Stephen Palmer - Living on Appreciation for the Scriptures - Class 2 - Personal Discovery of the Word - Example of Josiah

Automatically transcribed. Accuracy is good but not perfect, and words are sometimes wrong. Trust the audio over the text.

1. 0:00

   Our second class is subtitle Personal Discovery of the Word, The Example of Josiah. Brother Stephen has asked us to read Second Chronicles chapter 34, verses 29 through 33 to introduce this second class. Brother Graham Warsnup of the Kerry Kerry Ecclesia in New Zealand will lead us in our reading of Second Chronicles chapter 34, verse 29 through 33.

2. 0:39

   The second book of Chronicles, chapter 34 and starting at verse 29. Then the king sent and gathered together. All the elders. Of Judah and Jerusalem. And the king went up into the House of the Lord, and all the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and the priests, and the Levites, and all the people both great and small, And he read in their ears. All the words.

3. 1:12

   Of the book of the covenant that was found in the House of the Lord. And the king stood in his place and made a covenant before the Lord, to walk after the Lord, and to keep his commandments and his testimonies and his statutes with all his heart, with all his soul, to perform the words of a covenant that are written in this book.

4. 1:39

   And he? Caused all that were present. In Jerusalem and Benjamin to stand to it, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. Did. According to the covenant of God, the God of their fathers. And Josiah took away all the abominations out of all the countries that pertained to the children of Israel, and made all that were present in Israel to serve, even to serve the Lord their God. And all his days they departed, not from following the Lord, the God of their fathers.

5. 2:20

   Thank you, Brother Graham. Class 2. Personal discovery of the word. The example of Josiah. Brother Stephen. What we’ve seen it together in our first class, friends, sister, young people, is this need for character development. Notice the focus isn’t on works. It’s not about what we are doing. We must do this. We mustn’t do that.

6. 2:52

   And low, of course, there are things we must do and things we mustn’t do. What the scriptures are teaching us, we believe, is that in order to do the right thing and not to do the wrong thing, what we have to address is the character which leads us in a certain way. The character that we have can change, It can be changed. And we have to focus our minds on this. We have to change to be the people we ought to be. It’s a process.

7. 3:27

   It’s a slow process, but it is a process of change. I don’t know if you’ve ever said or heard anyone say, well, look, that’s just the way I am. You’ve just got to take me as I am because that’s me. That’s unacceptable. That is not acceptable. Rather than system, did Christ die for nothing? God is changing us through His Word, through the living example of the Lord Jesus Christ, through the circumstances that come upon us, through the angelic ministry working in our lives.

8. 4:10

   He is trying to change us so that we’re not just the way we are, but that we’ve become more and more, by God’s grace, like the one who has died for us. And it’s our personal involvement in this process which we are addressing our personal involvement with. The power to change that is the Word of God. And so this is for everyone,

9. 4:40

   especially for those who think they are small in the truth. The work of Josiah was a tremendous example, and we can look at him as a personal example, manifesting the things that God requires of us. We’ll look at the King’s record together, Second Kings chapters 22 onward, and sometimes go to the Chronicles record. But we’d just like to point out one or two things about this man, particularly in relationship to the qualities that he showed in respect of the Word of God. In Second Kings 22, verse 8, we’re told that Josiah was just 8 years old when he began to reign. We’re told in the Chronicles record that when he was 16 he began to seek the God of David, his father, and when he was 20 he began to cleanse the land.

10. 5:56

    He was a remarkable young man. He must have had perhaps one of the worst fathers, and certainly one of the worst grandfathers it’s possible to conceive of a child ever having.

11. 6:12

    His spirituality at the age of 16 had nothing to do with his father, nothing whatsoever. It might just have had something to do with his grandfather. But what Manasseh was the in the record of the kings was just about the worst king who introduced such a reign of corruption, such grotesque idolatry, that the nation of Judah became unfit to survive.

12. 6:39

    It was because of the sins of Manasseh that Judah was to be removed. Nevertheless, Manasseh repented. It’s hard to believe this, not hard to believe he repented so much. It’s hard to believe that God accepted his repentance, Hard to believe that God is so full of compassion that even Manasseh could find grace.

