Introduction:
I heard a story recently about a young preacher who was very gifted with the ability to speak. But as the congregation began to grow and he received more and more compliments, his head began to swell as well. After delivering one of his sermons, a member of the congregation shook his hand at the door and said, "You’re becoming one of the great expositors of this generation."
Well, that just made his head swell all the bigger. As he got into the car to head home, his wife alongside him and all the kids stuffed into the back seat, he couldn’t resist sharing the story. He said, "Mrs. Franklin told me she thought I was one of the greatest expositors of this generation."
No response. Trying to fish for a compliment, he looked over at his wife and said, "I wonder just how many ’great expositors’ there are in this generation." Unable to resist the opportunity to set the record straight, she said quietly, "One less than you think, my dear."
How many sermons do you suppose you’ve heard in your lifetime? I realize that that number would vary from person to person. Without mentioning names, some of you have had more opportunity than others. But all of us have probably heard more lessons from the Bible than we realize; many more than we can remember, anyway. Since I’ve been here in Boone, I’ve preached well over 300 sermons. How many of those can you remember? You may ask, "How many of them are worth remembering?"
A number of years ago, there was a letter written to the editor of a major newspaper in Great Britain. The writer of this letter argued the point that preaching was outdated and worthless. He challenged his readers to name the titles and main points of five sermons they had heard in their lifetime. He contended that because you can’t remember sermons, they are therefore meaningless.
He got several responses to his challenge, but the most interesting response came from a London preacher. In his letter, he said: "I have been married for 30 years. During that time I have eaten 32,850 meals -- mostly my wife’s cooking. Suddenly I have discovered that I cannot remember the menu of a single meal. And yet, I have received nourishment from every one of them. I have the distinct impression that without them, I would have starved to death long ago."
In the same way, while the details of sermons may quickly leave us, the spiritual nourishment we receive from them remains longer than we might think.
Do we realize how blessed we are to have access to such lessons from the word of God? Very often, the more blessed we are, the more we take our blessings for granted. And so we may sit through the worship service sometimes bored, sometimes critical, sometimes challenged. We shuffle out after the service is over oblivious to the great blessing that is ours. In other times and other places, our brethren have lost their lives doing the things that we take for granted.
Do we take the word of God itself for granted? We live in a place and a time where we more access to the word of God than ever before. Do you realize what a blessing it is to have your own copy of the Bible? People are standing in line for hours and hours in Russia and Ukraine and countries in Africa to get their very first copy of a New Testament. That book is considered to them one of their prized possessions. Perhaps they have come to appreciate what we take for granted.
Did you know that as recently as 300 years ago, people were executed for having Bibles? William Tyndale was executed for making the Bible available in the language of his people. At one time, copies of the Bible were literally chained to the pulpits of the churches so that people couldn’t take them home!
Do we really appreciate our privilege of possessing and knowing God’s word? What is our attitude toward that word? Has the Bible become for us a book that we put up on the shelf only to bring down when we get stuck on that crossword puzzle -- a four-letter word for “Son of Adam and Eve” and it doesn’t start with either A or C? Or do we realize the truth that so many people died for -- the Bible is the word of God, the central truth around which all life must revolve. What is your attitude this morning toward the Bible?
As we read through the Old Testament, we realize that Judah was a nation that had a lot of spiritual ups and downs. There were times that they were very close to God, trying to do God’s will. And there were other times when God was all but forgotten.
This morning, I want us to look at two episodes from the Old Testament where two kings of Judah were confronted with God’s word. These two men were father and son, but they were nothing alike. Their reactions to the word of God were as different as night and day. And as we look at those reactions, I want us to gain some insight into our own feelings and attitudes about the scriptures.
I. Josiah
The first of these two kings was Josiah. Josiah had come to the throne during one of the darkest periods in Judah’s history. His grandfather was Manasseh, a man who had built altars so that the Jews could worship heathen gods such as Baal and Molech. He even brought idols into the temple in Jerusalem. He persecuted God’s prophets, and the worship of Jehovah was all but done away with in Judah. When Manasseh died, his son Amon took over the throne and continued his father’s policies, continuing to serve and worship the heathen idols until he was assassinated two years into his reign.
So Josiah came to the throne at the age of eight after his father’s death. For some unknown reason, Josiah began to seek after God in the eighth year of his reign. "He did what was right in the sight of the Lord, and walked in all the ways of his father David; he did not turn aside to the right hand or to the left." (II Kings 22:2).
The book of Chronicles tells us: “For in the eighth year of his reign, while he was still young [16 years old, to be exact], he began to seek the God of his father David; and in the twelfth year [when he was 20 years old] he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem of the high places, the wooden images, the carved images, and the molded images." (II Chronicles 34:3).
