Cleaning Out the Debris in the Temple

"Then Shaphan the scribe showed the king (King Josiah), saying "Hilkiah the priest has given me a book."  and Shaphan read it before the king.  Now it happened, when the king heard the words of the Book of the Law (Torah), he tore his clothes.  II Kings 22:10-11

Josiah was the one of the great reformer kings.  He was eight years old hen he became king of Judah and he reigned for thirty-one years.  He inherited a kingdom that had been ravaged by the idolatrous practices of his  grandfather and father, kings Manasseh and Amon.

His job as king would not be easy.  The kingdom has been torn asunder by the unfortunate fifty-five year reign of Manasseh.  Manasseh's father was a great reformer king who sought to worship and follow Yahweh, but what took hold of Manasseh's heart was not the faith of his father, but the unspeakable malevolence and pathology of erotic Baalism.

He worshipped a sex cult that called for the most debased practices.  It was Manasseh who built altars to Baal and set them up in the house of Yahweh in Jerusalem.  Manasseh's behavior incurred the  understandable anger of Yahweh.  Manasseh polluted the land with false religion, and enforced it with his authority as king.

The Scripture states that he "seduced" the people into disobedience to the Lord.  Think of the horrific damage that he did to the kingdom during his long and terrible reign.  After his death his son Amon continued Manasseh's destructive practices but his reign was short-lived as his servants murdered him in his own house.

Josiah was the next to take the throne.  He was king Amon's son, but he was not like his father and grandfather.  He was a godly man who walked in the ways of the Lord.  Josiah inherited a throne and a kingdom that had a "Sickness Unto Death."  The temple of the Lord had fallen into disrepair because of the former leadership.  In fact, the temple was filled with the debris of years of abusive, heinous, and shameful practices.

Now, during Josiah's reign, money had been raised to "repair the damages to the house."  One day while the repair to the house of the Lord was going on someone found a copy of the Word of God in the midst of the debris.  The Word of God was found in the midst of the debris that was brought to king Josiah and read to him.  The king heard the Word and profound grief swept over his soul.  He was so deeply moved that he tore his clothes.

The convicted king did not merely hear the Word deceiving himself.  He immediately became a doer of the Word.  He sent a group of his servants to Huldah the prophetess, and she told the king's investigative party the reality of the current situation of the state of Judah and Jerusalem.

When the king heard the grave words of Huldah the prophetess he again took immediate action.  He knew that his kingdom was in crisis and there was no time for benign regal passivity.  Something had to be done and done quickly.

Beloved, the debris in the temple is a graphic picture of what can happen in the temple of the heart. We must be alert to the spiritual disrepair that can happen if we neglect appropriate spiritual self-nourishment from the Word of God.  It is easy to accumulate beliefs and practices that hinder appropriate response to God.  "Test everything," the Apostle Paul wrote.

Josiah took action and started one of the greatest revivals that his nation had ever seen.  He undertook sweeping reform.  A nation abused by decades of polluted and debased practices had to undergo substantial change.  Of course there would be those who would resist reform and want things to continue in the same old way. But God was moving through the convicted king and many positive and substantial changes took place.

Are you ready to clean out the debris in the temple of your heart?  If you are, then Yahweh is waiting to cleanse and give you a new life.  Don't be afraid to let the old things pass away, and for all things to become new in your life through the Word of God.

Blessings to you.

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