Breaking the Cycle of Sin
My Bible School classes have always been
marked by the fact that there is a wide spread of ages in them. I came within
about six months of having five generations -- mothers and daughters -- in my
class at one time. The first four of those generations showed how mother
taught daughter to rebel against mother.
Many of us have seen the same thing: “like
father, like son.” One generation is evil; the evil is passed on to the
children. Many of us are convinced that there is no hope for such a situation
-- because we are in it. Today we will see how the cycle of sin is broken. To
see how this can be, we need to look first at the immediate ancestors of
Josiah:
·
His
great grandfather was one of the truly great kings of Judah - Hezekiah. This
was a man whose reign was a high point in devotion to the things of God.
Unfortunately, he was unable to pass on his devotion to his son.
·
Manasseh,
his son, was a very evil man. It was not until the Assyrians had come,
captured him and led him off with a hook in his nose and bronze shackles on his
wrists. There, in prison, he humbled himself before God. God heard his prayer
and restored him to Jerusalem. Perhaps his teaching was the influence that
Josiah heeded.
·
His
son, Amon, certainly wasn’t that influence. In a rarity for the kings of
Judah, he was assassinated after only two years of rule, when Josiah was eight
years old.
Let’s look, then, at how Josiah overcame his
father’s example. This is easiest to see in chronological form:
·
At
eight years of age, he becomes king. We can imagine that some of his
grandfather’s advisers (remember, dad was assassinated) were influential here.
·
At
16, he begins to seek God in earnest.
·
At
20, showing that this was not an overnight conversion but a serious change of
lifestyle, he begins to clean up the land. How bad were things? Here’s the
account in Kings:
{4} The king ordered Hilkiah the high priest,
the priests next in rank and the doorkeepers to remove from the temple of the
LORD all the articles made for Baal and Asherah and all the starry hosts. He
burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of the Kidron Valley and took the
ashes to Bethel. {5} He did away with the pagan priests appointed by the kings
of Judah to burn incense on the high places of the towns of Judah and on those
around Jerusalem--those who burned incense to Baal, to the sun and moon, to the
constellations and to all the starry hosts. {6} He took the Asherah pole from
the temple of the LORD to the Kidron Valley outside Jerusalem and burned it
there. He ground it to powder and scattered the dust over the graves of the
common people. {7} He also tore down the quarters of the male shrine
prostitutes, which were in the temple of the LORD and where women did weaving
for Asherah. {8} Josiah brought all the priests from the towns of Judah and
desecrated the high places, from Geba to Beersheba, where the priests had
burned incense. He broke down the shrines at the gates--at the entrance to the
Gate of Joshua, the city governor, which is on the left of the city gate. {9}
Although the priests of the high places did not serve at the altar of the LORD
in Jerusalem, they ate unleavened bread with their fellow priests. {10} He
desecrated Topheth, which was in the Valley of Ben Hinnom, so no one could use
it to sacrifice his son or daughter in the fire to Molech. {11} He removed from
the entrance to the temple of the LORD the horses that the kings of Judah had
dedicated to the sun. They were in the court near the room of an official named
Nathan-Melech. Josiah then burned the chariots dedicated to the sun. {12} He
pulled down the altars the kings of Judah had erected on the roof near the
upper room of Ahaz, and the altars Manasseh had built in the two courts of the
temple of the LORD. He removed them from there, smashed them to pieces and
threw the rubble into the Kidron Valley. {13} The king also desecrated the high
places that were east of Jerusalem on the south of the Hill of Corruption--the
ones Solomon king of Israel had built for Ashtoreth the vile goddess of the
Sidonians, for Chemosh the vile god of Moab, and for Molech the detestable god
of the people of Ammon. {14} Josiah smashed the sacred stones and cut down the
Asherah poles and covered the sites with human bones. {15} Even the altar at
Bethel, the high place made by Jeroboam son of Nebat, who had caused Israel to
sin--even that altar and high place he demolished. He burned the high place and
ground it to powder, and burned the Asherah pole also. {16} Then Josiah looked
around, and when he saw the tombs that were there on the hillside, he had the
bones removed from them and burned on the altar to defile it, in accordance
with the word of the LORD proclaimed by the man of God who foretold these
things. {17} The king asked, "What is that tombstone I see?" The men
of the city said, "It marks the tomb of the man of God who came from Judah
and pronounced against the altar of Bethel the very things you have done to
it." {18} "Leave it alone," he said. "Don't let anyone
disturb his bones." So they spared his bones and those of the prophet who
had come from Samaria. {19} Just as he had done at Bethel, Josiah removed and
defiled all the shrines at the high places that the kings of Israel had built
in the towns of Samaria that had provoked the LORD to anger. {20} Josiah
slaughtered all the priests of those high places on the altars and burned human
bones on them. Then he went back to Jerusalem. -- 2 Kings 23:4-20 (NIV)
For reference, the prophecy in question was
made about 641 BC - and Josiah’s reign started about 975 BC, more than 300
years later.
{13:1} By the word of the LORD a man of God
came from Judah to Bethel, as Jeroboam was standing by the altar to make an
offering. {2} He cried out against the altar by the word of the LORD: "O
altar, altar! This is what the LORD says: 'A son named Josiah will be born to
the house of David. On you he will sacrifice the priests of the high places who
now make offerings here, and human bones will be burned on you.'" {3} That
same day the man of God gave a sign: "This is the sign the LORD has
declared: The altar will be split apart and the ashes on it will be poured
out." {4} When King Jeroboam heard what the man of God cried out against
the altar at Bethel, he stretched out his hand from the altar and said,
"Seize him!" But the hand he stretched out toward the man shriveled
up, so that he could not pull it back. {5} Also, the altar was split apart and
its ashes poured out according to the sign given by the man of God by the word
of the LORD. {6} Then the king said to the man of God, "Intercede with the
LORD your God and pray for me that my hand may be restored." So the man of
God interceded with the LORD, and the king's hand was restored and became as it
was before. -- 1 Kings 13:1-6 (NIV)
You must imagine it this way: picture what
had happened to, say, the Eastside Christian Church building:
·
There’s
a Hindu goddess sculpture right under the baptistery.
