We recently received a prayer letter from missionary friends of ours. They had been missionaries in the Philippines with Wycliffe for many years and are now working for Wycliffe out of their office in Winnipeg. This winter they had a chance to return to the Philippines and visit with many people they had gotten to know previously. They wrote in their letter, “We also met Gina again on this trip, a former house helper of ours. Back in the 1980’s we gave her a New Testament in her language, which by her own admission she did not appreciate then. However, she told us that a number of years later it was because of this New Testament that she and her husband came to know the Lord. Now their children also believe and the whole family is serving the Lord in their local church.”
Hebrews 4:12 says, “For the Word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit…”
The last king of whom it is said he “did what was right in the eyes of the Lord” was Josiah. Reading the Word of God had a powerful impact in his life and on the nation. This morning, we will examine his life and think about, “How does God speak to us? How do we read His Word? What impact does His Word have on us?” The story is found in II Chronicles 34 and this will be our last message in the series on II Chronicles.
Josiah was 8 years old when he began to reign as king and he reigned for 31 years. When he had been king for 8 years, so at the age of 16, we read in 34:3 that he “began to seek the God of his father David.” Four years later, at the age of 20, we read in 34:3-7 that he “began to purge Judah…” Throughout the region over which he had authority, he tore down Baal altars, smashed Asherah poles and so on. Then when he had been king for 18 years, at the age of 26, we read in 34:8-13 that he ordered that the temple of God should be cleaned up and repaired. It had been cleaned up before, but it seems that it quickly fell to disuse and deteriorated. Once again it was being cleaned. While the priests were doing this work, they discovered the Book of the Law. They read it and brought it to the king and read it to him. When it was read to Josiah, we read in 34:19, “When the king heard the words of the Law, he tore his robes.” He was seriously disturbed and in a little while we will look at why he was disturbed and what effect that had on him. After he heard the words read out of God’s Word, he did something that I find quite interesting. He wanted to inquire of the Lord to find out “about what is written in this book that has been found.” God’s Word was clear to him and he accepted it as God’s Word, but he needed a further confirmation about how this word applied to him and his people. They called for Huldah, who was a prophetess. She had insight into the ways of God and was able to answer Josiah’s questions about the meaning of God’s Word.
I find this to be an interesting event. Josiah had God’s Word, but he went to a prophet to find out what that word meant and how it applied. This raises the question, “How does God speak? Does He speak through His Word or through prophets or both?” I have heard about people who are prophets and speak a word from God to a specific situation. I have heard about people, some who have television programs, who claim to have a word from God, but their word from God does not line up with God’s Word. I have heard of others who say that the Bible is all we need. They say that the day of prophecy is past. They quote I Corinthians 13:8 which says “Where there are prophecies, they will cease…” and believe that the day of the fulfillment of that Word has come since we have the Bible completely and don’t need anything added to it. How do we understand all this? How does God speak to us? Is it only through His Word? Does he still speak through prophets? How do we discern what is from God and what is from other sources?
God has spoken through prophets.
That God has spoken through prophets in the past is beyond doubt. When Huldah spoke, she spoke a word from God as a prophet. Isaiah, Jeremiah and even Moses are all identified as prophets in the Bible.
In the New Testament, we also read about the words of prophets. In Acts 11:27,28, Agabus and other prophets predict that there is going to be a famine which is going to impact much of the region. Then later when Paul was returning from one of his missionary journeys and going to Jerusalem, Agabus and Philip’s daughters all prophesied about what was going to happen to Paul when he went to Jerusalem. He still went to Jerusalem, but was prepared for it because of the words of the prophets.
There are numerous other examples of prophecies which are found in both the Old Testament and the New Testament so we know that God does give some the ability to proclaim His truth apart from what is written in His Word. In those cases, what was spoken became God’s Word.
Does God still speak through prophets?
The question is “does God still speak through prophets today?”
John MacArthur is one who believes that prophecy has ceased. He quotes one writer who says, “I do not feel the need for study of the Scriptures, for I know Jesus as He has revealed Himself to me within; and as He dwells in me, there is the Word.” Naturally he criticizes such a stance. We cannot take prophecy over the Word of God. But I wonder if he throws out the baby with the bath?
John Walvoord also does not believe in prophecy for our day. He says, “In the early church prior to the completion of the New Testament, authoritative revelation was needed from God not only concerning the present where the prophet was a forth-teller but also concerning the future where the prophet was a foreteller.”
