READING: 2 Kings 20-23
It’s quite a statement to make, but it was the biblical summary of Josiah’s life: “Before him there was no king like him who turned to the Lord with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his strength according to all the law of Moses, and no one like him arose after him” (2 Kgs 23:25). Josiah was not a perfect man, yet not even David himself fulfilled the role of godly king like he did.
He called his people back to the Word and led them in obedience to that Word. He commanded them to observe the Passover again like they had not done “from the time of the judges who judged Israel through the entire time of the kings of Israel and Judah” (2 Kgs 23:22). He confronted evil and took dramatic steps to eradicate it from the land. His obedience did not stay God’s ultimate judgment on the people, but he himself is still remembered as a significant light in that darkness.
We, too, live amid darkness, and we can assume that God’s judgment will ultimately fall on nations that have rejected Him. God’s call to us, however, remains: we are to follow Him completely—even if we stand as one of the first to follow Him.
PERSONAL REFLECTION: Are you willing to stand for God, even if you stand alone?
DAILY PRAYER: “God, I want to walk with You fully.”
TOMORROW’S READING: 2 Kings 24-25, 1 Chron 1