How Josiah kept the Passover

Let's go to the sermon. So how Josiah kept the Passover? Josiah kept the Passover. If you look at Scripture, you'll find that there are some great predictions of people. And this has been so talked about, written about, as you go to the book of Daniel and you read chapter 8, he describes historically about a man that would come a hundred years in his future.

That man turned out to be Alexander the Great. Now many theologians and non-theologians say, it must have been added. And believe in the divine Scriptures. But there was another one. A hundred and fifty years this man was predicted in the 44th and 45th chapters of Isaiah and it was about a future king that would rule over a dynasty. And his name was Cyrus. A hundred and fifty years before Cyrus came onto the scene, he was predicted to be exactly who he was by his name. And people wanted to argue that was put in later.

Those were somebody added those names because there's no way possible that that man could have been predicted. But I'd like to look at another one today that I think may be the tops over them all. A man that was predicted 290 years before his birth and he was called by name. Now your detractors and even some theologians, they don't have an answer to this one because it came 290 years before.

There wasn't any way to slide that in. There wasn't any way to try to make that happen. That's who I would like to talk about today. Because you see, at the time back in history when Jeroboam broke away from Rehoboam and God had planned that and even told him it's okay because Judah is becoming so lax, so corrupt, that I'd like to start another kingdom and I'll put you as the king, Jeroboam. You're not in the line to receive it, but I'll make that. And I will give you every great thing you've ever imagined.

I'll make you greater than Solomon and I'll give you ten of the tribes. Ten of the twelve tribes. They'll follow you. Just follow me. And what happened? To put it lightly, step to kingdom. First thing he did was, I'm afraid that all these people now, because they still remember that Solomon's temple, they remember on the holy days they'll be leaving the tribes will be leaving their lands and leaving Israel and going over to Judah to worship. So I better do something. So he built two calves.

One he put in Dan in the north and one he put in Bethel in the south. And that way they won't need to go anywhere and he changed the holy days so they couldn't go to the eighth month instead of the seventh month. And he was happy. So a prophet with no name showed up one time and showed up right in front of the king. And he said, God has sent me from Judah to you and you're corrupt and you need to repent and you need to turn.

But it didn't do any good. I'd like to go and see some of his first words that he said before the king. I'd like you to go to 1 Kings 13 verse 2. It said, Then this prophet cried out against the altar by the word of the Lord, said, O altar, altar, thus says the Lord, behold a child, Josiah by name shall be born to the house of David, and on you he shall sacrifice the priests of the high places who burn incense on you, and men's bones shall be burned on you.

This took place 290 years later. But here he is named Josiah. The year that this took place that we just read about was 938 BC. 938 BC. In case you're into dates, kind of helps you to see. And so Jeroboam carried on his wicked ways. But I did find the most interesting part of the story of 1 Kings 13 is where he's crying out to Jeroboam. He's standing before this this king telling him what's wrong.

And Jeroboam stands there with his guards and all of his men and says, grab that man! And when he did, his hand was paralyzed like that. And he could move it. And what did he do then? He cried out to the prophet, this man of God. Help me! And the man helped him. Incredible story. But here this little verse 2. It said in 938 it prophesied about this King Josiah. And yet in 722 BC the nation of Israel fell.

They were conquered by the Assyrians. And they were taken into faraway lands. And the Assyrians who were the world-dominating power at the time, they were used to conquering this country and this country. They would take everybody that captives that they didn't kill. They would take people that didn't kill. They took them captive and they put them in other lands. Scattered them out through all the lands.

And they brought people from other lands and put them in the lands they'd conquered. And they brought in these people from outside who later became known as the Samaritans. Because Samaria was kind of the capital at that time. So it's very interesting that they fell. And Israel just existed under Assyrian rule and later other rules and it just never became anything again. But in 648, a young man was born. His name was Josiah. His father was Amnon. His grandfather was Manasseh, king. But in 640 B.C., he was eight years old as Josiah. He became king. Can you imagine that little guy?

Standing there, do you think he knew what was going on? Do you think God was with him? His father was corrupt. His grandfather was the worst king in all of Judah in history. So bad that this little guy's uncle, which would have been his father's brother, was taken out and sacrificed Molech and burned up in God's country of Judah. How this little guy? 18 years later, he was 26 years old. Josiah said, we're going to make some changes. Can you imagine going against an entire country? Going against every religious leader? Well, he did have a couple that helped him out, but the majority of priests were corrupt.

There were some prophets who helped him. But he had to go against the people because they were satisfied the way things were. And some changes had to be made.

And one of the greatest stories ever told in Scripture was to be done. Now imagine this was 80 years after Israel had fallen. 290 years after he was predicted.

