No one probably expected much from Josiah. His grandfather had lead a great massacre of innocent blood and his father was murdered by his own trusted officials. At the tender age of eight, when boys in our time are still stumbling in their reading and have not yet conquered long division, Josiah was made king of Judah; a whole nation entrusted to the rule of a boy who was from a line of kings that had long been leading Judah down a path of destruction. What could we expect from a child, but to follow in the examples laid before him? How could he know any better?
But somehow he did. It was said of Josiah in 2 Kings 23:25, "Neither before nor after Josiah was there a king like him who turned to the Lord as he did- with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his strength, in accordance with all the Law of Moses." I find it fascinating. During Colette's school time this morning, we read the story of Josiah and it lead me on a cross-referencing search for more on this king, but the answers I sought, I did not find. What caused Josiah to live so differently than those that had come before him?
Here is what we do know. In the eighteenth year of his reign (so when he was about 26!), Josiah ordered that the Temple of the Lord, which had long been neglected and desecrated by idol worship, be cleaned and repaired. We do not know what inspired this; whether it was an earnest seeking of God or a shallow desire of aesthetic pleasure. While cleaning the temple, The Book of Law was found and brought to Josiah. Apparently, this book had been long-forgotten as a result of a disregard to lead God-pleasing lives. Upon it being read, Josiah was gripped with emotion because it clearly brought to light God's justice in dealing with a nation that had long turned from Him. Josiah rightly feared for his nation because the law clearly warned of what would happen if Israel turned from God and worshipped idols. Josiah did everything within his power to turn the nation around, and began by renewing his nation's commitment to God and then he started cleaning house.
There was a lot of work to do. Within the temple there were idols for the stars, sun, and moon, as well as for the false gods, Baal and Asherah. In the very Temple of God, male shrine prostitutes were living and women had a station for weaving gifts for Asherah. Horses and chariots had been dedicated to the worship of the sun. Israelites sacrificed their own children in fire to Molech! There were altars throughout the land of Judah to various pagan gods. There was a booming business for mediums and spiritists. Idol worship was so commonplace and widely accepted that few places went untouched. So Josiah went on a destructive, but righteous rampage against the evil that infiltrated his nation.
And it all started with a little housekeeping.
How's your temple looking? "Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body." 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 What about your "Jerusalem", the city that is home to the temple?
I would venture to guess we could all do a little housekeeping. How many of us have lost the Book of the Law? Collecting dust on a bookshelf somewhere? Let's talk about our temples. Josiah found idol worship right on the doorstep. How are your doorsteps looking? What kind of garbage do you let pass through the thresholds of your eyes and ears? Maybe you need to consider what is coming out of the temple by way of your mouth. If people were to come to the temple to seek God, is your tongue giving them the wrong direction? What kind of idols do you find in your appearance? Do you spend more time showering than you do in prayer? How about exercise over studying the Bible? Do your wardrobe needs exceed your charitable expenditures (don't forget to include all of your body products, hair cuts and makeup in that figure)?
Is your home a place you would expect to find a godly temple? Is it a place that welcomes prayer, praise and worship? Is it a refuge to the weary? A reflection of holy conduct? Is it a place that can balance mercy with justice? Does it offer instruction in the ways of righteousness to its citizens?
I wonder what it would look like if we followed Josiah's example and called a meeting of our household to instruct them in renewing their covenant with God. What if we went on a symbolic journey of removing the idols that have made their way into our homes? What if we smashed to bits and burned to ashes those things that have lead us away from worshipping our God? And what if in the midst we found the ability to love and obey our God with all of our heart, soul, and strength?
Monday, January 30, 2012
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Joseph's Staff
I caused myself a lot of anxiety this Christmas. And a large part of that anxiety lead to blog-freeze (a new term I just created to describe my brain's inability to form a coherent blog entry). The other responsible party for the blog-freeze would be Julia, the Twenty Minute Napper.
I have always been pretty low-key about Christmas. I do not get roped into everything having to be just perfect, but I enjoy the pursuit of making it memorable. I love the decorating and baking and gift-purchasing. The most enjoyable activities for me is setting out the Nativity scene and attending Christmas Eve service. Now, as much as any other parent, I do love seeing my children filled with excitement and joy when they open gifts, but this year I began to fear that the focus of Christmas would get shifted to the presents, which is so easy for young and old to do.
