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Josiah's Reforms - The Book of 2 Kings · Bible in a Year with Jack Graham

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  Speaker 1: Let us pray. Moreover, the workers with familiar spirits, and
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  Speaker 1: the wizards, and the images, and the idols, and all
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  Speaker 1: the abominations that were spied in the land of Judah
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  Speaker 1: and in Jerusalem, did Josiah put away. 2 Kings 23-24
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  Speaker 1: My Lord, I want to take time to thank you
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  Speaker 1: for guiding me and protecting me in my youth. so
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  Speaker 1: that I could get to the place where I am now.
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  Speaker 1: As I rest and meditate on your goodness in times past,
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  Speaker 1: I will remember that you are the reason for the
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  Speaker 1: celebration and the gratefulness in my life. Through my intentional devotion,
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  Speaker 1: I tear down any false idols and ungodly ways of
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  Speaker 1: being that may have crept into my life. Anything that
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  Speaker 1: I've erected over your word, work, money, relationships, or comfortability
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  Speaker 1: that serve as an idol, I tear down right now.
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  Speaker 1: Let your will and your ways be the focus of
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  Speaker 1: my attention. Let your heart be the focus of my affection,
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  Speaker 1: for in your presence is everything I'll ever need. May
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  Speaker 1: my legacy be a mirror of King Josiah's in today's reading.
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  Speaker 1: A legacy known for putting your presence before my pleasures.
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  Speaker 1: In Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you for praying with me today.
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  Speaker 1: Continue listening for an incredible Bible story. Brought to you
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  Speaker 3: Josiah's Reforms In our last story, Josiah became king over Judah.
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  Speaker 3: He was only eight years old when he took office. However,
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  Speaker 3: he clung to the wisdom of God and became beloved
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  Speaker 3: as the righteous king of Jerusalem. He restored the temple
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  Speaker 3: and repented on behalf of the people. In this story,
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  Speaker 3: we see Josiah bringing Judah out of the depths of
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  Speaker 3: darkness and slavery to sin. He goes throughout the city
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  Speaker 3: and wilderness to rid Judah of all its shrines to
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  Speaker 3: past gods, inspired by the book of 2 Kings.
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  Speaker 4: Hello, Pastor Jack Graham here with today's episode of the
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  Speaker 4: Bible in a Year. We're always glad to open God's
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  Speaker 4: Word together. In our previous episode, we were introduced to
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  Speaker 4: King Josiah. He began to rule Judah at a very
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  Speaker 4: early age, but his constant search for wisdom and godly
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  Speaker 4: instruction led him to rule with honor, faith, and integrity.
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  Speaker 4: He tore down the altars of the false gods and
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  Speaker 4: restored the temple, and during the restoration, the scroll of
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  Speaker 4: the law of Moses was discovered, God's Word. When faced
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  Speaker 4: with the reality of Judah and Israel's unfaithfulness, Josiah sought
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  Speaker 4: a prophet of God for insight on how to make
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  Speaker 4: things right. And even though the prophecy he received foretold
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  Speaker 4: judgment and captivity, Josiah committed himself and his people to
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  Speaker 4: live in obedience before God. Today, we'll hear about all
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  Speaker 4: the reforms that Josiah enacted in Judah, cleansing the land
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  Speaker 4: and God's people, cleansing them from sin and idolatry that
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  Speaker 4: had kept them in slavery. So once again, let's listen
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  Speaker 4: to the word of God.
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  Speaker 3: Midday was beginning to turn into dusk. The sun was
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  Speaker 3: grazing the top of the holy temple. The gold adorned
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  Speaker 3: on the pillars spread the light into a hundred different directions.
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  Speaker 3: Josiah climbed the smooth steps into the house of the Lord.
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  Speaker 3: Behind him were all the inhabitants of Jerusalem. All people,
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  Speaker 3: young and old, followed their king as their ancestors followed
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  Speaker 3: Moses to the tent of meetings. There Josiah knelt before
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  Speaker 3: the Lord. He beat his chest and lamented the sins
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  Speaker 3: of his forefathers. The people watched their king weep over sin.