13. 7:04

    It’s just quite startling when you read about the sins of Manasseh. But he did find grace, and it may well have been that in his later years, the last part of his reign, that he made provision for his grandson was going to be king, to be instructed in the things of God. Possibly. But what you saw I couldn’t have been instructed in was the word of God.

14. 7:30

    There was a man who must have been brought up knowing only second-half the stories of the Bible. It seems there’s an indication in the fact that he walked in all the way of David his father, that he had had a good education in the history of his forebears, and that the man David had been an inspiration to him. It may be that there were still Psalms in existence, but what he didn’t have was the law, which Moses recorded because that had been lost and it wasn’t until his 26th year, six years interest reformation that the Bible of Moses was rediscovered. So the first part of his life and the first efforts that he made to cleanse the ways of his people didn’t really have the same power that the second cleansing had. The second cleansing is described in Second Kings 23, the first cleansing in the Chronicles record. You put those two together, you can see there were two actual cleansings of the temple, just as the Lord Jesus Christ cleanse the temple at the beginning and the end of his ministry. There’s a pattern which is repeated. When he went into the temple and they said by what authority do these things?

15. 8:50

    They also must have recognised the echoes of Josiah’s time. It was the authority of the king by which he did these things. But having understanding of God second hand is a poor substitute for what God intends for us. Just learning what brethren teach us is a poor substitute for listening directly to the Word of God. Now we hope often times the two things are the same, that what brethren teaches is the Word of God pure and simple. But it can’t be that we are free from the weakness of our own nature in our understanding and the way in which we put over the Word of God.

16. 9:43

    What brethren can do is to direct us perhaps to that Word so that we can pick it up for ourselves and think for ourselves. What it’s saying is personal discovery of the Word of God that Josiah is teaching us about. We just read about it. The book had been lost. Look at the King’s record, Second Kings 22 and verse 8. 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. How could the book have been lost? Well, you could well imagine.

17. 10:32

    Do you remember your history from the days of the Protestant Reformation? How the Bishop of London bought of every copy of the English translation of William Tyndale and burns it outside Saint Paul’s Cathedral?

18. 10:49

    There was an eradication attempt on the word of God and in Manassas reign perhaps that had been successfully accomplished. But surely if there had been a copy of the law anywhere in the land, then wouldn’t you have thought Josiah would have got hold of it? He’d been up and down that land for six years trying to institute a reformation.

19. 11:10

    And in the sixth year a book is found and he hears it being read for the very first time. He is stunned by what he hears. He he tore his clothes. He sent a message to hold on the protest. What? What am I supposed to do? We’ve just found the book and it did mentions all these curses which are going to he’d never heard of that before. It was all new to him.

20. 11:42

    So the book had been lost. Notice in verse 8 it says I have found the book of the law. And if we compare that with what we read in Second Chronicles, it’s very interesting. Second Chronicles 3414, let me just read you say it says Hilkiah, the priest found a book of the law of the Lord, says in the AV given by Moses. But in the margin it says the Hebrew is the law of the Lord by the hand of Moses.

21. 12:16

    What they found was the very copy that Moses had written. Do you remember in Deuteronomy it said what Moses wants to do. He used to write a copy of this law, and he was to put it in the side of the ark, that it may be there for a witness. And now the witness is being made because they’ve just rediscovered the very book that Moses had written with his own hand. You can’t believe they would have lost it. Where was it they’d lost it?

22. 12:51

    In the House of the Lord, that’s where they’d lost it. What were they doing then? In the House of the Lord, week after week, without the Bible, we are the House of God. Brethren and sisters, the House of the living God of the Bible can be just as much lost in us and our houses, our homes and our ecclesias as it was in those days when the television goes on instead of doing the Bible readings, isn’t the Word of God lost? When we pick up the magazine or the newspaper instead of doing our readings, where is the word of God to be found? So some heart searching is required for us in relation to this.

