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Good morning. Welcome to each one of you. Recently I was reading in Second Kings and I read a verse that really caught my attention. It was about Josiah and it was talking about how there was no king like him before him and there was no one like him after his reign. He was different. And I wondered why. Why was Josiah different? What made that difference? And I went back and started reading more in 2 Kings and Discoveries, also in 2 Chronicles. That's actually where I'm turning this morning is 2nd Chronicles and chapter 34 and 35. But it's looking at why was Josiah's reign different than those preceding him and those after him? And I think we'll discover that brief background. First six years of Josiah's life. His grandfather Manasseh was king of Judah. Now you may remember Manasseh, he was one of the most wicked kings that Judah had. Manasseh rebuilt the high places that his father Hezekiah had torn down and Manasseh rebuilt those. Manasseh shed very much innocent blood, the Bible tells us, until he filled Jerusalem from one end to the other. Jewish historian Josephus says that Manasseh killed innocent people every day. Imagine living in a country where that's happening every day. Manasseh placed idols throughout Jerusalem. He placed idols even in the temple, in the house of God where God said his name would be. He would always dwell there. Manasseh put idols there and bowed down to them. He also practiced witchcraft, divination, sorcery, As God promised. Eventually judgment came and the Assyrian army captured Manasseh. They put a hook through his nose and they led him off to Babylon in bronze shackles. That's Josiah's grandfather. Now in the last in his distress in Babylon, Manasseh humbled himself and he prayed to God and our amazing God forgave Manasseh for all the horrible things he had done, and he restored his kingdom to him. When Manasseh humbled himself and prayed, he restored his kingdom. And so he was brought. He went back to Jerusalem. And in the last part of his reign, Manasseh removed the idols and the altars that he had set up in the temple and in Jerusalem and he threw them outside of the city in the trash. And he re established worshiping the Lord. So that was for the first six years of Josiah's life. He was the tail end of Manasseh's reign. When Josiah was six, Manasseh died and his son Ammon, Josiah's father, became king of Judah. Ammon only reigned for two years because he was an evil king who served all the idols that his father had made, he brought them back and he set them up in the temple again and throughout Jerusalem and the country. And he was worshiping all the idols that his dad had turned away from. He had actually never seen his father live a wicked life because he was born in the latter part of Manasseh's reign. But Ammon worshiped the idols his father had turned away from. He did not humble himself, the Bible tells us, as his father had, but he increased his guilt so that his own servants killed him in the palace. Well, the people of the land said, oh, no, you don't. We're loyal to the line of David. And so they killed his assassins and they put young Josiah on the throne. Now, Josiah was eight years old when he's put on the throne. Eight years old. How do you think it affected Josiah to hear stories about his grandpa's wicked reign and God's judgment on the nation through the Assyrian army? How do you think it affected him to see his grandpa, a changed man, now leading the nation in worship of God, the one true God? How did it affect Josiah as a young boy to then watch his father turn around and bring back everything that his grandfather had turned away from? I can't answer that question, but I. Those questions. But I expect those things probably had a profound impact on young Josiah watching what was happening. Historians believe that Josiah would have had officials directing him until he was at least 13 years old. When you were 13, the Jews considered you a man. And so he probably had people overseeing him, directing him, at least until he was 13. How many teenagers do we have here? See your hands. Okay, not a lot. We've got some. Glad you're here, young men. How many? How can you imagine what it would be like to suddenly, you're the king. They say, okay, you're king. You're in charge now. You're responsible to honor God. You're responsible to take care of all your people, to do. To do good for them. Now you're the responsible one. What are you going to do? What laws will you make? You're the one in authority. That's the situation Josiah found himself in. I'm going to turn to 2nd Chronicles, chapter 34. Read. Actually, I'll read the first two verses. And pause. Josiah was 8 years old when he became king. He reigned 31 years in Jerusalem, and he did what was right in the sight of the Lord and walked in the ways of his father, David. He did not turn aside to the right hand or to the left. So here's the chronicler. We don't know for sure who it is, probably Ezra, but