For in the eighth year of his reign while he was still a youth, he began to seek the God of his father David; and in the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem of the high places, the Asherim, the carved images and the molten images (2 Chronicles 34:3).

Alongside David and Hezekiah, Josiah was one of the greatest kings of Israel. I am riveted by the narrative comment here that Josiah began seeking God "while he was still a youth". Thus, he began seeking the LORD on his own when he turned sixteen years old. After four years of seeking God, it apears that he began to understand the fear of the LORD and to find the knowledge of God (cf. Proverbs 2:4-5), for he began a nationwide campaign to rid Israel of all the idolatry that had infected the land and people from the time of Moses to his day. Wow! 

This is my hope for my daughter. I initiated a daily quiet time with her when she turned four years old. Over the past year I have tried to show her that her time with God was more important than anything else she did.

We praise God together in song and dance. She particularly enjoys our "dancing songs". I love to explain to her the meaning of every song we sing. And when she spontaneously breaks out into one of these praise songs on other occasions and places, I am so moved. I remember the Scripture: "Out of the mouth of babes and infants you have perfected praise" (Matthew 21:16).

We read and study God's Word together. I show her God's amazing faithfulness, His holy standards, and His forgiveness, while also teaching her about man's depravity in every age, his deserved judgement, and his best hope in always and humbly seeking God. 

We also daily memorize large portions of Scripture, beginning in the first chapter of the Gospel of John and now already in the great third chapter. With so much time in the Old Testament, I use this occasion to tell her more about the Lord Jesus Christ. I praise God for her naturally inquisitive nature, always asking me what this word or that phrase in Scripture means. Thankfully, most of what she learns at church is also about Jesus. I can't wait to get to that portion of Scripture in our daily reading. I feel that taking things in order, first the Old Testament and then the New Testament, will help her to better understand and appreciate God's sovereign and amazing working through history and also help her to love and trust Jesus all the more. 

And she is learning to pray, first by simply echoing her daddy's prayers, and then making her own, which is always so heart-warming. I love that most of her prayer is filled with all manner of thanksgiving to God. And while she considers the health and wellbeing of others from time to time, her main petition for others is that they might know God more. We pray together both in the mornings (i.e. just after she gets up) and evenings (i.e. just before sleeping). And we always pray after our quiet times. She also leads in most of our meal-time prayers. And I pray that these frequent occasions for prayer will teach her to be absolutely dependent upon God. 

Friends, this is just a little glimpse of what God has moved me to do in taking this command of Scripture to heart:

Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord (Ephesians 6:4).

To you, parents, and especially to you, fathers, I pray that you will choose to take the initiative in providing the spiritual and moral instruction for your children. I know that you love your kids, even as you also love the Lord. Is there anything greater and better for you to do for your kids than this?

2 chronicles 33

³ For he rebuilt the high places that his father Hezekiah had broken down, and he erected altars to the Baals, and made Asheroth, and worshiped all the host of heaven and served them. ⁴ And he built altars in the house of the Lord, of which the Lord had said, “In Jerusalem shall my name be forever.” ⁵ And he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the Lord. ⁶ And he burned his sons as an offering in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, and used fortune-telling and omens and sorcery, and dealt with mediums and with necromancers. He did much evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger. ⁷ And the carved image of the idol that he had made he set in the house of God,

[…]¹² And when he was in distress, he entreated the favor of the Lord his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers. ¹³ He prayed to him, and God was moved by his entreaty and heard his plea and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord was God.

[…] ¹⁵ And he took away the foreign gods and the idol from the house of the Lord, and all the altars that he had built on the mountain of the house of the Lord and in Jerusalem, and he threw them outside of the city. ¹⁶ He also restored the altar of the Lord and offered on it sacrifices of peace offerings and of thanksgiving, and he commanded Judah to serve the Lord, the God of Israel. ¹⁷ Nevertheless, the people still sacrificed at the high places, but only to the Lord their God.

I love stories of repentance. I love the story of Paul’s conversion, David’s confession, and this one of Manasseh.