Walvoord’s comment shows that he believes that prophecy was only needed before the completion of the New Testament.
In this comment, he also invites us to consider what a prophet is. He mentions a “forth-teller” and a “fore-teller.” The word “prophet” is used to speak of those who did both of these things in the Old Testament. Sometimes Jeremiah was a forth-teller. He spoke God’s well known judgement to the people of his day. When a preacher takes the Word of God and applies it, he is a prophet in one sense, proclaiming how God’s Word applies to God’s people. At other times, he was a fore-teller, proclaiming things about what was yet to come in the future. In Huldah, however, we see another type of prophecy. She applied God’s Word to a very specific situation. She applied what Josiah had read to him and his time. What she prophesied went beyond God’s Word, but was in tune with it. We are quite comfortable with the idea of a preacher exposing God’s word and making it applicable to life. If that is what prophecy is, then we have no problem with it. But what about the type of prophecy which Huldah declared? Gordon Fee says, “The prophet spoke to God’s people under the inspiration of the Spirit. In Paul such speech consists of spontaneous, understandable messages, orally delivered in the gathered assembly, intended for the edification or encouragement of the people.” Is there room for going beyond the revealed word of God or making it very specific to a situation?
In numerous passages in the New Testament, we are told that prophecy, in this sense, is a gift for our time. Probably the most powerful passage is Acts 2:17. Here Peter recognizes the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy, that a day is coming when “God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy…” Paul also mentions prophecy in many passages. I Corinthians 11:4,5 speaks about men and women praying and prophesying. I Corinthians 12-14 discusses, among other things, the gift of prophecy. Hearing God speak through His Spirit by the words of those who have been given the gift of prophecy is a normal part of New Testament life. Prophetic utterances which go beyond the Word of God are seen in the New Testament to be part of what it means to live in the church and to function as the people of God.
So what has happened to prophecy in our circles? When was the last time we had room for a prophetic utterance? When was the last time a prophet spoke in our church? I believe that the warning in I Thessalonians 5:19-22 is for us. It says, “Do not put out the Spirit’s fire; 20 do not treat prophecies with contempt.” When Paul says this, I believe he is talking to me and to our church. We have not been open to listening to prophets. Why not? How can we change this?
I think we have avoided prophecy because we are not certain of the authority of the prophets. We wonder, “Are they really speaking for God?” But that is not a reason to dismiss prophecy. Rather, we need to be open to prophecy and, at the same time, test it. As we read “do not treat prophecies with contempt” we must also read the rest of that passage which says, “test everything. Hold on to the good. Avoid every kind of evil.” I Corinthians 14:29, also speaking about prophecy, says, “weigh carefully what is said.” I John 4:1 tells us why such testing is necessary. It says, “do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.”
James Beverley, writing about the Toronto blessing, gives some principles about how to discern prophecy. He points out that “prophecies after the fact are meaningless.” If I prophecy that there will not be flooding in the spring of 2007, that is not a prophecy, that is a historical report. He also points out that vague prophecies are of minimal value. I always get a kick out of fortune cookies. The sayings are so general that they could be true of anyone at any time. In their generality they become meaningless. Prophecies that are like that may encourage at times, but their value is limited. Another thing to remember is that if a person claims to have the gift of being a prophecy, but most of the prophetic statements they make do not come true, then we ought to be suspect of their prophetic gift. The most important thing is that whatever prophecy is made, it cannot contradict the Word of God.
The primary way God speaks is through His Word.
When Huldah made the prophecy, Josiah accepted her word, but it is significant to note that when he went out to read God’s message to the people, it was not the message of Huldah he read, but the Word of God. I think II Timothy 3:16,17 says it well, “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” The problem with prophecies is that they can be quite subjective, the Bible is objective and can be checked and studied and followed. With prophecies, we need to test them and check them against the Word of God.
However, we must be careful not to despise prophetic words. We are among those who have not listened to God’s Word about prophecy. We have much to learn. As we learn to be open to God speaking in this way, however, let us always keep the Bible as primary and test whatever is said.
The prophetic word confirmed God’s message in His Word and Josiah listened to what was spoken. The Word of God had an impact on his life. How did that come about? How did the king hear God’s Word? What effect did that word have?
