One Year Bible Sunday, July 3rd
King Josiah took the money collected and hired all kinds of craftsmen and workers to rebuild and restore the temple. The condition of the temple was a good indicator of the type of king who was on the throne. Josiah out of his deep respect and obedience to the Lord brought the temple back to a place where it resembled the admiration, worship, and respect for Yahweh.
Hilkiah Discovers God’s Law
On the spiritual side of the leadership, Hilkiah the high priest found the book of the Law under the dust piles and read it to the king. Apparently it was lost, just as the people were lost without it. Then the consullted with Huldah the prophetess, which as you can see was a woman. This is another biblical argument for women in ministry. Huldah prophesies that the city of Jerusalem would be besieged just as Samaria had been by the Assyrians, but since Josiah had been found faithful it would not happen in his lifetime.
Josiah’s Religious Reforms
You can see throughout this passage the zeal Josiah had for the Lord. Not only did he have the Law read before all of the people, but as you read through the passage, you can see his wholesale cleansing of house of God. He tore multiple shrines, poles, altars, you name it, that the previous wicked kings had used to worship other pagan gods and commit the sin of idolatry. This was the grievous sin committed by both the kings of the Southern and Northern kings that would to their demise and destruction to them and their people.
When he walked by a tomb of the unknown prophet, he did not excavate the bones out of his grave out of respect for him. He even went as far as Samaria to cleanse the entire nation of Israel.
Then Josiah demolished all the buildings at the pagan shrines in the towns of Samaria, just as he had done at Bethel. They had been built by the various kings of Israel and had made the Lord[i] very angry. 20 He executed the priests of the pagan shrines on their own altars, and he burned human bones on the altars to desecrate them. Finally, he returned to Jerusalem.
Josiah Celebrates Passover
Then, he ordered the people to celebrate the Passover. The staggering fact is that they had not celebrated it since the time of the Judges. For hundreds of years the people of God had not celebrated the central act of God's faithfulness to them, His deliverance for them from the Egyptians. It would be a like a church not celebrating Holy Communion.
Here is a good summary of Josiah's faithfulness,
Never before had there been a king like Josiah, who turned to the Lord with all his heart and soul and strength, obeying all the laws of Moses. And there has never been a king like him since.
Then the people of the land anointed Josiah’s son Jehoahaz and made him the next king.
Paul Speaks to the Crowd
Since Paul was a Roman citizen he had a right to speak to the people assembled, so the commander gave him the opportunity to do it. He spoke the Jews in Aramaic, their native tongue.
When Paul started to speak to the Jewish leaders and people, they noticed it was their own language and a hush came over the crowd. Paul shared his history of growing up as a Jew and how he was educated under the much esteemed Rabbi, Gamaliel. He shared how he was so passionate about the purity of the Jewish faith that he persecuted and round up Christians to be put in prison and executed.
But on the Road to Damascus he met Jesus, who said to him, 'Saul, Saul why are you persecuting me!" Instantly he was blinded, and he knew it was the "Lord". Afterwards Ananias was sent to help him regain his sight and he gave him this charge,
‘The God of our ancestors has chosen you to know his will and to see the Righteous One and hear him speak. 15 For you are to be his witness, telling everyone what you have seen and heard. 16 What are you waiting for? Get up and be baptized. Have your sins washed away by calling on the name of the Lord.’
We see again the importance of baptism. This is what you would call Paul's testimony, including how he came to know Jesus as the Messiah. Though we may not have had a, "Road to Damascus" experience, your testimony is the most important witness you have to the world. Through your testimony God can lead others to believe in Jesus as the Messiah.
This is a great psalm and verses 1-3, are great memory verses! And they symbolize why reading through the One Year Bible this year is a such an important thing to do.
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