himself would come to be our savior. Dear God,
thank you for Josiah's example of goodness and faithfulness. Thank
You for the lesson that we've heard today on repentance

(15:40):
and seeking Your face and turning from our evil ways.
Help us too to repent and not make excuses when
we sin. In Christ's name. Amen. Thank you for listening
to today's Bible in a Year podcast. I'm Pastor Jack
Graham from Dallas, Texas. Download thepray dot Com app and
make prayer a priority along with Bible study in your life.

(16:03):
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(16:25):
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