And he said, I want to institute God's Passover and Days of Unleavened Bread. No Passover had even been kept in the country for 50 years. Over 50 years.

And he decided, we're going to do this.

And so I would like to read here today. I'll read from the New Living Translation because it seems to tell in a more of a story flow.

And I think you'll get the jest of what I'm trying to say and why it's so important that I would take time out of your day, your Sabbath day, to read this story. And hopefully that you will go back and read it.

Because of all of Israel, all of Judah, they didn't have a decent king in all of Israel their entire time.

That's why God...that wasn't one good one. And in Judah, maybe four or five, out of the eighteen to twenty. But there is only two. Only two that inspires you, that you read their story and it pumps you up. One is Hezekiah and the other is Josiah.

Josiah. So I don't normally read this much, but I'd like you, hopefully, to appreciate what is written here. And perhaps you want to read it from your own translation. We have it up here in the New Living Translation. So if you will, go with me to see this incredible story of how Josiah kept the Passover. Chapter 22 and verse 1 said, Josiah was eight years old when he became king. I think that's too young, but obviously God didn't. He didn't ask me. And he reigned to Jerusalem thirty-one years. His mother was Jedidiah, the daughter of Adadai from Bozkoth. He did what was pleasing in the Lord's sight and followed the example of his ancestor David. So obviously he knew some past. Was it possible when Manasseh, at the end of his life, as he made some turn, related these stories to this five or six-year-old child? He did not turn away from doing what was right. Does that describe us? Is that something we need to look at? In the eighteenth year of his reign, King Josiah sent Shaphan, son of Azaliah and grandson of Meshulim, the court secretary to the temple of the Lord. He told him, Go to Hilkiah the high priest and have him count the money to the gatekeepers have collected from the people at the Lord's temple and trust this money to the man assigned to supervise the temple's restoration. Then they can use it to pay workers to repair the temple of the Lord. They will need to hire carpenters, builders, and masons. Also, have them buy the timber and finish stone needed to repair the temple. But don't require the construction supervisors to keep account of the money they receive for they are honest and trustworthy men.

You want to try that in Florida today?

There's a building inspector sitting in the back. He can tell you that wouldn't work.

But obviously he knew these men.

And then verse 8, Hilkiah the high priest said to Shaphan, the court secretary, I have found the book of the law in the Lord's temple. Well, duh-huh, really? But what had happened? Why shouldn't he? Shouldn't it have been there? It was there, but it had to be hidden because they weren't even. They didn't care. 50 years, over 50 years now. Now, nobody had even cared about the law. It is so corrupt. And now he's old enough at 26. He'd been around 18 years being king and he says enough is enough. And Hilkiah, here he was. He was a high priest and he's going, oh, there's a book!

Look at this! What did he have before?

How did they teach? How did they preach?

What somebody told him? Maybe? Maybe what they just made up? Maybe what they heard?

But he didn't have the book of the law. Now, it's interesting here because there's great debate in the study of this chapter in that you'll see in the original that it was, as the verse says in verse 7, then Hilkiah gave the scroll to Shaphan and he read it.

One scroll. Wait a minute, the book of the law, wouldn't that be what?

First five books of the Bible? They wouldn't fit on one scroll.

So what was it? Most theologians, and I believe this is true too, it was the book of Deuteronomy.

Remember what the book of Deuteronomy was for? It was written, way after this, it was written by Moses telling the history and then what you should do when you enter the Promised Land.

And it went through. Remember there's Exodus 20 gives the Ten Commandments, Deuteronomy 5 gives the Ten Commandments. But words put some different words in. So this was a book and the book of the law, Deuteronomy.

It's interesting, a survey was done at the founding of our country in the late 1700s and early 1800s.

And one man asked all our leaders, that's from Jefferson, Adams, Monroe, they asked them what their book did they go to? What did the book did they read the most?

You know they didn't say the Bible. They said the book of Deuteronomy.

Isn't that amazing? Because they knew they wanted, they needed to rule.

And they were to teach that the leaders that started this country went to the book of Deuteronomy.

Would have been easy to say, oh Bible, no, but it was a specific book.

And take some time and just read the book of Deuteronomy.

It was all written in just a few months.

And it was given as a series of sermons. It's actually three or four sermons.

The book of Deuteronomy was three to four sermons given by Moses to the people.

His last month of his life.

Makes it interesting to me. So let's, so here, He'll Kiah finds the scroll, say Deuteronomy.

And he's, and so he reads it. And then he went to the king as I said there. And he said in verse 10 that He'll Kiah, the priest has given me a scroll. And he read it to the king.

