September 27, 2020 Return Ezra 3

Human nature gives satirists endless material to work with. When Will Rogers was asked what is wrong with the world he replied, “I don’t know. I guess it’s people.” Another time he said, “God made man a little lower than the angels. Man has been getting lower ever since.” And Mark Twain once said, “Man is the creature made at the end of the week when God was tired.”

Indeed we humans are usually our own worst enemy. Though we tell ourselves that we are good and honorable and upright, a look at history shows us quite plainly that the things humans seem to do best is to mess things up! Injustice, violence, wars, unfaithfulness, undependability, environmental degradation, and on and on can go the list. Sometimes I wonder why God bothered to want to save us in the first place! Sometimes I think God should have just evolved some more superior creature and decided to act with salvation for them! But, that is not what God has done. God has chosen us humans, prone to failures and mess ups as we are, to save.

It is no surprise when we look at the Jewish people returning from the exile in Babylon that things did not go well. Given the centuries of struggle and tribulation they went to in order to protect the city of Jerusalem we’d expect them to return rejoicing and hurriedly set about rebuilding it and restoring the temple.

A superficial look at the biblical book of Ezra could give us just such and idea. But a closer look shows that not all is well. Judaism was not a monolithic group all hauled off to Babylon in the early decades of the 6th Century B.C. You’ll remember that while many of the nation’s elite were taken to Babylon many people were left. Some of them stayed for awhile but eventually left to become refugees in Egypt. And some, the poorest of the lot, just stayed in the wasteland of the nation.

Decades went by. A whole generation grew up away from Jerusalem and the Promised Land. Around 538 B.C. Babylon was conquered by the Persians. Under Persian rule the Jews were allowed to return home. But as I said, a generation grew up away from Jerusalem. They’d been away for 40 years!

Following the prophet Jeremiah’s advice they had settled in and built homes. They had families. Although they remained generally faithful to their beliefs they did not all keep a burning desire to return to Jerusalem. They discovered that the centrality of Jerusalem its temple were not essential. Plus Jerusalem and the “Promised Land” weren’t really all that great a place to live; especially since it all had to be rebuilt from ruins.

So, some Jews do leave Babylon to return. But many stayed. The Jewish community in Babylon existed for centuries afterward. Even after Jerusalem is destroyed again by the Romans in 70 A.D. there was a sizeable Jewish population in Babylon. They had developed their own schools of thought. Very importantly, they did not see themselves as secondary to the Jews who had returned to Jerusalem.

It is also likely that some of the Jews who had fled to Egypt returned. Similar to Babylon, some Jews stayed in Egypt and developed their own permanent communities and schools of thought.

Finally, some of the Jews never did leave the area. They stayed and struggled on; maintaining faith without Jerusalem and the temple in their own way.

The main thrust of the Bible’s story line is about those in Babylon who do decide to return. Two whole books of the Bible are given over to the story – Ezra and Nehemiah. Ezra was the priest in charge. Nehemiah was the governor appointed by the Persians to be in charge. Remember, just because they get to go back does not mean they are an independent nation again. They are controlled by the Persians who decide to let them redevelop the homeland.

As we’ve been looking at the kings of Israel and Judah we’ve stuck pretty much to the accounts in 1st and 2nd Samuel and 1st and 2nd Kings. I’ve said before a similar story is told in 1st and 2nd Chronicles but they read more like propaganda than history. You get the feeling that the author is on the payroll of the leadership. Critical biblical scholarship shows that Ezra and Nehemiah are also from the same source as the Chronicles. And propaganda they are! We didn’t read it as one of our lessons, but Nehemiah 11:1-2 gives us an insight into the political speech. It reads, “Now the leaders of the people lived in Jerusalem; and the rest of the people cast lots to bring one out of ten to live in the holy city Jerusalem, while nine-tenths remained in the other towns. And the people blessed all those who willingly offered to live in Jerusalem.”

Now think about that for a minute. Did that actually make sense? There are leaders in Jerusalem but no population. Why? Probably because no one wanted to live there! Many Jews returned from Babylon but they settled in many places. One of the places is pictured on our bulletin cover. Apparently the majority of people did not want to move to Jerusalem. If they did they wouldn’t have to have had a lottery to select who would be forced to come. And then notice the quick twist in language, “And the people blessed all those who willingly offered to live in Jerusalem.” Um, they didn’t want to come in the first place else they would have come on their own. And none of them actually willingly offered to come. They were chosen in a lottery and forcibly moved to Jerusalem. But the official language is they “willingly offered”. Such is the twisting of politics!