God is creative in how he works his will out. I always sit on the edge of my seat for this kind of repentance; total mind/spirit change – creating the C.S Lewises or Manassehes of our day.

More to come!

2 Chronicles 33

⁶ And he burned his sons as an offering in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom

The Valley of (the son of) Hinnom, is known as Gehinnam in Yiddish, or Gehenna in Greek, or “hell” in modern vernacular.

This is where people burned their children, because of this it was known as a cursed placed, making for an easy reference and description for the place where the wicked will ultimately go. I thought this was a greek origination used in the new testament to describe an idea, but this is a Hebrew idea developed from apostate activities, that made its way into Greek – backwards!

For he rebuilt the high places which Hezekiah his father had broken down; he also erected altars for the Baals and made Asherim, and worshiped all the host of heaven and served them (2 Chronicles 33:3).

What happened?! Hezekiah was described as perhaps the godliest king of Judah:

Hezekiah trusted in the Lord, the God of Israel. There was no one like him among all the kings of Judah, either before him or after him. He held fast to the Lord and did not stop following him; he kept the commands the Lord had given Moses. (2 Kings 18:5-6).

Yet, his son, Manasseh, was described as perhaps the most ungodly king of Judah:

Manasseh king of Judah has committed these detestable sins. He has done more evil than the Amorites who preceded him and has led Judah into sin with his idols (2 Kings 21:11).

We are told that Manasseh rebuilt the high places that his father Hezekeiah had broken down (cf. 2 Chronicles 33:3). Manasseh systematically reversed every good thing his father had done. 

Friends, as wonderful as it is to read about Hezekiah's personal faithfulness to the LORD in his lifetime, it is clear that his legacy of righteousness was short-lived. It is very much like Joseph's interpretation of Pharaoh's dream, where he predicted seven lean years would follow seven fat years. The lean years were so bad that it would completely consume the seven fat years:

Seven years of great abundance are coming throughout the land of Egypt, but seven years of famine will follow them. Then all the abundance in Egypt will be forgotten, and the famine will ravage the land. The abundance in the land will not be remembered, because the famine that follows it will be so severe (Genesis 41:29-31).

In the same way, the wickedness of Manasseh would completely consume the righteous acts of Hezekiah, so that they would not even be remembered. 

I recall also the history of Israel following the death of Joshua:

After that whole generation had been gathered to their ancestors, another generation grew up who knew neither the Lord nor what he had done for Israel (Judges 2:10).

We are told that because they did not know the Lord, they progressively fell further and further away from the LORD, so that at the end of the book, rather than following the LORD's commands, "everyone did what was right in his own eyes" (Judges 21:25). Because the Word of the LORD had not been faithfully passed along from generation to generation, the great experiences and teachings of Joshua and Moses were forgotten and came to no effect.

Friends, even if you and I know the Lord, will our children and their children know the Lord? Even if we are faithful, will this just be for our lifetimes? What measures have we taken to ensure a continuing legacy of faithfulness?

We are told that Hezekiah was immensely rich and active in his building projects (cf. 2 Chronicles 32:27-29); however, we hear next to nothing about how he raised his kids. Now, it is likely that he had Manasseh when he was older. The Bible tells us that Manasseh became king when he was just twelve years old (cf. 2 Chronicles 33:1). Historians suggest that Manasseh was co-regent with his father for the first ten years. That would mean that Manasseh was seven years old when God told Hezekiah that he would die, but then fifteen years were added to his life. So, Hezekiah had a good twenty-two years to train his son in the instruction of the LORD? But did he do this? We don't know. If he did, there is no record of it. 

We are told that God spoke to Manasseh, but he did not listen (2 Chronicles 33:10). It appears he knew about the LORD "the God of his fathers," but he did not know Him as God. Only after his experience of captivity and deliverance do we get this testimony: "Then Manasseh knew that the LORD was God" (2 Chronicles 33:13).

Friends, do our children merely know about God? Do they simply know Him as "the God that my mother and father worshipped in their day"? How involved are we in training our children in the instruction of the LORD?