·
For
those who are devotees of the local sex and fertility cult, we have male
prostitutes on the premises (complete with priestesses for slow business
nights).
·
We
even have an abortion clinic available on the premises.
Do you see the picture? It’s one of a
“tolerant” nation. We let you worship anybody, anywhere. Josiah sees it differently.
Indeed, he comes across to us like one of those who burned witches in Salem --
rigidly intolerant. What’s the matter with the man?
Look at it this way: suppose a friend of
yours, one well known from childhood, decided to sell you out. Times are
tough; there are conquerors in the land; and for a sum of money he tells the
invaders where you are hiding. How do you feel about that traitor?
That’s precisely what a witch is. Satan is
out to devour you, heart and soul. He is the enemy of the human race. A witch
is one who has sold herself out to our enemy. Josiah saw the priests of these
strange gods as those who had sold themselves out, spitting contempt for the
Living God. Is it any wonder he treated them as we would treat a Quisling?
Josiah’s next step is to clean up and rebuild
the temple, at age 26. In doing this, he makes the most important discovery of
his life: he finds the Law of Moses.
Finding the Law
Pre-eminence of Scripture
We must remember that written copies of the
Scriptures were rare -- and probably kept “in a safe place.” No doubt the copy
given to Josiah was from his great grandfather’s time. Its effect on Josiah is
like a thunderbolt. It is yet another example of why we need to read
the Scriptures. Men need not so much to be instructed as reminded -- and God
has provided for our reminders.
Just reading the Scripture is not adequate,
however. Josiah’s conduct here shows two things:
·
Josiah
is a man of purity. Purity is not the same thing as innocence. Innocence is ignorant
of sin; purity is opposite sin. When Josiah hears the law, he tears his robes
in distress.
·
Josiah
sees quickly that key concept: the covenant relationship. Indeed, he will
lead the people in renewing that covenant. The covenant relationship includes
within the curses which will fall on the people if the covenant is not kept.
He therefore inquires of the Lord -- what shall I do?
Seeking God’s Will
Note first that Josiah actively seeks out the
will of God. He doesn’t wait for God to open the heavens and get his
attention; he goes to someone who speaks with God. The answer at first seems
curious: judgment is coming -- but will be withheld during your lifetime,
because of your humbleness. Two key points here come out:
·
Josiah
is a man “standing in the gap.” It is not the nation that has repented, but
Josiah. Yet for his sake (the phrase rings with Sodom and Gomorrah) God is
willing to delay judgment.
·
Judgment
must come, however. God is not a man (remember Balaam?) whose mind changes
with the wind. The covenant represents the unchanging nature of God.
Renewal of the Covenant
It is not sufficient for Josiah to drive out
the evil; it must be replaced with the best. Josiah understands the principle
of Spiritual Displacement -- best expressed by our Lord in a parable:
{43} "When an evil spirit comes out of a
man, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. {44} Then
it says, 'I will return to the house I left.' When it arrives, it finds the
house unoccupied, swept clean and put in order. {45} Then it goes and takes
with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live
there. And the final condition of that man is worse than the first. That is how
it will be with this wicked generation." -- Matthew 12:43-45 (NIV)
Passover Restored
Finally, Josiah crowns his renewal of the
covenant by celebrating the Passover. The Scripture says this was the greatest
Passover since the time of Samuel the prophet. This might seem odd --
Hezekiah, Josiah’s grandfather, threw a Passover with a lot more animals to be
sacrificed -- but I think not. Remember the principle of the widow’s mite.
The kingdom is much poorer than in those days; these sacrifices came from the
livelihood of the people, not from their excess.
It is interesting that his spiritual high
point is in ritual. We, as modern Americans, oppose ritual -- since all ritual
must, by definition, be empty. This is a view that most people of most times
would have found very strange. The human animal has as its highest form of
communication the symbolic. They would see this as the ultimate form of
commitment. Why do people hold wedding ceremonies anyway?
Josiah’s End
Sadly, Josiah’s life ends on a note of sin.
The sin in question is one which is not usually a temptation to the
inexperienced Christian -- but is deadly to the mature believer. At the end of
his life he may have felt complacent with God -- and trusted his own judgment
instead of asking. Because he has been so close to God, he seems to feel that
his own judgment is somehow automatically ratified by God. The political
situation is murky; Egypt is on the way to help one of Israel’s enemies at
Carcemish. By stabbing the Egyptians from behind, he can defeat one enemy and
cause the defeat of another. It doesn’t work; it is not from God. There are
some lessons here:
·
How
often do we “retroactively” consult God? “God, I’ve decided to get a new job /
wife / house / car / whatever. Please bless my decision.”
·
Sometimes
God speaks through unbelievers. Sometimes he speaks through those who are not
nearly so “wise” as we are. Sometimes he speaks through children. He is
always speaking; are we listening?
·
How
often we meddle in the things of God! Sometimes for expediency, as Josiah did
here; more often for love. Have you ever prayed, “O Lord, please don’t
punish so-and-so for their sin, please let them off the hook?”
It is a sobering lesson, but one which needs
be learned. The life of the Christian is not a sprint but a marathon -- and
can be lost in the last few miles.