We read only Ezra 3 as our first reading and just that chapter makes it seem like the rebuilding of the temple was pretty straightforward. In the interests of time we did not read into chapter 4. There we discover that not everyone wanted the temple rebuilt. The picture is too complex to get a clear answer but it appears as if those who had been living there all along aren’t too keen on these outsiders moving in from Babylon, who claim both divine and political rite to move in and take over and shove others aside.

The temple is eventually reconstructed but it takes time and some political maneuvering. The same goes for the city walls of Jerusalem. Overall, the story of the return is not a great and glorious one, even as presented in Ezra and Nehemiah.

We would want the story to go something like this: after centuries of disobedience God finally destroys the nation and sends its people into exile. There they learned their lesson. They understood what it meant to be God’s people. They came to understand God’s nature and God’s will more fully. Then, after time, they were allowed to return to Jerusalem and the Promised Land. The people returned from many places. They rebuilt the ruined temple. They rebuilt Jerusalem’s walls and buildings. And this time they worked together. They lived as God wanted. They were faithful. They were better, wiser, more loving, and more grace-filled people.

In truth the return from exile was a mess. It took political manipulation and forced resettlement to make it happen. Many opposed it. All the old habits were right back. Nothing was learned. As we Christians move the clock forward 500 years we see that in the time of Jesus the old habits were deeply entrenched.

The Bible tells us the story of what happened through human eyes and a human perspective. The Bible is a human book. But ultimately it is God’s story. The story of the kings is one of human failing and unfaithfulness over and over again. It is God trying and trying again. It is God being kind, God being stern. It is God sending them into exile and hoping that if they have to learn the hard way they will at least learn. But even that didn’t work.

God stays faithful to an unfaithful, failure-prone people. We may think ourselves better but it is wise not to. As soon as we think we’re better than them then we’ve fallen into their trap. It is better to recognize our tendency to do anything but what is right, and then acknowledge God is staying true with us.

Ultimately salvation does come, but it is not from humans getting it right. It is the love of God shown through the crucifixion and death of Jesus that does it. God’s work. Not ours. Ours is to rejoice and share the good news that though it is impossible for us, God’s work does save.

September 20, 2020 Exile Jeremiah 29:1-14

 (Introduction to the Bible readings for the day: Psalm 137, Isaiah 6:1-8, Jeremiah 29:1-14, Isaiah 40:3-11)  

In our Bible readings for today we will read a smattering of texts about the exile.  We start off with Psalm 137 which is a hate psalm.  You can feel the anger towards the Babylonians and the Edomites.  We move to Isaiah 6, which was written centuries before the exile.  That text points out that God is sending the prophet Isaiah to speak to the people even though they won’t listen.  It is as if God is giving them every chance possible knowing full well that it isn’t going to work. 

The Jeremiah 29 text is advice from God to the Jews in exile in Babylon about how to live during these decades.  The advice is to not fight it but settle into the time of exile.  This is not the sort of message you’d expect from a man loyal to his country.  We’d usually cry out to act with defiance, fight back, never give in or give up.  But Jeremiah has a different word from the Lord to the people.  They should remember that they are not forgotten.  God will act.  They will eventually be freed.

The Isaiah 40 passage comes to us not from the prophet Isaiah himself, but centuries later by another prophet living in exile.  To cite from the book of Isaiah is not to cite the work of one single person but more of a school of thought about how God acts.  In the midst of everything being lost in the exile the people discover God’s ongoing presence.  They discover that God will act in ways more powerful than they ever knew before.

I should note that a big chunk of the Old Testament comes from the time of the exile.  Jeremiah prophesied up to the fall of Jerusalem and for awhile after.  Ezekiel prophesies during the fall of the nation and into the exile.  The book of Daniel takes place during the exile.  You may remember famous stories like Daniel in the Lion’s Den, and Shadrack, Meshack, and Abednego and the Fiery Furnace.  They are about faithfulness in exile.  Books like Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers all come to be fashioned in the form we recognize them during the exile.  The laws laid out in Leviticus - things like an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth - are not Jewish in origin but Babylonian.  They are Babylonian laws from the Code of Hammurabi that are incorporated into Jewish holy writings.  That they are actually Babylonian in origin does not mean we can discard them.  It just means that’s where they originated.  Today we are only looking at a tiny slice of the impact of the exile on scripture.  We’re looking at the slice that continues the story of the kings.