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  Speaker 3: It was a new feeling for them. They had spent
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  Speaker 3: several decades with kings hell-bent on destroying all forms of holiness.
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  Speaker 3: To see a king bow before God was an odd sight.
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  Speaker 3: They wondered if this is what David looked like all
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  Speaker 3: those years ago. Josiah read before them the law of
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  Speaker 3: Moses and exhorted them on the love and justice of God.
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  Speaker 3: The sea of faces were somber and contemplative as they
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  Speaker 3: listened to their king. When Josiah finished, he closed the
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  Speaker 3: scroll and sighed. He raised his hands high into the
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  Speaker 3: air in front of his people and cried out to
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  Speaker 3: the Lord on their behalf. King Josiah made a covenant
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  Speaker 3: with God that he and the rest of his people
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  Speaker 3: would seek him alone for their worship. that they would
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  Speaker 3: hold fast to him and his statues with their whole
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  Speaker 3: hearts and souls. Josiah fell to his knees and prayed
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  Speaker 3: to God. His hands still lifted in praise. A hush
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  Speaker 3: fell over the vast crowd. Then, one by one, they
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  Speaker 3: all began to bow as well. For the first time
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  Speaker 3: in nearly 400 years, God's people bowed to him in
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  Speaker 3: reverence and worship. After a while, the people returned to
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  Speaker 3: their homes. The torches were snuffed out and the city...
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  Speaker 3: became silent. Yet Josiah remained. The echoes of his slow
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  Speaker 3: breaths filled the empty sanctuary. Josiah remembered how close the
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  Speaker 3: Lord had been to him as a child. Josiah would
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  Speaker 3: not have been able to survive being king as a
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  Speaker 3: boy if it weren't for the comfort of love and God.
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  Speaker 3: Josiah rose to his feet and called for a few
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  Speaker 3: of his men to be gathered. Although it was late,
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  Speaker 3: there was still much work to be done before Judah
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  Speaker 3: was truly free. Josiah stood outside the temple with his
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  Speaker 3: most trusted men in front of him. The sun had
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  Speaker 3: set completely, and they all stood with torches lit in
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  Speaker 3: a circle. Josiah looked to the high priest Hilkiah and
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  Speaker 3: ordered him to take his servants back into the temple.
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  Speaker 3: There were still some old idols and shrines in Baal
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  Speaker 3: and Asherah dwelling there. He wanted them removed and burned
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  Speaker 3: outside the city. He looked to some of the city
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  Speaker 3: guards and ordered them to scour the city for the
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  Speaker 3: priests of Baal. Once they were all found, they were
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  Speaker 3: deported out of the city. Lastly, he had his generals
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  Speaker 3: break down the homes of the male cult prostitutes who
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  Speaker 3: lured men and women into the temple to fornicate on
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  Speaker 3: the altar of Asherah. Once all of the men departed,
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  Speaker 3: Josiah took a few of his guards to the hills.
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  Speaker 3: That is where his grandfather and other worshippers would kill
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  Speaker 3: and burn their children. The woods were silent. The trees
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  Speaker 3: swayed slightly to the breeze as Josiah and his men walked.
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  Speaker 3: Josiah looked around. He could see fire pits and altars
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  Speaker 3: in different parts of the woods. Charred infant bones were
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  Speaker 3: illuminated in the moonlight. Josiah remembered his father coming here often.
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  Speaker 3: He had lost brothers and sisters to these wretched rituals.
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  Speaker 3: Looming over the charred ground were large twenty-foot wood altars
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  Speaker 3: to Molech. A righteous anger filled Josiah as he peered
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  Speaker 3: up at it. How many innocent lives were given for
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  Speaker 3: this false god? How many children burned in these forests,
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  Speaker 3: all for the vain pleasure of wicked men? Josiah could
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  Speaker 3: hardly stand it. Some of the altars were much older
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  Speaker 3: than others. It was Solomon himself who first erected altars
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  Speaker 3: in the high places. Josiah gestured to his men, and
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  Speaker 3: they tore down the pillars. They crushed them and burned them.