Fretting often causes a state of agonizing indecision for me. I wandered down toy aisles and craft aisles over-analyzing every gift and the spiritual impact it might have on my children. Meanwhile, the rest of the holiday season continued stress-free. We participated in church activities and purchased gifts and food for the less fortunate and almost every night enjoyed singing Christmas songs. We focused our activities on celebrating Christ's birth, but how to gear the presents in that direction nagged at my heart daily.
I had read on a blog an idea to present gifts that resembled the symbolic gifts that the Magi brought to Jesus. I loved the idea. I still love the idea though it sadly became a source of holiday frustration. I adopted this idea to give the children's gifts a spiritual focus. Frankincense was burned in the temple and signified drawing close to God in worship. Myrrh would be used to prepare a body for burial and an appropriate gift for children would be something hygiene related that teaches us to value our own bodies. Gold was a gift for the King of Kings and should be replicated by the parents by giving a gift to show the child how much they are valued. I loved the idea, but I found the gold aspect surprisingly hard to fill. I adore my children. My daily life is committed to a sacrificial love for them. Finding a gift that communicated this became an impossible task when surrounded by a sea of gaudy-colored toys that held the potential of being discarded two days after gifting.
Two days before Christmas with only gifts of Frankincense (a child's devotional) and Myrrh (toothbrush, toothpaste, shampoo and conditioner), I handed the task over to my husband with no small amount of angst. He charged through one store and made some very well-recieved purchases. Though I felt relief, I also felt a strong sense of failing to really expose through the gifts what Christmas really should be centered around.
And it wasn't until just a few days ago that I ushered those feelings out the door. I would like to share with you what has been most frequently played with since Christmas. The item that has been the source of hours of play, as well as several sharing altercations, has been a cardboard tube that once held wrapping paper. Everyday since Christmas, Colette dons a blue blanket affixed to her head by a headband, wraps a baby doll in a blanket, and hops aboard a hobby horse which is lead by Mary wielding the cardboard tube. If you haven't guessed, they are Mary and Joseph reenacting the Christmas story and the tube is Joseph's staff. The fights take place when "Mary" decides that she needs a staff too because she's pregnant afterall, and can't be expected to ride on the donkey the whole time!
I can not tell you how many times this sweet display of their knowledge of the true meaning of Christmas has brought tears to my eyes. And they have made me giggle too when Jon was playing the role of one of the Wise Men and was reprimanded for coming in too loudly and waking the baby up or when Colette (Mary) told Mary (Joseph) that the baby was about to be born and he needed to go to the store quickly to buy some hay for the manger.
The lesson in all of this? Sometimes I think we tend to get fancy with the simple act of speaking God's Word. Sometimes we get so fancy that we forget that the power is in hearing God's Word, not in our fancy presentation. I am going to trust that as I continue to share God's Word with my children it will be His love that points them in the right direction, not my creativity or intellectual reasoning or my persistence. Romans 10:17 "Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the Word of Christ."
I am not at all implying that God does not use us in creative and exciting ways to bring His message to the lost. I strongly believe that we are each gifted in a manner that God uses for specific purposes in ministering to the hearts of the unsaved. What I am implying, is that we can become easily distracted from the power of the simplicity of hearing God's Word. In all that we do, we should make sure that the message of Christ is coming through loud and clear. I trust that Colette, Mary and Julia are getting the message because God's Word promises it. Isaiah 55:10-11 "As the rain and the snow come down from Heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it."
The "staff" is becoming slightly mangled from the daily journeys to "Bethlehem," but I am keeping what others would discard because it is valuable in the eyes of my children. What was on its way out to the trash, became the most valued "toy" in our household. In the eyes of the world, we may seem to be discardable with no potential worth keeping, but God sees not just the salvageable, but his most valuable possession. Just when we think we are heading out to the trash, we can become the staff that leads the way to Bethlehem.