 

(Sermon)

In the July/August newsletter I included this quote from Martin Luther in a letter he wrote to a friend, “I have held many things in my hands, and I have lost them all; but whatever I have placed in God’s hands that I still possess.”

            I believe these words speak to the Jewish exile in Babylon that our service is about today.  It is important to note that these words from Luther are not some sort of strategy of reverse psychology.  Don’t think you can get clever with them.  Don’t think that if by putting things in God’s hands you’ll actually be able to keep stuff.  No, putting things in God’s hands truly means putting things in God’s hands.  It is trusting that God’s will is going to be done and you are going to accept the outcome.

            We’ve been coming up to the exile from the perspective of the biblical books of 1^st and 2^nd Kings.  They give a perspective on God that we may not like.  You’ll remember that most of the kings of the nation were bad.  Only a few were good.  God seems to get increasingly upset as time goes on.  When we finally do meet a truly good king, King Josiah, we feel God will finally be happy that the nation has turned.  We’re perplexed, angered even, that God says that it’s too late the consequences of all their sins are surely coming anyway.

            Our Christian sensibility of fairness is challenged.  But sticking with the perspective of 1^st and 2^nd Kings, lets look at it this way.

            Imagine you have a friend and over time you discover this friend has a serious alcohol addiction.  His or her life is falling apart because of it.  Family, friendships, finances, even their home is all going down the drain.  You try to be personally supportive.  You encourage them to seek support like AA and other therapy.  But they don’t.  Or if they do it is only occasionally and half-heartedly.  Sometimes you stop by their home and you find it a filthy mess, barely fit to live in.  You help with clean up and improvement.  Sometimes there are improvements but they only last a short time before things go right back to being bad.  I think that’s the way the Jews were with the kings. 

Let’s say you visit your friend one time and you discover that he or she is going to AA.  The house is clean.  Your friend has gotten a job and is holding it.  For a moment you rejoice.  Things are good and definitely improving!  Then your memory kicks in and you wonder if it’s going to last.  And indeed, all too soon things have gone back to bad.

That’s the perspective 2 Kings gives as good King Josiah reigns.  Maybe things were good for a time.  But it wouldn’t last.  The people were simply too deep in their sinful ways of turning away from God.  Indeed things do go bad shortly after Josiah’s death.  The consequences come and the nation is destroyed.  The wealthy are taken to the city of Babylon where they live in exile.  A good number of others flee to Egypt.  Only the poorest are left.  All is lost.

The last couple of weeks I’ve said that ironically it is in this destruction that they actually discover how big and powerful God is.  They also discover their true power.  I don’t think they would have gotten there without losing everything – as Luther said, having everything they were clinging to slip out of their fingers.

Consider what happened to the other nations conquered by the Babylonians?  Do we ever even hear about them.  How about the Moabite nation and religion?  Ever hear about them?  How any Ammonites, or Edomites, or Philistines, or Assyrians do you know about?  None.  Their nations, their cultures, and their religions are all gone.  There is only scant archaeological evidence that they ever even existed.  Not so for the Jews.

 When the temple and the city of Jerusalem and the whole nation have slipped through their fingers only then to the ancient Jews realize that it’s all been by God’s grace.

How much worry and energy did they put into trying to keep the nation together?  How many tricky diplomatic deals had they made in order to keep some sort of national independence?  And yet did any of it ultimately work?  No.

When they have nothing left to cling to do they realize just how firmly they’ve been in God’s hands all along.  Consider that Isaiah 40 passage.  They are told to prepare a highway for God.  They are to make a straight way through the desert and raise valleys and lower mountains.  But are they really to grab picks and shovels and get to work constructing a great causeway for God?  No, of course not.  It is a majestic image of God’s certain actions.

The grass withers, the flower fades, says the text, but the word of God will stand forever.