23. 13:56

    This isn’t just a historical incident, it’s a lesson of rediscovery. When the book was lost, it can be refound. It was difficult to read. Hilkiah gives it to Schaeffer and he read it, which is interesting, isn’t it? We’re told that the Hebrew that Moses would have written in would have been quite a different sort of Hebrew. At least, you know, the the alphabet and storm would have been written quite differently from the Hebrew in the time of Josiah.

24. 14:29

    No wonder Hilkiah had to give it to Shayfan the expert to read. It does seem to have been the very original copy. And it’s just as well they found it, brother. It’s just as well because there were all sorts of versions of the Bible that were going around.

25. 14:50

    It’s a bit like, you know, the Good News Bible. You’ve ever seen that which teaches that we go to heaven when we die. You know, you can find versions of the Bible in English which teach false doctrine. And if people read it, well, it’s the Bible. It’s not the Bible. It’s a counterfeit.

26. 15:10

    And that is the worst thing men can do. Have a look what was happening in Jeremiah chapter 8. I would have to have the AV margin to help us here. No translation is perfect. Is it Jeremiah chapter 8 and verse 8? How do we say we are wise and the law of the Lord is with us? Though certainly in vain made, yet the pen of the scribes is in vain.

27. 15:52

    Here was a boast of men in the times of Josiah who were the scribes, who were the experts in religious teaching, and they made their boast that the law of God was with them. And Jeremiah is challenging that. And in the margin you may see in the AV Oxford margin, it says the false pen of the scribes worketh for falsehood, the false pen of the scribes worketh for falsehood.

28. 16:24

    What was happening is there was a counterfeit scripture being written like the Good News Bible, the Living Bible, elements that we can recognise as true, but there were key points that had been turned and corrupted to suit themselves. You remember the message of the false prophets was peace. Peace when there is no peace. The message of the false prophets was for brothers. Sisters, we don’t need to change. You’re fine as you are.

29. 17:00

    God will take you just as you are. There’s an evangelical song I’ve heard, Sir, just as I am. You’ve got a lovely tune to it, just as I am. Well, that’s the starting point. It’s not the finishing point.

30. 17:20

    There isn’t peace for the wicked, so we have to change. And it’s that process of change which the Lord Jesus Christ will recognise when he comes. He recognises it now, but He will give us an account of it when He comes. The false pen of the scribes worketh for falsehood. You know, it’s like the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls. This was it meant that the Bible was back on course because left to men the corruption of translation and correction of the text and think they can actually correct the received text, that they can detect errors in it and put them right. As that goes on through history, you can imagine that the word of God as translated in our language would divert from the truthful.

31. 18:12

    Imagine the Hebrew changing over generations till the time of Second Kings 22. It had been lost so they discovered their Dead Sea Scrolls and they could see what the truth was. Of course the Dead Sea Scrolls has shown us that our received text is pretty good. There really are no material differences in the the scriptures that we have that have come down to us over the centuries. Now that’s the providential work of God. But it’s just as well, wasn’t it that they found that scroll 1 they did.

32. 18:51

    Clearly it was providential for God wanted to help Josiah accomplish the burning desire of his heart, which was to transform that nation at that time into a people for God.

33. 19:05

    So what was this reaction when they found the word of God? Second Kings 22 Chaffin comes in with this great scroll on his shoulder, talking about money and the building of the ecclesial hall. That’s what he had on his mind. You know, we’ve fixed the temple. It’s already. And you know, oh, by the way, it’s almost, it’s almost like that.

34. 19:30

    Oh, by the way, Hilki found a book, but she asked me to think to you. He didn’t realise the significance of it. In verse 10, Chaffin the scribe showed the king said how Kaya, the priesthood delivered me a book back in verse eight. It was the book. There was a scribe unfamiliar with his responsibilities of expounding the word of God, but he read it and the king rent his clothes. He showed a contrition which you might say, well, why? He wasn’t the one committing all these sins. He was a godly man.

35. 20:17

    It was all these other people that were doing all these things. But Josiah was identifying with his nation. It was his people and he was one with them. So what does he do? He sends his men to enquire of the Lord in verse 13, the choir of Yahweh for me and for the people and for all Judah concerning the words of this book that is found.