we don't know his assessment. His brief assessment of Josiah's reign is he did what was right in God's sight. The next verse tells us why. Verse 3. For in the eighth year of his reign, so he was eight years old, and in the eighth year, so he's sixteen. While he was still young, he began to seek the God of his father David. And in the 12th year, he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem of the high places. The wooden images, the carved images and the molded images. Think the reason Josiah did what was right is given to us in the start of verse three. It's because while he was still young, he began to seek God. It's actually my title for this morning. Seeking God. Josiah began to seek God while he was young. I want to say that's the best time to start seeking God is while you're young, before you have habits that aren't good to overcome. The second best time to seek God is today, right now. No matter what stage of life you're in, no matter where I'm at, the second best time to seek God is right now, today. You know, having godly parents doesn't automatically make me a godly person. Having ungodly parents doesn't guarantee that I will be ungodly. Now please hear me. I'm not saying that parental example isn't important. I believe it's extremely important. However, every person has to choose to seek God. My parents can't make that choice for me. They can encourage me, they can lead me in that direction. But every person, every generation and every person will have to choose for themselves. I choose for myself. Am I going to seek God or will I ignore him? Seeking God is personal. When Josiah began to seek God, the wording there is, it's, it's ongoing. It wasn't a one time event, but he began seeking it. It's. It was ongoing. As he sought the Lord, the Lord revealed more and more to him. And that's how it is for you. And I. Notice in the, in his 12th year. So when he was 20 years old, he began to purge Judah of idols. So four years after he began to seek the Lord, he decides he needs to purge Judah. God has a way of gently showing us things that need to change. Josiah could make that change because he was the king and he had the assistance to. He could go through and purge Judah of idols. It was hard work, but he could do it. And God showed him what he needed to do. God will show us what we need to change. I'm going to pick up in verse four. And they broke down the altars of the bales in his presence. Notice he personally oversaw this. And the incense altars which were above them, he cut down. And the wooden images, the carved images and. And the molded images he broke into pieces and made dust of them and scattered it on the graves of those who sacrificed to them. He also burned the bones of the priests on their altars and cleansed Judah and Jerusalem. And so he did so in the cities of Manasseh, Ephraim, Simeon, as far as Naphtali, and all around with axes. When he had broken down the altars and the wooden images and beaten the carved images into powder and. And cut down the incense altars throughout all the land of Israel, he returned to Jerusalem. Now, notice how ambitious, how zealous he is on this. First he focuses on the city of Jerusalem. Then he expands it to the rest of his nation, the southern kingdom of Judah. And he goes into Israel. Israel, the northern kingdom, was in captivity, and only the poorest of the poor were still left there in Israel. But he goes into the northern territory as well, all Israelite territory, and gets rid of the images and the altars. I'm not going to read 2 Kings 23, 4, 20, but you may want to look at that. It details there all the different kinds of altars and idols that he destroyed, so many different ones. And it was throughout their territory. And I notice it says twice he beat the idols into powder. One place it says he beat them into powder the other, he beat an altar into dust and scattered it. Josiah was making sure that these couldn't be reused. As a boy, he watched his dad bring back the altars his grandfather thrown out of the city. I mean, the altars and the idols, he brought them back and he made sure no one was recycling these, crushed them and scattered them. 2nd Kings 23 also tells us that some of the altars. It's interesting because it lists the different kings who had set up some of these altars before him. And some of them actually dated back all the way to Solomon, which is amazing because that's about 300 years before him. I mean, for us, think back, that's like something that was set up 1726. That's a long time. So things that had been there for a long time, people were used to. I'm sure this was upsetting to people. And notice which verse is it? Over 6 said he went and did this with axes. The footnote there Says swords. In other words, he took the military and they went and made sure this happened. Nobody was going to stop them. He was very thorough. Seeking God involves removing anything that. That stands between us and God. No matter how long it's been there, no matter how important