II Chronicles 35:26 Now the rest of the acts of Josiah, and his goodness, according to that which was written in the law of the LORD
It seems that in the world in which we live today there is more information and less understanding than perhaps ever before. You can be saturated with anything you want to know about. Whether it is cars, birds, Ethiopia, or any topic under heaven, you can learn more about that topic than any other time in human history and that information is more accessible and available. Yet there seems to be less understanding about life, success, and how life actually works than ever before. We are saturated with information, but have very little wisdom.
What is the answer? How do we know what God has made us to be and what He has made us to do? How will we know when we have actually succeeded? There are so many voices that no one can seem to agree on anything? What should we do? Do we just choose our favorite blog and say, “Well, if I measure to this, then I am a success”? How do we decide?
In II Chronicles 35 we read again about King Josiah. He found the word of the Lord, had an awakened conscience, and pursued God and what He had said. The word that is probably used more than any other in this chapter is the word according. Verse 1 says, “Moreover Josiah kept a passover unto the LORD in Jerusalem.” They began doing that which God had instructed them to do many years before. Things had been left undone, and what follows is a number of places where the Bible says they did what they did “according to the writing of David king of Israel, and according to the writing of Solomon his son.” The Bible tells us a couple of times that what they did was informed by what David and Solomon had said. Twice the Bible talks about doing what King Josiah had said. The people did that which was commanded by the word of the king.
More importantly, verse 6 tells us that they did that which was right “according to the word of the LORD by the hand of Moses.” Again, in verse 12 it says, “That they might give according to the divisions of the families of the people, to offer unto the LORD, as it is written in the book of Moses.” That is the Word of God through Moses. Verse 13 says, “And they roasted the passover with fire according to the ordinance.” Verse 15 says, “And the singers the sons of Asaph were in their place, according to the commandment of David.” Verse 16 says, “So all the service of the LORD was prepared the same day.” Basically, the sum and substance of this record is verse 26 which says, “Now the rest of the acts of Josiah, and his goodness, according to that which was written in the law of the LORD, and his deeds, first and last, behold, they are written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah.”
Here is a man who pursued a course. He was aware of that which was written by David and instructed by Solomon. He gave instruction, but the major point here is that they did that which was right according to what God had said, God’s Word. How did this king know how to reinstitute the sacrifices that God had commanded? How did this king know the kind of worship that they were to employ? The answer is that God had already written it. God had given guidance. Those who see God’s Word see more.
God’s Word was the source of encouragement. The Bible says that Josiah set the priests in their charges and encouraged them. He did this largely according to what God had told them to do. So, the encouragement came from pointing to a standard, pointing to a fixed point of reference of what God had said. There is no encouragement of lasting value that does not proceed from what God has said. I can encourage people and say, “Hey, you look nice today,” but what good is that tomorrow? What I need is something that goes beyond how I feel and even how I act any given day to something that is a rock solid and unchanging truth. So, the source of encouragement was God’s Word.
The source of organization was God’s Word. How did Josiah know what the Levites and priests were to do? It was because it had been codified in God’s Word. There were certain families who had certain places of service in the worship of God Jehovah. So, it was the source of organization. Has God spelled out everything you should do as to the way you organize your life? No, perhaps not, but God has certainly given you everything you need to know as to what is to be a priority in your life. Your organization should proceed from what God knows to be most important and what you trust by faith is the most important in your life.
So, God’s Word was a source of encouragement. It was the source of their organization as they began again that which had been neglected for years. It was also the metric of success. The Bible says, “The rest of the acts of Josiah, and his goodness, according to that which was written in the law of the LORD.” If I am looking to the world, a friend, or some group to validate me, to tell me how good I am and that I am a success, even if I get that, it may be worthless if I don’t have the smile of God on my life.
For Josiah I’m sure there were people who did not like what he said, did, or the direction he was headed. But what Josiah was headed for was the smile of God Jehovah on his life. The Word of God was his metric of success. It was “according to the law of Moses.” It was the source of his encouragement, the source of his organization, and the metric of his success because those who see God’s Word see more clearly the way they should go.