Thursday, November 21, 2013

Matthew 1:1-17, Luke 3:23-38: De Vine Final

Presented to Swift Current Corps of The Salvation Army, 24 Nov. 2013
by Captain Michael Ramsay

This morning is our final morning of our teaching on the lineage of Jesus as laid out in Matthew and Luke. One thing that always comes with a teaching unit is a final exam: so let’s see how we do.

 Matching Test[1]

  1. Adam and Eve     
  2. Noah                                       
  3. Abraham
  4. Judah and Tamar
  5. Rahab
  6. Ruth
  7. David and Bathsheba
  8. Josiah
  9. Zerubbabel
     
  A.  He built an ark
  1. He built a temple
  2. He died in battle
  3. She was a Moabite
  4. He was from Ur of the Chaldeans (Iraq)
  5. She was a Canaanite prostitute
  6. They were the first people
  7. He is their child’s legal father and grandfather
  8. He was a king; she may have been a Hittite

The people who we chose to look at in our nine part sermon series on the lineage of Jesus were some of the more interesting names in the list: some of the ones that we have quite a bit of information about in the Biblical record. We also picked them because we thought their stories really help to underline two key points that God seems to emphasize through Jesus’ genealogy:

1)      There are consequences for our actions; however, God will not forsake us in difficult times (Deuteronomy 31:6; Judges 1:5, 16:2; Romans 3:3-4, 6:23; Hebrews 13:5).

2)      Salvation is offered to the whole world, including and especially the marginalized and those in distress (Luke 19:10; John 1:29, 3:16, 4:42; Acts 2:21; Romans 5:6, 6:23; 1 Timothy 2:3-6; Titus 2:11).[2] And including each of us as well.

 1. Adam and Eve

The first people who we looked at in our series on the lineage of Christ were Adam and Eve.[3] They were the first people that God created and God loved them and God gave them a very important task or two. Do you remember what he asked of them?

1)      Take care of the earth (Genesis 1:28b)
2)      Multiply, bringing the news of God to the ends of the earth (Genesis 1:28a)
3)      Save the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; don’t eat it yet (Genesis 2:16-17).

 The first people disobeyed and even tried to deceive their Father. They sinned. They defied Him even after He had created this whole garden for them and even after He had given them each and everyone of the animals to name and all save one tree from which to eat. God did all this and they still defy Him (Genesis 2-3). This makes God very sad and so:

1)      There are consequences for their actions but God does not forsake them in the ensuing difficult times.

2)      Salvation is offered to them; including and especially when they are in distress.

 The consequences are, of course, ‘the fall’ (Genesis 3). They are removed from the garden; they need to work hard to get the earth to produce fruit. There is now pain in childbirth. However, God does not forsake them. He provides them with clothing and protection as they enter into their new world. He offers them salvation right in the midst of their distress. Even when they notice that they are naked and want protection from the elements, it is God who provides the clothing for them (Genesis 3:21). He does not forsake them and He will not forsake us. He offers them salvation and He offers us salvation.
 
2. Noah

The people of Noah’s time, like Adam and Eve, are asked to take care of the earth and to multiply and thus bring the good news of God to the ends of the earth (Genesis 9:1).[4] The people of Noah’s time, the Bible says, ‘were only evil all the time’ (Genesis 6:5-7). This makes God very sad and so
1)      There are consequences for their actions: God feels the need to drown the world in His sorrow (Genesis 6-8); however, God does not forsake people in these difficult times.

2)      Salvation is offered to them. When they are in their greatest distress, God enables Noah to build an Ark to save not only humanity but also the animals of the earth (Genesis 6-8). God does not forsake them and He will not forsake us. He offers them salvation and He offers us salvation.

 In our homily that was a part of this series, we also noticed how the first thing recorded that Noah’s family does upon experiencing their salvation is to commit another grievous sin to do with Ham ‘uncovering Noah’s nakedness’ (cf. Genesis 9:18-29).[5]

1)      There are consequences for their actions: Ham’s descendants - Canaan is cursed; however, God does not forsake the people in difficult times (Genesis 9:25).