36. 20:49

    He sought to understand what he should do. He showed an awareness and a willingness to change, didn’t he? You know, if the Bible has not been in our lives and then someone tells us that it should be, we can say, well, it’s all very well for him to tell me that. What does he know about my life?

37. 21:09

    I’m fine as I am, we can say to ourselves. The cheek, the nerve. How dare that sort of thought has ever crossed anybody’s minds? Now let him sort himself out. Of course that’s true, isn’t it? But if the Word of God is saying that to us, then we better listen. Josiah was contract when he heard those words, he believed them and he acted on them.

38. 21:46

    Go and find out what I’m going to do. Ask the prophetess to tell me what does God require of me? He was the greatest man in the land. He was the king showing the humility of a child.

39. 22:06

    That’s the attitude we have to adopt ourselves. We can, brethren, be so proud that we have refused to change, to give anybody the satisfaction of seeing that change. So proud that we will be unwilling to climb down from that height that we have set ourselves up on. Always unwilling to admit we ever made one mistake.

40. 22:38

    Never prepare to admit we were wrong, or to say sorry. Can’t be like that at home, can’t it? Where a husband or a wife never, ever prepared to say I was wrong. Only ever prepared to point out the contribution that the other made to the problem. Or if not that problem, some other problem from years gone by. You’re not so perfect yourself are you? Now these are human reactions to being told that we are in the wrong.

41. 23:18

    Josiah was told he was in the wrong and he sought and enquired of the Lord. There is another clue in the record as to what he did about it.

42. 23:40

    If you look at Second Kings 22 and verse 2, you find an interesting statement. He did that which was right in the sight of the Lord and walked all the way of David his father, and turned not aside to the right hand or to the left. That’s the verse. Then he turned not aside to the right hand nor to the left. He just went straight down the narrow way, but that’s a reference to Deuteronomy chapter 17. You can find that by looking up a concordance. Sometimes your margin will have these sort of cross references, but just follow up these phrases. You know, I the way of David, where does that occur? It’s a very rare expression and so on. But what about this expression eternal aside to the right hand or to the left?

43. 24:40

    You find it in Deuteronomy chapter 17 and verse 20 where it says that his heart be not lifted up above his brethren, that he turn not aside from the commandment to the right hand or to the left. So that’s the reference that Second Kings 22, it’s drawing our attention to. Josiah did, but Deuteronomy 17 says he should have done because Deuteronomy chapter 17 is the chapter in the law which had to do with the king. Now they’ve lost this.

44. 25:24

    They didn’t have this book when Josiah came to the throne, but once he discovered it, he was not too proud. You can imagine him saying, Chiffon, read that again. What? What the passage you just read? Deuteronomy 17 Read it again. Why? Because it’s about me. Read it Deuteronomy 17, verse 14 Whether I come unto the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, and shall possess it, and shall dwell therein, and shall say, I will set a king over me, like as all the nations that are about me, thou shalt in any way set in king over thee, whom the Lord thy God shall choose one from among thy brethren shalt thou set king over thee. Thou mayest not set a stranger over thee which is not thy brother, that he shall not multiply horses to himself. And so it goes on verse 17.

45. 26:24

    Neither shall he multiply wives to his himself, neither shall he greatly multiply to himself silver and gold. We know that you don’t go to Egypt for horses. You don’t multiply wives, you don’t multiply silver and gold. The three things, of course, that Solomon contravene, which took him away from the truth, the three things that kings would delight to have. You know, if you were told you could have whatever you wanted, whatever it is, you can have it, but that’s what most men would go for.

46. 27:03

    Then it goes on to say in verse 18, And it shall be when he sitteth upon the throne of his Kingdom, that he shall write him a copy of this law in a book, out of that which is before the priests and the Levites. And it shall be with him, and he shall read therein all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God, to keep all the words of this law and the statutes to do them. That his heart be not lifted up above his brethren, and that he turned not aside from the commandment to the right hand or to the left, to the end that he may prolong his days in his Kingdom, he and his children in the midst of Israel. So now Josiah knows exactly what he’s got to do. He’s got to sit down.

