How God Aware Are You
Do you realize that some people are totally oblivious? You can bump into them almost every day! And you know why you can so easily bump into them? Yep, you guessed it, because they are oblivious! Not just oblivious to the things immediately around them, but to everything around them! It’s really weird when you find people like that! That which may be common sense to you, are like an uncommon sense to them! Have you ever met someone like that? Like have you seen people that walk around but they are staring at their cell phone? How do they not get run over or fall in an open man hole or run into a pole?
When some are told some things are on a higher level, they look for an elevator?
So then as you get older and wiser, you hopefully become more aware of more things. You learn how to take care of your household, provide and repair things. You learn things outside of your house, work and politics and things to do in the community and what’s important and what’s not, what’s good, what’s bad, what to avoid and what to go after, what’s smart and what’s dumb.
Last words of a redneck: hey guys watch this!
At some point some of you even become God aware! What is that? It’s knowing that all this had to come from somewhere and the big bang ain’t it. Even the scientists are even saying it’s not it as there had to have been something before the big bang, and at some point they’ll figure it something before that, etc, and maybe at some point they’ll realize the Bible was right that God created everything. Some people get that.
But anyway people start realizing they have a God hole in their heart and desire to get to know God. They at some point realize God is pure and holy and that we all are sinners and need salvation! They come to realize that Jesus came to be their redeemer and get saved and born spiritually! And then after salvation, they become that new creature (2 Cor 5:17) and they grow even more spiritually and read their Bible and grow and hopefully by the time they die they have grown closer to God and have changed from being that previously sinful selfish person to doing good for others and doing righteous deeds and abounding in love and forgiveness.
Some people are blind to their surroundings, but Spiritual blindness can be more detrimental than regular blindness. What’s worse, falling in a man hole, or being doomed for eternity?
What if you didn’t have religious friends or even the Bible, tho, to guide you, how would you even become God aware? How would you get there? There’s all sorts of things that point to God.
Romans 1:20
“For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood from His workmanship, so that men are without excuse.”
Just the fact that you see churches on every corner shows you that people know there’s a God and something more than just this physical world. In other ways, just seeing evil things be it pentagrams on album covers, or the evil some people engage in, or just the signs of the times shows you there’s more to this life than what’s in arm’s reach.
John 3:8
The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”
How do you hold intangibles? How do you put it in your hands? Some people have to have black and white, they can’t handle shades of gray.
Some people say if they see it, feel it or touch it then it isn’t real and they don’t believe it, and so they blind themselves to the truth to their eventual peril. Sometimes deep concepts are hard to figure out for some people and so they don’t even try to spend any time on it, but only lazily deal with the low hanging fruit of what’s around them. It seems silly to me to be that way but there’s a lot like that!
There are of course different kinds of faith: faith that can move mountains, saving faith, faith that something will come to pass, faith as a system of beliefs. Some things take faith, and some people can't grasp certain concepts to come to certain understandings. They are… oblivious. Some people are even spiritually oblivious. I hope you are not oblivious. Many times Christians see what others just do not - spiritually speaking. Some things which seem so obvious to Christians and yet the lost people can be so oblivious like the saying it’s as plain as the nose on your face but they just can’t see it! Pray for the spiritually blind that their eyes will be opened.
Talking about King Josiah.
2 Chronicles 34
34 Josiah was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem thirty-one years. 2 He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord and followed the ways of his father David, not turning aside to the right or to the left.
2 Kings 22-23
22:1 Josiah was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem thirty-one years. His mother’s name was Jedidah daughter of Adaiah; she was from Bozkath. 2 He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord and followed completely the ways of his father David, not turning aside to the right or to the left.
Wow! He became king at 8 years old! Reigned 31 years (until age 39) - still pretty young.
So was Josaiah a good king or a bad king! Yay, a good king - did what was right in the eyes of the Lord!
Josiah’s father Amon (ruled briefly - own servants killed him) and grandfather Manasseh (ruled 55 years - very wicked) weren’t good role models, so interesting that he turned out good!
3 In the eighth year of his reign, while he was still young, he began to seek the God of his father David. In his twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem of high places, Asherah poles and idols. 4 Under his direction the altars of the Baals were torn down; he cut to pieces the incense altars that were above them, and smashed the Asherah poles and the idols. These he broke to pieces and scattered over the graves of those who had sacrificed to them. 5 He burned the bones of the priests on their altars, and so he purged Judah and Jerusalem. 6 In the towns of Manasseh, Ephraim and Simeon, as far as Naphtali, and in the ruins around them, 7 he tore down the altars and the Asherah poles and crushed the idols to powder and cut to pieces all the incense altars throughout Israel. Then he went back to Jerusalem.