I have always been pretty low-key about Christmas. I do not get roped into everything having to be just perfect, but I enjoy the pursuit of making it memorable. I love the decorating and baking and gift-purchasing. The most enjoyable activities for me is setting out the Nativity scene and attending Christmas Eve service. Now, as much as any other parent, I do love seeing my children filled with excitement and joy when they open gifts, but this year I began to fear that the focus of Christmas would get shifted to the presents, which is so easy for young and old to do.
Fretting often causes a state of agonizing indecision for me. I wandered down toy aisles and craft aisles over-analyzing every gift and the spiritual impact it might have on my children. Meanwhile, the rest of the holiday season continued stress-free. We participated in church activities and purchased gifts and food for the less fortunate and almost every night enjoyed singing Christmas songs. We focused our activities on celebrating Christ's birth, but how to gear the presents in that direction nagged at my heart daily.
I had read on a blog an idea to present gifts that resembled the symbolic gifts that the Magi brought to Jesus. I loved the idea. I still love the idea though it sadly became a source of holiday frustration. I adopted this idea to give the children's gifts a spiritual focus. Frankincense was burned in the temple and signified drawing close to God in worship. Myrrh would be used to prepare a body for burial and an appropriate gift for children would be something hygiene related that teaches us to value our own bodies. Gold was a gift for the King of Kings and should be replicated by the parents by giving a gift to show the child how much they are valued. I loved the idea, but I found the gold aspect surprisingly hard to fill. I adore my children. My daily life is committed to a sacrificial love for them. Finding a gift that communicated this became an impossible task when surrounded by a sea of gaudy-colored toys that held the potential of being discarded two days after gifting.
Two days before Christmas with only gifts of Frankincense (a child's devotional) and Myrrh (toothbrush, toothpaste, shampoo and conditioner), I handed the task over to my husband with no small amount of angst. He charged through one store and made some very well-recieved purchases. Though I felt relief, I also felt a strong sense of failing to really expose through the gifts what Christmas really should be centered around.
And it wasn't until just a few days ago that I ushered those feelings out the door. I would like to share with you what has been most frequently played with since Christmas. The item that has been the source of hours of play, as well as several sharing altercations, has been a cardboard tube that once held wrapping paper. Everyday since Christmas, Colette dons a blue blanket affixed to her head by a headband, wraps a baby doll in a blanket, and hops aboard a hobby horse which is lead by Mary wielding the cardboard tube. If you haven't guessed, they are Mary and Joseph reenacting the Christmas story and the tube is Joseph's staff. The fights take place when "Mary" decides that she needs a staff too because she's pregnant afterall, and can't be expected to ride on the donkey the whole time!
I can not tell you how many times this sweet display of their knowledge of the true meaning of Christmas has brought tears to my eyes. And they have made me giggle too when Jon was playing the role of one of the Wise Men and was reprimanded for coming in too loudly and waking the baby up or when Colette (Mary) told Mary (Joseph) that the baby was about to be born and he needed to go to the store quickly to buy some hay for the manger.
The lesson in all of this? Sometimes I think we tend to get fancy with the simple act of speaking God's Word. Sometimes we get so fancy that we forget that the power is in hearing God's Word, not in our fancy presentation. I am going to trust that as I continue to share God's Word with my children it will be His love that points them in the right direction, not my creativity or intellectual reasoning or my persistence. Romans 10:17 "Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the Word of Christ."
I am not at all implying that God does not use us in creative and exciting ways to bring His message to the lost. I strongly believe that we are each gifted in a manner that God uses for specific purposes in ministering to the hearts of the unsaved. What I am implying, is that we can become easily distracted from the power of the simplicity of hearing God's Word. In all that we do, we should make sure that the message of Christ is coming through loud and clear. I trust that Colette, Mary and Julia are getting the message because God's Word promises it. Isaiah 55:10-11 "As the rain and the snow come down from Heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it."
The "staff" is becoming slightly mangled from the daily journeys to "Bethlehem," but I am keeping what others would discard because it is valuable in the eyes of my children. What was on its way out to the trash, became the most valued "toy" in our household. In the eyes of the world, we may seem to be discardable with no potential worth keeping, but God sees not just the salvageable, but his most valuable possession. Just when we think we are heading out to the trash, we can become the staff that leads the way to Bethlehem.
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