47. 27:50

    He may be the king, but he’s got to sit down at his desk and he’s going to get his scroll and his pen and he’s going to write his own personal copy of that law. So now he’s got his own copy in his home, and now he’s going to read in it every day of his life to keep him in his rightful position, which is straight down the line, turning neither to the left nor to the right.

48. 28:18

    The king said he did it, he did it. He muster made a copy of that law, and he must have read in it all the days of his life. That was the secret of Josiah, that when the Bible was rediscovered, he made his own personal copy of the law and he translated it into his life.

49. 28:40

    And that’s brethren, sisters, what we have to do, every one of us. And if we haven’t been doing it, brethren, how can we teach our brethren and sisters? How can we exalt? How can we build up the faith of the young ones in the truth? How can we instruct our children if we haven’t made our own copy of the law written on our own hearts? How can we speak the Word of God, neither diverting to the left nor to the right?

50. 29:12

    How can the ecclesia be strong if we don’t get diligence to the things that God has laid before us? We can’t substitute the philosophy of the world. We can’t substitute the religious writings of those around us, or or business theory or management theory.

51. 29:33

    This is the Word of God which makes us go down that far. Otherwise, we’re off to the left, we’re off to the right. The children have gone some other direction where we don’t know where they are. Why? Because we haven’t made our own copy of the Word of God.

52. 29:53

    That’s what you cited, that he was one of the nation. It says you will take a king, you shall take a king. He says not a stranger from among thy brethren. And this is the way he was going to keep himself in his true understanding that his heart be not lifted up. So there was the real danger that pride would take him a different way and the people would follow.

53. 30:24

    Now, if that was true then, it’s true now. We mustn’t let pride determine how our ecclesias are run and how we speak to one another. We must let the Word of God, rightly divided, be the rule by which we live our lives.

54. 30:48

    Now have a look at Jeremiah 22 to see what this meant. You see, it’s not a matter of mechanics that. I mean, there may be some great virtue in US writing out their own copy of the Bible, but that wouldn’t wouldn’t actually make the transformation. I’m told you can buy a computer program now that you can read into the computer and the computer will type it out. Just take your voice, then it will type it out. That doesn’t make the computer spiritual. That computer has no mind of its own at all. So it’s not the mechanics of it, and it wasn’t mechanical. But Josiah, because we have this wonderful insight into his character and Jeremiah 22,

55. 31:42

    Jeremiah 22, verse 16, this is the chapter where Josiah’s sons, who sadly everyone was, was thoroughly rotten. That doesn’t mean to say that Josiah hadn’t instructed them properly because the law says that he should instruct his children in the ways of God. And there was nothing in that law that He didn’t do with his whole heart and soul and might.

56. 32:08

    He had a unique distinction. There was no man like him before or since amongst the kings of Israel that turned to Yahweh with all his heart, soul and might. He put into practice everything it says. Deuteronomy 6 and sauna, but instructing his trouble, I am sure nevertheless, Nevertheless, they turned to the ways of the world, that the reason lay in themselves.

57. 32:35

    The verse 21 Jehoiakim Jeremiah says, I speak unto thee, and thy prosperity. But thou saidst thy will not hear. This has been thy manner from thy youth, that thou obeyst not my voice.

58. 32:55

    So they had chosen not to follow the example of their father. They had rejected the word of God in their youth, and therefore they would not prosper. Contrast the father himself, Josiah in verse 16. He judged the cause of the poor and needy. Then it was well with him. Was not this to know me, Saith the Lord. See the link with our first study. There was not this to know me.

59. 33:30

    That’s what Moses asked God, show me thy way that I may know thee. And therefore was revealed the loving kindness of God in his name manifest. I just saw it taking hold of what had been revealed, and he had translated it into his life. So he judged the cause of the poor and the needy. He manifested those qualities of mercy and grace for those who needed assistance and help.

60. 33:59

    There’s a lovely little point in the Second Chronicles 35 record I just draw your attention to when Jeremiah lamented for Josiah must have been a sad day. It says in verse 26. Now the rest of the acts of Josiah and his goodness, according to that which was written in the law of the Lord and his deeds first and last, behold there written the book of the kings of Israel and Judah in verse 26, when it says His goodness. That is the word Chess said.

