II Chronicles 34:33 And Josiah took away all the abominations… and made all that were present in Israel to serve…the LORD their God. And all his days they departed not from following the LORD, the God of their fathers.
Building the Significant
Everyone likes a happy ending. We find a happy ending about a king in II Chronicles 34 which is a welcome relief from so many stories about kings who did not do well and did not end well.
II Chronicles 34:33 says, “And Josiah took away all the abominations out of all the countries that pertained to the children of Israel, and made all that were present in Israel to serve, even to serve the LORD their God. And all his days they departed not from following the LORD, the God of their fathers.” Now I’ve said this is a happy ending, and it is, kind of. But if we are paying attention, those words “all his days” ought to trouble us. Well, what happened after his days were over? How long did he live? For that matter, how long do you plan to live? What will you build in the time that you do live? What difference will it make?
If your plans and accomplishments don’t include people, then they don’t include eternity. We find story after story of kings who did not do well, and on the rare occasion when we find a king who did do what was right it seems that more often than not his son was right back to doing that which was wrong. God spoke to Josiah in verse 28, “Behold, I will gather thee to thy fathers… neither shall thine eyes see all the evil that I will bring upon this place, and upon the inhabitants of the same.” Now that’s wonderful for Josiah, but what about the people that followed him?
We are not building anything significant if we are not building people. Our entire life’s work can be summed up in seventy years, and that is so finite as to be nearly insignificant.
If we are going to do anything of significance, we have got to invest in people who will live when we do not. You and I need to prepare children for the world we will not inhabit. There is coming a day when we will be gone, and if all our work is gone with us, I do not think that is what God intended. The way to change the world the best is to invest in the people closest to us right now because they in turn will influence the world that is farthest from us at this moment.