And when the king heard what was written in the book of the law, he tore his clothes in despair.

He realized, what have we done?

What have we done as a people? What have I done?

And you know what happened?

He decided it was time for a change.

He's a leader who took charge. He took control.

He said, we're going to make changes. We need to repent. I need to repent.

What does a good leader do?

He puts himself out there first.

So what this young man did, 26 years of age, he's saying I'm going to turn an entire nation to God.

Because it's the right thing to do. It never was about him.

So let's go now to chapter 23.

Chapter 23 I'll read from the New Living Translation.

Because after he got to talking about it and he actually said, God, I'm sorry. We want to change.

And I know you're angry, but please have mercy.

And I'll do what I can. Can you imagine God saying, no!

Couldn't swat you too, boy. No.

Can you imagine when we go to God with that same heart that he had?

Can you imagine what God is going to say, oh, no, I don't forgive you. You're tough.

You're going to have to tough this one out. He did. And he won't for us.

That's how it relates to us. We get to understand God.

Let's go to chapter 23. Chapter 23 and verse 1. Then the king summoned all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem, and the king went up to the temple of the Lord with all the people of Judah and Jerusalem.

All? Along with the priests and the prophets, all the people from the least to the greatest.

It wasn't, you're not going to stay home now. I'm feeling good today.

I got the sniffles. Wait a minute. I got a cow giving birth today. No, you're going to come here. This is important.

There the king read to them the entire book of the covenant, or that scroll.

That had been found in the Lord's temple. There was going to be no reason, no excuse. You didn't know, because here it was, laid out before you, read by the king.

The reason God required his kings to always, you had to write the entire five, the Torah, and they were supposed to read it. The king took his place of authority beside the pillar and renewed the covenant in the Lord's presence. He pledged to obey the Lord by keeping all his commands, laws, and decrees with all his heart and soul. Will we do that? About a month from now. Will we renew our vows to God? Because that's what happens to pass overnight. We're going to renew them in this room. Will it be with all of our hearts that God screwed up more than a few times this year? I've let you down. I've not been the man I needed to be. I want to do better. I need your help. And it starts tonight.

With all his heart and soul, in this way he confirmed all the terms of the covenant that were written in the scroll. He went through them and said, yep, we're doing that one. Yes, we're keeping that one. All the terms, all the agreements, and all the people pledged themselves to the covenant. They bought it. They bought his story. They followed his lead. Then the king instructed Hilkiah the high priest and the priest of the second rank and the temple gatekeepers to remove from the Lord's temple all the articles that were used to worship all, Asheroth, and all the powers of the heaven. This was God's temple. It was dedicated to him. It was built for him. It was where his presence was. And what did they have? Everything you could have in pagan worship.

In the temple, it said the king had all these things burned outside Jerusalem on the terraces of the Kidron Valley. And he carried the ashes away to where? Beth-El.

He said, I don't want this garbage in God's land. It's been here long enough. Burn them, and I'm taking them to Beth-El. He didn't even own Beth-El. Beth-El was part of Israel. That was a serious territory of whoever had it at this time. He said, it doesn't matter. I want it out of here.

And he didn't... Isn't that amazing? He didn't care. He just knew where it needed to go.

And it was nowhere near there. What do you think the people talked about? Wow, did you see what he did? He carried that. He had those ashes carried on. He loaded up a cart. He had that stuff shipped over there. He didn't want this stuff anywhere near him. He did away with the idolatrous priest who had been appointed by the previous... What?

I am not. His father, Manasseh, his grandfather, they had appointed these priests. He said, you're done.

And he had to repent. Please forgive my father. Please forgive my grandfather. What did they do?

Don't judge me by my father. Don't judge me by my grandfather.

He did away with the idolatrous priest who had been appointed by the previous schemes of Judah, for they had offered sacrifices at the pagan shrines throughout Judah and even in the vicinity of Jerusalem. They had also offered sacrifices to Baal and to the sun and to the moon and the constellations and all the powers of the heaven. They worshipped anything they could think of except for God and the temple made for God.

The king removed the Ashra pole from the Lord's temple. They had a wooden pole, Ashra pole, a phallic symbol in the temple that these women would walk around and stroke and make things for it and worship at this thing in the temple of God.

And the king removed the Ashra pole from the Lord's temple and took it outside of Jerusalem to the Kidron Valley where he burned it. Then he ground the ashes of the pole to dust and threw the dust over the graves of the people. He also tore down the living quarters of the male and female shrine prostitutes that were inside the temple.

How bad had it gotten? And these were supposed to be God's people?