Those are not the words you’d expect from a defeated people in exile who have lost everything.  Yet they know they are not done.  They know that God is only beginning to do big things.  Jerusalem will be rebuilt, yes.  The temple will rise again, yes.  But God is not to be content with such small things.  God is up to global things.

By the time we get to the life of Jesus another 500 years will have passed.  Jerusalem and the temple will have been rebuilt.  And once again we see the Jews are not independent but occupied.  Would that the lessons of the past been fully remembered.  For what are so many of Jesus’ conflicts with the religious leaders?  They are worried about Jerusalem and the temple and all that.  Jesus reminds them that God is up to something much bigger.  And indeed in the year 70 it all happens again: Jerusalem destroyed again, the temple destroyed again.  And while Jerusalem is back the temple is not.

When things seem overwhelming in life and everything is falling apart, when you are clinging to things with all your might but they are still slipping through your fingers, remember the lesson the ancient Jews learned and what Jesus also taught.  It is all held securely in God’s grace.  God does act.  God will act.  It may bear no resemblance to what you expect, but it is all firmly and forever in God’s hands. 

September 13, 2020 National Collapse 2 Kings 24-25

 September 13, 2020 National Collapse    2 Kings 24-25

Let’s start by turning the clock back about a dozen years from our first reading.  We’ll also add a political perspective to lay beside the theological perspective we get from the Bible.  You may remember from the last two weeks that we were studying King Josiah.  He was noted as the most faith-filled of all the kings.  Josiah reigned from about 640 B.C. to 609 B.C.  Under his reign the nation grew to almost as big, if not as big, as it ever was.  The Bible makes it appear as if Judah was a completely independent nation.  Indeed it probably was in many respects.  However, if you were to ask an Egyptian ruler of the time period and they may give you a different story.  I suspect the Egyptians considered Judah to be more of a vassal state.  That makes sense on a number of fronts.  It explains why the Egyptian army felt it could travel freely through Judah as it sought to help the Assyrians in 509 B.C.  It also explains why King Josiah is killed when he goes to battle against the Egyptians.  

Whatever the case, no matter how independent Judah truly was the Egyptians were clearly a much larger and more powerful nation.

So Josiah dies from battle wounds in 609 B.C.  Josiah’s son Jehoahaz comes to power and reigns three months.  Pharaoh Neco, who killed Josiah, doesn’t seem to like this arrangement.  He confines him in a city away from Jerusalem.  Then Neco put Josiah’s son Elaikim on the throne and changed his name to Jehoiakim.  Jehoiakim submits to the Egyptian rule and begins to tax the land of Judah in order to pay the Egyptians’ demand for silver and gold.  Jehoiakim reigns from 609 B.C. to 598 B.C.  By that point Judah was definitely a vassal state to the Egyptians.

During this time the growing Babylonian empire had won a decisive victory against the Egyptians.  It was the year 605 B.C. and the remnants of the Assyrian Empire joined forces with the Egyptians against the Babylonians and their vassal states.  The battle took place in Carchemish, which is a city on the border of Syria and Turkey today.  With the defeat of the Egyptians the kingdom of Judah no longer had any real defense against Babylon.  King Jehoiakim decides he needs to play a very delicate game of international politics.  After the Egyptians are defeated at Carchemish in 605 Jehoiakim thought it prudent to sign a treaty with the Babylonians and become a vassal to them instead of the Egyptians.

That didn’t last long, however.  In 601/600 B.C. the Egyptians battle the Babylonians back to their homeland.  King Jehoiakim decides to change allegiance again and goes back to the Egyptians.

Getting dizzy yet?

It turns out to have been a bad decision.  The Babylonians resupply and drive back the Egyptians all the way to Egypt.  Things really look bad for Judah now.  Caught between two great empires, and in an attempt to stay alive, they’ve swapped allegiance far too many times.  In their push to Egypt the Babylonians lay siege to Jerusalem.  The author of 2 Kings interprets it theologically saying, “Surely this came upon Judah at the command of the Lord, to remove them out of his sight, for the sins of Manassah, for all that he had committed, and also for the innocent blood that he had shed; for he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood, and the Lord was not willing to pardon.”  (2 Kings 24:3).

King Jehoiakim apparently dies in the Babylonian attack.  He is succeeded by his son Jehoiachin.  (Yes, all these guys have very similar names.)  The year is 597 B.C.  Jehoiachin decides to give himself up to the Babylonians.  They conquer the city, haul off the king, the wealth, and all the people of prominence; reported to be 8000-10000 in all.  All that’s left is the poorest people.