2)      Salvation is offered to them; when they are in their greatest distress, you will notice that the Canaanites are especially chosen to be a part of the salvation for the whole world in that they are in the direct lineage of Christ: possibly Tamar and definitely Rahab is a Canaanite chosen especially as part of Jesus’ lineage (Genesis 38, Joshua 2-6).[6] You and I are also invited to be a part of His life and His family.

 3. Abraham

Abraham is the first name mentioned in Matthew’s genealogy of Christ (Matthew 1:2). The other names mentioned today came from the Lukan account (Luke 3:23-38). Abraham is a righteous man. Just like God tells Adam and Noah to fill the earth spreading the Good News of God’s love to the ends of the earth, God does the same thing around Abraham’s story (Genesis 11-25). The prelude to God’s covenant of Salvation through Abraham is the tower of Babel episode (Genesis 11:1-9).[7] The people, instead of moving like they were told, disobey God by staying put and building a tower for their own fame and glory.[8]

1) There are consequences for their actions: God confuses the people’s languages and sends them out in spite of their rebellion (Genesis 11:8). God does not forsake them in the following difficult times though.

2) Salvation is offered to them including and especially when they are in distress. God, as recorded in Genesis 12:3, proclaims the Good News of Salvation for the first time in the Scriptures. All the nations of the earth will be blessed through Abraham. And, of course, this is fulfilled in the lineage and life of Jesus who is the Christ. He does not forsake them and He will not forsake us. He offers them salvation and He offers us salvation.
 

4. Judah and Tamar


Judah is the oldest son of Israel not to disqualify himself from his birthright. He however does do some pretty awful things in his life, including initiating the sale of his younger brother into slavery (Genesis 37:26-28), but he nonetheless still receives the birthright Also of note, however, is the fact that it is not only he that is here mentioned.[9] Tamar, his child’s mother, is also mentioned. This is quite significant. Tamar is Judah’s daughter-in-law and he deals quite harshly with her. According to the customs of that time and place, when Tamar’s husband (Judah’s son) died, Judah was required to provide his other sons to her so that she may have an heir and so that this heir might look after her in her old age. It is mentioned numerous times throughout Genesis 38 that God is displeased with this unwillingness to provide an heir. Judah eventually even sends Tamar away and so:
 
1)      There are consequences for his actions. Tamar dresses up as a prostitute and Judah has relations with her (Genesis 38:12-19); however, God does not them in these difficult times; He provides an heir.

2)      Salvation is offered to Judah and salvation is offered to Tamar. When they are in their greatest distress, God enables Tamar to conceive a child who becomes an ancestor of Jesus, God’s own son. Judah then invites Tamar back into his household and Tamar and her son are saved (Genesis 38:24-30). God does not forsake them. Abused and abuser both, God does not forsake them and He will not forsake us. He offers them salvation and He offers us salvation.

 5. Rahab

Rahab is a secular Canaanite prostitute in a doomed pagan city. Foreign spies sneak into Jericho where she lives with her family and the foreign spies come to visit the local prostitute (Joshua 2-6).[10]
 
1)      There were consequences for the Canaanites as we learned from the Noah episode (Genesis 9:25-29; cf. also Genesis 15:16); however, God does not forsake Rahab and He does not forsake the Canaanites in difficult times.

2)      Salvation is offered to Rahab, a marginalized prostitute, at her time of distress as her whole city is destroyed. And more than that God chooses this Canaanite prostitute to be an ancestor of our Lord and Saviour. God uses the Canaanites to bring salvation to not only the Israelites but also to the whole world (Matthew 1:5, Hebrews 11, James 2:25).[11] He does not forsake them and He will not forsake us. He offers salvation through and to them and He offers salvation to us.