He tore down the living quarters of the temple where the women wove coverings for those Ashra poles, those wood carved images. The Jews, Josiah brought to Jerusalem all the priests who were living in the other towns of Judah.

He also defiled the pagan shrines where they had been offering sacrifice all the way to Geba and down to Beersheba, all the way far south as far as his people were down there. He destroyed the shrines at the entrance of the gate of Joshua, the governor of Jerusalem. This gate was located left of the city gate as the one that enters the city. So when you enter that's where everybody entered and that's where those pagan things were sitting. The priests who had served at the pagan shrines were not allowed to serve at the Lord's altar in Jerusalem, but they were allowed to eat unleavened bread with the other priests. Guess what? They were going to be taught.

They were going to have a chance to repent and eat that unleavened bread until they got their minds right.

Then the king defiled the altar of Tophath in the valley of Ben-Hinnom so that no one could ever again use it to sacrifice a son or daughter in the fire as an offering to Molech. Can you imagine taking a little child and throwing it in the fire and hearing it yell and screaming as it's being burnt to death? This, this, the sign of debauchery. This is how low it went. And you know who did it?

His grandfather. The king. King Manasseh did it not only to other children but to his own. So no one could ever offer a sacrifice of a son or a daughter in the fire as an offering to Molech. He removed from the entrance of the Lord's temple the horse statutes that the former kings of Judah, his father, his grandfather, had dedicated to the son.

They were near the quarters of Nathamalek, the eunuch, an officer of the court. The king also burned the chariots dedicated to what? The son. Josiah tore down the altars that the kings of Judah had built on the palace roof above the upper room of Ahab's. They had to keep him above his house.

King destroyed the altars that Manasseh had built in the two courtyards of the Lord's temple.

It wasn't bad enough it was in there, it was in the courtyards too. Can you imagine when they had their festivals, what they would have done? All these foreign gods, not only in the temple but all around the courtyard. You couldn't go anywhere around without seeing this abomination.

He smashed them to bits and scattered the pieces in the Kidron Valley. The king also desecrated the pagan shrines east of Jerusalem to the south of the Mount of Corruption where King Solomon at Israel had built shrines for Asheroth, the detestable goddess of the Sidonians and for Chemosh, the detestable god of the Moabites and for Molech, the vile god of the Ammonites. He smashed the sacred pillars and cut down the Asheroth poles. Then he desecrated these by placing scattering human bones over them. The king also tore down the altar at Bethel. It wasn't even his territory but it was still there. So he went there with his people because there were altars set up there. The pagan shrine that Jeroboam's son and Ebat had made that had caught Israel to sin. He burned down the shrine and ground it to dust and he burned the Asheroth pole. Then Josiah turned around and noticed several tombs in the side of the hill. He ordered that the bones be brought out and he burned them on the altar at Bethel to desecrate it. This happened just as the Lord had promised through the man of God. Do you remember where we were at start? 1 Kings 13. When Jeroboam stood beside that altar at the festival 290 years previous. God doesn't forget.

Then Josiah turned and looked up at the tomb of the man of God. So obviously the man of God, that the man that caused his hand who proclaimed this, he was buried there.

And obviously there was still, what? 290 years later there was still a tomb there of this man.

You can read that story, the rest of the story in 1 Kings 13 and see who he's buried with.

Interesting story.

He turned and looked at the tomb of the man of God who had predicted these things and said, what is that monument over there? He wouldn't have known. It wasn't even in his rulership.

And the people of the town told him, it is the tomb of the man of God who came from Judah and predicted the very things that you have just done to the altar at Bethel. Josiah said, leave it alone. Don't disturb his bones so they did not burn his bones and those of the old prophet from Samaria. Then Josiah demolished all the buildings at the pagan shrines in the towns of Samaria just as he had done in Bethel. He was wiping things out. They had been built by the various kings of Israel, had made the Lord angry. He executed, he wasn't done, he executed the priest of the pagan shrines on their own altars. He killed them and then burned their bodies right on their own altars. And they burned human bones on the altars to desecrate them. Finally, he returned to Jerusalem. Incredible story. Had to be done. Incredible passion.

I so remember a movie from many years ago. It was from Tennessee and he was Sheriff Pusser, Youford Pusser. I forget the movie was called Walking Tall. And I've actually been to the city, I've been to the town. We had a church in Jackson, Tennessee, not too far from there.

