Understanding the Nature of God

"Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned thirty and one years in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Jedidah, the daughter of Adaiah of Boscath. And he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, and walked in all the way of David his father, and turned not aside to the right hand or to the left. And it came to pass in the eighteenth year of king Josiah, that the king sent Shaphan the son of Azaliah, the son of Meshullam, the scribe, to the house of the Lord, saying, Go up to Hilkiah the high priest, that he may sum the silver which is brought into the house of the Lord, which the keepers of the door have gathered of the people: And let them deliver it into the hand of the doers of the work, that have the oversight of the house of the Lord: and let them give it to the doers of the work which is in the house of the Lord, to repair the breaches of the house... And Hilkiah the high priest said unto 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... And Shaphan the scribe shewed the king, saying, Hilkiah the priest hath delivered me a book. And Shaphan read it before the king. And it came to pass, when the king had heard the words of the book of the law, that he rent his clothes. And the king commanded Hilkiah the priest, and Ahikam the son of Shaphan, and Achbor the son of Michaiah, and Shaphan the scribe, and Asahiah a servant of the king's, saying, Go ye, enquire of the Lord for me, and for the people, and for all Judah, concerning the words of this book that is found: for great is the wrath of the Lord that is kindled against us, because our fathers have not hearkened unto the words of this book, to do according unto all that which is written concerning us. So Hilkiah the priest, and Ahikam, and Achbor, and Shaphan, and Asahiah, went unto Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum the son of Tikvah, the son of Harhas, keeper of the wardrobe; (now she dwelt in Jerusalem in the college;) and they communed with her.

And she said unto them, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Tell the man that sent you to me, Thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will bring evil upon this place, and upon the inhabitants thereof, even all the words of the book which the king of Judah hath read: Because they have forsaken me, and have burned incense unto other gods, that they might provoke me to anger with all the works of their hands; therefore my wrath shall be kindled against this place, and shall not be quenched... And the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest, and the priests of the second order, and the keepers of the door, to bring forth out of the temple of the Lord all the vessels that were made for Baal, and for the grove, and for all the host of heaven: and he burned them without Jerusalem in the fields of Kidron, and carried the ashes of them unto Bethel. And he put down the idolatrous priests, whom the kings of Judah had ordained to burn incense in the high places in the cities of Judah, and in the places round about Jerusalem; them also that burned incense unto Baal, to the sun, and to the moon, and to the planets, and to all the host of heaven. And he brought out the grove from the house of the Lord, without Jerusalem, unto the brook Kidron, and burned it at the brook Kidron, and stamped it small to powder, and cast the powder thereof upon the graves of the children of the people. And he brake down the houses of the sodomites, that were by the house of the Lord, where the women wove hangings for the grove... And he defiled Topheth, which is in the valley of the children of Hinnom, that no man might make his son or his daughter to pass through the fire to Molech... And the altars that were on the top of the upper chamber of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and the altars which Manasseh had made in the two courts of the house of the Lord, did the king beat down, and brake them down from thence, and cast the dust of them into the brook Kidron. And the high places that were before Jerusalem, which were on the right hand of the mount of corruption, which Solomon the king of Israel had builded for Ashtoreth the abomination of the Zidonians, and for Chemosh the abomination of the Moabites, and for Milcom the abomination of the children of Ammon, did the king defile.

And he brake in pieces the images, and cut down the groves, and filled their places with the bones of men. Moreover the altar that was at Bethel, and the high place which Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin, had made, both that altar and the high place he brake down, and burned the high place, and stamped it small to powder, and burned the grove. And as Josiah turned himself, he spied the sepulchres that were there in the mount, and sent, and took the bones out of the sepulchres, and burned them upon the altar, and polluted it, according to the word of the Lord which the man of God proclaimed, who proclaimed these words. Then he said, What title is that that I see? And the men of the city told him, It is the sepulchre of the man of God, which came from Judah, and proclaimed these things that thou hast done against the altar of Bethel. And he said, Let him alone; let no man move his bones. So they let his bones alone, with the bones of the prophet that came out of Samaria. And all the houses also of the high places that were in the cities of Samaria, which the kings of Israel had made to provoke the Lord to anger, Josiah took away, and did to them according to all the acts that he had done in Bethel. And the king commanded all the people, saying, Keep the passover unto the Lord your God, as it is written in the book of this covenant. urely there was not holden such a passover from the days of the judges that judged Israel, nor in all the days of the kings of Israel, nor of the kings of Judah... Moreover the workers with familiar spirits, and the wizards, and the images, and the idols, and all the abominations that were spied in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, did Josiah put away, that he might perform the words of the law which were written in the book that Hilkiah the priest found in the house of the Lord. And like unto him was there no king before him, that turned to the Lord with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his might, according to all the law of Moses; neither after him arose there any like him" (From II Kin. ch. 22 and 23).

