KS; Alright everybody and welcome to week five of our “Trustworthy” Online Bible
Study. I know I have learned so much about many of the kings, and we’ll recap them
in the week six video, but Joel, I want to talk to you about this week’s king – Josiah.
JM: Yeah!
KS: So, what is something that we can learn from Josiah?
LT: And can we just say, we are so proud of you, for pressing into the pronunciation of
the kings. So, I just didn’t want that moment to pass.
KS: Thank you so much. We’ll see if I get it next week when I list them all.
JM: There we go.
KS: Everyone, stay tuned for that, if that’s not enough for you to come back. That’s
for sure.
LT: And it’s okay if you mess up.
KS: Thanks guys. You guys are very forgiving, which I appreciate, so thank you! Alright
Joel, so let’s chat about Josiah. What can we learn? What are we expecting of him?
JM: You know, Josiah is maybe – I feel like I say a lot of the kings are some of my favorite
kings, there’s definitely a lot of them that I really don’t like – and Josiah
is just, I don’t know, he’s just so unique and so special. And there’s so many amazing
things about what we’re going to find out about this king. One of the things why I can
personally just relate to Josiah, and I’m just so grateful for him, is that he shows
us what happens when you’ve been without something for a time and then, all of a sudden,
you see that thing, or you come across it, and you go, “How did I live my whole life
without this thing?” I feel like, Joel, you sound like you’re talking in all kinds
of mystery here and so I’ll give a little bit…
LT: Like a special cookie. It’s like you go to a party and somebody serves you a cookie
and you think that’s the most delicious thing in the world. How did I live my whole
life without this, right? But his discovery is much better than a cookie.
JM: So much better!
[Laughter]
JM: So, we’ll find out that Josiah finds, actually through some of the people that work
for him, the Book of the Law. And it’s actually a bit of a tragedy because what Josiah teaches
us is that God actually commanded that every king actually have the Book of the Law on
their nightstand at night. Essentially, this is the way that I would think about it. I
think that when they can’t sleep, when they’re having a hard time, when things are stressful,
Babylonians are trying to take them over…hey, here’s some good reading material, the Book
of the Law.
LT: And, I think not only are they supposed to read it, but are they supposed to record
it as well.
KS: Like, write it word for word?
LT: Yes, and so the Book of the Law, when God talks about how important it is that we
take God’s Word and write it on the tablet of our heart, so that it’s not just something
that is accessible to us, but it’s something that is inside of us and there’s no better
way to internalize God’s Word. If you think about the way the human mind is structured,
if you write it, and you read it, and you repeat it, and then you live it, and you internalize
it, that’s when your life starts to really line up with it. I know we’re going to say
it at the end, but that goes right along with what our desire is hear at Proverbs 31 Ministries
– Know the truth, live the truth because it changes everything – and I think we really
see this principle lived out. But the fact that he found it means that he had gone a
season without it. I think this is really profound.
JM: Yeah, absolutely. And what’s even more profound is that after he finds it, what does
he do with it? He actually begins to internalize it and we will find that he sets in action
all of these things to restore the kingdom to look like what it was designed to look
like, because God was supposed to be their king the whole time. And Josiah is just an
under-king. Josiah is just a representation of, “Hey, here is the direction that we’re
supposed to go in”. So, Josiah is an amazing king. He teaches us so much about what it
looks like, and probably my favorite thing that Josiah does is her re-enacts, or he reinstitutes
Passover. They have forgotten all about the story of Egypt being rescued and the Red Sea
being parted. All of that was forgotten and Josiah, in the Book of the Law, reads, “Wow,
there is actually this thing called a Passover that we’re supposed to celebrate” because
what it’s doing is it’s shaping us, it’s forming us, it’s actually – Lysa what
you said – it’s a cultivation of the heart and into becoming citizens of God’s Kingdom.
