Bible Soap

Scripture:

2 Kings 21-25

Selected verses:

most of chapter 23

Observation:

I love the zealous rampage that Josiah goes on here, destroying all the ungodly places of worship – it seems like the writers wanted to show how possible it was to do a good job of ‘cleansing’. This is then reinforced by the similar ‘cleansing’ performed by the Babylonian army – there was very little left at all of the lifestyle encouraged by those former, evil kings. It’s great that Josiah’s actions get such a lot of column inches, and that the evil kings who followed him until the exile get so few – the author(s) of the book clearly knew what they wanted to communicate.

Application:

In terms of taking lessons from Josiah, it seems to be about holiness. Can I be ruthless with evil in my own life? Can I weed out everything that might tempt me to stumble and make it useless? He went all over the land, deliberately trying to find altars to destroy that did not serve the LORD – he knew that he couldn’t let his reign continue with this evil in the land he had been put in charge of. Can I do a similar purge of my ‘kingdom’ (ie. the things I have control over – my home, my thinking, my actions) to ensure God is no. 1?

Prayer:

Lord, help me be ruthless with evil and temptation, so that your word is honoured and your creation undefiled.