Josiah basically declared war on idolatry. He removed the altars that were built to Baal, Asherah and Molech. He smashed the idols and desecrated the temples.
But it was in the 18th year of Josiah’s reign, when he was 26 years old, that the most important event of his reign took place. He had commissioned repairs to be made on the temple in Jerusalem, repairs made necessary by more than sixty years of neglect during the reigns of his father and grandfather. While workman completed the repairs, they found "the book of the law" that had been lost for years.
For the first time in his life, Josiah was faced with God’s word. "Then Hilkiah the high priest 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, and he read it....Then Shaphan the scribe showed the king, saying, ’Hilkiah the priest has given me a book.’ And Shaphan read it before the king." (II Kings 22:8,10).
The response of Josiah was predictable, considering he was a man who loved God. "Now it happened, when the king heard the words of the Book of the Law, that he tore his clothes." (II Kings 22:11). The tearing of the clothes in Bible days represented a number of different emotions. It seems to me the most likely emotion expressed by Josiah in this passage was a combination of sorrow and fear -- a realization that God’s word had been neglected for years. Immediately, Josiah set out to correct the mistakes of the past.
"...Then the king sent them to gather all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem to him. And the king went up to the house of the Lord with all the men of Judah, and with him all the inhabitants of Jerusalem -- the priests and the prophets and all the people, both small and great; 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 by a pillar and made a covenant before the Lord, to follow the Lord and to keep his commandments and his testimonies and his statutes, with all his heart and all his soul, to perform the words of this covenant that were written in this book. And all the people took their stand for the covenant." (II Kings 23:1-3).
Not only did Josiah intend to follow the book himself, he was determined that all the people of Judah would do so as well.
II. Jehoiakim
There’s a similar event that took place during the reign of Josiah’s son Jehoiakim. The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, and told him to produce a book. "Now it came to pass in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, that this word came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying: ’Take a scroll of a book and write on it all the words that I have spoken to you against Israel, against Judah, and against all the nations, from the day I spoke to you, from the days of Josiah even to this day. It may be that the house of Judah will hear all the adversities which I purpose to bring upon them, that everyone may turn from his evil way, that I may forgive their iniquity and their sin.’" (Jeremiah 36:1-3).
This book that Jeremiah was told to write would contain information concerning Judah’s sin, and it was God’s intent that such information would move Jehoiakim to do the same thing that his father had done -- institute reforms that would lead the people back to God.
Baruch, who was Jeremiah’s secretary, helper and friend, delivered the book to the court of king Jehoiakim. Some of Jehoiakim’s officials heard Baruch read from the book, and they were moved with fear. They arranged for the book to be brought to the king.
Notice now Jehoiakim’s reaction: "And they went to the king, into the court; but they stored the scroll in the chamber of Elishama the scribe, and told all the words in the hearing of the king. So the king sent Jehudi to bring the scroll, and he took it from Elishama the scribe’s chamber. And Jehudi read it in the hearing of the king and in the hearing of the princes who stood beside the king. Now the king was sitting in the winter house in the ninth month, with a fire burning on the hearth before him. And it happened, when Jehudi had read three or four columns, that the king cut it with the scribe’s knife and cast it into the fire that was on the hearth, until all the scroll was consumed in the fire that was on the hearth. Yet they were not afraid, nor did they tear their garments, the king nor any of his servants who heard all these words." (Jeremiah 36:20-24).
What a difference there is here. It’s hard to believe that Josiah and Jehoiakim were father and son. Instead of the concern to follow God’s word that we saw in Josiah, we find in Jehoiakim a flippant and negative attitude toward the word of God.
It’s interesting just how different, and yet how similar, these episodes really are. Both kings heard the word of God after not having access to it for years. Both of them reacted to it initially by tearing something -- Josiah tore his clothes and Jehoiakim tore up the scroll itself. Both men then burned something. Josiah burned all the idols that remained and Jehoiakim burned the torn scroll that had contained Jeremiah’s book. Josiah acted in deep respect for the word of God and did everything he could to follow it. Jehoiakim showed disdain for the book by his reluctance to either listen to it or follow its teachings.
III. Responding to the Word: Today
Josiah’s reforms in the nation of Judah were based on an openness to the word of God. The great king had a rather simplistic attitude toward scripture. Once he heard it and verified its truthfulness, then he obeyed it...period. He based his actions on the word that he had learned. He would not waver to the left or to the right. His dedication to God showed itself in his dedication to God’s word. And that dedication led to a restoration of God’s people.
