In the Old Testament, both 2 Kings 22-23 and 2 Chronicles 34-35 tell us a great biblical story about a king of Judah who ruled in the last half of the seventh century BC. That king’s name was Josiah, and he began ruling after his father, King Amon, died. 2 Chronicles 33:23-25 tells us that King Amon "did not humble himself before the Lord, as his father Manasseh had humbled himself, but this Amon incurred more and more guilt. His servants conspired against him and killed him in his house." So Josiah was placed upon the throne immediately after the assassination of his father, and Josiah was only eight years old when he was crowned king of Judah.

Please take your Bibles and turn to 2 Chronicles 34:3-7 and follow along as I read.

in the eighth year of his reign, while he was still a boy, he began to seek the God of his ancestor David, and in the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem of the high places, the sacred poles, and the carved and the cast images. In his presence they pulled down the altars of the Baals; he demolished the incense altars that stood above them. He broke down the sacred poles and the carved and the cast images; he made dust of them and scattered it over the graves of those who had sacrificed to them. He also burned the bones of the priests on their altars, and purged Judah and Jerusalem. In the towns of Manasseh, Ephraim, and Simeon, and as far as Naphtali, in their ruins all around, he broke down the altars, beat the sacred poles and the images into powder, and demolished all the incense altars throughout all the land of Israel. Then he returned to Jerusalem.

From these verses we see the active loyalty of Josiah to God. Josiah’s loyalty expressed itself in a great effort to purge the land of paganism. Now look at the very next verse. Look at 2 Chronicles 34:8 where we read a report of the continuation of Josiah’s efforts to bring his kingdom into greater conformity to the will of God. That verse tells us,

In the eighteenth year of his reign, when he had purged the land and the house, he sent Shaphan son of Azaliah, Maaseiah the governor of the city, and Joah son of Joahaz, the recorder, to repair the house of the Lord his God.

From this verse we learn that after the purging of pagan elements from his kingdom and from the temple, Josiah called together a group of leaders and assigned to them the task of repairing the temple.

In the verses which follow, we learn that the project began and that sometime during that project a highly significant discovery was made by Hilkiah, Judah’s high priest. Hilkiah found a very important book––a book that 2 Chronicles 34:14 calls, "the book of the law of the Lord given through Moses." I suspect that scholars will argue until the end of time about the exact identification of that book: ‘Was it all of the first five books of the Bible? Was it just a portion of that section of the Bible? Was it something totally different?’ We cannot know with certainty what was found in the temple during this renovation project. The best guess, based on the actions of Josiah in response to the message of this book, is that all or some portion of what we have in Deuteronomy was at least a part of what was found.

After the book was found, it was read to Josiah. Please follow along as I read the description of Josiah’s response to the message of that book. Please turn to 2 Chronicles 34:19-21.

When the king heard the words of the law he tore his clothes. Then the king commanded Hilkiah, Ahikam son of Shaphan, Abdon son of Micah, the secretary Shaphan, and the king’s servant Asaiah: "Go, inquire of the Lord for me and for those who are left in Israel and in Judah, concerning the words of the book that has been found; for the wrath of the Lord that is poured out on us is great, because our ancestors did not keep the word of the Lord, to act in accordance with all that is written in this book."

Josiah commands five persons to find out how Josiah should respond to the disturbing words that have been read in this holy and ancient book. The five men go to a woman who apparently is known for speaking on behalf of the Lord, the God of Israel. They go to the prophetess, Huldah; they ask her what is to be done in light of the frightening message from God found in the ancient book. A portion of her response comprised our second Scripture reading this morning found inside your worship bulletin. But prior to that portion of the response is a portion which would have been about as frightening as the original message read to the king. Huldah’s message from the Lord begins with these words found in 2 Kings 22:15-17.

"Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Tell the man who sent you to me, Thus says the Lord, I will indeed bring disaster on this place and on its inhabitants—all the words of the book that the king of Judah has read. Because they have abandoned me and have made offerings to other gods, so that they have provoked me to anger with all the work of their hands, therefore my wrath will be kindled against this place, and it will not be quenched."

The people’s sin was so bad that disaster was unavoidable. The punishments described in the "the book of the law of the Lord given through Moses" would take place. But Huldah’s message does not stop with words of coming disaster. God also spoke through her and said that because Josiah’s heart was penitent––causing him to tear his clothes and to weep, because of Josiah’s humble and broken response to the Word of God the coming disaster would not take place during his reign (see 2 Kings 22:18b-20 & 2 Chronicles 34:26-28). And the Lord was true to that promise.

Josiah went on to become an even greater king, one of the greatest kings Judah ever had. His zeal for God was such that after receiving the words of this book he intensified his efforts to completely purge the land of pagan influences in accordance with the words of the book found in the temple. He reestablished divinely prescribed religious practices that had long been neglected. Yes, Josiah was a great king of whom the Bible says, "He did what was right in the sight of the Lord, and walked in the ways of his ancestor David; he did not turn aside to the right or to the left" (2 Chronicles 34:2).

I have only one point to make this morning. It is that Josiah’s greatness was due to his openness to the Word and will of God. It was because Josiah humbled himself to God’s Word that he became such a great hero for God. He did not try to dodge the frightening impact of the ancient text read to him. He did not presume that because most of the pagan practices had begun, not during his reign, but during the reigns of previous rulers that everything was now okay. Josiah saw with clarity that his nation’s rebellion against God was great and that God had every right to punish and to punish radically. So Josiah tore his clothes in mourning and he wept upon hearing the convicting Word of God. As a result of that response, he delayed the coming of the divinely decreed disaster and, more importantly, he provided a model of godly leadership to every believer who follows him.

Sisters and brothers, all of the great leaders as God counts greatness are blessed with hearts that break when convicted by the Word of God. All the great leaders are humbled in the face of sin. All the great leaders are able to admit their sin and to seek God’s face in response to it. All the great leaders reject the tendency to conceal or to minimize their transgressions.

I believe that God calls all of us to lead. It matters not where we lead but how. And the how is to be patterned after persons of God like Josiah, persons of God whose hearts break when convicted by the Word of God.

Let’s take the path to authentic greatness. Humble yourself before God and commit to keeping your heart soft to the Word of God. Surrender to your Lord. Surrender to the Son of God.

When we become aware of sins in our lives, we must not hide from them; we must not pretend they are insignificant. We must allow our hearts to be broken. We must allow the Word of God to move us to penitence and to radical change. We must humble ourselves in the sight of the Lord and surrender to our Savior.

If you need to come to your Savior this morning with a broken and contrite heart to surrender to Jesus, we are here to assist you in everyway we can. Please come to Jesus, come now, as we stand and sing.