because your heart was tender, and you humbled yourself before God when you heard His words against this place and against its inhabitants, and you humbled yourself before Me, and you tore your clothes and wept before Me, I also have heard you,” says the Lord.
The New King James Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982), 2 Ch 34:27.
Josiah became king of Judah when he was just eight years old. At 16 he bagan to seek God and by the age of 20 he began purging Jerusalem and Judah of the alters and idols of the false gods. He even burned the bones of the priests who worshipped them to further the cleansing. He carried this practice throughout Israel and when he was finished he returned to Jerusalem (34:7).
At the age of 24 he began his effort to restore the house of the Lord. Money was brought in to pay for the restoration and the workers labored faithfully. It was at this time that the Book of the Law of the Lord was found. It had been lost in the ruins of the temple.
When the words of the Law were read by Shaphan to King Josiah, he wept and tore his clothes. He sent men to get a word from the Lord searching out hose who were left in Israel and Judah. He knew that the nation was under God’s wrath becasue they had strayed from His law.
Our verse (34:27) is God’s response to King Josiah becasue of his remorse about the absence of God in the lives of his people. At such a young age his heart was broken so he humbled himself before the Lord. God noticed.
What have you and I forgotten? Have we forgotten that God keeps His promises and blesses those who seek Him humbly? Do we suffer a broken heart when He is excluded from society? Repentance and restoration begins with one person. It just takes one person with a focus on submission to God to lead others to do the same. But we must begin on our knees, humbled and broken hearted.
Join me today and seek God’s wisdom and forgiveness. When our hearts are ready to receive Him, He will hear us and lead us in His way.