Sermon: Josiah's Radical Reforms
Take your Bibles with me and turn to the book of 2 Kings chapter 23. We're going to be looking a little bit at the book of 2 Chronicles tonight as well.
The Context of Josiah's Reforms
Two weeks ago, before we had vacation Bible school last week, we told the story of Josiah coming to the throne in 2 Kings 22. He comes to the throne at 8 years old and immediately starts reforming the land for good. He was a great king. In fact, the chapter we're going to look at tonight says he was unrivaled in his heart for God and his willingness to do what was right. He comes to the throne at 8, he starts this reform, and then in his mid-20s, at 26 years old, he finds the book of the law. He has it read to him. It's hidden in the temple. And he tears his clothes in repentance. And he stands up before the people and reads the book of the law to the leaders of Israel, and then all the people of Israel, leading them into a renewed covenant relationship with the Lord. That's the context of what we're going to look at today in 2 Kings 23.
We're going to read 2 Kings chapter 23 verses 4 through 20 to start.
[4] And the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest, and the priests of the second order, and the keepers of the door, to bring forth out of the temple of the Lord all the vessels that were made for Baal, and for the grove, and for all the host of heaven: and he burned them without Jerusalem in the fields of Kidron, and carried the ashes of them unto Bethel.
[5] And he put down the idolatrous priests, whom the kings of Judah had ordained to burn incense in the high places in the cities of Judah, and in the places round about Jerusalem; them also that burned incense unto Baal, to the sun, and to the moon, and to the planets, and to all the host of heaven.
[6] And he brought out the grove from the house of the Lord, without Jerusalem, unto the brook Kidron, and burned it at the brook Kidron, and stamped it small to powder, and cast the powder thereof upon the graves of the children of the people.
[7] And he brake down the houses of the sodomites, that were by the house of the Lord, where the women wove hangings for the grove.
[8] And he brought all the priests out of the cities of Judah, and defiled the high places where the priests had burned incense, from Geba to Beersheba, and brake down the high places of the gates that were in the entering in of the gate of Joshua the governor of the city, which were on a man's left hand at the gate of the city.
[9] Nevertheless the priests of the high places came not up to the altar of the Lord in Jerusalem, but they did eat of the unleavened bread among their brethren.
[10] And he defiled Topheth, which is in the valley of the children of Hinnom, that no man might make his son or his daughter to pass through the fire to Molech.
[11] And he took away the horses that the kings of Judah had given to the sun, at the entering in of the house of the Lord, by the chamber of Nathanmelech the chamberlain, which was in the suburbs, and burned the chariots of the sun with fire.
[12] And the altars that were on the top of the upper chamber of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and the altars which Manasseh had made in the two courts of the house of the Lord, did the king beat down, and brake them down from thence, and cast the dust of them into the brook Kidron.
[13] And the high places that were before Jerusalem, which were on the right hand of the mount of corruption, which Solomon the king of Israel had builded for Ashtoreth the abomination of the Zidonians, and for Chemosh the abomination of the Moabites, and for Milcom the abomination of the children of Ammon, did the king defile.
[14] And he brake in pieces the images, and cut down the groves, and filled their places with the bones of men.
[15] Moreover the altar that was at Bethel, and the high place which Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin, had made, both that altar and the high place he brake down, and burned the high place, and stamped it small to powder, and burned the grove.
[16] And as Josiah turned himself, he spied the sepulchres that were there in the mount, and sent, and took the bones out of the sepulchres, and burned them upon the altar, and polluted it, according to the word of the Lord which the man of God proclaimed, who proclaimed these words.
[17] Then he said, What title is that that I see? And the men of the city told him, It is the sepulchre of the man of God, which came from Judah, and proclaimed these things that thou hast done against the altar of Bethel.
[18] And he said, Let him alone; let no man move his bones. So they let his bones alone, with the bones of the prophet that came out of Samaria.
[19] And all the houses also of the high places that were in the cities of Samaria, which the kings of Israel had made to provoke the Lord to anger, Josiah took away, and did to them according to all the acts that he had done in Bethel.
[20] And he slew all the priests of the high places that were there upon the altars, and burned men's bones upon them, and returned to Jerusalem.
2 Kings 23:4-20 (KJV)
Josiah's Comprehensive Purge
What we see in this passage is the most comprehensive idolatry reform that ever happened in the history of Israel and Judah. You read it with me. It is 20 straight verses of Josiah just cleaning house in Judah. And he starts in Judah. He starts at the temple. And then he goes out to greater Judah. And then he isn't satisfied with that. He goes and he clears idolatry even in Israel, in Samaria — parts that he's not even the king of.
