The Mess

2 Kings 22:10

“Then Shaphan the secretary informed the king, “Hilkiah the priest has given me a book.” And Shaphan read from it in the presence of the king.”

Mom would tell us to go and clean our rooms to which we would shout out, “OK!” Then, like little mice we would scurry about picking up all the stuff around our room and shoving it under the bed or in the closet. We would shout out “All Done!” Then mom would respond, “Is it clean the way I like it?” That was a rhetorical question because she knew good and well that we did not clean it the way it should have been cleaned. Then we would proceed to really clean up and we would find things that were buried under stuff. “I have been looking for that for months” I would say.

Josiah became king of Judah at eight years old. His father and grandfather were not known as Godly men. Instead, they were the most reckless and evil kings that Judah had ever had. The Bible tells us that Josiah’s grandfather Manasseh, among other evil things, set up Asherah poles inside the temple (2 Kings 21:7). If you remember, Asherah poles were idols of the evil sex gods of the Canaanites. Paul even runs into this evil in Corinth. There they had a temple to the goddess Diana, the lust and pornographic god of Corinth. All kinds of bad things were done inside those temples. To have an Asherah pole inside the temple in Jerusalem was not good. Josiah’s grandfather had turned the temple of God into a place of sin.

When Josiah was 26, he orders the temple to be cleaned up. He gets together all the men capable of repairing the temple and they get to work. Hilkiah, the priest, is overseeing some of the repairs and he finds the book of the law. The very Mosaic writings that have governed the Jewish people ever since they came out to Egypt hundreds of years before. Shaphan, the secretary, reported to the king what had been going on at the temple and Hilkiah tells him to bring the book of the law to the king and read it. Shaphan reports everything to the king and says in verse 10, “the priest has given me a book.” I find this odd because you would think the secretary of king would know what the book of the law looked like. Looking back, it had been 68 years under evil kings in Judah who did not care about the law nor did they follow it. It is likely that Shaphan had never even seen or heard from the law his entire life.

Shaphan reads the book of the law and Josiah tore his clothes. He gave an order for the priest to go and get the prophet of God and to inquire of the Lord. A female prophet named Huldah shows up and gives them a word from the Lord. [Side note: Huldah is a prophet of God from the Old Testament and being a female, I am sure she met opposition with the men of the day but this is yet more proof that the Lord does not segregate based on race or gender. He uses all of this creation to cry out and give glory to God.] Because Josiah tore his clothes upon hearing the law, the Lord will spare him from seeing the destruction of Jerusalem (verse 20).

One thing sticks out like a sore thumb here. The book of the law was missing and no one knew where it was for 60 plus years. It was buried behind all the idols and trash that had made its way into the temple. It was not until they chose to clean out and repair the temple that they found it. Some of you need to do some cleaning in your life. You have been busy putting things under your bed and in your closet that are not of God. You have been hiding them from the public for way too long. The Lord is saying “it is time to clean your room”. In the past you have not done a good job. Instead of really cleaning your life, you have pushed the things aside that you don’t want people to know about. The Lord is yelling back at you, “It is clean the way I like it?”

Prayer: Jesus, you promised when we gave our lives to you that we are new creation and the old things have passed away and all things are new. We still seem to struggle with getting rid of some areas of our lives that are not of you Lord. Help us to get rid of the sin in our lives and run away from any and all sin so we can grow in you Father, in Jesus name, amen.