a little backstory about Consuming Fire
What will be said of you? How will you be remembered by your family and your community? How would you LIKE to be remembered? What impact do you want to leave? I’ll probably be remembered as the dorky clumsy nerd, because I’m literally dropping and breaking things all the time and once tripped on nothing but air and broke my foot bone.
Today we’re going to talk about a man who I will argue was remembered as Judah’s greatest king. I’m not talking about David, Solomon, or even Hezekiah, though we often think of them first. However, when you read the accounts closely in 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, and 1 and 2 Chronicles, you’ll see that there’s only ONE king who followed God with unmatched zealous devotion, and that is Josiah. He’s remembered as the youngest king, but listen to how the historian recalls his legacy:
2 Kings 23:25 says, “Never before had there been a king like Josiah, who turned to the Lord with all his heart and soul and strength, obeying all the laws of Moses. And there has never been a king like him since.”
When I read this verse about 15 years ago, it leapt off the page and made me wonder, “What was it about Josiah that made God (through the historian) say that? And a second question rose up in my mind, What impact did his devotion have on the nation, God’s people, and even on me?”
And then I did what any normal person with deep questions would do, I wrote a novel! (haha)
I hope these words and the words in that novel will do one thing: point you to the hope in God’s Word.
Let’s begin with a quick review of what was going on at that time, so we can give some context to our understanding. So, after God’s people had escaped Egypt under the leadership of Moses God gave them a gift. He didn’t have to do this, but he spelled it out in black and white what it took to worship Him and enjoy an intimate relationship with Him, like He always intended.
God gave this to Moses in the form of the 10 commandments and the Law, as we read in the book of Deuteronomy. It was an extensive list of what God wanted from His people when it came to holiness, a beautiful display of what it took to reciprocate His generous and miraculous love. Think of it this way: when you fell in love with your husband or your boyfriend or if you’re single when you eventually fall in love, it is a GRACIOUS GIFT that you give him to lay out in plain detail HOW he can and should love you back. It’s not demanding or even bratty, if you say it kindly and have loving intentions. It would actually be unloving to be unclear about what you want, yet expect him to love you in those ways. “This is how I want to be touched. These are the kinds of gifts I like. These are the kinds of words that make me feel loved. These are the kinds of things that will feel unloving and harsh. Please do them very rarely. These are the things that will actually demonstrate that you don’t love me. Never do them at all.” AmIright? (haha)
And so, when we see this beautiful God who moves mountains to save us and who gives us hope for eternity, we long to know what we can do to reciprocate that love, don’t we? We ache to know the ways He wants to be worshiped and adored. He doesn’t HAVE to tell us, you know. It is by Grace that He clues us in and gives us detailed instructions in His Word about WHAT we do and HOW we do it that will make Him feel loved and appreciated, like when your life is a living sacrifice with such a pleasing aroma that it puts a satisfied smile on His face.
And so, after this gift of the Law was given, Moses leads them in the wilderness for 40 years so they can learn to trust God and take Him at his word, and then his successor Joshua leads God’s kids into the Promised Land, where they take over, dispelling the other pagan people with explicit instructions that under no circumstances were they to even THINK about worshipping their gods in the process.
And once the battles are fought and the land is seized, God’s people are ruled by a series of Judges, or moral leaders (not priests for they had the Levites, and not politicians, for they hadn’t needed them yet). It’s during this time that we see the beginning of a slippery slope of sin creep in and the people began to do the exact opposite of what God had instructed in the Law. So, in an attempt to get things back on track, God’s kids asked for a politician to lead them so they would feel safe at their borders, and God granted their wish and set them up with a King, then a series of Kings, who would struggle to do what the people wanted and occasionally one would try to do what God wanted.
Most of them would fail at both, as all politicians always do (haha). I’m just teasing. I’d be a horrible politician, and I know most of them are doing the best they can with what they’ve been given. Eventually, the kingdom split into two – Israel in the North and Judah in the south, and it wasn’t long until Israel was overtaken by the world power of that time, Assyria. Only Judah remained: a small kingdom of God’s people who were torn between their heritage of serving Jehovah and the outside influence of paganism and evil.