As you read this story, this passage, there is just a staggering amount of idolatry that is happening in the nation of Israel, in the place that God had set up to be a holy nation separate from the world, a place that was supposed to be showing the world what true worship of God looked like.
In the very temple, there were pagan vessels and pagan equipment. There was the worship of Baal happening in the temple. There were Asherah poles, which is translated as “the grove” here in our King James. There were astral deities or gods of the Assyrians and the Babylonians that were being worshipped in the temple of God.
In our King James Bible, you'll often see the word “grove.” And if you look that word up in a Strong's Concordance, what you'll see is that it is actually the word Asherah. For many years, people didn't know what Asherah was. It's very close to a word for woods. And so for centuries, people translated that as grove or groves, but with archaeological finds, we've realized this is literally the name of a goddess that was worshipped sexually — Asherah.
So inside the temple, there are Asherah poles, there's worship of the host of heaven, there's worship of Baal. It says here that there are sodomites — houses for sodomites built right beside the temple. These were male shrine prostitutes that were used in the worship of these false gods, and there were women that were weaving sacred hangings for this Asherah cult right there next to the house of God. And on the entrance to the house of God, on the entrance to the temple, there were these golden horses that were built in a golden chariot that was there to worship the sun god. And this was in the temple. This is in the temple of God, God's house.
And so the very first thing that Josiah does is he gets rid of all of this. He starts with the house of God, the place that was supposed to be distinct.
Then Josiah moves on to Jerusalem. There are high places and altars built around the city that he tears down. There are altars in the courts of the temple that were built by King Manasseh that he tears down. He goes to Topheth in the valley of the Son of Hinnom, this place where child sacrifice took place, where Manasseh killed his own children in sacrifice to the false god Molech, and he makes it so that place will never again be used for sacrifice to these false gods. And then he deals with the high places on what is called the Mount of Corruption, east of Jerusalem, on the Mount of Olives. There were these temples that were built by Solomon, King Solomon. He was the wisest man that ever lived, but he didn't always act wisely. Remember, he married all of these pagan women and built places of worship for their gods. And King Solomon right in Jerusalem had built places of worship for Ashtoreth and Chemosh and Milcom, and sowed the seeds of this idolatry.
But it wasn't just Jerusalem. The whole land of Judah had idolatry. There were priests that had been appointed by previous kings that were facilitating the worship of these idols. They were burning incense to Baal and the sun and the moon and the host of heaven. There were various high places that were scattered all around the countryside. There were these images and groves. And what Josiah did is he put an end to all of it. He broke down all of these idolatrous places. He ground them down to powder. He scattered dead bones on them so that they would be completely defiled and never used again. He demoted these idolatrous priests. He allowed them to eat, but never again to act as priests. And then he went on and did the same thing in Samaria. He wasn't okay to just take care of Judah, his place of power, but he also went and took care of the idols in Samaria as well, and he finally destroyed the false places of worship that were created by Jeroboam.
How Did It Get This Bad?
Now as I read this incredible account of cleaning house that is done by Josiah, the first thing that pops into my mind, the first thing that jumps out at me is this question: How did this happen? How on earth did it get to the point where the people of God were so infatuated and saturated and polluted by idolatry?
How did it get to the point where people were okay having homosexual prostitutes performing their acts as part of the temple? How did it get to the point where they were okay having idols to worship Baal and Asherah and Babylonian gods inside the temple?
When you read the story of God bringing his people out of Egypt, giving them the promised land, giving them the law at Mount Sinai, making for himself a holy people, a distinct people — and then you read here what they've become. How?
There are a few things that I want to remind you about idolatry so that we can beware of idolatry and not end up in this same place.
Idolatry is like cancer. It starts very small and grows until it takes over its host. The children of Israel didn't start out in their path toward idolatry by taking it all in. They didn't start off offering children to Molech or having orgies inside the temple. When all of this started, that would have been unheard of, undreamed of by the people of God. But it's a slippery slope. They let a little in. They let the seemingly benign part take root. They let it live in the shadows. They just didn't talk about it. And before you know it, it was everywhere.