61. 34:40

    That is the word loving kindness. It is the one word, the only word that is used twice in the record of the divine character. In Exodus chapter 34, there’s one word which is used twice. It’s the word chess said, the goodness, the mercy of God, or the loving kindness. That is the word that Jeremiah uses of this man.

62. 35:06

    Do you see what’s happened? He has become what he’s read. He has become like the God he has. He has been changed by the word of God in his heart, soul and mind. But how can that happen to us? How can we change, perhaps a a bitter character into a sweet character, a selfish person into a selfless person, a proud person into a humble person? What are we?

63. 35:47

    What are our failings? Brethren and sisters? We know them and from time to time we want to change to. We say to yourself, or if only I wasn’t like that. I wish I could have bitten my tongue. Why can’t I control? Why can’t I feel differently towards brother X or sister Y? Why can’t I rise above the problem, try to see it as God would have me deal with it?

64. 36:22

    Why do I always fall into the same sin that I asked forgiveness for yesterday? How are we going to change in this way? Faith comes by hearing, hearing by the word of God. And if we’re not prepared to put the television off and to open our Bibles, we’re not going to change. We have to make a sacrifice.

65. 36:51

    It’s not a huge sacrifice, but we have to start somewhere, don’t we? If our eye offends, let’s pluck it out. If our hand offends us, cut it off. That’s what the Lord is expecting, You know. He’s not going to say, well, there was a real secret to the way in which you could have changed your life and you didn’t find it, did you?

66. 37:13

    He’s not going to say that to us. We agonise over it, don’t we? Why? Why don’t we just do it? Remember, Brother Bob’s talk in newborn, I think was just do it. That’s the answer, brethren and sisters. Just do it Tonight. Let’s start tonight. When we go home. Don’t switch it on. Just don’t do it.

67. 37:43

    Yeah. I just wonder how many of us are making notes of of expositional points that we haven’t heard before. I don’t know. Perhaps everybody’s heard it all before.

68. 37:55

    Yeah. So we’ll never remember, will we? Well, we, we will. Of course we will. We say to ourselves now. Of course I’ll remember. And then tomorrow somebody asks us, what did they say? I don’t know.

69. 38:11

    So it’s worth, you know, having a pen and paper, making a note, following it up. What’s he right? I says crazy brother who comes over for two days from Cardiff telling you the truth. Or did he make it all up?

70. 38:29

    Is this some peculiar Welsh theory that he was expounding? Well, what’s our personal involvement in these things? How should we study? Well, everyone has their own idea, I suppose, but just look at Second Kings 22 and see the emphasis that’s given in the reaction of Josiah and the way in which the record through repetition makes the point.

71. 39:01

    If we see something repeated, then we really ought to take note of it. In fact, you know, I have a childlike approached these things. I colour them in with coloured pencils because it stands out. And just doing the readings with, with the children. You know, Ben, who’s 10 now, he always comes up with the keyword in the chapter. Sometimes it’s, and sometimes it’s his third. Sometimes he’s right.

72. 39:27

    But you see, because they’re looking for repetition and, and key ideas, even a little child, they can pick these things up. And, you know, surprising how often Ben is the first one to see the point. He’s he’s at least as good as any of the others at picking up the point.

73. 39:51

    Because a child’s mind is not plattered with all sorts of clever thoughts. What we’re looking for is the simple truth. And when it’s this pointed out, now we say it’s obvious. Now you mentioned it, but I never saw it. And these obvious things are simply looking at the words. Which are there nothing more than that and this is what comes up.

74. 40:15

    Just stop talking and look that’s to me. Verse 11 came to pass when the king had heard the words of the book of the law that he rent his clothes. Verse 13. The second Kings 22 concerning the words of this book that is found the great is the wrath of the Lord that is kind against us because our fathers have not talked to the words of this book.

75. 40:40

    Verse 16, Therefore even all the words of the book. Verse 18, that’s touching the words which thou hast heard. Chapter 23. Verse 2 And he read in the ears all the words of the book of the covenant. Verse 3 to perform the words of this covenant that is written in the book. Now he could have just said the book, He could have said the law, but it gives us this extensive phrase, the words of the book of the Law.

