2 Chronicles 33:21-25 & 2 Chronicles 34:1-13
The close of 2 Chronicles 33 records a short account of the reign of Manasseh's son, Amon. Amon only reigned for 2 years before being killed by his own servants - who were then killed by the Judeans. During his reign he followed his father's early sinful practices and worshipped the carved images which hadn't been destroyed from that time.
After Amon's death his 8 year old son, Josiah, was made king. He reigned 31 years and did that 'which was right in the sight of the LORD' (verse 2). When 16 years old he 'began to seek' after God (verse 3), and four years later began purging the land from all the pagan places,images, alters and priests. His reforms extended out of Judah and throughout Israel. By the time he was 26 years old the purge was completed and he concentrated on having the temple repaired.
Josiah's purging of all the objects, places and priests for pagan worship remind me of the effect of grace in a believer's life. Strong's concordance* explains that the Hebrew word for purge means to be clean or pure; it might be achieved by physically removing objects of defilement or by purifying agents, such as blood or atoning sacrifices. It seems that after Josiah began seeking the LORD, as he grew in the knowledge of him, he had a desire to remove those things which were abhorrent to God, and against his commands.
This effect of grace is seen in the believers at Ephesus on one of the Apostle Paul's missionary journeys. We read that many of them who used curious arts (practised magic) burnt their books at a value of 50,000 pieces of silver (Acts 19:19). We experience this willingness to change our ways on a human relationship level - when we love someone we try to do those things that please them - not necessarily because we think it will make them love us more, but because of the willingness that the love in our hearts towards that person gives us.
As a new believer I remember losing interest in those things that took my thoughts and heart away from the Lord. On walking through a shopping centre soon after, the enticing window displays, glamour and glitter had no appeal to me. It felt empty of real, lasting happiness. And on turning on the car radio (as had been my habit) seemed to contaminate the pure love and peace which I was feeling - I turned it off.
Sadly, how quickly our hearts and minds seem to get taken up with the things of this life again. Perhaps in God's grace we do not not have obvious pagan items of worship to purge from our homes and lives, but do we have things we spend too much time on?
The Lord tell us to, 'Come out from among them, and be ye separate ... and touch not the unclean thing....' (2 Corinthians 6:17). In James he tells us, 'Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world' (James 1:27) . In 1 John 2:15-17 we read:
'Love not the world, nether the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life is not of the Father but of the world... '
How can we know this? How can we resist loving the things of the world, which are so tempting and distracting to our minds? Jesus, tells us 'Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me' (John 15:4)...but how do we abide or live in Christ? It is such a conundrum - on the one hand we feel the hardness and resistance and unwillingness of our hearts and our incapability to abide in Christ, but on the other hand we have the prickings of conscience that tell us when we are wrong, and the new man of grace within that longs after Christ and his ways.
I have been fighting prickings of conscience recently - it was only when three things happened in one day that I could finely acknowledge and confess (again) to the Lord the idol that my phone has become:
In this day and age it hardly seems possible to live without the internet and our mobile phones, but sometimes I wish I could throw it into the bottom of the sea!
How we need the Lord to help us to keep things in moderation, to put things into place to help ourselves resist temptation, to ask our loved ones to help us to be disciplined. And as we see the effect of grace working in Josiah, may we too be given desires to read our Bibles, to pray, to talk with Jesus as we go about our day, for when we are near to Christ, we desire those things that honour him.
*The New Strong's Expanded Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible by James Strong 2010.
Comments
Post a Comment