Idolatry feeds on peer pressure. Everybody else was doing these things. The culture of the land supported these things. The children of Israel didn't want to be weird. These gods and goddesses were worshipped by the Phoenicians, the Philistines, the Sidonians, the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Greeks, the Romans, and the Egyptians. Everywhere they turned, everybody else was worshiping some form of these gods. The Egyptians might call him Ra, and the Phoenicians might call him El, and the Greeks might call him Zeus. One group might call her Astarte, and another Ishtar, and another Diana. There was a common pantheon of these false gods that literally everybody was worshiping. And then you have the Jews. And they worshiped a God with no images. They worshipped a God that they couldn't see, a God that told them to live holy lives. And there was peer pressure there.
Idolatry often comes into our life through unsanctioned romantic relationships. There's a reason why God commanded the children of Israel not to marry these pagan women. And it wasn't racial. Think of Ruth. God had no problem with them marrying the ones that truly converted and worshiped God only, but that's not what happened. Again, Solomon built this hill of corruption for all of his pagan women that he worshipped. Think of the influence that had on future generations. These false temples and idols had been there for hundreds of years. Listen, there is a reason why we are not to be unequally yoked with unbelievers. There's a reason why when you marry, young person, when you date, young person, you find somebody who is walking with the Lord. You marry in the faith.
Idolatry is usually practiced syncretically. People did not abandon God. They tried to have their cake and eat it too. They tried to worship God and worship idols at the same time. They tried to hedge their bets. If you asked most people, they wouldn't have said that their main God was Baal or Molech or Chemosh. They would have claimed to be Jews that worshiped Yahweh. But more and more, they wanted to borrow pieces of paganism and have both at the same time. There are even inscriptions that they've found to this false goddess Asherah that say "Yahweh and his Asherah." They started telling themselves that Yahweh was God and he had his mistress god that they could worship.
And it's the same way today. Most young people today are not outright bowing down to the world. They'll say that they're following God. But if you really look at what they're doing, they're following God and money. They're worshiping God on Sunday and they're worshiping their idols on Monday to Saturday. But our God is a jealous God. He doesn't want to be worshipped in tandem with others. He wants to be worshipped alone.
Idolatry is fun and true religion is often serious. If you look at the way that they worshiped these false gods, it was a party. It was an orgy. It was fun. It was sensual. There was probably loud music that was playing. There were people dancing around. There were people doing things that frankly are fun. And then you looked at the temple and it was serious and it was quiet and it was bloody. You listened to the word of God, the word of the prophets, and they were telling you to live self-controlled lives, telling you to keep your desires under control. And I have to look at those two things side by side and think, man, idolatry seems a lot more fun. You look at a church like ours where we meet together 3 times a week and open the Bible and just study the Bible and explain what the Bible is. And we sing hymns, and our hymns are more about teaching than they are about making you feel a certain way. And I know people might look at that and think, that's not fun. That's, man, between that and a concert, between that and a ball game, between that and going to the bar. Idolatry always seems more fun than true worship of the Lord.
The Danger and the Roadmap
The very last verse in 1 John, 1 John 5:21 says,
[21] Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen.
1 John 5:21 (KJV)
We have to know where idolatry leads. It leads us away from God. It always takes us further than we want to go. And it never satisfies. It brings judgment. It destroys families. It brings pain, and we have to keep ourselves away from it.
But this story that we read tonight with Josiah's reforms doesn't just tell us the dangers of idolatry; it gives us a roadmap for destroying them, for getting rid of idolatry.
If you want to get rid of idolatry in your life, you have to take radical, decisive action against idols. You look at what Josiah did. He took decisive action. He burned idols. He ground the idols to powder. He spread the powder around. He took bones and dragged them on the altars to defile the altars. It was not some kind of wishy-washy "I don't know, maybe we should do something about these idols." No, Josiah dove in with both feet and acted decisively.
He wasn't worried about hurt feelings. He wasn't worried about collateral damage. He wasn't worried about his polling ratings. He got rid of the bad priests. He defiled the high places that for generations families had revered. He killed idolatrous priests. He understood that reformation cost something.
Idolatry is like removing cancer. How do they get rid of cancer? They get rid of cancer first with surgery. They cut as much of it out as they can. And then they use chemotherapy, which is poisoning you on purpose. They're literally trying to kill whatever's left. Imagine if you have cancer and they say, "Oh, we got most of it out. We got a good chunk of it out. You'll be okay." No, when you're dealing with cancer, you get it all out. You don't leave any little bit behind because it will grow back and it will destroy you. Everything contaminated has to go.
Josiah made it hard to come back to idolatry. He spread ashes and human bones over these sacred sites. He got rid of every vessel and every symbol. And he was thorough. He started in the temple and then went out to Jerusalem and then the countryside around Judah and finally even went into Bethel and Samaria. He did what people were not willing to do for hundreds of years. He got rid of it.
