Week 13: Discovering the Character of God through Josiah
13.1. Invite the group to share about how ‘easy’ it is to follow God when they’re not in the church; when at school, home, or even just walking through town. Do you find that the world pressures you into living its way instead of God’s? How does that make you feel?
13.2. Today’s study looks at Josiah, who faced the pressure of following God as an 8-year old king and throughout his reign in a situation where his immediate predecessors had been amongst the worst kings that Judah had ever had. Handout map and time line and read 2 Kings 22:1-2. when faced with that choice of being like the bad kings Judah had before or following God and making a difference, it was no-brainer. God came first. As a result, great things were in store for that nation. Can the group think of anyone else who brought great things to a nation because of the way they put God first? (Abraham, Joseph, Deborah, Ruth, etc)
13.3. Read 2 Kings 22:8-13. Before discussing the text, invite the group to share their opinions on what scripture is for. Also read Romans 3:20 and if it hasn’t already been mentioned (of, if it has, re-iterate it!), discuss how scripture/the Law is there to convict us of our sinful nature and our need for a Saviour - Jesus. Too often we have the attitude that ‘The Bible’s great; it’s a really cool book of stories that teach us what God did in the olden days’ instead of really soaking it up and letting it convict us of our sin and consequently search it for how to get right with God. Josiah could have had that first indifferent attitude when Hilkiah came to him with the Law, but instead he allowed it to do what God created it to do: convict him. And, not only was Josiah convicted; he responded… and his response was infectious. Check out 2 Kings 23:1-3 to see how the whole of Judah repented and re-established their covenant with the Lord.
13.4. As well as all of this, Josiah also brought back a lot of traditions and feasts that had been long forgotten by the people of Judah due to the dodgy leadership they’d been under. Tradition isn’t necessarily a bad thing - certainly not in this case. In Revelation 2:4-5, God says to one of the churches, ‘You have forgotten your first love… Repent and do the things you did at first.’ (NIV). Very often, when we’re new Christians, we are so full of Joy and of Jesus that we can’t stop talking about him; can’t stop singing and praying and reading the Bible. As the years go on and we hit difficult patches it can be easy to get a bit rusty at these things, especially when there are easy distractions like television, computers and relationships. And it’s then that we need to go back to what we did at first and get to know Jesus and fall in love with Him all over again. This is exactly what had happened to Israel. Read 2 Chronicles 35:1-19 and notice verse 18: ‘The Passover had not been celebrated like this in Israel since the prophet Samuel was alive.’ The Chronicler is saying that the last time Israel was in love with the Lord and flourished as a nation - keeping all the old traditions and feasts of remembrance - was when they were under the Judges, that is: the rule of God. The minute that they turned their back on God and asked for a king, everything went downhill. Through Josiah’s obedience and re-establishing of the covenant, the people essentially rediscover God and reconnect with Him.
Note also the number of times the writer says that Josiah or one of his men, ‘gave willingly’. None of his actions are efforts to earn favour from the Lord; his actions are a natural, worshipful response to the conviction that he’s received.
It may appear that we’re looking at the character of Josiah this week, rather than the character of God; but if we really think about the overall picture we can see the character of God at work through Josiah’s life. God is continually using Josiah - working through him - to restore His people to what He called, and created, them to be. God always sees the end goal and wants to get us there.
13.5. As we can see from the handout, Josiah was a bright spot during Judah’s darkest years and he did a lot of good. He wasn’t perfect though - none of us are, but God - and we see this right at the end of his life; how he slipped up a just a little, but it was enough to cost him his life. Ask the group if they understand what the phrase, ‘familiarity breeds contempt’ means and, if they don’t, explain. This, unfortunately seems to be the attitude that Josiah has developed. It is possible that Josiah had familiarised himself with the law and obeyed it completely but that didn’t mean that he necessarily knew the Law-Giver all that well. When Neco of Egypt stated that ‘God was on his side’, it’s possible that Josiah’s response was a result of thinking that God would favour him instead after all that he’d done - and especially in light of that covenant. Read 2 Chronicles 35:21-24 to see how Josiah’s plans backfired spectacularly. Today, we, too, have to be so careful that we don’t go down the same route. We can go to church every week, read our Bibles dutifully every day and sing the same old songs out of habit, but that doesn’t mean we know the one who established the church, wrote the word or inspired the lyrics. We can live ‘perfect’ lives, but not intimately know the one who made us. He wants us to be so in tune with Him that when someone else says, ‘God is on my side, don’t fight God.’ that we listen for Him to say quietly to us, ‘That guy’s right. Don’t fight me. Walk away.’ Instead of thinking we know God so well that we must be right and the other person in the wrong.
Get to know the Law? For sure. Better still, get to know the Law-Giver. Know Him intimately. Don’t try to fight him.