76. 41:13

    That’s the way to study, to listen to the words of the book. There is an exactness required of us in our appreciation of the Word of God. It is not sufficient to have the gist of it, the broad idea, the main theme that I got the general sense of the passage. Read it quickly and go, yeah, I got the idea. Now, No, brethren, sisters, that is not Bible study. That is human pride replacing the exact attention to the detail of the Word.

77. 41:49

    That’s why translation matters. That’s why it does matter what version we’re using. Not that there is one right version, but it does matter. If we were using the Good News Bible or whatever, that wouldn’t be good for us. It would so dilute the power of God’s Word as to remove the exactness, the precision. Would you like to go into an operating theatre, you know, to go under the knife of the surgeon and know that the surgeon had taken the scalp, you know, and he’d been knocking it around so the edge wasn’t clean, but all jagged, blunt. And then he tried to do his operation. Oh, no.

78. 42:31

    You want the surgeon’s knife to be sharper than A2 edged sword. That is what the Word of God is. That’s what we have to get back to an exact understanding. I was very impressed with the sister I met at the Bible school. She was, I think she was 91 and sitting talking to the sister and she was blind in one eye and almost blind in the other.

79. 43:02

    And she had a Bible like this. And she said, ever since I lost the sight of my eye, I’ve been very interested in words.

80. 43:15

    She could only see one at a time. I mean, I was so impressed now because she could say, you see that word there, but if you look it up in Strong’s Concordance, it is such and such. And she was looking at her concordance, Strong’s Concordance in the lexicon, following the numbers and going through the passage word by words. That’s an interesting word.

81. 43:40

    She was 91. Oh, come on, brethren, who can say that? We can’t do it. It takes time. It takes a lot longer than than getting our ideas from somewhere else. And it’s not for brethren only, is it? It’s not a matter of, well, I’ve got to speak next week, so I better do some study. Surely not.

82. 44:07

    Surely Bible study isn’t relegated to that unimportant level. It’s the power to change your life systems as well as our husbands. It’s the power to instruct our children in the right way. But have a look at Second Kings 23. What does God expect? Here is Josiah trying to implement what he’s read, that he’s brought all the people together and he’s going to make a covenant.

83. 44:35

    He’s going to say, right? Are you going to sign up now? Are you going to change with me? We know what we’ve got to do. Are you with me? Yeah, we’re with you. Yeah, We’re going to change just like you, Josiah.

84. 44:50

    And so look at who he gathers together. Verse 2. And the king went up into the House of the Lord, and all the men of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem with him, the priests, the prophets, and all the people, both small and great. And he read in their years all the words of the book.

85. 45:13

    Now that’s repetition. Everyone was expected to be there, both small and great. So it was for everybody and understanding the word of God is not a competition. It’s not so that we can shine in in our discussion group or by the class sisters class or in youth. That’s not what it’s about. The measure isn’t whether I know more than you and you know more than me, but whether we are coming to know God. Let’s have an example of that.

86. 45:53

    If you look in Second Kings 23 and verse 25, you notice there it says about Josiah that he turned into the Lord with all his heart, all his soul, and all his might. The people didn’t know all those people that had gathered and said, yes, we’re with your Josiah. They were just trying to keep him happy, keep him quiet, keep them, keep him off their backs. They weren’t with him really, not in their hearts. Jeremiah 3 verse 10 says this.

87. 46:24

    People have turned unto me faintedly. Faintedly. It was almost on his own. He couldn’t take the people with it because their hearts weren’t in it. But there was a woman who exemplified the spirit of Josiah. She’s recorded for us in Mark chapter 12.

88. 46:59

    I mentioned the parallels between Josiah’s time and the Lord Jesus. And when the Lord went in to cleanse the temple. He was doing what Josiah had done before. When he goes into the temple, he quotes Jeremiah Chapter 7. You’ve made the House of God a den of thieves. He’s quoting a passage of Josiah’s ray when he offers them the parables.

