"Cleaning House"
Never before had there been a king like Josiah, who turned to the Lord with all his heart and soul and strength, obeying all the laws of Moses. And there has never been a king like him since. (2 Kings 23:25 NLT)
We recently did some spring cleaning at our house...in July. We are procrastinators, what can I say? We acquired a storage unit for our back yard & cleaned out our messy & cluttered garage, moving all of our "junk" to the outside. It wasn't so much a spring cleaning as much as a relocation project if you know what I mean. It's kind of like when you were a kid & your mom says to clean your room & you shove it all into a closet.
The whole time I was cleaning all I could think of was, how did this place get like this? Where did all this stuff come from? Why did I keep this? Who's socks are those? How long has that cat throw up been there (sorry, sad but true)?
The answers alluded me. We didn't bring home a truck load of stuff & dump it at once. We didn't decide together in a family meeting that the garage was the new city landfill. It just happened. Once item at a time.
Israel find themselves surrounded by junk (to say the least). They have years of unfaithfulness to God that has just piled up. It's a mountain of corruption & chaos. Immorality, idols, & everything in between fill the land. And the law of God has been buried beneath it all. Just sitting there, neglected & not obeyed. Until Josiah begins to reign.
At just 8 years old he is convinced things need to change. They need to clean house. They need to get rid of the junk & start over. They need to return to the Lord, his word, & his ways & they must do it now!
He begins a nationwide clean up & tear down of everything that is godless. He unearths graves, burns bones, tears down alters, destroys prostitute housing in the temple, & literally cleans up the whole country. It didn't happen overnight, because they didn't get in the mess they were in overnight.
Our lives can be like my garage & Israel. We neglect our walk with God & allow junk to pile up. Whether it's sin or neglecting to do what we know the Lord wants from us, our lives become junky & puked filled. And it reveals that it's time for some spring cleaning, even if it is August.
So what areas of our lives need cleaning? What is there that has been stagnant for too long? What have we allowed to slowly creep in that now occupies a whole section of our lives? Whatever it is, it's time to clean up!
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