I think that’s especially important to us because we are also involved in a restoration. The "restoration movement" is an effort to get behind the twenty centuries of religious tradition and to look to the word of God as our authority so that we may worship and serve God acceptably. We seek to restore New Testament Christianity. But that restoration is a response to the word of God as we seek to follow it as directly and completely as possible.
Josiah’s restoration was based on his desire to follow the word of the Lord. Once he became aware of what God’s will was for him, he "made a covenant before the Lord, to follow the Lord and to keep his commandments and his testimonies and his statutes, with all his heart and all his soul, to perform the words of this covenant that were written in this book." (II Kings 23:3).
Jehoiakim, on the other hand, approached truth with his own bias, his own ideas. He thought that he knew all of the truth that he needed to know. Therefore he wasn’t open to God’s message, and restoration was for him an impossibility. His failure to properly receive the word of God meant his destruction. He reign ended with Jerusalem fallen and himself carried back to Babylon in chains to a certain death.
Josiah and Jehoiakim teach us to be ever sensitive and open to the word of God. We must always approach the Bible with an attitude that we desire to learn and to change. Jehoiakim didn’t do that, and his attitude led to his destruction. We must understand that the same danger awaits us.
If we ever approach the scriptures with the attitude that we already know everything that we ever need to learn, then we’re repeating the folly of Jehoiakim.
If we ever come to the scriptures with an axe to grind or a premise to prove, then we’re repeating the mistake of Jehoiakim.
And if we ever come to the Bible only for information to use to change others without the willingness to change ourselves, then we’re repeating the error that Jehoiakim made.
You see, we sometimes make the assumption that an improper view of scripture is something we need to watch out for in false teachers. And that’s true. But it’s not just false teachers.
Those of us who are committed to the concept of restoration can make the same mistake. We can come to see the Bible as a tool to use to affect change in others without seeing the need to change ourselves. We can use the word of God as sort of a club to beat everyone into submission. "I’m right, you’re wrong. You need to change."
When Josiah began his restoration, did you notice where he started? He started by making changes in his own life. I guess the word that summarizes what our attitude should be in the church is "humility". I don’t have all the answers. And I don’t want to give the impression to other people that I have all the answers.
I’m not right on everything, but God’s word is right and it always will be. The more I study the word of God, the better the understanding I have for God’s will in my own life. I’m constantly finding things that need to be changed. What’s our attitude toward the word of God? Is it more like Josiah, or like Jehoiakim?
IV. Responding to the Word: The New Testament
I want to shift gears with you for just a moment now before we bring the lesson to a close. I want us to look at some of the responses to God’s Word that we see in the New Testament. In Acts 17, Paul was preaching in Athens. Listen to these reactions to his sermon: "And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked, while others said, ’We will hear you again on this matter.’ So Paul departed from among them. However, some men joined him and believed..." (Acts 17:32-34).
Do you notice the different responses there? They all heard the same sermon but they reacted in different ways. Some of them believed Paul. Some of them made fun of Paul. And some of them said, "We want to hear more before we make up our mind."
In Acts 2:41, after Peter proclaimed the word of the Lord in Jerusalem, "those who gladly received his word were baptized." But in Acts 24:25, when Felix, the governor of Judea, heard that same word from Paul, he said, "Go away for now; when I have a convenient time I will call for you."
The word of God has always been received into different kinds of hearts. That was the whole point behind the parable of the sower. The seed falls on different kinds of ground. The word of God falls into different kinds of hearts. People respond in different ways.
But, even among those of us who are Christians, we react in different ways when we hear the word of God proclaimed. James was writing to Christians when he said, "Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves." (James 1:21-22).
Conclusion:
Josiah was one of the greatest of the kings of Judah because, more than any other king, he was open and receptive to the word of God. Josiah had a lot of things that he could have been proud of in himself. He had come to seek God. He had sought after the Lord with many great works. But all of that was meaningless to him when he found the word of God and realized his shortcomings. Once he discovered God’s truth, that was all that mattered to him. He was going to continue to change until he was all that God wanted him to be.
There are few Old Testament characters who are as worthy of admiration and respect as Josiah. Perhaps more than any other character, Josiah was able to rise above a past of wickedness and perversion to single-mindedly seek after the Lord. He wanted to know the truth and sought to practice the truth more than any other of Israel’s kings. And when it comes to the word of God, I want to be just like him.
How about you? When it comes to knowing and practicing God’s word, are you more like Josiah or Jehoiakim? It’s so easy for us to slip into an attitude of unconcern and indifference. It’s easy for us to take God’s Word for granted rather than to see it as it truly is -- the word of God himself. This morning, as you’re confronted with what God wants you to do in obedience to his will, will you turn your head once again and ignore him like Jehoiakim, or will you whole-heartedly commit your life to following that word, as Josiah did? The choice is yours.