6. Ruth

Ruth is a Moabite.[12] Moabites, like the Canaanites, were at best marginalized and at worst cursed. Naomi, Ruth’s mother-in-law, abandons the land promised to the Israelites and flees to Moab. She and her husband leave the land that is their inheritance.  Her sons marry foreigners and then her sons and her husband die (Ruth 1:1-5).
 
1)      There are consequences for her actions; Naomi and Ruth both suffer some very difficult times (Ruth 1); however, God does not forsake them in these difficult times. 

2)      Salvation is provided for marginalized and distressed Naomi and for Ruth, her daughter-in-law, and ultimately for the whole world (Ruth 2-4). God chooses this Moabite – from the land of Balaam (Numbers 21-24) - to be an ancestor of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. God uses the Moabites to bring salvation to not only the Israelites but also to the whole world.[13] He does not forsake them and He will not forsake us. He offers salvation through and to them and He offers salvation to us.
 
7. David and Bathsheba

David is the most famous king of Israel.[14] He is the warrior king who fought to expand his nation. He is the man. David has many wives and God could have chosen any of them to carry on the line of salvation. God however chooses Bathsheba and the significance of God’s choice should not be missed on the readers of the Gospel of Matthew. Look at Matthew 1:6b: It says there that the Messiah’s ancestor is David and (what does he call Bathsheba?) Uriah the Hittite’s wife. David takes this foreigner’s wife and has relations with her and then murders Uriah, who is a famous war hero. Matthew wants us to be very much aware of this as he mentions not only David but also Bathsheba and he mentions her not by name but as someone else’s wife. David comes together with Bathsheba through adultery and through murder (2 Samuel 11). David exploits his position and he takes advantage of the marginalized in the kingdom.
 
1)      There are consequences for David’s actions: his first child by Bathsheba dies (2 Samuel 12:15-23); however, God does not forsake Bathsheba and God does not forsake David in these difficult times that David created.

2)      Salvation is offered to David –the powerful- and salvation is offered to Bathsheba –the powerless. And ultimately this Bathsheba who is taken by this king who murdered her husband, this Bathsheba – who is probably a Hittite (2 Samuel 11:3), Bathsheba is chosen by God to be an ancestor of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. God uses this Hittite to bring salvation to not only the Israelites –her son was King Solomon under whose reign Israel’s territory and power reached its height- but God uses this Hittite to bring salvation to the whole world. He does not forsake her and He does not forsake David and He will not forsake us. He offers salvation through and to them and He offers salvation to us.
 
8. Josiah

Israel is long destroyed and Judah is in its death throws. Judah has so forsaken the LORD that they have even forgotten Him and they have even lost the Scriptures and the Book of the LORD. Israel and Judah have become evil by the time Josiah comes to the throne (2 Kings 21).[15]
 
1)      There are consequences for their actions: God does not spare Judah (2 Kings 23:26-27). The country is erased from among the nations for the evil that was done but even then God does not forsake them in the ensuing difficult times.

2)      Salvation is offered to them especially when they are in distress. God uses Josiah to lead His people back to Him before He disperses them among the nations (2 Kings 22). This way they have God with them. While they are at their lowest point, they can turn to Him and lean on Him in their distress. God is there for them even as they are suffering the consequences of their actions. He does not forsake them and He will not forsake us. He offers salvation to them and He offers salvation to us.
 
9. Zerubbabel

Zerubbabel is a descendant of David while the people of Judah are without a nation-state. He is a governor and he and a High Priest who oversee the rebuilding of the Temple (which was where they came to believe that God lived and which was originally destroyed shortly after the death of Josiah). It is during Israel’s exile and then life as a conquered people, it is at this point that they start looking for the Messiah who will be the Saviour of Judah, Israel, and the whole world. Today, the lineages of most of the Israelites have been lost forever from human records. Contemporary Israelis are predominantly descended from North American and European Jews: they aren’t even Semitic. According to Al-Ha’aretz, a prominent Israeli newspaper, as well as many well respected contemporary scholars, most non-Arab Israelis today are descended not from the Israelites of old but rather from the Khazars, people who lived in the Caucasus mountains: they aren’t Semitic; they are Caucasians. Contemporary Israelis are not ancient Israelites.
 
