As we continue to study 2 Kings, we must also consider the true state of those who claim to represent God in today’s culture. Just how far from the true worship of God have they fallen? We should learn from the history that God has so graciously provided to us.
2 Kings 23:4-8 And the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest, and the priests of the second order, and the doorkeepers, to bring forth out of the temple of Jehovah all the vessels which were made for Baal, and for the Asherah, and for all the host of heaven. And he burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of Kidron, and carried the ashes of them to Bethel.
What are they carrying out of the Temple? How could this have happened in the city of Jerusalem, in the country of Judah, in the Temple of the only true, living God? When and how did these demonic, idolatrous elements enter into the Temple?
And he( Josiah) put down the idol-worshiping priests, whom the kings of Judah had ordained to burn incense in the high places in the cities of Judah, and in the places around Jerusalem. He also put down those who burned incense to Baal, to the sun, and to the moon, and to the planets, and to all the host of the heavens.
Who allowed these false, idol-worhiping priests into the Temple? What happened to the God-ordained priests? What was Hilkiah doing as the “high priest” over the Temple?
And he (Josiah) brought out the Asherah from the house of Jehovah outside Jerusalem, to the torrent Kidron, and burned it at the torrent Kidron, and stamped it to powder, and threw the powder of it on the graves of the sons of the people.
It only gets worse!
And he broke down the houses of the sodomites, which were by the house of Jehovah, where the women wove coverings for the Asherah.
Does this sound like what the liberal, false churches of our day are doing?
And he brought all the priests out of the cities of Judah, and defiled the high places where the priests had burned incense, from Geba to Beer-sheba. And he broke down the high places of the gates which were in the entering in of the gate of Joshua the governor of the city, which were on a man's left hand at the gate of the city.
Everywhere Josiah went there was idolatry of the most heinous kind. How did Judah become so sinful? How did they fall so far from God? Did it happen overnight when no one was watching?
No! It happened slowly and steadily. It actually began with Solomon, the “wisest” man to ever live! It was aided by ignoring God’s truth in such a profound manner that they lost all remembrance of it. They had to rediscover it in very Temple that was now the Temple of Baal.
Jude 1:3-4 Having made all haste to write to you about the common salvation, beloved, I had need to write to you to exhort you to contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints.
For certain men crept in secretly, those having been of old previously written into this condemnation, ungodly ones perverting the grace of our God for unbridled lust, and denying the only Master, God, even our Lord Jesus Christ.
What have you let creep into your life, your worship, and your beliefs?