“A Heart for God” – FBC Morning Light (8/2/2024)

Well a good Friday morning to you, wrapping up another week and looking forward to the weekend. I trust you are, anticipating gathering with God's people on the Lord's Day. Well today in our Bible reading we're reading 2 Kings chapters 22 and 23, as well as 2 Chronicles chapter 34.

Now yesterday we talked about this king of Judah named Manasseh, who was notoriously evil, even though his father, Hezekiah, was a king who was notoriously righteous. And we commented about how tragic that is sometimes.

Well Manasseh had a son, and Manasseh's son illustrates the typical scenario where, you know, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree, so to speak. Manasseh's son was Ammon, and we read at the end of chapter 21, that he was 22 years old when he became the king.

He only reigned two years, but then here's the summary about these two years of reign, that he did evil in the sight of the Lord as his father Manasseh had done, so he walked in all the ways that his father had walked.

Alright, so for two years this guy Ammon, he did not follow the repentant heart of his father when his father, you know, was brought to the bottom of the barrel. No, he persisted in evil and wickedness.

Well, when Ammon was 16 years old, his spouse, assuming it was a wife, gave birth to a son, and he named that son Josiah. So when Ammon died at the age of, excuse me, at the age of 24, Josiah took over and became the king as an eight-year-old.

You see, this is the beginning of chapter 22, and what we read in this, what we read in the Bible concerning Josiah is really quite remarkable. It says in verse 2 that Josiah did what was right in the sight of the Lord and walked in all the ways of his father David.

He did not turn aside to the right hand or to the left of it. In other words, here's the other side of the coin, if you will, from a Manasseh. Manasseh's father was godly, Manasseh was a wretch, rejected his father's godliness.

Josiah's father was godless, wicked, Ammon, and Josiah as a child saw the folly of living that way, and turned his back on it to seek after the Lord, and he truly had a heart for God. Now the wonderful thing is, in this account of Josiah, we see some good examples of what it looks like when someone has a heart for God.

So what does that look like? How can I know that I have a heart for God? Well, one thing is, I will have a heart for God's house. I'll have a heart for God's house. You see this very early in Josiah's reign.

He'd reigned for a few years, and he realized it's not right that the temple be in such disrepair, and he set about making sure that there was a remodeling project, and the temple got restored to its former glory.

So he had a real heart for God. But he was also, somebody who has a heart for God, also seeks to be aware of any area of disobedience in his life, disobeying God, and as he knows of it, he will repent of it immediately and seek forgiveness.

You see this in chapter 22, verses 3 through 7, when they found the book of the law, and it says in verse 11 that when the king heard the words of the book of the law that he tore his clothes, he was truly repentant, because what he heard that God said to do, or how God said to be, he realized that they weren't living that way, and he was quickly, he quickly was repentant.

And somebody who has a heart for God will then humble himself before the Lord, and in that humble repentance, there will also be a corresponding desire to commit oneself to obeying God's Word. And you see this in chapter 22, verses 18 to 20, where the Lord speaks to Josiah through the prophetess and says, thus says the Lord God of Israel, concerning the words that you've heard, because, speaking to Josiah, because your heart was tender and you humbled yourself before the Lord when you heard what I spoke against this place and against its inhabitants, etc., surely I will gather you to your fathers and you shall be gathered to your grave in peace.

In other words, the Lord is promising blessing to Josiah because of his tender heart of repentance and his determination to obey God's Word. On in chapter 23, you see him, you know, publicly committing himself to that end.

We see in verse 3, it says, the king stood by a pillar and made a covenant before the Lord to follow the Lord and to keep his commandments and his testimonies and his statutes with all his heart and all his soul.

So, I wonder if any of these things are reflective of your heart. It's good to ask ourselves these questions, right? How is my heart toward God's house and the worship of God? You'll find that out Sunday.

How is my heart toward repentance and an openness to conviction of sin and a readiness to turn from it? How ready am I to commit myself to a life of obedience and following God? Those are good questions to ponder, because they really, truly reveal the state of our heart.

So, Father, as we consider this today, we consider these wonderful characteristics of Josiah's heart. May we do a little self-examination today and ask of these things of our own heart. We pray that you'd bless us as we do so honestly and respond appropriately.

We pray in Jesus' name, amen. All right, listen, have a good rest of your Friday, a wonderful weekend. Get together in God's house. Respect and honor the Lord and his house with his people on the Lord's Day.

Have a good day.