Jerusalem is conquered.  Things look bad.  

However, the Davidic bloodline in still alive.  The city still stands.  God’s house, the temple, is still there.

The Babylonians make Jehoiachin’s uncle, whom they rename Zedekiah, “king.”  That’s where our first Bible reading picks up.

The Bible doesn’t record a complete version of what Zedekiah tries to do.  From 2 Kings it sounds like Zedekiah tries to just revolt against the Babylonians on his own.  That sounds absolutely ridiculous all things considered.  But remember the powerful Egyptians are still there.  Not included in the Bible’s history is that the Egyptians make another surge in 592 B.C.  Zedekiah probably felt he was best making an alliance with the Egyptians.  It turns out to have been the ultimate mistake.

This time the Babylonians decide to finish things.  The Bible gives us enough detail that we can date events down to the month.  The Babylonians lay siege to Jerusalem in January 587 B.C.  The siege lasts eighteen months.  In July 586 B.C. the city wall is breached.  Zedekiah try to sneak away but they are caught and killed.  Then in August 586 B.C. the city is burnt, the houses are burnt.  The temple is burnt and destroyed.

All is lost.  The kingdom of Judah is no more.  The story is over.

The Babylonians set up a puppet governor to rule the area.  As we read, his name was Gedaliah.  He is assassinated.  Any remnants of the Jews moves to Egypt, their long time ally.

It is worth noting that the prophet Jeremiah was active all this time.  His message surely sounded like a treasonous one – go along with the Babylonians, let them take over, do not resist.  Jeremiah backed Gedaliah’s rule.  History doesn’t record what actually happened to Jeremiah but he was probably among those who traveled to Egypt where he died in obscurity.

At this point the wealthy and prominent Jews are in exile in Babylon.  Some Jews are refugees in Egypt.  And the poorest and weakest are left scattered around the area of Jerusalem.

Other than being a potentially interesting history lesson, what does this all mean?

The author of 2 Kings seems to take the point of view that they had it coming.  God was so fed up with their unfaithfulness that God decided to let them be destroyed.  From a political perspective we may get the feeling that the little kingdom of Judah was just swept up in the back and forth battles between Egypt and Babylon and was finally inevitably destroyed.

I think it is helpful to keep both perspectives in mind.  Our own lives are not lives that are exclusively religious or exclusively societal.  We may feel torn between priorities.  We may try to make sense of what is going on in our lives through the lens of faith.  Sometimes this may work.  But many times it won’t.  Like the author of 2 Kings who is trying to understand why God has let this happen, many people believe misdeeds in the past are too great for God to ever forgive.  We may also want to feel God’s intentions more fully as we try to navigate the world.  And quite often I think we live like the last of these kings.  We want to do what is good and right and godly, but we also face realities around us that don’t make it easy.  We may end up dancing a delicate dance between priorities.

None of this is easy.  None of this is nice.  We certainly want to feel God more fully.  And like the Jews of that day, we struggle to understand why God’s help doesn’t come.  It may appear that God has forsaken us, that God is not reliable, or that God simply doesn’t care.

What is absolutely true from these passages is that God does not necessarily make life easy for faithful people.  The Bible doesn’t contain that message much.  No, a faithful person may not have an easier life, but a faithful person does have a solid foundation for life.

The Bible contains these difficult stories for good reason.  The Bible does not give us a Pollyanna view of life.  The Bible gives us a real picture of life; one that fits with our own times.

In the next two weeks we will discover God’s ongoing faithfulness to the people.  They were never abandoned.  They would discover that in time, and they would discover God was even bigger and more powerful than they first imagined.  When we face difficulties and when it looks like all is lost may we also make the same discoveries, for God is always faithful and God is always at work.

September 6, 2020 King Josiah's Faithfulness 2 Chronicles 35:16-27

 
There is a quote from T.S. Eliot that I think gives us a fitting start to talking about King Josiah today. Eliot wrote, “We fight for lost causes because we know that our defeat and dismay may be the preface to our successors’ victory, though that victory itself will be temporary; we fight rather to keep something alive than in the expectation that anything will triumph.”

