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 2 Chronicles 35: 7 – 10

We have seen throughout the story of Josiah that he was a fine example to his people. Here is something of his exemplary generosity (7): Josiah personally donated 30,000 sheep, lambs, and goats and 3,000 bulls – everything needed for the Passover celebration was there. The Message. He gave lavishly. He wanted his people to be able to celebrate the Passover. He did what he could to make this happen.

When a senior leader has a generous heart, it so often acts as a catalyst to encourage others to turn their pockets inside out (8, 9) and share their contents. (Whatever happens in the heart of a senior pastor is infectious. It’s ‘catching’, and it will get passed on to those who are in close contact with him/her. This can include bad things as well as good. If you are a senior leader you need to ensure that you guard your heart above all else, and walk with God, and let other people get close enough to you to catch the overspill.) His officials also pitched in on behalf of the people… The Message.

(10) reads like this in The Message: Preparations were complete for the service of worship; the priests took up their positions and the Levites were at their posts as instructed by the king. You get the impression of a service in which everything was done decently and in order. F.B. Meyer makes an excellent point, based on the word Prepare which comes in (4, 6, 10, 14, 15 and 16) in some translations: Nothing was left to haphazard or chance. We are taught to rely on the promptings and inspirations of the Holy Spirit; and it is certain that He would use us more on special errands, if we were to trust and obey Him better. But these extraordinary ministries should not lead us to a life of haphazard. We should prepare ourselves for service so far as we may, laying our plans, anticipating the calls and exigencies of coming days, and preparing for the demands which almost certainly will be made on us…we shall always need that preparedness of heart which is necessary for those who are to be used of God…Be always in your own place, clean so far as you can be, with the handle of your life turned towards the Master’s hand, that at any moment he may take hold of you, and use you for his holy service. By the diligent study of his Word, as well as by earnest prayer and waiting upon God, you will be prepared to do his will. Great verses through the Bible, pp 162, 163.

It is good and right that the services of the church should be thoroughly prepared, and that every member of the body of Christ should know their place and fill it. Let us not accept the slipshod in our approach, and then try to cover it with the veneer of an excuse that we are seeking the ‘moving of the Holy Spirit.’ The Spirit who hovered over the waters at the beginning and brought order out of chaos is not opposed to careful planning, as we look to Him to guide. Of course, we should be ready, if He breaks into a service like a flood, to be overwhelmed by Him and let Him sweep all our preparations away. But for the most part, our task is to seek His wisdom and direction in the study and trust Him when in the pulpit.

Prayer: Lord keep us from foolishly driving a wedge between prayerful preparation and the freedom of the Spirit. Help us to do our very best, trusting you to work in us and through us, and to sweep away any thoughts and ideas that are not of you.

 2 Chronicles 34: 29-33

The king called a meeting (29-30): We live in a day, as I’ve commented previously, where commitment to church gatherings is on the wane. But whenever all the people come together to meet with God significant things can happen. It seems patently obvious that Josiah was not calling a meeting with himself, but with God. The telling phrase is: He went up to the temple of the LORD with… He was not calling the people to him, but to come with him to meet  God. Authentic spiritual leadership points to God; it does not get in His way.

Note full well that the meeting could have been held under a banner reading: ‘Back to the Bible’ (30b). Josiah called all the people to a gathering that was God-centred and Bible-based. Somebody commented, sadly, that the Welsh revival ‘sang itself out of existence.’ It became focused on its own ‘bless-ups’, is how one great preacher put it. There is a clear and present danger facing the contemporary church. It is the tendency to idolise music and song/musicians and singers.  We can put too great a focus here. As you read through the Bible you will find that there were significant meetings with God in which there was no music or song at all. In fact the contemporary emphasis on music is not reflected in the New Testament, where there is very little mention of it. You may like to think through why that is. How many people would turn up for a service where all that happens is that Scripture is read (lots of it) and people make commitments to obey? There’s no bouncy, up-beat number to warm things up. Well you can have a meeting of the church without melody, but you can’t have one without a Bible.

The king made a commitment (31): In so doing he set an example: The king stood by his pillar and before GOD solemnly committed himself to the covenant: to follow GOD believingly and obediently; to follow his instructions, heart and soul, on what to believe and do; to confirm with his life the entire covenant, all that was written in the book. The Message. God had made it clear to Josiah that he loved his ‘heart’ and that he would die in peace, not seeing any of the terrible judgment fall. But it did not make him complacent. He wanted to be God’s man, heart and soul, and to declare this publicly, and encourage others to make a similar commitment. There was no ‘I’m all right Jack’ mentality with him.

The people made a commitment (32): We are not really surprised to read this after hearing about the king’s example.  He established a pattern that the people copied. Twice we read that he made (32, 33) the people follow God. He exerted a strong influence over their hearts and minds.  As long as he lived. He kept them on the straight and narrow. The Message.

This personal commitment had national significance (33): Josiah did a thorough job of cleaning up the pollution that had spread throughout Israelite territory and got everyone started fresh again, serving and worshiping their GOD. The Message.

Finally for today, here is a wonderful quote from F.B. Meyer that sums up this thirty fourth chapter: We should read the Bible with a particular application to the days in which we live. It is well enough to accept its statements as being generally true and credible; but it is better to realize their pertinence to ourselves and our circumstances…Josiah turned the lantern on the evils of his time, and saw how God was feeling with respect to them. The Bible is a book for all time. What it said, it says. What it was, it is. You tell me it was written so many centuries ago; but I reply the ink is still wet on its immortal pages…Sin is the same, man the same, God the same, in all ages. And the Bible’s claim to be God’s Word is substantiated by the fact that it is possessed of living power, and of the same perennial freshness as the sun, or the spring, or the ocean, or the faces of the little children. Would that we might daily read it as we read the newspaper, damp from the press, realizing that it is our Father’s great message for the life of every day! Great verses through the Bible, p.162.

Prayer: Lord, I want your priorities to be mine.