Friday, 29 February 2008
King Josiah
For this months devotion I wanted to look at the life of a man we find in the book of 2 Kings named Josiah. He was one of the few good kings that the people of Judah had. His father and grandfather, along with most of the other kings that preceded him, had very little regard for the ways of God. But the Bible says that Josiah “did what was right in the eyes of the Lord and walked in all the ways of his father David, not turning aside to the right or to the left.” He was only 8 years old when he became king and would rule for 31 years. In 2 Kings 32:25 it says “neither before nor after Josiah was there a king like him who turned to the Lord as he did.” He was a great king who did the best thing he could for his people. What was it that he did? He tried to lead them back to God.
There is, however, something very intriguing about his story. Unlike most of us he knew the outcome of his life and ministry in advance. In chapter 22 he learns through a prophet that God is going to “bring disaster” on his land and his people. The kings preceding Josiah had lead the people astray and their sins demanded justice and no matter what Josiah did, God was going to bring disaster. So what did he do? He stepped up his efforts to lead his people back to God, wasting no time, energy or resource to restore his people. Most would have abandoned the reforms and the efforts on this lost cause, but not Josiah; no instead he tried even harder.
Personally I have wondered for years why Josiah continued, what was it that made him press on? Was it his desire to leave a legacy, or economic, military, or personal gains that he wanted to make? It was none of these. About a year ago God showed me what I believe it was, that lead Josiah to press on and continue, despite knowing that his efforts and his energy would not change anything and his people would face the disaster that God himself would bring. Josiah figured something out that very few of us have, he knew that faithfulness was more important than success. We go through life striving to succeed he went through life desiring only to be faithful. There is a huge difference. Success is not always faithfulness, and faithfulness is seldom considered success in our world today.
As I think about my life, it is clear that I have failed more then I have succeeded. Many of my failures have been small and have gone unnoticed by most. Others have been big and seen by all. As I prepare to be a father I know that I will most likely fail more than I will succeed. As a husband it has been no different. Not because I am a bad man or that I desire to fail, in fact the opposite is true. But like you I live in a fallen, sinful world where success is hard to come by and failure is easy. As a church we have failed more than succeeded as well, if we really looked at everything in these terms. Again most of these failures are small, go unnoticed and in the grand scheme of life are unimportant, however, they are still failures. Despite knowing we will fail, we must long to be faithful. I don’t mind failing as a husband so long as I am faithful in every way to my wife. I will fail as a father, but I pray that I will always be faithful to my children. As a pastor I will fail, but I will strive to always be faithful. We look at things in the terms of success and failure, God however only see’s faithfulness and unfaithfulness. May we learn and strive to be faithful, not successful.
Like Josiah we too face difficult and indeed impossible odds in the course of life. It might be a difficult marriage, a failing business, sickness, family division, or anything else that no matter what we try we just can’t fix. Should we give up on that spouse like our friends and family tell us we should? Should we quit the job or walk away from our family member when we just can’t see how anything good could ever come out of the situation? The answer depends not on the success we desire, but instead the faithfulness God has called us to. If he has called you to be faithful, then do it, and let success worry about itself.
When my days are numbered and God calls me home, I don’t know if the world will judge my life as a success or not. The closer I get to God the less success seems to matter, and the more faithfulness does. To the world Josiah’s life seems like a failure, but according to God he was one of the greatest men to ever live. Personally I will take faithfulness over success any day, and I pray that our church as a whole will adopt this attitude as well. May God bless you and find you faithful all the days of your life.
Pastor Pete
