Episode Transcript
WEBVTT
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We are getting very close now to
the end of second chronicles, to night.
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We're in second chronicles, Chapter Thirty
Five, Verses Twenty through twenty seven,
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and this will end the chronicler's account
of King Josiah. So second chronicles
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thirty five, verse twenty. After
all this, when Josiah had prepared the
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temple, NECO, King of Egypt, went up to fight at carchemish on
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the Euphrates, and Josiah went out
to meet him, but he sent envoys
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to him, saying, what have
we to do with each other, King
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of Judah, I am not coming
against you this day, but against the
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House with which I am at war, and God has commanded me to hurry
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see supposing God who is with me, lest he destroy you. Nevertheless,
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Josiah did not turn away from him, but disguised himself in order to fight
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with him. He did not listen
to the words of Neco from the mouth
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of God, but came to fight
in the playing of Meguido, and the
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archers shot King Josiah, and the
king said to his servants, take me
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away, for I am badly wounded. So the servants took him out of
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the chariot and carried him in his
second chariot and brought him to Jerus Salem,
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and he died and was buried in
the tombs of his father's all Judah
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and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah. Jeremiah
also uttered a lament for Josiah, and
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all the singing men and singing women
have spoken of Josiah in their laments to
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this day. They have made these
a rule in Israel. Behold, they
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are written in the laments. Now
the rest of the acts of Josiah and
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his good deeds, according to what
is written in the law of the Lord
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and his acts. First and last, behold, they are written in the
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book of the Kings of Israel and
Judah. My God bless his word to
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us. Well here as we have
the final account of King Josiah, we
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are told, at the end of
this at the end of the account.
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Here I'm how significant this death was. Very significant. It put Israel into
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a national mourning, and not just
for a time. We read he died
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and was buried in the tombs of
his father's Judah and Jerusalem. All Judah
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and Jerusalem mourned for him. Jeremiah
mourned for him, all the singing men
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and singing women have spoken of Josiah
and their laments to this day. The
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author rites. In fact, they
made them a rule in Israel. The
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English annotations, the kind of compilation
of various Bible commentaries that the Westminster divines
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put together on, pointed this out. They talked about how this is a
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significant thing. Is the people of
lament even in common lamentations, even as
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their own family members died. We
see the significance of this death and that
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it becomes a rule in Israel that
when people die, when there is mourning,
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that Josiah is mourned along with them. I can't, perhaps you can,
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but I can't really think of anything
even really similar to that, where
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a public event like that becomes so
big, this political event in a way
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is so important, so monumental,
that it touches on the lives of every
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single person in the way that they
mourn they're dead. I want to think
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with you tonight about why that is. Why would the mourning of Josiah be
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codified into some kind of rule and
practice of the people? What was so
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sad about Josiah's fall? Well,
first, it always hurts when someone falls.
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That is great. When someone who
has reached such a high place,
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falls down sort of hurts extra hard. And Josiah was one of the greats.
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As we've been going through his history, as we near the end of
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the chroniclers history, indeed this is
the next to the last chapter of the
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end of the book, we have
seen this crescendo of goodness coming towards the
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end. Higher and Higher Josiah's righteousness
is proclaimed, we see all of the
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ways in which he's exercising Godly kingship
and in fact, in some versions of
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the cannon chronicles is placed at the
very end of the Old Testament, which
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in that case would mean that the
next of the last book of the Bible
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is moving forward, forward in this
proclamation of Great King Josiah, only to
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fall right as it's almost over.
The account of Josiah was such a hopeful
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one throughout is throughout the the history. Here we've read that certain blessings came
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down upon Israel that hadn't been there
since the time of David. In fact,
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earlier in this chapter we read that
not since the time of Samuel,
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even before David, had such a
great Passover been held. If you remember.
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At every single level we have seen
Josiah succeed as a king under God.
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Is this vice regents under the Lord. He has kept his people well,
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military success, peace, true worship, order, prosperity, the rule
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of God's laws, generosity. Where
other kings had fallen into temptation and too
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danger and to fear and to pride, Josiah has been wise and pious and
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brave. Then we have what is
presented as this bone head move right at
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the end of his kingship, at
the end of the story. What happens?
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Well, he hears that the King
of Egypt, NECO, is going
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out to fight a battle. This
king is no threat to Josiah, but
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for some reason Josiah thinks he needs
to join the fight. It doesn't really
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say they're are various likely reasons.
Maybe he wanted to curry favor with Egypt
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or curry favor with Assyria, maybe
he wanted to push back the Babylonians,
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maybe all three, maybe something else
to get all together. But what we
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know is that he should have known
better. How do we know that?