So at age 16 he began to seek the God of his father David. The nation of Israel had drifted far from God and at age 20 he began to try to bring the nation back by destroying all of the idols and putting down the other false religions. He could have been wishy washy about the idols and oblivious like they were but he didn’t, he did something about it!
The fall from grace is usually a slow fade, like the frog in the pot of water where the temperature rises slowly until they finally die.
These people had stopped following God’s commands but were following cultural norms and not seeking God’s will but seeking their own will.
8 In the eighteenth year of Josiah’s reign, to purify the land and the temple, he sent Shaphan son of Azaliah and Maaseiah the ruler of the city, with Joah son of Joahaz, the recorder, to repair the temple of the Lord his God.
9 They went to Hilkiah the high priest and gave him the money that had been brought into the temple of God, which the Levites who were the gatekeepers had collected from the people of Manasseh, Ephraim and the entire remnant of Israel and from all the people of Judah and Benjamin and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. 10 Then they entrusted it to the men appointed to supervise the work on the Lord’s temple. These men paid the workers who repaired and restored the temple. 11 They also gave money to the carpenters and builders to purchase dressed stone, and timber for joists and beams for the buildings that the kings of Judah had allowed to fall into ruin.
12 The workers labored faithfully. Over them to direct them were Jahath and Obadiah, Levites descended from Merari, and Zechariah and Meshullam, descended from Kohath. The Levites—all who were skilled in playing musical instruments— 13 had charge of the laborers and supervised all the workers from job to job. Some of the Levites were secretaries, scribes and gatekeepers.
So at 26 years old Josiah probably really started getting going and following the Lord. One of the things he decided to do was to fix up the temple because it was in shambles! So he got some of the temple money and got the high priest to start working on fixing up and repairing the temple.
What made him do that? Who knows? Is that recognizing there’s a God hole in everyone’s heart and a desire to come to know God?
14 While they were bringing out the money that had been taken into the temple of the Lord, Hilkiah the priest found the Book of the Law of the Lord that had been given through Moses. 15 Hilkiah said to Shaphan the secretary, “I have found the Book of the Law in the temple of the Lord.” He gave it to Shaphan.
16 Then Shaphan took the book to the king and reported to him: “Your officials are doing everything that has been committed to them. 17 They have paid out the money that was in the temple of the Lord and have entrusted it to the supervisors and workers.” 18 Then Shaphan the secretary informed the king, “Hilkiah the priest has given me a book.” And Shaphan read from it in the presence of the king.
So, they start fixing up the temple and lo and behold they find the “book of the law” aka the first 5 books also known as the Pentateuch.
So… they were so far gone that they didn’t even have the Bible (5 books at that time) and they weren’t aware of what it said or even read it at all! Imagine trying to be a believer without the Bible? We take it for granted these days! Everyone has a bible, even more than one, even phone apps and computer programs and websites! They had nothing!!!
So how much God awareness do you think they had and instruction to do what’s right?
It's even more amazing that Josiah was following the Lord without a Bible in hand?
How can you know God’s will if you don’t read His instruction manual? The Bible is our teacher!
Psalm 119:105 Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.
19 When the king heard the words of the Law, he tore his robes. 20 He gave these orders to Hilkiah, Ahikam son of Shaphan, Abdon son of Micah, Shaphan the secretary and Asaiah the king’s attendant: 21 “Go and inquire of the Lord for me and for the remnant in Israel and Judah about what is written in this book that has been found. Great is the Lord’s anger that is poured out on us because those who have gone before us have not kept the word of the Lord; they have not acted in accordance with all that is written in this book.”
Imagine how eye opening it must have been to have the Bible read to him when everything around him was so depraved? He tore his clothes!!! (showing his grief and shame)
He immediately realizes that that’s why the Lord’s anger was burning against the nation because they had strayed so far that they lost the Bible, the temple was in shambles, the people had turned to idolatry and were doing detestable things!
22 Hilkiah and those the king had sent with him went to speak to the prophet Huldah, who was the wife of Shallum son of Tokhath, the son of Hasrah, keeper of the wardrobe. She lived in Jerusalem, in the New Quarter.
