Josiah - Fully Committed

 2Ki 23:25  And like unto him was there no king before him, that turned to the LORD with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his might, according to all the law of Moses; neither after him arose there any like him. 

King Josiah, started ruling when he was 8, and he reigned 31 years. In 31 years he neither turned to the left nor the right. He reigned and walked as David his father, yet there were none like him, not David, nor Solomon no one after him or before him was a king like him.

How very disturbing yet rewarding. An indictment upon all others, yet a glorious testimony to this man.

Do you remember the words of D. L. Moody?   “The world has yet to see what God can do with a man fully consecrated to him. By God’s help, I aim to be that man.”

One man. One church. What can God do with a church body fully committed to Him? Or with a man fully committed to Him? We may never know, for we are to busy with all the other things of life.

Yet the mind boggles at the thought. Fully committed.

King Josiah was fully committed and he turned Israel back to the Lord, He did that which was right, he did that which glorified God.

Perhaps the most interesting part is how he discerned the will of the Lord. He, at the tender age of 8, took the throne and did that which was right. Then after 10 years of righteous rule, following the Lord he finds a book of the Law that tells him what to do, it tells him what the Lord is going to do because of Judah's wickedness and he listens to it. He reads it and follows the words that God wrote down.

What does he do with it? He declares to follow it, but not in his closet, not in his bedroom, No this guy stands before the people.

2Ki 23:2  And the king went up into the house of the LORD, and all the men of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem with him, and the priests, and the prophets, and all the people, both small and great: and he read in their ears all the words of the book of the covenant which was found in the house of the LORD. 

2Ki 23:3  And the king stood by a pillar, and made a covenant before the LORD, to walk after the LORD, and to keep his commandments and his testimonies and his statutes with all their heart and all their soul, to perform the words of this covenant that were written in this book. And all the people stood to the covenant. 

He decided he was going to walk after God and all Judah and Jerusalem would walk with him.

This guy was a man. This guy was the man we want to be, at 8 he ruled righteously and true, at 18 he finds that there is more to do and he does it. For 31 years he followed after God righteous and true. He brought those around him with him to the righteous life he lived. 

One man brought revival to a nation.

Yes he was a king and could have them all replaced, killed etc. I get he had the power, but he had a heart for God that was more powerful than the power he wielded as king. For the people did not rise up and depose him. No, the people followed after him.

Josiah drove the idolaters out, he put the sodomites out who lived near the temple, he ran off the prostitutes, he tore down the high places that were not of God, he even took the bones of those who were buried near their idols on purpose and had them burned on the very altars of their idols then he destroyed those altars wholly and totally.

Josiah, just a boy, reigned more righteously than any man ever had. He led a revival true to the word of God.

One man.

What can God do in America?

In one state?

in one city?

In one church?

In one house?

With a man wholly committed to him.