And yes, so I had actually driven through there before. I went to a funeral of a man who grew up there. And if you remember, if you saw the movie, it's been quite a few years ago or whatever, but at the end of the movie where he had tried to clean the city and the county up of corruption, they'd killed his wife. They had shot him up, I don't know how many times, and he was trying to clean up the corruption. And after they killed his wife, the whole city then turned and led by him, went over there, and burnt down the last of the prostitution houses and the gambling houses and everything else. And it shows him walking away as all the people are throwing stuff on this fire to burn this thing up, to burn this thing so they can get rid of the corruption. And so it reminds me of this story, because Josiah was so passionate that the people followed him. They wanted to do this. Now let's see if we close this in the next few verses here.

Verse 21, after he went back to Jerusalem, King Josiah then issued this order to all the people.

You get that? Would you like to come to the feast? Not this man. He said, you must celebrate the Passover to the Lord your God as required in the book of the covenant. There had not been a Passover celebration like that since the time when the judges ruled in Israel. Not throughout all the years of the kings of Israel and Judah. This Passover was celebrated to the Lord in Jerusalem in the 18th year of King Josiah's reign. 500 years there had never been a Passover and the days of Unleavened Bread like this year.

He changed an entire nation. Remember, look at this in one year.

24. Josiah also got rid of the mediums. I wonder how he got rid of them.

And the psychics and household gods, the idols and every other detestable practice both in Jerusalem and throughout all the land of Judah. He did this in obedience to the laws written in the scroll that Hilkiah had found in the Lord's temple. It's here, it's written, you're going to obey it. 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. It says we're going to be kings and priests in the kingdom of God.

Are we ready to start acting like kings? Are we here to take note of this and say, can I do keep this passover, keep these days of unleavened bread with all my heart and my soul and my mind? Do you think your life will change? It definitely changed here.

You think a relationship with God is important enough? On power, a power alone from God in our lives, making changes, blessings that we have never even thought of before? That's what it shows me.

So how will you prepare for this Passover? Will you be as voracious as Josiah with such zeal?

I need to be. I'm your pastor. I'm your shepherd, your leader. If I don't do it, how could I ever ask you to? Will we remove the sins polluting the temple of God today? Will you remove the idols polluting God's temple? The sins polluting God's temple?

If you don't know where the temple of God is, 1 Corinthians 3, 16. 1 Corinthians 6, 19 says what? We are the temple of God. It is time we clean this place up.

You say, well, I'm not that bad. Then you've got a problem.

Because I've got to clean this temple up. Because I want God to bless this church.

I want God to bless each and every one of you. Do you want the same for all of us? We are the temple of God. Let me go there. I didn't plan. I don't think I even gave you that, Jeff. But I can't leave that one out. Let's go to 1 Corinthians 6. 1 Corinthians 6, verse 19.

I mentioned it last night in my Sabbath greeting. But it's that powerful. 1 Corinthians 6, verse 19. Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who or which is in you whom you have from God? And you're not your own. For you were bought at price. Therefore glorify God in your body and your spirit, which are God's. We have the opportunity to not only help others, not only be blessed by God, but have your families, have your communities.

And God help us, even the United States.

Remember what he said about Lot? He said Sodom with the angels. How many righteous?

He gives us a chance. Will we tear down the idols corrupting our lives? Will we be able for seven days to strive to put sin out of our lives, but also strive to become more righteous? And definitely not self-righteous, but righteous. It's him and us.

Will this Passover be as memorable as it was when Josiah? You're going to say, well, wait a minute. I've kept the Passover. This is probably my 40th Passover, I guess.

We've all done it before. It's no big deal, right? We just go and there's some wine and there's some bread. You know, it's unleavened bread. We just take a bite. You listen to me rattle on for 40 minutes, 45 minutes, and then everybody goes and you get up and okay.

It's more than that. It has to be more than that. We're one year closer to the kingdom of God.

I wasn't here last year. Mary and I were not here to keep the Passover days of unleavened bread.

And I had to be much observed because I was afraid it would be the last Passover I was able to keep with my brother, Bruce Woolver, and I changed because I said I was going to be here.

Because I was afraid it would be his last Passover. Incredible man! Well, guess what?

It was. It was his last.

This may be my last. This may be your last. What did Moses say?

Count your days.

I had a lot of people die in my congregation in Fort Lauderdale and a lot of people all over.

Good people. I wasn't done with them, but God was.

Brethren, this is a chance to make it so memorable.

I remember three years ago when they said I had terminal cancer, it would be my last.

And God wasn't done.

So we need to make this Passover, something that will be remembered.

Because I remember that one. You remember last year we did it to Bruce's house.

It was his last.

Memorable. But this year, we're going to have it in this room.

And we're going to spend the Passover and the night to be much observed and the Sabbath, the first day of Unleavened Bread. And I want it to be the best I've ever had in my life. And I want you to make it so memorable. You'll never, ever forget that day.