Now, in the bible there are very few prophetesses mentioned or other lady leaders. It seems that the Lord prefers to use men in prominent positions, but when you find a woman in this position, certainly not disrespecting the women, but this usually happens when there are no qualified men that the Lord just goes ahead and uses a lady instead! That’s not a judgment on women but on the men of the time! It just another indication of how probably bad things had gotten in the nation of Israel that the Lord opted to select a woman instead of a man.
23 She said to them, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: Tell the man who sent you to me, 24 ‘This is what the Lord says: I am going to bring disaster on this place and its people—all the curses written in the book that has been read in the presence of the king of Judah. 25 Because they have forsaken me and burned incense to other gods and aroused my anger by all that their hands have made, my anger will be poured out on this place and will not be quenched.’ 26 Tell the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of the Lord, ‘This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says concerning the words you heard: 27 Because your heart was responsive and you humbled yourself before God when you heard what he spoke against this place and its people, and because you humbled yourself before me and tore your robes and wept in my presence, I have heard you, declares the Lord. 28 Now I will gather you to your ancestors, and you will be buried in peace. Your eyes will not see all the disaster I am going to bring on this place and on those who live here.’”
So they took her answer back to the king.
So she told them that God was already angry and already decided to destroy Judah, so they were a dead nation, they just didn’t know it yet!
However, because Josiah listened to God, God listened to Josiah - isn’t that a great phrase! So basically Judah would still be destroyed, just that God would delay until after Josiah’s death. This is the key verse in this chapter: 27 Because your heart was responsive and you humbled yourself before God when you heard what he spoke against this place and its people, and because you humbled yourself before me and tore your robes and wept in my presence, I have heard you, declares the Lord.
James 4:8 says 8 Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
Josiah showed his humbleness and humility before God and was rewarded for it! Never go to God cocky, we are less than nothing compared to his almighty holy righteousness!
It’s Josiah wrote the book on the 7 habits of highly effective spiritually aware people!
29 Then the king called together all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem. 30 He went up to the temple of the Lord with the people of Judah, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the priests and the Levites—all the people from the least to the greatest. He read in their hearing all the words of the Book of the Covenant, which had been found in the temple of the Lord. 31 The king stood by his pillar and renewed the covenant in the presence of the Lord—to follow the Lord and keep his commands, statutes and decrees with all his heart and all his soul, and to obey the words of the covenant written in this book.
32 Then he had everyone in Jerusalem and Benjamin pledge themselves to it; the people of Jerusalem did this in accordance with the covenant of God, the God of their ancestors.
33 Josiah removed all the detestable idols from all the territory belonging to the Israelites, and he had all who were present in Israel serve the Lord their God. As long as he lived, they did not fail to follow the Lord, the God of their ancestors.
So Josiah just gave up then, right? Nope, he continued to be the Godly king that kept the Lord’s commands and removed the detestable idols and got the people to also renew their covenant to the Lord.
He was a good king!
Do you wonder how the other kings did not “realize” to be this way also? Why were they so spiritually oblivious?
Imagine the guy Balaam in the Bible who spoke to a donkey. Do you think he changed his ways after seeing such a miracle? How could he be so oblivious?
Imagine the Israelites who left Egypt and crossed the parted Red sea and saw the pillar of fire by night and the pillar of smoke during the day and saw many miracles, and still turned their backs on God and followed idols! How could they be so oblivious!
So you hear people say if they saw a miracle they wouldn’t turn their backs on God, do you think that’s true?
Peter even denied God three times!
I equate being oblivious to sort of being stupid, right? So how can people be so oblivious? How can they look around and see a tree and realize that it came from somewhere and then deny that God made them. Or look at the complexity of the human body and see the mechanics at the cellular level and see that we have trillions of brain cells, with an automatic healing mechanism and can walk and talk and think and love and hate, and still deny God’s existence! It’s crazy to me that people can be so oblivious.
James 2:19 says that even the demons believe there is one God and they tremble!
Psalm 9:10 says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
1 John 1:8 says if we claim we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and are not being truthful!
Remember the story of Elisha’s servant that was afraid of the enemy that was surrounding the city and Elisha prayed and his eyes were opened and he could see the many angels that were protecting them.
Don’t wait for a crisis to wake you up spiritually.
This story shows us Josiah’s path from being oblivious as a child and how he quickly transitioned to being Awake and drawing closer to God. Is Josiah’s story, your story? Or do you float thru life oblivious. I hope not.
Josiah didn’t just feel bad about the way things were, he actually did something about it and even led the people to turn back to the Lord.
Josiah saw the value in turning back to the Lord! Do you?