In last week’s long reading about King Josiah’s rise to power and the massive reformation campaigns he brought to Judah we didn’t give any time to a disturbing prophesy that was made. Quite likely you don’t remember that when a long lost copy of the law from Moses was discovered King Josiah has a consultation set up with the prophetess Huldah. If ever there is a woman in the Bible who deserves more attention it is her! In 2 Chronicles 34:22-28 is recorded her sincere but saddening, perhaps enraging, message from the Lord. She says that the Lord knows and sees Josiah’s humble and penitent heart. The Lord knows the reforms and improvements taking place all across the nation. Reading from a distance and not knowing the end of the story we expect her to continue: thus the Lord will bless the nation and continue its prosperity. The Lord will give Josiah a long life and reign. After all, this is the kind of message given to kings like David and Solomon. Josiah is described as being far more faithful than either of them.

However, her message from the Lord is, “This says the Lord: I will indeed bring disaster upon this place and upon its inhabitants, all the curses that are written in the book that was read before the king of Judah. Because they have forsaken me and have made offerings to other gods, so that have provoked me to anger with all the works of their hands, my wrath will be poured out on this place and will not be quenched.”

To make a huge understatement… that’s disappointing! I want to cry out in rage. For centuries the prophets and priests have been crying out to the kings telling them to change their ways. And for centuries they didn’t, or rarely did. Now, finally, a truly faith-filled leader is running the country correcting the many wrongs that have existed. Josiah is a deeply faith-filled man, despite being very young. Surely God should give this nation another chance. For the first time ever things are looking promising.

But God’s word is that it’s simply too late.

That’s a theological point that deserves a whole sermon, if not a sermon series. Why would God not be kind and loving to this finally faithful people? We’re not talking about grace or forgiveness here. The situation doesn’t need the unmerited favor of grace. No forgiveness is needed because things are being done correctly. But God says, nope. I’ve decided to punish and destroy you. There’s no changing my mind.

When word of this reaches King Josiah we’d expect him to say something like, “Well, what’s been the point of all this? If God won’t even accept up when we’re acting in the right way then what’s the point of acting the right way!?!” We’d expect Josiah to give up on his reforms, to just sit back and indulge in whatever came to his whims.

But what does Josiah actually do? What does he do even though he has it from the Lord that his efforts will not be blessed, things will not succeed, and no matter how deeply righteous Josiah is his life’s works will be erased? Josiah stays faithful and continues his reforms. Among the things Josiah does is what we read today, institutes a Passover celebration the likes of which never happened before in terms of genuine faithfulness.

Even though Josiah knows God is going to ultimately destroy the nation anyway Josiah stays faithful. That is truly faith! In my opinion this is one of the greatest signs of faithfulness in the entire Bible.

If your faith is a strategy to get ahead or to have an easy life, or if your faith is a calculation on your part in order to get to heaven and not go to hell, then you faith is ultimately self-centered. It is a plan to get good stuff from God.

Josiah has no such plan or strategy. He loves God, and he loves God so much that he will remain faithful whether God rewards him or not. He will remain faithful even though none of his faithfulness will change God’s plans of destruction. Josiah’s faith is on par with Jesus’ when he prays in in Gethsemane before his arrest. That’s why we had that as a gospel reading today.

It is that level of faith that causes the Bible’s authors to call Josiah the most faith-filled king ever to reign. Remember that T.S. Eliot quote we began with: “We fight for lost causes because we know that our defeat and dismay may be the preface to our successors’ victory, though that victory itself will be temporary; we fight rather to keep something alive than in the expectation that anything will triumph.”

Next week and the week after we will look at the promised destruction that God brings. Without revealing too much here, we will find that in destruction and defeat the Jewish people discover a new, deeper, and more powerful understanding of God. It’s not a nice message to consider but it’s true. It would take that for the Israelites to truly understand the power and intentions of God.

The prophet Huldah does prophesy that the destruction will not come right away but will be delayed, and that Josiah will die and be buried along with the other kings.

The account of Josiah’s death comes so suddenly. Everything seems to be going so well. And then Josiah goes out on a military campaign against the Egyptians. Interestingly it is the pharaoh of Egypt who speaks a word of God to Josiah saying that Josiah should not fight. But he does anyway. He is killed. It happens fast and without ceremony. The Bible does not elaborate.