Well, all I can say about Josiah and his righteous zeal for the Lord, is wow, WOW, and W - O - W !! And what a report the scriptures have of him, meaning the last verse cited. I hope that you see what I see in this mega-powerful passage of scripture, about this incredible king who rose up in Judah toward the end of Judah, after God had judged the nation as finished. I'm not going to say a whole lot about this, mainly because the scriptures pretty much say it all already. But just to highlight what we've read, Josiah had a very rare heart within him, and a very rare love for God. What he demonstrated for the most part is the judgment and vengeance of the Lord against the wickedness that had become so prevalent in the nation for so long. The reason most of his acts were in respect to judgment and vengeance against the things and people that the Lord hated, was because there was SO MUCH OF IT that had gotten a foot hold in the land for a long time. Josiah was a very, very determined man however. God told him through the prophetess that it was all over for Judah, and that it could not be changed. Yet he went out and did all that could be done, and then some, to stamp out every form of wickedness in the land, and to appease God's wrath against his people. Josiah hated what God hated, and he demonstrated it by not allowing any of it to have any place in the kingdom any more. I think the thing that we've read here that most demonstrates Josiah's heart toward God is where He gathered the bones of the dead priests of Baal, who had done great service to Baal in the past, and burnt them before the Lord. Not only that, but at the same time he did that, which in fact had been prophesied of many years before; he happened upon the tomb of the prophet who had prophesied of his doing these things, and another prophet who was buried beside him; and he gave commandment not to disturb their bones. That brings powerfully to my mind what David wrote about those who would inherit eternal salvation with the Lord: "In whose eyes a vile person is contemned; but he honoureth them that fear the Lord" (Psm. 15:4).

Josiah saw everything and everybody that was vile in the sight of the Lord, as utterly contemptible. He loved what God loves, and he hated what God hates. This is the element of the love of God that so many modern believers have been poisoned against by the lovey-dovey traditions and doctrines of modern Christianity. The modern Christian theme is all about love, love, and more love. As in, "♫All you need is love, love, love is all you need.♫" Well, if it's the right love, then that's all there really is, because the Bible clearly says, "God is love" (I Jn. 4:8). But the modern Christian traditions have in large part depicted the love of God as being indulgent, and without judgment against that and those which are evil. Josiah did not 'get mad' and burn those men's bones before The Lord. God was already PLENTY 'MAD' about the whole thing, and had been for a long long time. Josiah's heart was such that it was able to tap into God's feelings about things, and the great zeal of judgment that he executed was nothing more or less than the expression of the heart and mind of God. Of course the modern Christian 'love birds' will often argue that God was different in the old testament that he is in the new testament, which is to say he was a God of judgment in the old, and a God of mercy in the new. That of course is to call God a liar, because the scriptures clearly tell us that God NEVER CHANGES, and it is both new testament and old testament scripture that cites this divine reality (Mal. 3:6; Heb. 13:8; Jas. 1:17). He has ALWAYS BEEN both a God of mercy AND a God of judgment! He still is! Listen to what Jesus told new testament believers about the God of mercy: "And I say unto you my friends, Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear: Fear him, which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, Fear him" (Lk. 12:4,5).

So why should we fear God? BECAUSE HE IS A GOD OF JUDGMENT! And because if we reject the enormity of love that God has demonstrated in Christ, we will be in far bigger trouble than those priests of Baal could have ever been in. They didn't even have the cross of Christ to reject, though in reality they rejected the very same love and the very same God. I could write a book right here on this topic, but let me allow Jude to say it for me best: "I will therefore put you in remembrance, though ye once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not" (Jude 1:5). In case you're wondering just why Jude told that little snippet of history to God's born again people, I'll let the apostle Paul detail it just a little further: "Thou wilt say then, The branches were broken off, that I might be grafted in. Well; because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith. Be not highminded, but fear: For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee. Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off" (Rom. 11:19-22). But if that one leaves you with any doubt, the same apostle was well able to get the point across with even more graphic detail: "For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame. For the earth which drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs meet for them by whom it is dressed, receiveth blessing from God: But that which beareth thorns and briers is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing; whose end is to be burned" (Heb. 6:4-8).

Try to make anything out of these passages of scripture than a divine warning of fearful judgment against born again believers who are bent to playing with sin, and you do so to your own destruction (II Pet. 3:16). These passages, and what they depict to us, is exactly why Jesus said we should fear God. The love that God showed to the world in sending his Son to die in our place, is immeasurable and unspeakable. The judgment and vengeance of the Lord against all who reject that love, or turn away from that love permanently after having received it, is equally immeasurable (Heb. 10:26-31). It is high time for God's people to hate the things that Jesus hates, and to put these things far from us. You don't think Jesus hates? "So hast thou also them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitanes, which thing I hate" (Rev. 2:15). It is also time to put away the 'Christian' doctrines that have hardened the body of Christ against the judgment and wrath of God, and get real. According to the Bible, it is the wicked who do NOT hate evil: "He deviseth mischief upon his bed; he setteth himself in a way that is not good; he abhorreth not evil" (Psm. 36:4). David, who was "a man after God's own heart," did not shy away from godly hate: "Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee? and am not I grieved with those that rise up against thee? I hate them with perfect hatred: I count them mine enemies" (Acts 13:22; Psm. 139:21,22). What needs to happen in this nation is a shakeup in the government that brings about a Josiah effect on the nation. The nation must acquire leadership that will be fully bent on ridding the nation of the evils that God hates, and returning the nation to the principles that God can bless. I believe that can still happen, and the coming election will show us whether enough people in this country want that or not. What needs to happen in the body of Christ is the very same thing. We must have bold and wise prophets and leaders that can stare the weak modern traditions in the face, call them out, and burn them to the ground by the fire of God's Spirit! If we can do these things in this nation, then we will lead the world and light the world on fire with that same holy Ghost and fire that first fell on the day of Pentecost, and that is ready now to fall with grace and judgment on a desperately wicked and dying world. So may it be.