89. 47:21

    He is taking hold of words from Chronicles about the way in which Israel had dealt with the prophets over the years. He’s drawn a parallel with Josiah’s reign and many connections can be found. So when a a lawyer comes up to the Lord and and challenges him to say which is the first commandment in chapter 12 and verse 30, the Lord answers.

90. 47:44

    Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy might, and with all thy strength. And as we say, there is only one man in Scripture who is recorded as fulfilling that. Of course the Lord Jesus did, but only one other man, and that’s Josiah.

91. 48:03

    So Josiah must have been in the mind of the Lord, Ravin explained. This was the first command to love the Lord with all, and that was greater than all whole burnt offerings. The Lord says to his disciples, come over here and have a look at this. He’s there in the great court of the temple where the the chests were, where the people brought their offerings.

92. 48:36

    In the verse 41 it says, Jesus sat over against the treasury, and beheld how the people cast in money into the treasury, and many that were rich cast in much. And there came a certain poor widow, and she threw in two months, which make a Farthing. And he called unto him. His disciples said unto them, Verily I say unto you, that this poor widow have cast more in than all they which have cast into the treasury. For all they did cast in of their abundance. But she of her want did cast in all that she had even all her living.

93. 49:18

    You notice there by repetition again Now what the Lord says about that woman is she cast in all that she had and it’s obviously LinkedIn the chapter cure O Israel, thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all and the example the scriptures give is a woman who had nothing. So the Lord wasn’t talking about the great kings of the earth. He was talking about a woman who was a widow. She had nothing.

94. 49:52

    She was nothing and she cast in more than they all. What does that tell us about God and how he judges our contribution. Is there anybody who is too small, who feels so insignificant that they can’t give to God all this, this lovely woman had a choice, didn’t she? You know, she had two coins.

95. 50:21

    She could have cast in half of all she had, but she cast in all she had. She made a conscious decision to give everything to God, to cast herself upon the mercy of God,

96. 50:37

    and she excelled all the rich men of the earth in the faith that she showed. How did she come to such a commitment to the truth? Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all. She was a woman who loved the Lord. That’s where the motivation was. That’s where the power was. And so Josiah went out and the second time he cleansed the land, it was more thorough and more complete than before. It’s very interesting.

97. 51:18

    You may have this in your home. The Biblical Archaeological Review just came to my house last week, the July, August edition. It’s got on the cover a picture of a a pot in the shape of a person, and it’s an idol from Israel. And the article is called Smashing the Idols. And they found from the Times of Josiah, a shrine in southern Israel in which every idol is smashed to pieces deliberately. And they’re wondering whether this was Josiah’s work himself. But I think not.

98. 52:03

    It may have been one of his followers, but I don’t think it was his work because you won’t see it. But there’s a picture here of a woman piercing together the idol. She’s taken all the fragments and she stuck them together, and there she’s got the idol again. That’s exactly what Josiah was worried about.

99. 52:23

    If you look at Second Kings 23, this is a feature of what he did with idols that he found Second Kings 23. Just take verse 15 as an example. 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.

100. 52:51

     He breakdown and burned the high place and stamped it small to powder. If you follow that through, you’ll see that that’s a feature which is repeated. He literally pulverised these images. Why? So that they couldn’t do what this lady is doing. They couldn’t repair the idols and be drawn back into idolatry. And that’s what we have to do if we are serious about the truth. We have to take those things which we know are stumbling blocks to us and we have to pulverise them so that we can’t the next day replace them in our minds, in our thoughts, in our homes.

101. 53:40

     Just one last point. The second things 23, verse 24, it says, 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, Jerusalem, did Josiah put away that he might perform the words of the Lord. The word images is the word terraphim, and the terraphim were household gods. These were the little gods that you could keep on the mantelpiece in your own home.

102. 54:22

     It’s not mentioned in the first cleansing, but it’s part of the second cleansing where he was more thorough because he was more exact according to the Word of God. So not only did they go through the land, they went into every home in the country and they cleaned out everything which caused defence and they smashed it to powder so that no one could ever replace in their lives anything which would compete with the Word of God for supremacy.

103. 54:54

     May, brethren, sisters, that be the spirit in which we implement what we know of the Word of God.