Exactly what Josiah was thinking we aren’t sure. He attacks the Egyptians after their army has already traveled most of the way across Josiah’s territory. The Egyptians were going to help prop up the declining Assyrian Empire against the growing threat of the Babylonians. Possibly Josiah wanted to allow the Assyrians to be destroyed. The Assyrians had threatened his nation and been enemies for centuries after all. Possibly he was defending himself against the Egyptians. Possibly he was supporting the rise of the Babylonian Empire. 100 years earlier King Hezekiah, who we noted as being a trusting king, had begun building a diplomatic relationship with the Babylonians. Perhaps Josiah was supporting that. It was certainly foolish if he did because within a couple decades the Babylonians would be the ones to finally destroy Jerusalem. Whatever the case, Josiah does something both strategically foolish and he ignores a warning from God.

Very striking in all of this, 2 Chronicles tells us that the prophet Jeremiah utters a lament at the death of Josiah. This is striking because if you’ve ever read the book of Jeremiah you know that he never has anything good to say about anyone in authority.

Josiah stayed faithful even when faithfulness would not bring benefit to him. His love and commitment to God was so strong that nothing could make him sway from it.

Such faith is not easy to come by, but it is something we strive for. May your faith give you commitment to God whether you can feel benefits from it or not. Ultimately God is our creator and our savior. We do well to trust, knowing that we are loved by God forever, and that this life, important as it is, is also not ultimate in God’s designs.

August 30, 2020 King Josiah 2 Chronicles 34

     To understand King Josiah we do well to remember the dynamics of the territory of Judah and of the Middle East as a whole.  The Middle East is the crossroads between Africa, Asia, and Europe.  Every major empire that has ever developed on one of those continents and wanted to expand has had to control the Middle East.  It has changed hands many times throughout history.  The kingdoms of Israel and Judah are in the western end of the Middle East, but not quite to the Mediterranean Sea.  They were always small, and in terms of military or economic power, completely insignificant in the wider world.  Further, both are inland kingdoms.  They did not have any real coastline along the Mediterranean Sea.  Though called the “Promised Land” the land isn’t really all that great.  It’s adequate for survival, but not good enough for any nation based there to ever actually flourish.  It’s also not desirable enough in its own right for any other nation to want to come and conquer it.

As empires rose and fell around them, the little kingdoms of Israel and Judah were often overlooked.  They just weren’t worth conquering.  Often an invading army would just pass on through.  And quite often they existed as a vassal state to one of the surrounding empires. 

It was only during the time between major empires that the Israelites ever flourished or were really independent.  Such a time happened during the reign of King David and Solomon.  That was the 10^th Century B.C.E.  A similar thing happens during the time of King Josiah, in the 7^th Century B.C.E.  If you were in worship last week you’ll remember we read about King Hezekiah who was described as good; and most especially, trusting, of God.  During his reign in Judah the Assyrian Empire was growing and flexing its muscles.  It conquered the northern kingdom of Israel and seriously threatened the southern kingdom of Judah.  But despite laying siege to Jerusalem the Assyrians decide to abandon their attempt.  That was the 8^th Century B.C.E.

By the time we get to today’s Bible readings over 100 years has passed.  By then the Assyrian Empire to the northeast had declined and was on the verge of collapse.  The Egyptian Empire to the south west is weak as well, although probably exerting influence over the region.  And the Babylonian Empire in the east is on the rise to becoming a superpower.

Enter King Josiah.  He comes to power at eight years of age after his father is assassinated.  Presumably he had some very good advisers by his side because he appears to have led very very well.  He begins to expand the kingdom in all directions.  Archaeology gives us evidence of the southern limits of his expansion.  The northern limits are hard to draw, but he may have expanded the nation to almost the full size of what it was under King David.  He certainly regains control of most of the territory of Israel conquered by the Assyrians.  There is also evidence to show that he actually expanded the nation all the way to the Mediterranean Sea.  And so even though Josiah is hardly a mighty king (the nation under David really wasn’t all that big either) he certainly controls more than King Hezekiah did, which during the Assyrian invasion was probably down to about twelve acres! 

