A while back—and mind you, this is not my normal television diet—I was channel surfing and happened to catch about ten minutes of an old episode of the Jerry Springer Show … not very long, but long enough to reach a conclusion as to its underlying philosophy (as if I didn’t know already). Bring dysfunctional people on to the program and let them “dis-function” in front of the cameras. For that’s what happened, and after ten minutes of watching everyone yell, scream, threaten, berate, and blame each other for their problems, I felt like a remorseful peeping tom—that I’d witnessed something that wasn’t meant for me to see and should only go on in private if at all.
If I’m perfectly honest, there are times I get that same sort of sensation when I read the Bible—particularly when I’m roaming through the Old Testament and come across some of the dysfunctional individuals and families that are found there. To make matters worse, one of the most dysfunctional of them all was the royal family—the kingly line. I look at some of the members of Israel’s royal family and think the folks on Jerry Springer’s show had nothing on them. If his show was still in production, he’d be frothing at the opportunity to feature them on an upcoming episode.
One of the most interesting characters is an individual named Josiah—a guy who assumed the throne when he was only eight years old. That is a truly terrifying thought! But the circumstances surrounding his rise to power were equally terrifying. Josiah’s father Amon—a terribly wicked man—was murdered by his colleagues. But when they tried to assume power, a counter-revolution happened in which those individuals were killed and his young son Josiah was installed as king. It doesn’t say a whole lot for the quality of the men surrounding Amon when people view a third-grader as a more acceptable alternative! Bottom line: Josiah stepped into the kingship long before he was ready and at an unbelievably turbulent time. Israel was but a shell of what it had been in the past—a puppet empire. The glory days were long gone, which makes it all the more remarkable when it says of Josiah, “He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord and followed completely the ways of his father David, not turning aside to the right or to the left. (2 Kings 22:2a). Josiah was able to resist the corrupting influence of power and walk an upright path in a land laden with idolatry. He was a man who, if ever a person had a right to turn out bad ... if ever a person had a reason to blame his failures and shortcomings on his circumstances ... he did. He shows us circumstances don’t determine character—it’s always open to us to be what we want to be and act how we want to act. We’ve been given the power of choice, and we don’t have to act in corrupt or destructive ways. If we do it, it’s because we choose to do it!
But more importantly, Josiah illustrates a very important truth as it relates to the topic of renewal. Renewal happens when people return to the Bible. Renewal won’t happen in a setting where the Bible is dismissed or forgotten or ignored. Renewal happens in a setting where people take God’s Word seriously … where they view it as authoritative and allow it to mold and shape them in profound and real ways. Renewal can only come to a place where God’s Word is elevated to its rightful place of prominence—where it is treated with respect and esteem. Dismiss the Word of God—write it off as archaic and obsolete ... view it as optional—and you can kiss any hopes of renewal goodbye.
The narrative in 2 Kings 22 tells us a bit about Josiah and the role God’s Word played in his life. As I mentioned, he assumed the throne when he was eight—the result of rebellion, bloodshed, and a counter-revolution. But in the eighteenth year of his reign—at age 26—he began the work of a religious renovation when some of his associates happened to stumble upon the long lost Book of the Law. Apparently it was tucked away in a forgotten place—testimony not only to the emptiness of the religious observance of the day, but also to the inattention and indifference of the priests and kings that preceded Josiah. For when you can go 75 years in your religious observance without consulting the guide book ... when you can carry on for three-quarters of a century without missing the sacred writ (for that’s how long it had been since the reign of Hezekiah, the last God-fearing king) you’ve got a religious system that is very, very empty.
It makes you wonder how a group of men charged with upholding the faith could misplace the resource book? How could they lose the source that detailed for them how they were to go about their work? And, once misplaced, how could they not miss it? The picture you get is of a people whose religion was purely a matter of empty ceremony and meaningless ritual—a religion of external form only … no life, no vitality, no substance, nothing more than empty rites and lifeless observances.
You also get the picture of a priesthood who’d lost sight of the spiritual element associated with their duties. I liken it to the present state of Christianity in parts of Europe where they have a state church that is subsidized by the government. Under this arrangement, those who serve as ministers receive their salaries from the government. The state church, for the most part, is a cultural entity—not a spiritual force. They have these huge, ornate cathedrals that are monuments to days past—when the Christian faith was a vital part of the people’s lives. But presently, people’s faith is about as hollow and empty as those structures are on most Sundays. A while back, I was listening to podcast featuring a man who serves as a missionary to Europe. When asked how he goes about ministering in that culture, he said, “One of the first orders of business is to get the ministers saved!”.
That’s how things were in Josiah’s day—ministers who didn’t minister and priests who didn’t represent God. But all of that changed when Hilkiah the high priest reported to Shaphan, Josiah’s right-hand man, that he’d found the Book of the Law. Even though they didn’t know exactly what they were on to, they had a sense it was important. And it doesn’t take you long to gauge the impact this reading had on Josiah. “When the king heard the words of the Book of the Law, he tore his robes.” (2 Kings 22:11). He was so jolted by the words of the book that his reform movement took on a sense of urgency. No longer was this a matter of making some much-needed repairs to a significant structure when time and money permitted. This was something of pressing national importance. And in the paragraphs that follow, you see the abandon with which Josiah gave himself to the task. The altars of stone were thrown down ... the wooden sun-pillars were cut to pieces ... the metal images were broken and ground to powder. A clean sweep was made. And the process was culminated, in the next chapter, by a public ceremony in which the people of Israel renewed their covenant with God and pledged to uphold its guidelines and principles.