I think it is, if it stands between us and God needs to be removed. The next step, several verses. I'm going to Skip over verses 8 through 13 for the sake of time. He lists after he had. After he had purged the land and the temple. Then he sends three of his officials to oversee rebuilding, renovating the temple, repairing it. And verse 11 says that the kings of Judah had destroyed the temple or they had allowed it to fall into disrepair. It wasn't important to them. They didn't want to sink time or money into God's house. And Josiah had different priorities. He put a lot of time and energy. And I'm not going to read all the details there of the different workmen and, and what they needed to repair God's house. Just want to note that when I seek God, I will value what God values. Jumping down to verse 14, picking up there again. I'm going to read 14 to the end of the chapter. Now, when they had brought out the money that was brought into the house of the Lord, Hilkiah the priest found the book of the law of the Lord given by Moses. Then Hilkiah said to Shaphan the scribe, I have found the book of the law in the house of the Lord. And Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan. So Shaphan carried the book to the king, bringing the king word saying, all that was committed to your servants, they are doing. And they have gathered the money that was found in the house of the Lord and have delivered it into the hand of the overseers and the workmen. Then Shaphan the scribe told the king, hilkiah, the priest has given me a book. And Shaphan read it before the king. Thus it happened, when the king heard the words of the law, that he tore his clothes. Then the king commanded Hilkiah, Ahikam the son of Shaphan, Abdin the son of Micah, and Shaphan the scribe, and Isaiah the servant of the king, saying, go and inquire of the Lord for me and for those who are left in Israel and Judah, concerning the words of this book that was found. For great is the wrath of the Lord that is poured out on us because our fathers have not kept the word of the Lord to do according to all that was written in this book. So Hilkiah and those the king had appointed went to Huldah, the prophetess, the wife of Shallum, the son of Tokath, the son of Hazrah, the keeper of the wardrobe. She dwelt in Jerusalem in the second quarter, and they spoke to her to that effect. And she answered them. Thus says the Lord God of Israel, tell the man who sent you to me. Thus says the Lord. Behold, I will bring calamity on this place and on its inhabitants. All the curses that are written in the book which they have read before the king of Judah, because they have forsaken me and burned incense to other gods that they might provoke me to anger with the works of their hands. Therefore my wrath will be poured out on this place and will not be quenched. But as for the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of the Lord, in this manner shall you speak to him. Thus says the Lord God of Israel, concerning the words which you heard because your heart was tender and because you humbled yourself before God when you heard his words against this place and its inhabitants. And you humbled yourself before me, and you tore your clothes and wept before me. I also have heard you, says the Lord. Surely I will gather you to your fathers, and you will be gathered to your grave in peace, and your eyes will not see the calamity which I will bring on this place and its inhabitants. So they brought word back to the king. Then the king sent and gathered all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem. And the king went up to the house of the Lord with all the men of Judah and and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the priests, the Levites, and all the people, great and small. And he read in their hearing all the words of the book of the covenant which had been found in the house of the Lord. Then the king stood in his place and made a covenant before the Lord to follow the Lord, to keep his commandments and his testimonies and his statutes with all his heart, with all his soul, to perform the words of the covenant which were written in this book. And he made all who were present in Jerusalem and Benjamin take a stand. So the inhabitants of Jerusalem did, according to the covenant of God, the God of their fathers. Thus Josiah removed all the abominations from the country that belonged to the children of Israel, and made all who were present in Israel diligently serve the Lord their God. All his days. They did not depart from following the Lord, the God of their fathers. Pretty amazing, Josiah's response when he heard God's word. You Know when they found this book and read it in the presence of the king, he could have responded with saying, boy, my ancestors blew it. They really blew it. And there's nothing I can do about it. I can't change what they did. So, oh, well, it's too late, I guess. But that's not what he did. He was distressed. He was grieved with the. What his ancestors