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  Speaker 3: Then they went into the small shrines and filled them
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  Speaker 3: with dead men's bones to defile it. Josiah wanted to
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  Speaker 3: make sure that no man or woman would come to
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  Speaker 3: this place for worship again. So he could not simply
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  Speaker 3: destroy these shrines. He had to make the ground itself unclean.
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  Speaker 3: Josiah descended down from the high place back into the city.
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  Speaker 3: There he lay in his bed, praying for the Lord
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  Speaker 3: to spare him and his people. Dawn's light was covered
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  Speaker 3: from the lingering smoke of burning Asherah poles and ceremonial brothels.
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  Speaker 3: Yet Jerusalem seemed cleaner than it had ever been before.
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  Speaker 3: Priests were making sacrifices in the temples, and people were
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  Speaker 3: freely entering into the temple's gates to worship. Men who
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  Speaker 3: had made a living corrupting the minds of young people
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  Speaker 3: were gone. Families were restored to one another, broken marriages
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  Speaker 3: were beginning to mend, and a selfless culture was beginning
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  Speaker 3: to blossom. It was then when Josiah restored the Passover
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  Speaker 3: feast as a national tradition. It had been forgotten with
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  Speaker 3: the age of wicked kings, yet Josiah brought it back
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  Speaker 3: as a reminder that God is the source of true freedom.
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  Speaker 3: After Josiah's period of reform, he marched into battle against
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  Speaker 3: Egypt to protect Judah from further harm. The two armies
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  Speaker 3: raged against one another, and Josiah leapt into battle with
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  Speaker 3: his men. Josiah was not a mighty man of war
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  Speaker 3: like his ancestor David, He was a gentleman. but noble
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  Speaker 3: and filled with courage. Necho, the king of Egypt, spotted
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  Speaker 3: Josiah from the other end of the battlefield. Necho rode
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  Speaker 3: through the enemy lines, toppling Judeans in his wake. Necho
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  Speaker 3: held his spear high and sent it whistling through the air.
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  Speaker 3: Before Josiah had a chance to even see it, The
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  Speaker 3: spear impaled him. Josiah's heart stopped beating before he could
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  Speaker 3: even hit the floor. Thus ended the rule of Josiah.
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  Speaker 3: Never had there been a more righteous king before him.
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  Speaker 3: He pursued righteousness and loved his people. Yet all men
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  Speaker 3: must face their end. So Josiah was buried with his ancestors.
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  Speaker 4: Today's scripture passage is a fantastic scripture when King Josiah
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  Speaker 4: gathers the people for a tremendous, momentous occasion. The book
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  Speaker 4: of the law of Moses, God's perfect word of instruction
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  Speaker 4: and guidance to his people has been discovered. But this
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  Speaker 4: was no museum relic. This was the living word of God,
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  Speaker 4: the word of God without error, inspired by God himself,
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  Speaker 4: which is the key to living right before the Lord
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  Speaker 4: and others. Josiah knew that people needed to hear the
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  Speaker 4: word of God. Like David the psalmist and the king,
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  Speaker 4: his delight was in the law of the Lord. And
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  Speaker 4: if the people would only hear it and read it
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  Speaker 4: and open their hearts, healing could begin in Judah. God's
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  Speaker 4: law expresses God's love, his incredible love for his people
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  Speaker 4: to protect them and to provide for them. It was
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  Speaker 4: how Israel and Judah were set apart from all the
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  Speaker 4: nations of the world. The word of God is how
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  Speaker 4: the Jewish people became the people of God. After reading
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  Speaker 4: the book of the covenant, Josiah renewed his promises with
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  Speaker 4: God as we read in 2 Kings 23 and verse 3.
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  Speaker 4: And the king stood by the pillar and made a
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  Speaker 4: covenant before the Lord to walk after the Lord and
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  Speaker 4: to keep his commandments and his testimonies and his statutes
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  Speaker 4: with all his heart and all his soul to perform
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  Speaker 4: the words of this covenant that were written in this book.