As I look at this story, there’s a very clear lesson as it relates to the topic of renewal: The true basis of renewal is the Word of God. If renewal is going to last—if it’s going to count for anything in the long term—it must be centered in God’s Word. If the church is going to posture itself for renewal, one of the things we must do is return to the Bible as the exclusive source for what we believe and do. We must allow it, rather than tradition or convention, to dictate our paths. We must allow it, rather than custom or habit, to guide our efforts. We must allow it, rather than expediency or pragmatism, to shape our actions. We must let the Word of God be the Word of God!
In my previous post, I mentioned how Martin Luther’s insistence on the primacy of Jesus—his passionate belief in a Jesus-centered faith—was one of the key ingredients of the Protestant Reformation in the early 16th century. What I didn’t mention is that one of the main ingredients that led him to this conclusion was his discovery of an old Latin Bible amongst the neglected books of the monastery where he lived. Remember, this was before the day when books were readily available to the general public—in fact, most people were illiterate. But as Luther stumbled upon this copy of God’s Word amidst the dust-laden shelves and began to study it, he realized what the church taught didn’t gel with the directives of Scripture. And so it was that he went to battle against the entrenched beliefs of the day and said to a tradition-bound church, “This isn’t right! We’re not lining up with the Word of God. And while I know I’m going against the stated position of the church and everything I’ve been taught, I have no choice but to plant myself firmly upon the truth of God’s Word.” Luther allowed God’s Word to be authoritative and decisive, and that provided the catalyst that broke the Christian faith free from centuries of darkness and brought about the renewal of the Protestant Reformation.
Josiah, too, allowed God’s Word to be authoritative and definitive. And what happened as a result? What started out as a “lets restore the Temple” movement became something national in scope. What began as a “somewhat important civic project” became a “life’s pursuit”. When they stumbled onto the Book of the Law, they suddenly realized just how great a task they’d taken on—just how big a project this was going to be. As God’s Word gave impulse and direction to their efforts, it let them know that there was a wide variety of issues—idolatrous shrines, pagan practices among the people, an unspiritual priesthood—that needed to be addressed.
God’s Word, in addition to giving Josiah direction as to how to proceed with this reform movement, also sparked within him a thirst for more knowledge, as evidenced later in the chapter when he dispatches a team of men to inquire of the prophetess Huldah. Apparently she’d gained a reputation as one who received direct, authoritative communications from God, so Josiah sent this party to bring him some additional light on the matter. What was his motive? Was he hoping to have the stern warnings of the book abated? Again, we don’t know! But what we do is, like many people, when they awaken to the fact something is terribly wrong in their lives, they turn to a person they consider to be “in the counsel of God”. So Josiah turned to Huldah. Shaken and confused, he was eager to know what he could do—if there was any course of action he could take—that could stave off the inevitable judgment.
And Huldah’s answer was basically a mixed one—“Yes” and “No”. For while confirming the words of the book, she also informed him that the predicted calamities would, indeed, come to pass ... but she said that, because of his repentant response to God’s Word, it wouldn’t happen during the course of his life. Even though the corruption was too deep-seated for a complete recovery to take place—even though the people had wandered too far down the path of godlessness there was no other means by which to draw them back—Josiah’s contrition had not been in vain. His generation would see a taste—a glimmer—of renewal. His penitence had not been pointless.
So ... what lesson cab we take with us as it relates to God’s Word and the matter of renewal? I stated it earlier: The true basis of all lasting renewal is the Word of God. If renewal is going to have an enduring impact—if it’s going to count for anything in the long term—it must be anchored in the Word of God and built around the belief that it is authoritative. The atmosphere for renewal is ripe when the Bible becomes our sole authority ... when we, the moment the rightly interpreted Bible speaks, we say, “That must be the truth”—not because we’re gullible or naive or predisposed to accept things blindly, but because we’ve settled the issue as to what’s the source of ultimate truth for our lives ... because we’ve concluded that the Bible and what it has to say is the means by which we’re going to understand and interpret our world. We’re going to run everything through the filter of God’s Word.
That’s precisely what happened with Josiah. He had a personal confrontation with God’s Word, and it found him as nothing had ever found him before. He gave God’s Word a fair hearing, and it brought him to his knees. And, by the same token, anyone who looks to God’s Word and is honest with him/herself will have a similar reaction—they’ll be convinced of their sin and impelled to express their profound sorrow. Josiah, when confronted by the truth of God’s Word, was wise not to turn his attention to other people’s sins ... to focus on the shortcomings and failures of his countrymen and those around him. Rather, he looked inside. He began with himself, and that was the beginning of a renewal movement that eventually touched a lot of people’s lives.
Renewal starts when believe in Jesus ... when we place our faith in Him and allow him to do a radical work on the interior of our hearts and lives. But to believe in Jesus means, among other things, that we’re committed to his attitude toward God’s Word—that it’s the authoritative and unquestioned source of truth for our lives. The Bible is not some resource manual or encyclopedia we can refer to and select snippets thereof as suits our fancy. It is God’s revelation to us in its entirety. In fact, Oswald Chambers went so far as to put it this way: “The test of regeneration is that the Bible instantly becomes the book of books to us”.
Is the Bible the book of books to you? Is it the cornerstone of truth for your life and beliefs? Is it the standard of right and wrong—the measure by which you gauge your actions? If and when it is, the pathway is cleared for a visitation of God’s Spirit in His refreshing, renewing power.