One king, Manassah, was particularly evil. He invited the influence of foreign idolatry into the nation of Judah, setting up numerous shrines, high places of idolatry on hills and mountains, and building temples to every god imaginable. He ruled in Judah for 55 years, a very long reign for that period, and it was only at the end that he repented, and while God forgave him personally, the poison of sin and evil had permeated the entire nation. Remember that list that God had provided that told them all of the ways to love Him? They had betrayed every single one. The temple was in ruins, idolatry was practiced far more than Yahwism, or the worship of Yahweh, even in the Temple Solomon had built for Him. Cult prostitutes had begun to practice and even LIVE in the place once meant for the presence of God alone, and people were burning their children alive as sacrifice to the god Molech. Shameful heathen orgies happened under asherah poles on every hillside, and every command God had given had been disregarded and forgotten. And all of the copies of the book of the Law itself had been destroyed or lost.
Manasseh’s heir was a man named Amon who reigned for only two years before he was assassinated, and then his son was appointed to take over when he was only 8 years old. This is our King Josiah. The one who was arguably the greatest King, and he started young. Don’t let anyone say that young people can’t be influential or great. Young people make some of the greatest contributions to the church and our society and we ought to stand up for them instead of holding them back for the sake of their youth.
I know second-graders can be difficult, but they just might change the world.
It was in his youth, when he was just 16 that Josiah discovered God. We aren’t told HOW he found Jehovah or what made Him seek out the one true God, but one clue we have is that in that same or following year, his first son by his second wife, Hamutal, was born. This means he probably met her around the same time that he was discovering God, and I can’t help but think that she may have had something to do with that discovery and his subsequent passionate devotion to God.
Why do I make this jump, you ask? Well, it’s my theory that beside every good man is a great woman. And the same goes the other way with the genders, of course. Just as the opposite is often true and a godless spouse can lead you even further into evil. Think of Ahab’s evil matched with his wife Jezebel. And I find it hard to conclude that the profound impact Josiah made happened with a wayward or contemptuous wife at his side. Many of you have a similar experience that I do in that your spouse either introduced you to God, or has shown you a deeper understanding of Him over the years. When Kris and I met, I was 17 and he was 19. I was not yet following Christ, though I had some knowledge of God. It was Kris and still is who showed me God’s extravagant grace and power, and I do believe that my faith that has grown over the years has influenced his devotion to God in a positive way as well. I could be wrong about Hamutal, but I just might also be right. Think about the great influencers in your life– do they have a faith-filled, supportive spouse by their side? Chances are, they do. Not because that’s necessary, but because it’s helpful, and even if you look back to Adam and Eve, it was a model God used from the beginning.
So, with all of that as our backdrop, let’s get back to what made King Josiah great, and what that has to do with us today…
Here are five actions Josiah took that led to a legacy of zealous devotion:
- 1. His devotion to God. King Joe purified the entire nation of Judah of idols by burning them, destroying the shrines, demolishing the temples, and deposing the leaders of all of these false religions. And he personally led and supervised all of this. Himself. He didn’t just send his generals or his lords or his governors on an errand. Granted, he could have sent others to perform this purification, but he went with them and ensured that it was completed, just as God directed. If we want to follow in his example of greatness, we must take inventory of the idols that press in to influence us and we have to be determined to knock down every one, not bow down to any. Sometimes we look around and think the world has never been more evil than this, and in many ways it is true. But when was the last time you saw a child sacrificed in a fire where you live? The truth is, today’s idols are just as evil, but possibly more easily disguised. An idol is anything at the center of your heart, whatever robs Jesus of your full adoration, worship, and attention. A few examples (and these aren’t always idols, but they CAN become idols if we are not careful): television shows/movies or actors, the pursuit and love of money or stuff, ourselves (self care can turn into self worship when staying alive or staying fit is all we find ourselves thinking about), politicians or politics, home decorating, drugs or alcohol, and any worship of a created thing like the sun or stars or animals. Every so often, we must take inventory of our lives, asking God to reveal any idols we may be holding in our hearts. And like Josiah, we must be diligent to knock down every one, and refuse to bow down to any. I’m not pretending to be perfect at this. Just when I think I’ve got my idols demolished, another one pops up! Not only did Josiah destroy the idols, he defiled the altars by burning human bones on them so they could never be used again.