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  Speaker 4: And all the people joined in the covenant. Don't miss this.
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  Speaker 4: Just as an evil king turns his people away from God,
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  Speaker 4: a righteous king who seeks the Lord shepherds God's people
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  Speaker 4: back to the Lord. It's a spiritual principle for.
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  Speaker 1: All of us.
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  Speaker 4: As parents, we are to live godly lives and serve
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  Speaker 4: as an example to our faith for our family. As
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  Speaker 4: pastors and church leaders, as national leaders and governmental leaders,
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  Speaker 4: we are to turn from our sins. We are to
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  Speaker 4: renew our hearts always before the Lord and call people
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  Speaker 4: to follow the Lord obediently. But Josiah knew that this
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  Speaker 4: was just one part of the process. Evil needed to
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  Speaker 4: be rooted out, and the land rid of the idolatry
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  Speaker 4: that had plagued the people for so long. He had
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  Speaker 4: already torn down these evil altars in the city and
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  Speaker 4: destroyed symbols of pagan gods. But the country was large,
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  Speaker 4: and in the shadows of the forest were altars and
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  Speaker 4: idols hiding. waiting to seduce people away from the one
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  Speaker 4: true God again. These were demonic altars that needed to
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  Speaker 4: be destroyed. He sent his men through the woods, taking
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  Speaker 4: down the places where these horrible, evil things happened, places
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  Speaker 4: where women and children were offered to bloodthirsty gods, shrines
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  Speaker 4: that trapped men and women with empty promises and powerless deities.
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  Speaker 4: What a lesson is this for us to learn. Though
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  Speaker 4: you may not have an altar or an idol built,
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  Speaker 4: In your life, there are often dark and hidden places
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  Speaker 4: where temptations lurks that demand our attention, that we need
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  Speaker 4: to destroy. If we are wise, as Josiah was, we
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  Speaker 4: will pray for the cleansing fire of God's Spirit to
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  Speaker 4: burn through any of these dark places in our lives
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  Speaker 4: that threaten to rob us of the joy of the Lord.
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  Speaker 4: Josiah was truly committed to cleansing the land, and when
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  Speaker 4: the work was done, he called the people to a celebration.
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  Speaker 4: that reminded them of how God is all about releasing
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  Speaker 4: the captives and freeing His people from slavery. They observed
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  Speaker 4: the Passover, glorifying God for their newfound freedom. Our reading
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  Speaker 4: ends with the end of a life very well lived. Josiah,
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  Speaker 4: the most righteous king in Judah, ultimately died in battle.
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  Speaker 4: Never in all of his years did he stray from
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  Speaker 4: seeking the Lord. This does not mean that he was
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  Speaker 4: a perfect man, but he was God's man, And God
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  Speaker 4: had his heart to his last day. Dear God, we
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  Speaker 4: thank you for good King Josiah, for his life and
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  Speaker 4: his legacy. We also pray that we will live for
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  Speaker 4: you to our last day, till our very last breath,
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  Speaker 4: that we will live in obedience to you and follow
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  Speaker 4: you all the days of our lives until you take
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  Speaker 4: us home to be with you forever. Thank you for
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  Speaker 4: the strength of your spirit to do this. In Jesus' name, amen.
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  Speaker 4: Thank you for listening to today's Bible in a Year podcast.
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  Speaker 4: I'm Pastor Jack Graham from Dallas, Texas. Let me encourage
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  Speaker 4: you to download the Pray.com app and always make Bible
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  Speaker 4: reading and Bible study a priority in your life along
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  Speaker 4: with prayer. If you enjoyed this podcast, share it with
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  Speaker 4: someone you love. Let someone know because by sharing this podcast,
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  Speaker 4: you can truly make a difference in someone's life. And
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  Speaker 4: if you want more resources from me, Jack Graham, as
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  Speaker 4: to how you can grow in your Christian life, then
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  Speaker 4: go to jackgram.org. That's jackgram.org. God bless you.