Week 13: Summary
Characteristics of God are all over this week’s study and include:
13.1. Invite the group to share about how ‘easy’ it is to follow God when they’re not in the church; when at school, home, or even just walking through town. Do you find that the world pressures you into living its way instead of God’s? How does that make you feel?
13.2. Today’s study looks at Josiah, who faced the pressure of following God as an 8-year old king and throughout his reign in a situation where his immediate predecessors had been amongst the worst kings that Judah had ever had. Handout map and time line and read 2 Kings 22:1-2. when faced with that choice of being like the bad kings Judah had before or following God and making a difference, it was no-brainer. God came first. As a result, great things were in store for that nation. Can the group think of anyone else who brought great things to a nation because of the way they put God first? (Abraham, Joseph, Deborah, Ruth, etc)
13.3. Read 2 Kings 22:8-13. Before discussing the text, invite the group to share their opinions on what scripture is for. Also read Romans 3:20 and if it hasn’t already been mentioned (of, if it has, re-iterate it!), discuss how scripture/the Law is there to convict us of our sinful nature and our need for a Saviour - Jesus. Too often we have the attitude that ‘The Bible’s great; it’s a really cool book of stories that teach us what God did in the olden days’ instead of really soaking it up and letting it convict us of our sin and consequently search it for how to get right with God. Josiah could have had that first indifferent attitude when Hilkiah came to him with the Law, but instead he allowed it to do what God created it to do: convict him. And, not only was Josiah convicted; he responded… and his response was infectious. Check out 2 Kings 23:1-3 to see how the whole of Judah repented and re-established their covenant with the Lord.
13.4. As well as all of this, Josiah also brought back a lot of traditions and feasts that had been long forgotten by the people of Judah due to the dodgy leadership they’d been under. Tradition isn’t necessarily a bad thing - certainly not in this case. In Revelation 2:4-5, God says to one of the churches, ‘You have forgotten your first love… Repent and do the things you did at first.’ (NIV). Very often, when we’re new Christians, we are so full of Joy and of Jesus that we can’t stop talking about him; can’t stop singing and praying and reading the Bible. As the years go on and we hit difficult patches it can be easy to get a bit rusty at these things, especially when there are easy distractions like television, computers and relationships. And it’s then that we need to go back to what we did at first and get to know Jesus and fall in love with Him all over again. This is exactly what had happened to Israel. Read 2 Chronicles 35:1-19 and notice verse 18: ‘The Passover had not been celebrated like this in Israel since the prophet Samuel was alive.’ The Chronicler is saying that the last time Israel was in love with the Lord and flourished as a nation - keeping all the old traditions and feasts of remembrance - was when they were under the Judges, that is: the rule of God. The minute that they turned their back on God and asked for a king, everything went downhill. Through Josiah’s obedience and re-establishing of the covenant, the people essentially rediscover God and reconnect with Him.
Note also the number of times the writer says that Josiah or one of his men, ‘gave willingly’. None of his actions are efforts to earn favour from the Lord; his actions are a natural, worshipful response to the conviction that he’s received.
It may appear that we’re looking at the character of Josiah this week, rather than the character of God; but if we really think about the overall picture we can see the character of God at work through Josiah’s life. God is continually using Josiah - working through him - to restore His people to what He called, and created, them to be. God always sees the end goal and wants to get us there.
13.5. As we can see from the handout, Josiah was a bright spot during Judah’s darkest years and he did a lot of good. He wasn’t perfect though - none of us are, but God - and we see this right at the end of his life; how he slipped up a just a little, but it was enough to cost him his life. Ask the group if they understand what the phrase, ‘familiarity breeds contempt’ means and, if they don’t, explain. This, unfortunately seems to be the attitude that Josiah has developed. It is possible that Josiah had familiarised himself with the law and obeyed it completely but that didn’t mean that he necessarily knew the Law-Giver all that well. When Neco of Egypt stated that ‘God was on his side’, it’s possible that Josiah’s response was a result of thinking that God would favour him instead after all that he’d done - and especially in light of that covenant. Read 2 Chronicles 35:21-24 to see how Josiah’s plans backfired spectacularly. Today, we, too, have to be so careful that we don’t go down the same route. We can go to church every week, read our Bibles dutifully every day and sing the same old songs out of habit, but that doesn’t mean we know the one who established the church, wrote the word or inspired the lyrics. We can live ‘perfect’ lives, but not intimately know the one who made us. He wants us to be so in tune with Him that when someone else says, ‘God is on my side, don’t fight God.’ that we listen for Him to say quietly to us, ‘That guy’s right. Don’t fight me. Walk away.’ Instead of thinking we know God so well that we must be right and the other person in the wrong.
Get to know the Law? For sure. Better still, get to know the Law-Giver. Know Him intimately. Don’t try to fight him.
Week 13: Summary
Characteristics of God are all over this week’s study and include:
- His word convicts us
- He restores us
- He created us for a purpose
- We can’t fight him.