“And he slew all the priests of the high places that were there upon the altars, and burned men’s bones upon them, and returned to Jerusalem” (2 Kings 23:20).
TEXT — 2 Kings 23:15-20
Message
Luther Burbank, the great naturalist, always studied nature with his microscope. Someone asked him, “Why are you out of step with the world?”; He answered, “ I’m not out of step. I’m walking to the beat of another drum”. When you are devoted to doing what is right and disregarding what men are saying about you, there is the triumph of moral courage- Phillip Brooks. Only courage and faith will triumph where fear and timidity fail. It takes intuitiveness, the purpose of heart, personal conviction and determination to withstand the hordes of evil in any society or community. Unarguably, the world lieth in wickedness. Surprisingly, many are befriending the world that crucified their Lord and Saviour. They forget God’s counsel through the Apostle James, ”Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever, therefore, will be a friend of the world is an enemy of God”.
Continuing what he began at the beginning of his reform, Josiah swiped at the ungodly strongholds established by his forebears. (Jeroboam, Manasseh and Amon, his father). He destroyed Jeroboam’s altar and high places in Bethel, as predicted three hundred years before his birth. He also destroyed the high places in all of Samaria and killed the idolatrous priests (2 Kings 23:15-17; 1 Kings 13:2,3).
God’s prophecies are not a figment of the human carnal, corrupt, selfish mind; they are His breath upon the holy and chosen men who wrote as His Spirit influenced them. (2 Timothy 3:16,17; 2 Peter 1:20,21). As stated above, the fulfilment of the prophecy concerning Josiah shows the following about God’s words or prophecies: they are inerrant, unalterable, unmodifiable, constant, consistent, infallible, dependable, and immutable as God himself. His words are eternal as God. They are creative and life transforming. They solve all human needs and problems irrespective of who, when, and where. These should assure you that none can alter God’s purposes for your life.
As believers, we should hold onto all promises of God because they are reliable. Leveraging Josiah’s bold step of exterminating evil in his kingdom, saints and ministers of God should courageously stand for the truth, stamp out all kinds of evil practices around their places of influence, and rest assured that none can harm them.
Thought for the day
Those who travel in the ship of truth never suffer shipwreck.
Listed among “500 most powerful people on the planet” by the Foreign Policy magazine in 2013, Pastor (Dr.) William F. Kumuyi is the founder and General Superintendent of the Deeper Christian Life Ministry (DCLM) headquartered in Lagos, Nigeria. DCLM started in 1973 as a 15-member Bible study group right in Kumuyi’s apartment at University of Lagos where he was a lecturer. His revolutionary Bible teaching on personal holiness and commitment to evangelism soon gained so much traction and resulted in a widespread revival.