This generational passing on of the spiritual torch is of chief importance in the Old Testament. There are numerous occasions, where God tells Israel not to forget His Word but to continue to pass it on to their children and their children after them. One of the most famous passages, where we find this charge, is Deuteronomy 6:4-9,

Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead.  You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

God expected Israel to diligently teach their children the Word of God. He even explained the manner in which He wanted them to teach it, namely, through immersion. God's Word was to be spoken, read, discussed, and displayed everywhere and on every occasion.

As I have mentioned before, the New Testament reiterates this command to diligently teach our children with a singularly simple and focused command:

Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord (Ephesians 6:4).

Does this mean that we drop our kids off at church once a week for a couple of hours of Bible learning? Does this mean that we take them to a weekly AWANA meeting or a Summer VBS? No!

Notice, the Bible says "fathers," which means "parents". The primary place for biblical instruciton should be at home, not at church; by parents, not by Sunday School teachers. Yet, today, that is not what we have going on. Not only is their too little biblical instruction for our kids, it is also not being done by the agents that God has assigned to the task. 

Churches should also do well to reevaluate their priorities. I remember being a part of the children's ministry meeting where the mission statement of that ministry was developed. I encouraged them to make sure that it is understood that the church's children's ministry was simply "partnering" with parents to train their kids. Now, as great as that is to have in a mission statement, unless this emphasis is driven home from the pulipit and in house churches, such a statement will have no practical effect.

Unless Christian leaders strongly encourage parents to provide consistent, regular and extensive biblical instruction for their children, and to rebuke the failure to do so, who is going to take this instruction seriously? 

Friends, don't make this absence of exhortation from the pulpit as a license to disobey God in regard to the training of your children. While both parents should take an active role, I especially encourage you, fathers, to take the initiative.

Determine, plan and then begin a daily quiet time for your children. Instill in them from a young age the discipline of setting aside an exclusive time to concentrate on the Lord in praise and worship, in Bible study, and prayer. Make it a priority, so that you do it even when you are on vacation, when you have family over, when you are particularly busy with activities, and even when you are dead tired.

In doing these things, will you not show them that God is indeed your priority and the priority in your family? Will you not powerfully teach them that we don't worship God simply when we feel like it or when we are not too busy? Will you not convey in no uncertain terms that God is always first and central in our lives?!

After you do this, perhaps you will realize as I do, this only scratches the surface of what God desires. Even a thirty minute daily Bible study with our children is a far cry from an always and everywhere immersive instruction in God's Word. 

As I write this comment, I feel like Josiah when he discovered the Book of the Law. He tore his clothes, humbled himself and wept before the LORD. He had already been doing some things to reform himself and the kingdom, but he realized just how far short of the mark his efforts were in light of what God had revealed.

Friends, if you share my conviction, then join with me in redoubling and quadrupling our concentration and efforts in regard to this command for parents to train their children in the instruction of the Lord.

During the eighth year of his reign, while he was still young, Josiah began to seek the God of his ancestor David. Then in the twelfth year he began to purify Judah and Jerusalem, destroying all the pagan shrines, the Asherah poles, and the carved idols and cast images. (2 Chronicles 34:3 NLT)

Josiah became king when he was just eight years old. When he was sixteen, he began to seek the LORD. Then, at the age of twenty, he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem of idolatry. So, Josiah was saved at sixteen, found out what he could about God till he was twenty, then he began to put into practice what he understood. 

Hilkiah said to Shaphan the court secretary, “I have found the Book of the Law in the LORD’s Temple!” Then Hilkiah gave the scroll to Shaphan. When the king heard what was written in the Law, he tore his clothes in despair. Then he gave these orders to Hilkiah, Ahikam son of Shaphan, Acbor son of Micaiah, Shaphan the court secretary, and Asaiah the king’s personal adviser: “Go to the Temple and speak to the LORD for me and for all the remnant of Israel and Judah. Inquire about the words written in the scroll that has been found. For the LORD’s great anger has been poured out on us because our ancestors have not obeyed the word of the LORD. We have not been doing everything this scroll says we must do.” (2 Chronicles 34:15, 19-21 NLT)

Then, Josiah discovers the Book of the Law. And he realizes that even though he was doing his best to follow the LORD, there was much they had neglected to do. And while it was too late to avert God's judgment altogether, his repentance and renewed commitment to follow the Book of the Law would at least delay God's judgment till after is death. 