 However, that being said, when Jesus returns, the Lion of Judah will rise and Israel and the whole world will have a King. That is who the Messiah, the Christ is: He is the one who will rule the whole world from His throne in Jerusalem and we know that this Messiah is none other than Jesus Christ. He is the King of all the nations and it is by no accident that Jesus has in his lineage Judean Israelites –both privileged and otherwise, Moabites, Canaanites, and wives of Hittites. Jesus, who is the saviour of the whole world, has in his lineage even the most disparaged and disadvantaged people. Jesus, the King of Israel, Judah and the world, is descended from the peoples of the world and He is Israel’s saviour and He is our saviour. He is the saviour of the whole world and one day He is coming back and when He comes back every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord; so:
 
1)      Even though we live in a world filled with the consequences of humanity’s actions, God neither leaves us nor forsakes us;

2)      Salvation is offered to all of us even now; including and especially when we are in distress. In our time of need, our Lord is here. He will neither leave us nor forsake us. We are grafted into His vine. We are invited to be a part of His Salvation.
 
Let us pray. Thank you Lord that you are no respecter of men (Acts 10:34). Thank you Lord, as it records as far back as Genesis 12:3, that salvation is for all the nations of the earth. And thank you Lord for your promise that whosoever believeth in you shall not perish but will have everlasting life in Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
 
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[1] 1G, 2A, 3E, 4H, 5F, 6D, 7I, 8C, 9B
[2] Cf. Joel B Green. ‘The Gospel of Luke’. NICNT. Vol. 3. (Cambridge, UK: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1997), 25.
[3] Cf. Captain Michael Ramsay, 'Genesis 1-4: God: Creator, Governor, and Preserver of All Things', presented to Swift Current Corps of The Salvation Army (Sheepspeak.com: Swift Current, SK: 26 Feb 2012). Available on-line:
[4] Captain Michael Ramsay, ‘Genesis 6:5-7: This is going to hurt me more than it hurts you,’ presented to Swift Current Corps of The Salvation Army (Sheepspeak.com: Swift Current, SK: 10 June 2012). Available on-line: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.ca/2012/06/genesis-65-7-this-is-going-to-hurt-me.html
[5] Captain Michael Ramsay, ‘Genesis 9:18-29: Idiomatic Noah,’ presented to Swift Current Corps of The Salvation Army, (29 Sept 2013). Available on-line: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.ca/2013/09/genesis-918-29-idiomatic-noah.html
[6] Cf. Thomas W, Mann, The Book of the Torah: The Narrative Integrity of the Pentateuch, (Louisville, Kentucky: John Knox Press, 1988), 66-68., re. Tamar
[7] Cf. Captain Michael Ramsay, ‘Genesis 11:1-8, 31-12:4: So that we can make a name for ourselves’, presented to the Nipawin Corps of The Salvation Army, (Sheepspeak.com: Nipawin, SK: 14 June 2009). Available on-line: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.ca/2009/06/genesis-111-8-31-124-so-that-we-can.html
[8] Cf. Terence E. Fretheim, The Book of Genesis, (NIB I: Abingdon Press: Nashville, 1994), p. 412 where he argues that the primary sin here is the unwillingness to move and the ‘making a name for themselves’ is secondary.
[9] Cf. Captain Michael Ramsay, ‘Thanksgiving at Judah’s House,’
presented to Swift Current Corps of The Salvation Army, (Sheepspeak.com: Swift Current, SK: 13 Oct. 2013). Available on-line: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.ca/2013/10/thanksgiving-at-judahs-house.html
[10] Captain Michael Ramsay, ‘Rahab the Redeemed (Joshua 2&6, Hebrews 11:31, James 2:25),’ presented to Swift Current Corps of The Salvation Army, (Sheepspeak.com: Swift Current, SK: 25 September 2011), the Weekend of Prayer to Stop Human Trafficking  (Sheepspeak.com: Swift Current, SK: 20 October 2013)  Available on-line: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.ca/2011/09/rahab-redeemed-joshua-2-hebrews-1131.html   
[11] Cf. Richard S. Hess, Joshua: An Introduction and Commentary. Downers Grove, IL.: InterVarsity Press, 1996 (Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries 6), S. 89
[12] Captain Michael Ramsay, 'Ruth 1: Footprints in the Snow,' presented to Swift Current Corps of The Salvation Army, (Sheepspeak.com: Swift Current, SK: 27 October 2013). Available on-line: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.ca/2013/10/ruth-1-footprints-in-snow.html
[13] Cf. Jessica Tate, “Ruth 1:6-22: Between Text and Sermon,” Interpretation 64 (2010)
[14] See Captain Michael Ramsay, '2 Samuel 13-18: Taking Matters in His Own Hands: the Story of Prince Absalom,' presented to Nipawin and Tisdale Corps (Sheepspeak.com: Nipawin, SK: November 18, 2007). Available on-line: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.ca/2007/11/2-samuel-13-18-taking-matters-in-his.html  and Captain Michael Ramsay, '1 Samuel 17:46 – 47: The Battle belongs to the Lord,'presented to Nipawin and Tisdale Corps (Sheepspeak.com: Nipawin, SK: July 6, 2008. Presented to Swift Current Corps on May 2, 2010 Available on-line: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.ca/2008/07/1-samuel-1746-47-battle-belongs-to-lord.html
[15] Captain Michael Ramsay, 2 Kings 22:1-23:30 (2 Chronicles 34-35): Josiah’s Preparation for Israel’s Life after Death. Presented to Swift Current Corps of The Salvation Army, (Sheepspeak.com: Swift Currrent: 10 November 2013). Available on-line: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.ca/2013/11/2-kings-221-2330-2-chronicles-34-35.html