had done. And he immediately inquired of the Lord, what can he do? How can he change this situation? He humbled himself before God and cried, and he sends advisors to find out from the prophetess what he should do. And his response to hearing God's word is to renew the covenant himself as the king. The king is the representative of the people in the covenant with God. He recognized his responsibility and he first committed himself to following God's law, to doing his part. And then he had the people as well make a commitment to follow the Lord. So it not only starts with him personally seeking the Lord, then get getting rid of idols and repairing the temple, but he urges the people he's responsible for to make a covenant with God. And the end of the chapter tells us all his days, as long as he lived, they did not depart from following the Lord. Unfortunately, after he died, they. They did not. But gonna go to the next chapter. 2nd Chronicles 35, First two verses. Now, Josiah kept a Passover to the Lord in Jerusalem, and they slaughtered the Passover lands on the 14th day of the first month. And he set the priests in their duties and encouraged them for the service of the house of the Lord. He went. I'm going to skip part of this because the. It goes into a lot of detail about how they were organized and how they. Well, let me. Let me jump down. And first, it was all of Judah that were there and all of Israel, as Second Kings says, all of Israel that could be found. It's estimated that there were about 370,000 people gathered together. Everyone they could find gathered together to celebrate the Passover. This hadn't been done for a long time. Verse 7. Then Josiah gave the lay people lambs and young goats from the flock for the Passover, offerings for all who were present to the number of 30,000, as well as 3,000 cattle. These were from the king's possessions. So at this time in history, the people of Judah and Israel were very poor. Israel was in captivity, except for the poorest people of the land were still there. Judah, there were raiding bands of Scythians that were coming in and stealing their crops and their flocks. And these people were very poor and some of them didn't have what they needed to celebrate the Passover the king provided. I can't imagine this. I've wondered how it would look to have 30,000 lambs out here. I would love to see that. But can you picture what does it look like? The king gives 30,000 lambs and 3,000 cattle. And then his officials and the priests and Levites follow his example and they give another 7,600 lambs and 800 cattle. You add together what all they gave, but he was willing to give out of his personal possessions. When I seek God, it will affect my checkbook, it will affect how I spend my money, what I do with the things God has given me when I seek God. Verses 8 through 15 basically tell us how he organized the priests and the Levites for this massive gathering to be able to serve everyone and to properly sacrifice their lambs. And it took a lot of organization. Can you imagine how much it took to deal with that many animals and to feed so many people in a timely way? By the way, there was no record of the Passover being celebrated since Hezekiah's reign. So Josiah's great grandfather 80 years earlier. There's no written record of the Passover being celebrated in that 80 years. And we're going to see. Well, let me just read 16, 19. So all the service of the Lord was prepared on the same day to keep the Passover and to offer burnt offerings in the altar of the Lord according to the command of King Josiah. And the children of Israel who were present kept the Passover at that time. And, and the feast of unleavened bread for seven days. There had been no Passover kept in Israel like that since the days of Samuel the prophet. And none of the kings of Israel had kept such a Passover as Josiah kept with the priests and Levites, all Judah and Israel who were present, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. In the eighteenth year of the reign of Josiah, this Passover was kept. So it hadn't been celebrated on this scale since the time of Samuel. That's about 450 years that it hadn't been celebrated on that scale. And quite a long time, about 80 years that we have no record that it was celebrated. Celebrating the Passover was so central to who they were as God's people. It was to help them remember when death had passed over them because of the blood of the lambs applied to the doorpost and how God rescued them from slavery in Egypt. We know today that the Passover pointed to Jesus, the Lamb of God, who gave his life to take the penalty of death for our sins, rescuing us from a life of bondage. Them not keeping the Passover would be a lot like if we discontinued communion, not regularly remembering what Jesus did for us. Remembering Jesus, life, death and resurrection. What if we just stopped? That we would lose a lot as a church. Second Kings 23:25 says now, before him Josiah there was no king like him, who