Josiah - Take Back Your Land

I wrapped up my reading of 1 and 2 Kings today. I'm baffled at how king after king, line after line was found displeasing to the Lord. One after another, they would be found as "evil in the sight of the Lord". Even out of the few that were pleasing to Him, most of them allowed some sort of idol worship to remain in the land, never completely devoting all to God. As the book begins to wrap up and all hope seems lost, we then see Josiah come along. Finally one who is entirely set on restoring the covenant of the Lord. We see him tear down and burn all of the altars and false idols. He crushes the items dedicated to the gods of the land and scatters their ashes. He runs out the pagan priests and tolerates no evil thing. I think it's safe to say that he was radical. Despite reign after reign after reign of evil kings bent on their own agendas, we see Josiah doing the work of the Lord with extreme action.

Oh, how we should long to be like Josiah. In a day when many scoff at the modern day "church" and it seems that Christianity is often nothing more than a watered down, compromise–filled distortion of what God desires it to be. May Josiah's rise up and tear down what the enemy has been building. May we take back the land by force, just as he did. Burn all that is set up to any other god or idol! Scatter it's ashes! There is a time for love and there is a time for righteous anger. Is holy fear and war against all that goes against our great God not what true love really is? Love that is wholly devoted to raising His banner high and having none other. This battle that we wage is not with our brothers, our neighbors or with the local church down the road – it's not even with the television evangelist that proclaims from the rooftops the love of money and "self–help" strategies. Our battle, our war is with darkness. Just as in the days of Josiah, sin and idolatry run rampant in our region, in our nation, in our world. Just as he was a king, so are you. If you are in Christ, you have been made an heir to a mighty Kingdom. A kingdom that will never fail – an everlasting kingdom that has no end. So let's start to act like it. Let's defend our Kingdom! May the Lord's people once again rise up and take back the land…by force!