Wednesday, November 6, 2013

2 Kings 22:1-23:30 (2 Chronicles 34-35): Josiah’s Preparation for Israel’s Life after Death

Presented to Swift Current Corps of The Salvation Army, 10 November 2013 by Captain Michael Ramsay
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 Tomorrow is Remembrance Day. I trust that many of you will be marching in with us at the Comp High School at 10:30am. You are invited also to join us for the 8:30am service at the Cenotaph. The Salvation Army will be leading both services as, of course, we have been providing the chaplaincy for RCL Branch #56 for the previous 5 years.
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 Last year it was bitterly cold outside on Remembrance Day. I remember it quite vividly. A number of us got frostbite on our ears including myself, the mayor, and Maxine. I always looked forward to seeing Maxine at Legion events. The poppy tea was yesterday but, as far as Legion events go, it is the Mothers' Day tea that I'll always remember because every year they had a door prize of some flowers. I think each year I told Maxine that if my daughters won the flowers she would have to come to church in the morning to present them with their prize and, as far as I remember, we won every year; so we knew that Maxine would be in church at least that one Sunday each year. Many of us miss Maxine as she received her 'Promotion to Glory' just a month or so after Remembrance Day last year. I am sure she was met with, "well done my good and faithful servant."
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 Along these lines, in my preparing for both today and tomorrow's ceremonies I ran across some interesting pieces of information about a number of people who lived and died in Canada’s wars - especially the 'Great War', the 'war to end all wars', the 'first world war'.
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 When World War One broke out Canada was a very small and sparsely populated country of just over 7 million people. Most people were farmers or involved in other primary industries. Many young boys headed off the farms here to serve in the war. I also read stories of bankers and teachers and minors and scientists and athletes and very young men from across the country who put their jobs, their careers, their parents, their girl friends, their new wives, their young children, and their whole lives on hold until they returned home from the war - only many never did return home from the war. They were never to be seen again by their wives, their children, their brothers, their sisters, their mothers, their fathers.
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 66 976 Canadians died in World War 1. That was almost 1% (0.92%) of our country's population: meaning that in a city then with a population of 17 000, like Swift Current is now, 170 people would have been killed in the war. If you lived in Canada during the war, you would know more than one person who did not return. I want to share one of the many stories I happened read about people who left their homes here on the Canadian prairies to die in the mud of Passchendaele:
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Stanley Richard Shore (Private, 27th Battalion, CEF) was born in Manitou, Manitoba, on December 16th, 1896. He received his education in the Brandon schools and in the King Edward School, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. He was employed by the National Trust Company, Saskatoon, for a short period, but in order to complete his education he resigned and returned to school. In October 1915, at the age of 18, he entered the service of the Bank of British North America in Saskatoon. Previous to his enlisting for overseas service [in the war] he was attached to the 105th Regiment. He enlisted in April, 1916, as a Private in the 183rd Battalion, Canadian Infantry, and headed overseas. On the 183rd Battalion being disbanded in England he proceeded to France with a reinforcement draft for the 27th Battalion, Canadian Infantry. He was killed during the attack on Passchendaele Ridge on November 6th, 1917.[1]
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 He was only 20. He was a banker. He was a prairie boy. He was killed in the mud on Passchendaele Ridge. He is just one of the almost one percent of the population of Canada who never returned from his European adventure.
