2 Kings 22:1-10 [11-20]; 23:1-3 Josiah’s Reform
(Luke 24:30-32)
When the temple is rebuilt, like when we renovate or remodel, surprises are found. In this case, there is a scroll found, a book of the law. It’s a surprise. It’s old fashioned. And it is not really good news when it comes to Josiah.
Josiah hears the words, and realizes how far he and the people have wandered from those words. Josiah panics, probably appropriately, and tears his clothes, and then calls for his advisors. They send for the prophetess, who sends back a verdict. The people did indeed abandon God. And God is ticked off. There’s a long list of not so good things that will happen. But, because Josiah repented, he and his shall be spared. Josiah gathers the whole community, reads the law to them, and makes a covenant with God to follow God, a covenant into which the whole people enter once again.
The recovery of the law causes quite a shock, even among the people who were supposed to be God’s people. That recovery convicts them of their failings, and converts them, many of them for the first time, to the worship of God.
What convicts and converts us when we hear it again, or when we hear it for the first time? What makes us rend our clothes in mourning over our faithlessness?