LT: I always like to think about the way that God designed the human body. Our stomach is
designed to remind us – through the pangs of hunger – that it’s time to take on
physical nourishment and so God has this wonderful, complicated, intricate way that He designed
our body because He gave us taste buds so that the taking in of physical nourishment
would be pleasing to us. He cave us hunger pains to remind us, you must thirst and hunger
to say you need water, you need food, and the complex system that God put together so
that our physical life can be sustainable is such a beautiful picture of the same thing
that our soul needs. Our soul has triggers that are just like soul hunger pains and the
thing that I think awakens in Josiah is, “Wow, I’ve been hungry for this for a very long
time”. And we know when we experience physical hunger that physical food can only reach the
depth of our stomach because physical food is meant to satisfy the stomach, but it’s
God’s Word that is hand-designed to be the nourishment for our soul. When we’ve gone
a really long time without physical food and without water, you know what it does to the
physical body. I think the soul is the same way. When you go a really long time without
really taking in the spiritual nourishment that God has given us to help us be sustained
spiritually, I think when you find it and you get into God’s Word and you start taking
it is, it starts to nourish your soul and it starts to give you a different kind of
perspective and energy in your life. I think it is so profound and I think we see in this
week’s lesson the incredible gift it is that unlike back in the times of the kings,
we have access to God’s Word all of the time. I think, how many times have I caught
myself saying, I have to read my Bible, as if it’s just this thing on my to-do list,
when in reality I think we should say, how amazing that we live in a day and a time where
God’s Word is so accessible that I get the gift of His Word, that my soul is so hungry
for and I can get into His Word and let it get into me and let it sustain me on a deep,
profound level. I also like this principle of what we see that the kings are supposed
to do – keep God’s Word close. Keep it right there on your bed so if you have times
of fear, you have times of anxiety, you have times of questions or whatever, make sure
that it’s God’s Word we are turning to. That’s why I love Online Bible Study so
much, because I think it is a way for us to gather together and start to get in parts
of the Bible that maybe we haven’t before, such as 1 and 2 Kings. There are some really
profound lessons that I think our soul needs to be reminded of and nourished by. It's not
just enough to read the Word. We’ve got to write it out, we’ve got to journal it,
do whatever we can do to start internalizing it so that it really impacts us in the way
that we live and so that our soul doesn’t’ feel so desperate. Have you ever been on a
diet and it’s like, all of a sudden you are super, super hungry and somebody puts
a plate of your favorite food in front of you that maybe you’re not supposed to have
on your diet?
KS: Like kettle cooked chips.
LT: Okay, kettle cooked chips.
KS: Yeah, so rude when that happens!
LT: It makes it that much harder to say “no” to those chips if you’re really walking
around in a state of desperation because you’re super hungry, right? However, if you’ve
just eaten a wonderfully nourishing salad and you’re full and somebody puts the chips
in front of you, you may still want one or two, but you don’t want to devour the whole
plate. I think desperation is a very important thing that we pay attention to and I think
that’s part of the gift of getting into God’s Word every day, so that the more spiritually
nourished we are, the more nourished that our soul is, the more full of truth that pour
soul is, the less desperate we will feel to reach for those things that God says, don’t
reach for that. That’s not my best. So, I think this week’s lesson is so profound
and so relevant to our lives as well.
KS: Right. I like thinking of Josiah when he finds the Book of the Law, is that how
you say it? Yeah, the Book of the Law, and when he reads it for the first time and what
might be going on in his mind, and in his soul, and it rejuvenates and revives him in
a way that changes the trajectory of…
JM: He is so, I don’t want to give too much away, but he is so mesmerized by what’s
happening – and so convicted – that he literally sends them out and says, you have
to find the closest person who can interpret what’s actually taking place, and it’s
a prophetess that he goes to. And we meet another uncanny woman, who’s just right
there, whose being obedient, and I just think about her. Just imagine you have to now give
the consequence of what this means, and you can maybe say exactly what God says, or maybe
not, and you’re talking to the king! And she is just again, another evidence of a woman
who is so faithful to clearly declare the Word of God.
KS: Well you guys, I’m excited to dive into week five, and like Lysa has mentioned, the
Word nourishes your soul and we know that here, and we know that to be true at Proverbs
31 Ministries. So, we know that when you know the truth and live the truth, it changes everything.
Bye y’all.