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 Today on Remembrance Sunday, quite by providence, certainly not through any intent or design on my part, we are looking at a good man, who like Stanley Richard Shore, and like so many other good men throughout history, was killed in battle when he was still young.
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Today, in part, we are going to eulogize King Josiah. Josiah was the last great King of Judah and Israel. He was a good man, who was used by God to do many good things and he really was the last significant ruler of Judah or Israel. Not long after Josiah was killed, his country was wiped off the face of the earth forever. It would never stand as an independent nation again.
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So who is this King Josiah that we have added to our branch of the lineage of Christ that we are growing above the altar in the sanctuary here? Who is this King Josiah whom we are going to commemorate what the Lord has done through him today?
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Josiah had an interesting home life growing up to say the least. When he was born, his grandfather was the King of Judah. His grandfather, King Manasseh, was the longest reigning of all of the kings of Judah. He was popular with many of the people and Manasseh was among the most evil of all of the kings to ever rule Judah (but cf. 2 Chronicles 33:10-13).[2] 2 Kings 21:9 records that Manasseh even led the Israelites (Judeans) to do more evil than even the people who lived in Canaan before God removed them because they were evil. And now because of the evil in the kingdom of Judah during Manasseh's reign, God decides to remove Israel from this land just like He removed the nations before them (Genesis 15:7-15).
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King Manasseh died when Josiah was about six years old and then Josiah’s dad, Amon, became the king of Judah. Amon - 2 Kings 21:21-22 - did evil just as his father had done and King Amon abandoned the LORD, the God of his ancestors (cf. Chronicles 33:21-25). His servants then, only 2 years into his reign, murdered this evil king. This evil King Amon however was also very popular with the people of Israel/Judah, so they killed those who plotted against him and they placed the young  Josiah on the throne.
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Josiah was only eight years old when he became the last significant king of Judah (ca. 640 BCE). Then in the 18th year of his reign, when he was 26 years old, he sent a servant to the Temple, to the House of the LORD, to collect some money, to pay for repairs to the building. It was then that the High Priest told Shaphan, Josiah's servant, that he had found the Book of the Law in the House of the LORD.[3] This is interesting because in all of the years of the evil reigns of his father and grandfather - 57 years - plus all of the years of Josiah's reign to date - 75 years altogether - somehow they had lost the Scriptures. Probably for at least a half of a century, I would guess; they didn’t even really know about the Book of the Law anymore let alone the Scriptures contained within them. Israel and Judah had become so evil that they seem to have forgotten the Lord altogether.[4]
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When they find this book, they read it and they then franticly try to figure out what to do with the Word of God. They read it and they realize just how evil their nation has become; they read it and they fear for their lives; they read it and they fear God. The King, 22:18, is penitent; he humbles himself before the LORD; He tears his clothes and he weeps before the LORD. He seeks out any remaining prophets of the LORD to ask what he can do for the LORD.
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As part of Josiah’s coming to faith here, as part of and as a result of his repentance, he is better than any of the kings before or after him (2 Kings 22:25). He reads the Scriptures to the elders of his people. He makes a covenant with the LORD to follow the LORD - 23:3 – “keeping His commandments, His decrees and His statutes with all his heart and all his soul, to perform the words of this covenant that were written in this book. All the people joined in the covenant.”