Along with Josiah’s territory expansion he embarks on the most thorough reformation and purification of Judah ever.  He utterly destroys religious sites to foreign deities.  He kills their leaders and he removes from office all those Jewish priests who had led worship in places other than the Jerusalem temple.  While people often call David the best king, and last week we saw Hezekiah described as the king who trusted God the most, 2 Kings 23:25 describes Josiah as, “Before him there was no king like him, who turned to the Lord with all his heart, with all his soul, and with all his might, according to the law of Moses; nor did any like him arise after him.”  If this is true then Josiah rightfully deserves the title of the greatest of all the kings of Judah.

Central to his faithfulness is what we read today.  During repairs and renovations of the Jerusalem temple a book of the law is found; presumably hidden.  Biblical scholars believe this book is an early version of what we now call Deuteronomy.  Some suggest it was possibly the whole of the Torah, what we have as the first five books of the Bible – Genesis through Deuteronomy.  I suppose that’s possible, although those writings certainly were in a very different form from what we have today.  Whatever the case, exactly what it was and how old it was is impossible to tell.  Quite possibly it was faithful writings hidden from Josiah’s grandfather, who is described as a particularly bad and evil king.  Manassah was his name and he reigned for 55 years. 

Whatever the case, these found writings give Josiah something solid to go on for his reforms: he now has evidence to create a “right” way to worship.  He now has a set of religious laws by which to run the nation.  He knows how the temple is to operate and who is supposed to operate it.  He becomes even more zealous for faithfulness in his government and from the citizenship.  Josiah seems to know that God is fed up with the history of unfaithfulness.  He is determined to rid the nation of problems once and for all. 

I should note that praiseworthy as Josiah’s efforts may appear, in our age of pluralism plus a separation of church and state, we might be disturbed.  Under Josiah it was government imposing religious law.  In some places the law was very gracious and forgiving.  In other places, very strict.  We Americans aren’t used to the government telling us that it’s rules are God’s rules, no questions can be asked.

Overall though, Josiah is a refreshing model of leadership.  Where he may have gone too far it was done in good faith.  Rarely does someone with political and economic power consult with both political and religious leaders and truly launch a campaign to improve the faithfulness of the whole nation.  Josiah is strong, courageous, and yet there appears to be a sense of forgiveness and kindness to him.  There appears to be no trace of selfishness in Josiah.  He does not use religion to serve his own interests.  He is truly interested in serving faithfully.  Next week will look at his one and only recorded mistake, which will be his downfall.  And we will explore some truly angering theology that comes from his reign.  But for now let’s discover some amazing hope.

Josiah’s grandfather, bad king Manasseh, led for 55 years and made a huge mess of things.  Josiah’s father, Amon, became king at age 22.  He reigned two years before being assassinated by his servants.  That sounds horrible, but it may have been a good thing.  Apparently he was headed on a path even worse than Manasseh.  The servants weren’t going to let that happen.  Then along comes Josiah, king at age 8, and at age 16 begins a massive reform movement. 

In one generation we have a national transformation from despair and corruption to health and hope.  A wicked generation, doomed to failure, was being succeeded by a reforming, virtuous one.  It was an opportunity for a new unfettered life.  Things were going well.  The future looked promising.  The nation was growing in not only territory but also in independence.

I would not advocate for our nation’s government to operate in a way that would impose Christianity upon its citizens the way Josiah was able to impose faith upon his people.  However, it would be wonderful if in our nation, which is a nation of hatred, division, racism, injustice, consumption, greed, and more, the truth of God’s grace could suddenly take root.  I know we’re deep in a political season.  Don’t mistake me and think I believe that the results of this next election could bring an end to such things.  For no such change will come about from our leadership.  It must begin in the hearts and minds of the population.

I don’t mean to sound naïve or romantic, for the improvements in Josiah’s time weren’t easy or fun, but our prayers should be for a time when God’s love can truly be real in our hearts and in the hearts of our communities.

As the story goes on with King Josiah we are reminded of what has been true all along, the whole thing is in God’s hands.  The same goes for us and our future.  Nevertheless, whether massive improvements come to the hearts and minds of the American population or not, we ourselves have been saved by God’s grace.  And we ourselves are called to live that grace in all that we do.  It doesn’t matter if we ourselves create sweeping reforms or not.  It doesn’t matter whether people appreciate us or not.  We remain agents of God’s grace witnessing to his goodness in a world of darkness that desperately needs light.