Josiah shows us that you cannot fight sin with half measures. You can't fight sin the way that little girls fight each other with little slaps. You have to go in and cut it all out, no matter what the cost is. You've got to make it hard to come back to that stuff, and you've got to be thorough. Maybe there's somebody here that's struggling with pornography. My word to you is: you have got to get rid of everything. You've got to get rid of the computer. You've got to get rid of your smartphone. Go buy a dumb phone. You can find one. You've got to get rid of the magazines. You've got to get rid of any vestige of that in your life. Get it all out. Don't go around the places where that was before. Get in the house of the Lord as much as you possibly can, listen to godly music, cut it out. You can't deal with sin, whether it's pornography or materialism or unforgiveness. You can't deal with it in half measures. You have to deal with it thoroughly.
God Keeps His Promises
There are two more things that I want to share with you from this story of Josiah. One of them is something we already read in verses 17 and 18. As Josiah is in Bethel, which is not even in Judah—he's in Israel, in Samaria, outside of his territory—but this is how much he cared about getting rid of idolatry. He's destroying the false temple that was set up by Jeroboam when Israel and Judah first split. And he's going through and burning the bones of prophets, these false prophets to these false gods. And they come to one prophet's tomb and there's writing on it, and he says, "What's that?" Well, this is a prophet that came from Judah to prophesy against this idolatry.
Look with me at 1 Kings chapter 13 for a second. We don't have time to read all of this, but I just want to point this out to you.
[1] And, behold, there came a man of God out of Judah by the word of the Lord unto Bethel: and Jeroboam stood by the altar to burn incense.
[2] And he cried against the altar in the word of the Lord, and said, O altar, altar, thus saith the Lord; Behold, a child shall be born unto the house of David, Josiah by name; and upon thee shall he offer the priests of the high places that burn incense upon thee, and men's bones shall be burnt upon thee.
1 Kings 13:1-2 (KJV)
Way back, three hundred years before this, God sent a prophet to Jeroboam to cry against this false altar that he set up. And he told him that one day there's going to be a man named Josiah that was going to burn men's bones on this altar. And what happened? A guy named Josiah, hundreds of years later, came and burned men's bones on that altar. God keeps his promises. Josiah sees that tomb and that inscription, and he honors it. It's a beautiful moment here of reverence in the middle of destruction. What God promises, God performs.
The Heart of True Reform: The Passover
There's one more thing I want to show you, and it's actually in verse 21. We haven't read it yet, so let's go ahead and read that verse.
[21] And the king commanded all the people, saying, Keep the passover unto the Lord your God, as it is written in the book of this covenant.
2 Kings 23:21 (KJV)
I was going to go to 2 Chronicles chapter 35 and go into detail of this special reinstitution of the Passover. The Passover had not been observed the way that it was supposed to for hundreds of years, and one of the things that Josiah did is he had all of God's people keep the Passover. Now, what's the Passover? Why is that so important? Remember, the Passover is how God liberated the children of Israel from Egypt. After the plagues, when Pharaoh still wouldn't let them go, God instructed them to take a lamb, a spotless lamb, and kill it, and spread its blood over the doorpost of their house. And when the angel of death came through the land and saw that blood, it would pass over that house and spare them. But it didn't pass over the Egyptians' houses. And that night, the firstborn of every one of those houses was killed by the angel of the Lord. And Pharaoh finally let them go. And they were supposed to celebrate this perpetually. Now, why is this important to our discussion? It's important because it is not enough for us to just purge idols or to beware of idols in the first place. The basis of our reform, the basis of our relationship with the Lord, has to be that Jesus paid the price for us, covered us with his blood, and set us free.
This is important because it shows us that you can tear down every idol. And if your life is not covered by the blood of the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world, it's just moralism. The basis of our relationship with God is not the fact that we don't have idols and that we don't have sins. It's that despite our sins, Jesus Christ died for us and covers us with his blood.
If you haven't been washed in the blood, then all of your attempts at self-reformation are going to fail. All your attempts to quit your vices are going to fail. External cleaning without having a new heart isn't going to last. So, what do we learn from Josiah? We have to discover God's word again. We have to ruthlessly get rid of the idols in our life. And we have to trust in the blood of Jesus, the forgiveness and the power that he gives us.
Closing Hope
Let me end with one thought. As wicked as Judah was, as much idolatry as there was, God still took him back. And God will do that for you too. Let's pray.