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Josiah turns his whole life and his whole country over to the Lord: he destroys the altars to and images of the false gods in his country; he deposes the idolatrous priests; he destroys the houses of the male shrine prostitutes; he removes the [war] horses that he, his father and his grandfather, the kings of Judah had dedicated to the sun [god] at the entrance to the House of the LORD. He then burns the [war] chariots - his era’s equivalent of the tank. He burns the chariots of the sun with fire. He pulls down the evil temples and he defiles the evil high places. These are totally unparalleled reforms in all the history of Israel and Judah. He destroys the state sanctioned worship of false gods and he re-institutes the state sanctioned celebration of the Passover feast to commemorate the LORD’s saving the first-born sons and delivering the children of Israel out of Egypt. He puts away all the mediums, wizards, teraphim, idols, and all the abominations in Judah and Jerusalem.[5] 2 Kings 22:25 records, “Neither before nor after Josiah was there a king like him who turned to the Lord as he did—with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his strength, in accordance with all the Law of Moses.” Josiah is quite a king. This is an unparalleled repentance and a great testimony to God, to the LORD.
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But, all that being said, Verse 25 is followed by Verses 26 and 27: “Nevertheless, the Lord did not turn away from the heat of his fierce anger, which burned against Judah because of all that Manasseh had done to arouse his anger. So the Lord said, ‘I will remove Judah also from my presence as I removed Israel, and I will reject Jerusalem, the city I chose, and this temple, about which I said, ‘My Name shall be there.’” Then, Verses 29 and 30a, “While Josiah was king, Pharaoh Neco king of Egypt went up to the Euphrates River to help the king of Assyria. King Josiah marched out to meet him in battle, but Neco faced him and killed him at Megiddo. Josiah’s servants brought his body in a chariot from Megiddo to Jerusalem and buried him in his own tomb” (cf. 2 Chronicles 35:20-27).[6] Josiah's life here is over. Josiah’s reign in Judah is over. Two chapters later, the two books of the Kings are over. And two chapters later the two countries of Israel and Judah’s time is over. It is finished.[7]
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Josiah was a great king. Josiah loved God. Josiah served God like no one else in the histories of the countries of Israel and Judah. Josiah started his reign as an eight year-old boy and he finished it as a devout servant of our God. Josiah, like so many of our Canadian soldiers of the 19th, 20th, and 21st Centuries (as before), left his family behind, left his people behind, left his work behind, left those who loved him behind. And Josiah left his reforms behind to march into a battle from which he and his reforms would never return. He marched out into a battle from which his country would never recover. Josiah’s son did evil in the eyes of the LORD. Josiah’s son only reigned 3 months. The very few remaining kings of Judah/Israel were then nothing more than vassals of Egypt and Babylon, until the LORD finally removed them from His land.[8]
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This is a sad story on this Remembrance Sunday. God used Josiah to accomplish so much good in reforming Israel and Judah. Josiah then marched off to a battle from which neither he nor his reforms ever returned. So many good Christians marched out to battles from Canada in the 20th Century and now the country to which some never returned is no longer devoted to God the way it was when they laid down their lives for God, for King and for country.