“Then the king defiled the altar of Topheth in the valley of Ben-Hinnom, so no one could ever again use it to sacrifice a son or daughter in the fire as an offering to Molech.”
-2 Kings 23:10
And maybe you need to not only knock down that idol, but defile it so you’re never tempted to worship it again. Maybe you give away all of your raunchy romance books, delete a phone number or an app, cancel your cable, or pour out your wine. A pastor-friend of mine had to do this last one. Not because she thought it was a sin to have a glass of wine, but because it had become too important—an idol. She found herself thinking about her nightly nightcap throughout the day, craving it when she was stressed, turning to the bottle for relief instead of to God, and He graciously reminded her that it wasn’t in His plan for her to live like that. What idols might God be asking you to knock over and defile in the same way?
- 2. He went out of his way to honor the Passover Celebration—the most important of all Hebrew festivals to honor the Lord. Strangely, in my research of the kings, I found no other king who did this as directed by God. Solomon had a major consecration of the Temple, but it wasn’t for Passover, and Hezekiah came close, but he had to honor it in the wrong month because they were not prepared.
There had not been a Passover celebration like that since the time when the judges ruled in Israel, nor throughout all the years of the kings of Israel and Judah.
2 Kings 22:22
There are things in your life that you will do better than anyone before or after you and that will honor the Lord. Maybe you paint, maybe you sing, maybe you host the poor in your home, maybe you give extravagantly, maybe you study the Bible and discover hidden truths in the pages there. The Lord called me to write a book 10 years ago, and I’d never done such a thing. “Write a book, they say. It will be fun, they say” (haha). I didn’t know the first thing about writing a novel, but I wrote it as if He was going to be my only reader. It took me about 5 years, and then for about 5 more years it sat on my computer collecting virtual dust. One day about a year and half ago the Lord whispered to my heart, “what have you done with that gift I gave you? Have you been a good steward of it?” The answer was a contrite but resounding No. And I had to work to learn how to self-publish and promote it so that readers could find it. So that He could bless who He wanted to bless with the story He gave me. Josiah’s passover required thousands of animal sacrifices and diligence to follow the ceremonial liturgy of it. It seems strange and boring to us today, but it would have been the most important day in his entire life—that Passover day that compared to no other. It was costly, and yet, it seems the only thing on his mind was how to best honor the Lord. With the thing or things that you do exceptionally well, how can you serve the Lord with some extravagant love?
- 3. His restoration of the Temple, which had fallen into disrepair over the years, and even housed a number of idols and pagan prostitutes. Think of that atrocity: the disgrace God’s people had allowed to come to His Temple—the very place His presence was supposed to dwell and meet with the priests under the most consecrated of circumstances. Nope. Josiah realized the shame God’s temple had fallen into and this too moved Him to action, even before the book of the Law was found in it. It was DURING the temple repairs that it was found, before he knew what it was supposed to look like in its original plans for glory. He restored the gold, tapestries, curtains, pillars, altar, and removed all of the filth and idols that had been brought in from foreigner gods and even Johovah’s own kids. If we extrapolate this to today and take Josiah’s zealous devotion as our example, our modern-day temple is our body. Granted, many people have made a religion of fitness, but that’s not exactly the same thing as caring for your body as one would care for the dwelling place of the Spirit of God.
Run from sexual sin! No other sin so clearly affects the body as this one does. For sexual immorality is a sin against your own body. Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body.
– 1 Corinthians 6: 18-20.
We’re not doing this for the sake of vanity, attention, or a business scheme. We must honor our bodies as God’s temple by sanctifying it for holiness. What do you allow into your mind and body that is not holy? Is it something you watch or read or listen to? Is it food you know is destroying you? Do you regularly cleanse and consecrate your body and mind with the Word of God? Do you allow worldly influences to defile your temple? What would it look like if you honored and restored your body like Josiah honored and restored the Temple? Again, I’m not pretending to be great at this either. Josiah is an inspiration to me because just when I think I’ve got this whole sanctification thing down pat, God brings more conviction into my life about a new thing, or an old temptation comes back onto my scene. My temple needs constant upkeep, cleansing, and repairs, and I’m thankful for God’s patience in this process.