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Well, first the King of Egypt
appeals to Josiah in what is just common
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sense. Sat your fight, Dude. I am not going to battle with
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you go home, I'm going to
war with someone else. This isn't this
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isn't for you. Back off,
he says. And then NECO strengthens his
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argument even further. He tells Josiah
that this is from the Lord. I
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am not coming against you this day, but against the house at which I
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am with which I am at war, and God has commanded me to hurry
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see, supposing God, who is
with you or with me, lest he
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destroy you. And nevertheless, Josiah
did not turn away. And, as
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we continue to read, the chronicler
tells us this isn't just King Necho's blustering.
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He says, no, he did
not listen to the words of Neco
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from the mouth of God. Josiah
should have listened. He was warned,
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he was told. I let me
pause for just a moment. I don't
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want you to be alarmed at this
fact that God is speaking through the King
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of Egypt. We have many examples
of God speaking to and through those who
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are outside of Israel. King Abimelek
spoke to Abraham having been told by God
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some things in a dream. And
second chronicles to you might remember that Hiram,
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the king of Tire, speaks to
Solomon. There's the wise men who
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visited Jesus. You may even remember
that Matthew tells us in Chapter Twenty seven
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that pilots wife was warned in a
dream to and she told her husband leave
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Jesus alone. Says, have nothing
to do with that righteous man, for
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I have suffered much of him because
of him. Today, in a dream,
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God is perfectly capable of using whatever
source he wants to use to communicate.
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Our job is to listen, and
so NECO warns him. But Josiah
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doesn't listen and as a result of
not heeding this general revelation or common sense
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or the special revelation, this direct
command of God, Josiah falls as an
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Arrow strikes him. Indeed, he
even dies. The mighty, the great,
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the Holy King Josiah falls dead in
the middle of his sinning. This
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is the end of King Josiah's reign. This is the end of chronicles and
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the next chapter and chapter thirty six. It's of race to the bottom,
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as we'll see next times for kings. One after another, we see the
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structure and the of the Kingdom here
in Israel falling apart. Whatever good might
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have been obtained, obtained by Josiah. It wasn't lasting. Josiah couldn't sustain
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obedience and his kingly rule under God. So that's one reason Josiah's death is
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so sad. The height from which
he falls. Another reason that his death
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gets codified into the mourning of Israel
is not just the height from which he
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falls, but the depth to which
he reaches. What do I mean?
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When you tell a story? A
lot of times, the things that use,
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maybe all the time, the things
that you say beforehand have a lot
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to say about what happens next.
Next, let me give you a example,
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very simple example. Story of the
three pigs. Right, he often
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he puffed and he blew the house
down. You know the story and the
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story of the three pigs. The
first pig builds his house out of Straw
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and it fails. The Wolf comes, the house gets blown down, the
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pig in, depending on the story, either gets eaten or he runs away
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to another house. Second Brother,
same thing. Right, he builds his
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house out of Straw or sticks.
Same thing happens. The Wolf comes,
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the Predator comes and he's either eating
or he flees, depending on the story.
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But in the last house, the
this this final third pig brother,
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he builds his house out of bricks
and he is strong against his enemy and
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survives the day. Now the significance
of that third little pig is very we
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understand the waitiness right, more so
having seen the actions of the first two
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pigs. There's a contrast that happens
there. The foolishness of the first and
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second pigs help us to understand the
wisdom of the third pig. His wisdom
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and planning ahead, his wisdom and
not being lazy and whatever else the the
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depending on how the story is framed, his victory over the wolf wouldn't be
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as remarkable ride if it weren't for
the foolishness of his brothers. But what
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if the story was different? What
if, after building a wonderful house,
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the third little pig decided to go
camping? He's decided to go out into
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wolfpack forest and leave the fly of
his tent open. His foolishness is now
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not only his own, but remember, it's based on what's come before him.
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And that's what's happening with Josiah here. Let me ask you, if
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you've been with us through this long
series, through chronicles, did something about
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this death sound a little familiar?
It should, because there's another king that
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went to an ill conceived battle where
at the skies was involved, and Archer
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shoots an Arrow. There are these
tragic words I am wounded and the king
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falls down into a chariot. I'm
speaking of King Ahab and second chronicles eighteen.
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Now the parallels between these two things
are no accident. That's the point.
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The chronicler is chronicling the events.
He's inspired by the Holy Spirit and
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wants us to make these kinds of
connections. The providence of God is clearly
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at play, not only in the
events on the ground, on the battlefield,
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but in the assembling of this book
and of the Cannon, the writing
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of it, and in both events
in Ahab's life and in Josiah's life it.
