Sunday, September 9, 2012

Doing right in the sight of God

Pam Padgett ... teacher

Josiah, king of Judah, did what was right in the sight of God ... And he did that which was right in the sight of the LORD, and walked in all the way of David his father, and turned not aside to the right hand or to the left. (2 Kings 22:2)

Among the things that Josiah did, he read to all the people the book of the law which had been found in the house of the Lord, destroyed idols, cut down groves, slayed idolatrous priests, and destroyed the houses of the sodomites.  He also did the following ...

2 Kings 23:15 Moreover the altar that was at Bethel, and the high place which Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin, had made, both that altar and the high place he brake down, and burned the high place, and stamped it small to powder, and burned the grove. 16 And as Josiah turned himself, he spied the sepulchres that were there in the mount, and sent, and took the bones out of the sepulchres, and burned them upon the altar, and polluted it, according to the word of the LORD which the man of God proclaimed, who proclaimed these words. 17 Then he said, What title is that that I see? And the men of the city told him, It is the sepulchre of the man of God, which came from Judah, and proclaimed these things that thou hast done against the altar of Bethel. 18 And he said, Let him alone; let no man move his bones. So they let his bones alone, with the bones of the prophet that came out of Samaria. 19 And all the houses also of the high places that were in the cities of Samaria, which the kings of Israel had made to provoke the LORD to anger, Josiah took away, and did to them according to all the acts that he had done in Bethel. 20 And he slew all the priests of the high places that were there upon the altars, and burned men's bones upon them, and returned to Jerusalem.

What Josiah did fulfilled the word of the Lord delivered by a man of God to Jeroboam many years before .... 

1 Kings 13:1 And, behold, there came a man of God out of Judah by the word of the LORD unto Bethel: and Jeroboam stood by the altar to burn incense. 2 And he cried against the altar in the word of the LORD, and said, O altar, altar, thus saith the LORD; Behold, a child shall be born unto the house of David, Josiah by name; and upon thee shall he offer the priests of the high places that burn incense upon thee, and men's bones shall be burnt upon thee.

Even though this word was given many generations before Josiah was born, God spoke of Josiah by name and foretold what Josiah would do.  The word of God was fulfilled as God had said. 

It causes me to marvel in God to consider these things, and I was reminded of .... Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world. (Acts 15:18)