Friends, many of you have kids, as I do. And you want them to be the best that they can be academically, athletically, musically, linguistically, etc. However, as parents we have only one God-given responsibility with respect to our children: 

Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord. (Ephesians 6:4 NIV)

That responsibility is to provide a very focused upbringing, one that emphasizes the "training and instruction of the Lord." This is what will distinguish Christian parenting from all other kinds of parenting.

Josiah began seeking the Lord when he was sixteen. Considering his father Amon's early and untimely death when he was only twenty-four years old, Josiah may not have been much influenced by Amon, except to see that his father's idolatry did not fare well for him. Perhaps Josiah's grandfather Manasseh may also have influenced Josiah, especially at the time of his repentance in the latter years of his life (2 Chronicles 33:12-16). King Manasseh died when Josiah was only six years old, so this grandpa, who once was the most wicked of kings, had the opportunity of at least a few years to inculcate in his young grandson Josiah the importance of humility, repentance and faithfulness toward the LORD.  This may have been just enough influence on Josiah to help him become one of the greatest and godliest of kings of Israel.

Friends, how we influence our kids in the formative years may mark them for life:

Start children off on the way they should go,and even when they are old they will not turn from it. (Proverbs 22:6 NIV)

What are we teaching our young kids? How are we preparing them for their future? Are we filling their lives with exasperating distractions, just like our own lives, or are we preparing them to live in undivided devotion to the Lord? 

In the Old Testament, parents also had a very clear responsibility with respect to their children. They were commanded to diligently teach them the Law of God:

These are the commands, decrees and laws the Lord your God directed me to teach you to observe in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess, so that you, your children and their children after them may fear the Lord your God as long as you live by keeping all his decrees and commands that I give you, and so that you may enjoy long life. Hear, Israel, and be careful to obey so that it may go well with you and that you may increase greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, just as the Lord, the God of your ancestors, promised you. Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates. (Deuteronomy 6:1-9 NIV)

This passage is called the Shema. It is the most important passage in the Hebrew Bible, and the focus of it is in loving God by carefully teaching and obeying God's Law. And you will notice that teaching children the Law is highlighted. What is interesting is that while the NT emphasizes not exasperating children, the OT promotes this kind of exasperating attention (e.g. parents are to impress children with the Law in every possible way). Is the NT and OT contradicting each other? No, not all. They are in harmony. While we are not to fill our children's lives with any number of worldly distractions, we are to fill their lives with the Word of God. Perhaps exasperation is not the proper word for this passage's emphasis on training children in the Law. Immersion might be a better word. This is the sense we get from the word pictures invoked by the language of talking of them when you sit at home, when you walk along the road, when you lie down, when you get up, of having them as symbols on your hands and head and of writing them on the doorframes of your house and gate. 

Friends, are you busy taking your kids to soccer games, piano lessons, and Korean school? Why not redirect your attention to creatively immersing your child with the Word of God, so that their entire life experience from monrning to evening and every day will be filled with the knowledge of God and a right understanding of His Word. After all, the promise of blessing is to the man who "delights in the Law of the LORD and meditates on it day and night" (Psalm 1:2).

As I look over the landscape of parenting today, even Christian parenting, we are emphasizing the exact opposite of what we ought to be focusing on with respect to our children. Even though we have good intentions, we may inadvertantly be perpetuating yet another generation of lackluster and anemic Christianity. We may be doing them more  harm than good. Let us consider carefuly our ways. 

I was deeply touched by the kings of Judah who led reformation in the country. It tells me to break down and purge all the idols, Ashera Poles, altars to starry hosts, the high places out of my mind and heart and to devote myself to the Lord. God of Abraham, Issac, and Jacob is also our God who called us "sons of the living God." He is the one who is worthy of our loyal hearts.