turned to the Lord with all his heart, with all his soul and with all his might, according to all the law of Moses. Nor after him did any arise like him. He did everything according to the law of Moses. When I seek God, I will obey his word. There were two prophets prophesying during Josiah's reign. One was Zephaniah. Zephaniah, Josiah had a lot of reforms and the people, some of them were forced to go along with it, but apparently didn't change it. Didn't change their hearts outward obedience, but no heart change because Zephaniah has harsh words for them of judgment. And he talks about complacency. I'm going to. In Josiah's day, the prophet Zephaniah was prophesying to the people, to people who are just like people today. Some are godly and want to do what's right. Some were blatantly evil. Some are complacent or indifferent, lazy to those who were complacent. Zephaniah said in Zephaniah, chapter 1 and verse 12. And it shall come to pass at that time. This is the Lord speaking, that I will search Jerusalem with lamps and punish the men who were settled in complacency, who say in their hearts, the Lord will not do good, nor will he do evil. The complacent person ignores God. Complacent person says he's not going to do anything bad or good. I'll just. I won't worry about it. Let's get on with life. I've got things to do. I want to say complacency is really unbelief. If I'm not praying, it's because I really don't believe that God will do anything. 23 years after Josiah died, judgment did come and the people of Judah were taken into captivity. Jeremiah wrote to the people in captivity to encourage them. I'm going to read. Just let me read a short piece from his letter to them. Jeremiah 29 going to read verses 11 to 14. Remember, these people are exiled and they know why. It's because they weren't obeying God. And God had promised them judgment is coming. But now here's what God says to them. For I know the thoughts I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and go and pray to me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find me. When you search for me with all your heart, I will be found by you, says the Lord. These verses are not just for the captives in exile believe these verses are for us today as well. We have a promise from God that when we seek him with all our hearts, we will find him. And like Josiah, seeking the Lord is not a one time thing. It's not an event that now I've participated in the event, check that off. But seeking the Lord is a lifelong pursuit. When I think of pursuit, I think of Harold Byler's dog. He had a beagle. Her name was Deedee. And she was just over here on Simon and Coir's farm. We would take her rabbit hunting. But the problem with Deedee was if she got on the trail of a rabbit and you missed the rabbit and the rabbit kept going, she would too. And she'd be gone. You'd hear her back here in the woods on the other side of the tracks. You could hear from all the way out at 28, if the wind was right, you could hear her baying and she's still on the trail. But she was back over the tracks. She wouldn't come back for three or four days. That dog was so determined. When she'd finally come home after three or four days, her paws would be bleeding, her face is scratched, she's got burrs all through her fur. But she was a picture of determined pursuit. Nothing was going to stop her from what she deemed was a worthy pursuit. I ask you this morning, what are you pursuing? What am I pursuing? Is it worthy? Seeking God begins with an awareness that God is the giver of life. That God sustains my life and that I will give an account to God for how I spend my life. I want to know the One who has given me life, what is he like? What does he expect of me? Thankfully, God reveals himself through his word. He reveals what he expects, and I want to obey what he shows me. It's a verse in Lamentations 3 and verse 25. The Lord is good to those who seek Him. The Lord is good to those who seek him. And I ask you this morning, is there anything that stands between you and God? Would you bow your heads and I want to give you. I just want to give you a minute silence like for you to talk with God about that. Ask him, is there anything that keeps that stands between you and God that keeps you from seeking him? Are you willing this morning to commit to seeking God in a new way? Seeking God is a lifelong pursuit. Lord, I pray that you would speak to each of our hearts this morning. Thank you for the example of Josiah, his example of seeking you in an ongoing way. And we can see how it affected every area of his life. Lord, I pray that we as a body, as a church would seek you. It starts with a personal decision and then it's also working together. Lord, may we seek you together. I pray that people would be drawn to you, that many would come to know you and join in this lifelong pursuit of seeking you. God, thank you for each one here we commit to you ask that you would guide us through this week. We thank you. The name of Jesus. Amen.