When we hear that the Book of the Law was found, one of the questions we might ask is, why had it been lost? Deuteronomy 31:26 had said “Take this Book of the Law and place it beside the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God. There it will remain as a witness against you.” And yet they had not used it. I think it might have been like things happen in church. Something is not used for a while and it is put in a storage room and no one ever knows how to deal with storage rooms in churches. Perhaps the book was put in a back room where no one entered during the reigns of the idolatrous kings Manasseh and Amon. The people must have had some knowledge of God’s word, but somehow it wasn’t very clear. Up to this point, Josiah had not read the book nor paid close attention to it, but now as it was read to him the Holy Spirit impressed it upon his heart.
When he read it, he was quite upset. Why? The words he read were probably like those in Deuteronomy 28. There we read the condition in verse 15 – “if you do not obey the Lord…” Then we read in the following verses all of the consequences of this disobedience. Verse 16-19, “You will be cursed…” Verse 25, “The Lord will cause you to be defeated before your enemies…” Verse 36, “The Lord will drive you and the king you set over you to a nation unknown to you or your fathers…” verse 64, “Then the Lord will scatter you among all nations…” Josiah realized that they had not followed the Lord and that they were in great danger of this prophecy coming true. Perhaps it struck him because what was written here had already happened to the northern tribes.
The message of Huldah was that these words were going to be fulfilled, but not in the lifetime of Josiah because of his desire to seek the Lord. As we read on in II Chronicles, we find in chapter 36 that these words were indeed fulfilled. In II Chronicles 36:2 we read that Jehoahaz became king, but only reigned for 3 months when the king of Egypt dethroned him and made his brother, Eliakim, king. He reigned for 11 years, but did evil. After him, Jehoiachin reigned for 3 months at which time he was taken to Babylon. The next king was Zedekiah who reigned for 11 years and when he rebelled against the king of Babylon, this king came and in verses 17-21 we read how Jerusalem was destroyed and the people were exiled to Babylon for what turned out to be 70 years.
Josiah had a heart turned towards God before he knew the details of God’s judgement from the Word of God. Yet when he read the book of God, he was moved deeply. Even though he discovered that it would not happen in his lifetime, yet he was greatly concerned. As he read God’s word, it made a difference in his life. In verse 19 we see his act of repentance. As Huldah applied the message of God’s Word to Josiah she said to him, “Because you heart was responsive and you humbled yourself before God when you heard what he spoke against this place and its people, and because you humbled yourself before me and tore your robes and wept in my presence, I have heard you, declares the Lord.”
He was so moved by God’s word that he gathered together all the people and he read the book of God in the hearing of all the people. In the presence of all the people, when they had heard the words of the book, he showed them, by example what was to be done. We read in verse 31 that he renewed his covenant with God and he chose to follow and obey the words of the book.
The people followed his example. He invited them to pledge themselves to renew the covenant. He continued to work towards removing all the idols which were still in the land and we discover that as long as Josiah was king, “the people did not fail to follow the Lord.” As they read God’s Word, God worked in the hearts of those who heard His word and changed their hearts.
At the Awana closing program, John Driedger quoted some interesting statistics. He said that, on average, people in North America watch 1000 hours of television every year. If you think that is a lot, just remember that is only about 3 hours a day. The news and a movie would already be more than that amount. If we go to church every Sunday, attend a midweek activity and read our Bible for 15 minutes every day, that would be about 200 hours a year of exposure to God’s Word. In other words, about 20% of the amount of time we spend watching TV. There is no question that TV influences us. If we spend a lot of time watching it, it will impact our lifestyle and values. How do we expect to overcome those influences if we are not listening to God’s Word? Do you know where your Bible is or has it become lost like the Word of God in the temple? When was the last time you spent time reading God’s Word?
I appreciate the work of Sunday School, AWANA, youth and camp. Our young people are being exposed to God’s Word through these programs. Are we as adults as diligent in studying God’s Word?
How has reading God’s Word impacted your life? As I was wrestling with a difficult question a while ago, I was reading one of the Psalms, as is my habit daily. The Psalm was appropriate for that day and was very encouraging. I was thinking, “what would happen if I didn’t read a Psalm every day? Where would my encouragement come from?”
God speaks to us. He speaks through prophecy, but even more importantly he speaks through His Word.
Are we open to God speaking through prophecy or are we guilty of despising it?
Are we listening to His Word? As we read it, we need to be like Josiah and inquire to make sure that we are accurately understanding His Word. As we read it, we must always be asking, “How can I do this?”
God is speaking. Are you listening?
No comments:
Post a Comment