- 4. His love of and obedience to the Law, when it was found. You remember this part, don’t you, when the book of Deuteronomy was found as they were doing Temple renovations? He tore his robes and wept as the book was read aloud and Josiah realized the nation’s deep-seated disobedience. Despite the purification he had already done by eradicating the idols, he knew two things: their hearts weren’t in it and they had previously strayed so far. They had broken God’s covenant for generations, and he understood the doom they faced because of it, now that he heard it read line by line. He knew they had broken God’s heart when they broke His Law, and he feared for his life and the lives of his subjects.
“When the king heard what was written in the Law, he tore his clothes in despair. hen he gave these orders to Hilkiah, Ahikam son of Shaphan, Acbor son of Micaiah, Shaphan the court secretary, and Asaiah the king’s personal adviser: “Go to the Temple and speak to the Lord for me and for all the remnant of Israel and Judah. Inquire about the words written in the scroll that has been found. For the Lord’s great anger has been poured out on us because our ancestors have not obeyed the word of the Lord. We have not been doing everything this scroll says we must do.”
– 2 Chronicles 34:19-21
And even now in this time of Grace, I wonder if a bit of this deep repentance is sometimes necessary when God convicts us. Because like us, Josiah was on the right track. And yet the awareness of grieving the Spirit deeply grieved him as well. And some of you might experience this one day too—a conviction that wrecks you, and ultimately moves you toward practicing godliness like you never knew possible. Holiness like you can’t imagine. Becoming profoundly more like Christ. Repentance, like the Law described in the Bible as a GIFT. Repentance is a gift. Are you thankful for this kind of gift too?
- 5. His love for his subjects. He cared for the broken and needy, and included everyone in the reading of the Law and the Dedication of the nation to obeying the Lord. He left none of his subjects out of this blessing, not even the poorest peasants.
“But a beautiful cedar palace does not make a great king! Your father, Josiah, also had plenty to eat and drink. But he was just and right in all his dealings. That is why God blessed him. He gave justice and help to the poor and needy, and everything went well for him. Isn’t that what it means to know me?” says the Lord. “But you! You have eyes only for greed and dishonesty! You murder the innocent, oppress the poor, and reign ruthlessly.”
– Jeremiah 22:15-17
It was not his own consecration and reform that Josiah cared about. He wanted revival for everyone in Judah and even Israel. He saw to it that ALL of the cities and towns were cleansed of idolatry and sorcery. He invited the ENTIRE NATION to Jerusalem to hear the book of the Law after it was found. He invited EVERYONE to repent and obey in a last-ditch effort to stave off the punishment he knew was coming, and would come to his own sons – exile, slavery, and being conquered. So what would it look like to follow that zealous example today? How might you fight for justice on behalf of the poor and needy? “Isn’t that what it means to know God?” How can we be sure our hearts and actions are turned away from greed and dishonesty in every aspect of our being? How can we take action to fight against those who murder the innocent, oppress the poor and govern with ruthlessness? How can we make sure that we are remembered for a generous response to those we influence and those around our world, and not an influence that takes advantage of these people?
Two things I enjoy doing are jail ministry and outreach to victims of human trafficking. Your passions or cause might be different. God will lead you to make a difference in the lives of those who need Him, and He will also make a path for you to do just that.
If you haven’t yet read Consuming Fire, can I invite you to check it out? It’s even available on Kindle, so you can get started reading about King Josiah and His queen Hamutal today for only $4.99! One of my readers said:
“Couldn’t put it down … I love historical biblical fiction and this one is probably the best I’ve read so far”
Danielle Reid-Cofta
If you HAVE read it, could you do me a quick favor right now and share this post or your recommendation to at least one friend via text or message right now (before you forget, like I tend to do)? I’d also appreciate your subscription to my newsletter, since that will help me when it comes to publishing more books in the future!