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It becomes very clear that the mighty
fall because God is mightier Josiah in
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his lat that that Josiah, in
his last act would become like King Ahab,
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one of the best kings of Israel, becoming like one of the worst
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kings of Israel, is mournful.
It's a testimony to the sad fact that
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no human king who has been touched
by sin can sustain the Kingdom of God.
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Commenting on Psalm forty five. Martin
Luther put it this way. Even
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the greatest kings from the beginning of
the world have not governed their well realms
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without great errors and injustices. This
is intended to make you realize that it
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is impossible to govern an earthly Commonwealth
without sin. And what's true of a
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Commonwealth is also true of a common
person. What's true of Josiah is true
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of you, it's true of me, it's true of every one of us
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who has also been touched by sin. No matter how hard you try,
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no matter how many resolutions you make, how much counsel you seek, how
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much life hacking and strategic planning and
optimization you do, you can never climb
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your way out of sin and into
the holiness of God. In mourning for
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Josiah, even as they mourn deaths
of their loved ones, Israel was in
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a way mourning sin and its consequences. JOSIAH's story ought to resonate with us
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in this way and to warn us
too. If you're on a path of
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selfjustification or self victory or Vainglory,
know that you will fall. If you
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are proud of your accomplishments and you
are rising higher and higher and faster and
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faster. Know that you will fall, privately, publicly, in small ways,
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an enormous life changing, life altering
ways. That's what this story is
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all about. It's about helping us
to see how far our sin goes,
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how deeply it resides in us.
As much as we can become like Josiah,
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there is always some Ahab left in
us, and perhaps not just a
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little. So that's a pretty sad
ending. Where can we find hope?
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The answer is that we have to
find hope outside of ourselves, in a
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place that has not been touched by
sin, in one who is untouched by
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sin. We find it in the
forgiveness of our sins and in the grace
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of God. And that grace has
come into the world in the future king
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that came after Josiah, one who
was a son of David, one who
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fulfilled the promises of God, one
who was the son of God himself,
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our Lord, our Savior, our
King, Jesus Christ. After Israel went
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into exile, God promised, as
we will see next time, the very
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last words of chronicles. He promised
through the lips of a foreigner, a
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foreign king, King Cyrus, that
one day the people would return and that
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God's promise of an eternal kingdom through
David would indeed continue on. And that's
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exactly what happened. As we know
in the rest of scripture, God's people
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did return after their fall, did
return after their exile, and a king
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did rise up and he took them, he took us, into a battle
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that he did die from, but
not unwillingly, not by accident and not
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because of his sins. King Jesus
died on a cross in order to effectively
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forgive us our sins, in order
to purchase a salvation for us, in
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order to rise from the dead and
not remain buried in the tombs of his
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father's to rise from the dead and
establish, as a victorious king, a
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kingdom that would have no end.
And this was all possible because he was
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a different kind of human king.
He was also divine, one whom sin
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had not infected, one who could
and would and did obey. As God
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himself, he took on the form
of man to rule over man, but
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not as a failed one or a
failing one, but as a victorious,
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perfect, holy and righteous king.
And in him, as Jesus, is
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lifted up out of the grave,
he lives up with him the Kingdom of
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God, out of exile, out
of the Ash heap, out of sin,
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and he takes us up with him. Just as these good kings that
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was we have seen in these temporal
ways. When they rise, Israel rises,
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when they fall, Israel falls.
The same is true of Jesus,
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and as he rises up to heaven
itself, he perfects us and sanctifies us
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and one day will even glorify us. Our hope can never be in ourselves,
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in our kings and our powers,
in the things of this world.
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It can't even be in the Law
of God, in worship well done,
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in lives well lived. Our Hope, our only hope, can be in
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the gracious promises of a King of
the king, the King of kings and
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Lord of Lords. And that's the
other part of this story. There is
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mourning, but it pushes US forward
to remind us of a greater king yet
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to come. And even at the
end of this story we get a taste
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of God's grace. The fact that
he's buried in the tombs of his father's
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reminds us of a promise that God
made to him back in chapter four,
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thirty four, that Josiah would be
buried in this way, that though danger
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and exile and things were to come, that God would protect him, and
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that he did, even though Josiah
sinned. Josiah's life depended upon the grace
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of God from beginning to end,
and for that he is established as a
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good king, as a faithful king, even despite his sins. Let your
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lives also be established in the grace
of God, even though you sin,
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even because of your sin, let's
pray