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So what can we learn today from Josiah - the late great king of a long gone kingdom who marched out to war and never returned? So what can we learn from Josiah - the late great king of a long gone kingdom who marched out to a war from which his country never returned? I think what we can learn is this: Josiah experienced God’s blessing in the midst of the death throws of his nation and so can we experience God’s blessing in the midst of whatever we are experiencing.[9] And even more: Israel and Judah were evil for a long time before God wiped them off the face of the earth. Before the LORD scattered them away from God’s land forever, God used Josiah to bring God’s people back to the LORD. If God had not instituted Josiah’s reforms, no one today may have ever heard of the LORD at all. Remember that Israel/Judah had forgotten the LORD. But the LORD didn’t forget them; He reminds them who He is just when they need Him the most. Just before the people are deported to many parts of the world, they return to God and so God is with them in their deportations and God is with them in their suffering and God is with them in their captivity and God is with them in their slavery. Throughout all of their hardships for centuries to come God is right there with them. And through this they begin to look forward to Jesus. They begin to look hopefully, longingly and expectantly to the coming of Jesus, who is the Lord of Lords and the King of Kings; He is the wonderful counsellor, mighty God, everlasting father and prince of peace whose government will never stop ruling and being peaceful (Isaiah 9:6).
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And this is the same for us. Just as we have been looking at Ruth and Naomi the previous few weeks in Bible study, so it is with the people after Josiah and so it is with us today. No matter what evil, no matter what hardships, no matter what trials, no matter what tribulations we suffer, Christ is right there with us.  He is our comfort and our strength. And one day, one day He is coming back and then every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord and then there will be no more tears and there will be no more suffering forever more in His Kingdom to come.
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Many of us here have already promised God that we will serve Him forever but if there are any here today who have not yet bowed to Jesus as King and made Him Lord of our life, I invite us to do this today for God promises that no matter what is happening in our lives today and no matter what will happen in our lives tomorrow, God will never leave us nor forsake us. Jesus loves us.
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Let us pray.
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[1] Norm Christie, For King and Empire: The Canadians at Passchendaele October to November 1917 (Ottawa, Ontario, Canada: CEF Books, 1999), 36.
[2]Cf. Donald J. Wiseman, 1 and 2 Kings: An Introduction and Commentary. Downers Grove, IL : InterVarsity Press, 1993 (Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries 9), S. 311 for an interesting discussion of this in light of 2 Chronicles 33.
[3] Cf. Nadav Na'aman, 'The discovered book and the legitimation of Josiah's reform,' JBL, no. 1 (2011): 47-62 for a good discussion around content and dating of ‘the Book of the Law’.
[4] Cf. Bruce C. Birch, Walter Brueggemann, Terence E. Fretheim, Daniel L. Peterson, A Theological Introduction to the Old Testament (Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 2005) 322-323
[5] Cf. Jonathan Ben-Dov,' Writing as Oracle and as law: new contexts for the book-find of King Josiah.,' JBL 127, no. 2 (2008): 223-239 esp. p. 238 for an historical discussion of his reforms.
[6] Cf. 2 Chronicles 35:20-27 for a more detailed account of Josiah’s death in battle.
[7] Choon-Leon Seow, The First and Second Book of Kings, in NIB 9, ed. Leander E. Keck, et. al. (Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1999): 287 points out that salvation is not meted out on a basis of works.
[8] Patrick J. Wilson, 'Between Text and Sermon: 2 Kings 22:1-23:3,' Interpretation 54, no. 4 (2000): 415, “Beyond rewards and punishments God calls us to a particular way of life. Josiah understands this even as he stands by the pillar to read the book of the covenant, which consigns his kingdom as condemned property. But for those who hear, it is an invitation to life with God.”
[9] Patrick J. Wilson, 'Between Text and Sermon: 2 Kings 22:1-23:3,' Interpretation 54, no. 4 (2000): 415