Is Revival Possible?
Now let’s get back to our greater study at hand and the similarity between today’s America and Israel of old. During the reign of Josiah, Manasseh’s son, a revival takes place on the finding of
the Book of the Law in the house of the Lord.[1] And it came to pass, when the king had heard the words of the Book of the Law, that he rent his clothes.[2]
And thus begins a revival and turning back to the Words of the Lord with the king leading the way. The king commands a cleansing of the Temple of all the false gods.
And he put down the idolatrous priests, whom the kings of Judah had ordained to burn incense in the high places in the cities of Judah, and in places round about Jerusalem; them also that burned incense unto Baal, to the sun, and to the moon, and to the planets, and to all the host of heaven.[3] … And he broke down the houses of the sodomites that were by the house of the Lord.[4]
Again, we see that repentance and getting back to God causes the king to break down the houses of the sodomites in Jerusalem adjacent to the house of the Lord. Sodomy had been politically correct under his father, and the sodomites had wielded considerable power and influence, in as much as their houses were “by the house of the Lord.” But Josiah takes a stand against sodomy.
Is the homosexual community with its gay-lobby wielding excessive influence over our government, our entertainment industry and even our religious institutions, so much so that we accept gay marriage and allow gay couples to adopt children? Is God pleased with the decisions we have made? Have we gotten off-center and are doing what the Lord warned us not to?
Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter![5]
Josiah also stopped the worship of Molech:
that no man might make his son or daughter pass through the fire to Molech.[6]
The worship of Molech with its child sacrifice, as we have noted earlier, was similar to modern-day man’s abortion clinics. By offering your child to Molech, the false priests promised you material blessing and wealth.
Many of today’s modern-day abortion or unborn child sacrifices are because of potential financial problems the future child could cause. Therefore, we sacrifice or abort the unborn child. We conveniently call it a “fetus,” so that subconsciously we don’t feel we are actually killing a person. The sacrifice we make is to the God of Materialism, because having children is expensive and we prefer to maintain a certain financial status, or to alleviate society from having to care for the burden of the poor who always seem to produce prolifically.
We even have “the day-after pill” which makes it easier and limits the number of actual bloody abortions. The warning on the little white paper inside the pill box admonishes the taker of the health dangers. Such pills should only be used once in a six-month period, though on-line I read an article that claims you can take them as often as you like without any knowable side-effects. A young friend of mine from a Southern European country told me that young girls were popping them like aspirins, once or twice a weekend. Today’s newspaper said there has been a 30% increase in the “day-after pill” sales, which has caused a decrease in abortions.
Interesting enough, when I looked up Molech I found that the Babylonians did not practice child sacrifice in their religion. They were pantheistic and used the occult, but they did not commit child sacrifice. [7]
Therefore, they were more righteous in God’s eyes than Israel. Israel had adopted the atrocious behavior of the Canaanites whom God had commanded the Israelites to supplant. Again and again in the scriptures we see the Lord’s hatred for the killing of innocent blood. God even called Nebuchadnezzar his razor.[8]
Josiah’s cleansing continues.
And slew all the priests of the high places that were there upon the altars.[9]Moreover the workers with familiar spirits, and the wizards, and the images, and the idols, and all the abominations that were spied in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, did Josiah put away, that he might perform the words of the Law which were written in the Book that the priest found in the house of the Lord.[10] And like unto him was there no king before him, that turned to the Lord with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his might, according to all the Law of Moses; neither after him arose there any like him. Notwithstanding the Lord turned not from the fierceness of His great wrath, wherewith His anger was kindled against Judah, because of all the provocations that Manasseh had provoked Him withal.[11] And also for the innocent blood that he shed: for he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood; which the Lord would not pardon.[12]
Could the innocent blood that the Lord is talking about, be the blood of the children offered in child sacrifice? What blood could be more innocent than that of a young child? Since the 1964 Supreme Court ruling making abortion legal, more than 50,000,000 unborn children have lost their lives in America alone.
Can God forget the bloodshed of these poor innocents? In Jerusalem He could not. Will He forgive America and other nations of the world for their similar sins? I think not. As the Lord said to Jeremiah,
Before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee; and before thou came forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I have made thee a prophet unto the nations.[13]
In other words, we are God’s children from the moment of conception. Also, God’s warnings from the mouth of Jeremiah were not just for Israel of old, but for all nations, even those today, even America.
After Josiah’s death in battle, it is written,
And all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah.[14] And Jeremiah lamented for Josiah: and all the singing men and the singing women spoke of Josiah in their lamentations to this day.[15]
We should note that even though the nation repented because of the effect of a righteous king, the repentance was short-lived and the nation soon fell back into her evil ways.[To continue reading the next two chapters click on the link]
To go to the previous chapter click HERE
To go to the next chapter click HERE
To go to the index of the chapters for the book click HERE
Notes:
[1] 2Kings 22:8
[2] 2Kings 22:11
[3] 2Kings 23:5
[4] 2Kings 23:7
[5] Isaiah 5:20
[6] 2Kings 23:10
[7] http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/10937-moloch-molech
[8] Ezekiel 5:1-4
[9] 2Kings 23:20
[10] 2Kings 23:24
[11] 2Kings 23:25-26
[12] 2Kings 24:4
[13] Jeremiah 1:5
[14] 2Chronicles 35:24
[15] 2Chronicles 35:25
0 Comments:
Post a Comment