Behold the Word Recovered by God’s People

Mary Kassian: In the early 1880s, Aaron and Rosie Winters eked out a hard scrabble living in Death Valley, California. Their shack was barely a shelter against the desert heat, and their meals often consisted of beans, and when times were lean, even lizards.

While foraging in the barren desert one day, as they did that regularly, they sometimes passed by an odd-shaped mound that was kind of white and looked like crusty cotton balls. They didn't think much of it. But one day, recalling a prospector's excited talk of a valuable mineral, they stopped, and they gathered a sample for testing, and the results astonished them. It was borax. That discovery changed everything. Aaron and Rosie left behind their shack and settled into a lush, sprawling ranch. They lived a comfortable life. They didn't have to eat beans and creepy crawlies anymore.

Their find also ignited a booming industry. Soon the now legendary twenty-mule-team wagons were hauling tons of borax across the desert. Jobs sprang up. Communities were transformed. The economy of the region was transformed. And borax traveled far beyond the desert. Borax has found its way into almost everything: glass and ceramics and preservatives, detergents, cosmetics, from heavy industry to household chores. Its reach is surprisingly wide. And even today, you might have a box in your cupboard. Do you? I do. You might use it to brighten a load of laundry or scrub away stubborn stains or freshen up a carpet or for science projects with the kids as we did this past summer at cousin camp, when each grandchild got to grow their own borax crystal.

So just as Aaron and Rosie's discovery reshaped their world, a Josiah moment, a fresh rediscovery of God's truth can reshape ours and ripple outward to transform families and communities and even nations. And to see what I mean by a Josiah moment, please turn in your Bibles to 2 Chronicles chapter 34. 

Now, let me provide some background to set the scene. Josiah was born around 648 BC in Jerusalem's royal palace. His father, Amon, was heir to the throne. He was just sixteen years old when Josiah was born, but he was already immersed in the volatile world of royalty. Scripture portrays Amon starkly as proud, reckless, and self-absorbed, walking in the same evil ways as his father once had. 

As a young prince, he was arrogant and indulgent and brutal and his appetite for blood and wine and women eclipsed any sense of the sacred weight of kingship that he was soon to bear. To little Josiah, Amon must have seemed both imposing and intimidating—a moody, unpredictable teenager with little time or inclination for the duties of fatherhood.

In the quieter corners of the palace, another presence loomed. Josiah's grandfather, Manasseh, once a proud tyrant, now bent beneath a crushing weight of age and remorse. Now, because he was the king's first grandson and second in line to the throne, Josiah may have spent long hours at the old man's side listening as confessions spilled out, raw and unguarded.

Perhaps Manasseh spoke with terrifying honesty about his youthful arrogance and his drunken indulgence and the rivers of blood he had spilled and the idolatries he had imposed on the nation—fortune telling, omens, sorcery and dealings with mediums and necromancers. Now, his voice would have cracked with self-reproach for these sins.

Perhaps Manasseh told Josiah of his shocking humiliation, dragged away on meat hooks by a foreign ruler, paraded, bloody, and naked before the crowds, stripped of all dignity and power.

Josiah may have traced the bumpy scars on his grandpa's belly, feeling both awe and fear as the old king's voice shook with emotion.

Though he had sought to repent, Manasseh sadly lamented it was far too late to undo all the evil he had done as king. But the most haunting words may have come through tears as Manasseh admitted offering Josiah's uncle, his own infant son, as a burnt sacrifice to Malik.

The memory haunted him still, a legacy of blood and evil no time or repentance could erase. His trembling hand may have rested on Josiah's shoulder, urging with the anguished insistence of an aged broken man, “Cling to Yahweh. Guard your heart. Don't repeat my mistakes!”

Josiah's mother, Jedidah, also shaped the young boy. Raised in rural Judah and devout to Yahweh, she whispered prayers over her son, sang him hymns at dawn, told stories of the great King David, whose heart for God was forged in the hills as hers were.

At six, Josiah lost his grandfather and the throne passed to his twenty-two year-old father. But just two years later, his world was upended with a violent chaotic event. His father was assassinated, and eight-year-old Josiah became king. That's where 2 Chronicles 34 picks up the story. I'm not gonna read the entire chapter, but I'll guide you through it, highlighting some key verses along the way. So let's start at verse 1.

Josiah was eight years old when he became king and he reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem. He did what was right in the LORD's sight and walked in the ways of his ancestor David; he did not turn aside to the right or the left. In the eighth year of his reign, while he was still a youth, Josiah began to seek the God of his ancestor David, and in the twelfth year he began to cleanse Judah and Jerusalem of the high places, the Asherah poles, the carved images, and the cast images.

Then in his presence, the altars of the Baals were torn down, and he chopped down the shrines that were above them. He shattered the Asherah poles, the carved images, the cast images, crushed them to dust and scattered them over the graves of those who had sacrificed to them. He burned the bones of the priests on their altars. So he cleansed Judah and Jerusalem. He did the same in the cities of Manasseh, Ephraim, and Simeon and as far as Naphtali and on the surrounding mountain shrines. He tore down the altars, he smashed the Asherah poles and the carved images to powder. He chopped down all the shrines throughout the land of Israel and returned to Jerusalem.

In the eighteenth year of his reign, in order to cleanse the land and the temple, Josiah sent Shaphan, son of Azaliah, along with Maaseiah, the governor of the city and the court historian Joah, son of Joahaz, to repair the temple of the LORD, his God. (vv. 1–8) 

Okay, so let me recap. At age sixteen, Josiah makes a personal commitment to follow the Lord. At twenty, he launches a campaign to cleanse Judah and Jerusalem of idolatry, even pressing into the former territories of Israel. And his mission was much more than political. He wasn't merely tearing down idols. He was calling a fractured nation back to its covenant with the Lord. Reform moved slowly. The opposition was fierce. The temple, long neglected, was dilapidated. There was so much that remained undone. Josiah knew that few would enthusiastically engage in worship while God's house stood in such repair.

So when he was twenty-six, he redirected the temple funds. The silver and the offerings that were long misused and plundered, he directed those towards a massive restoration project . . . and then it happened . . . the discovery that changed everything. The moment—the Josiah moment. 

As the workers carried out the repairs, Hilkiah the priest uncovered something staggering. You see it in verse 14. Verse 14 records it. Hidden among the temple treasures lay a scroll, “the book of the law of the Lord written by the hand of Moses.” 

Now what began as a routine restoration suddenly became a moment that would shake the kingdom to its core. The law long forgotten within God's house had been found. The stage was set, a new chapter in Israel's history and in Josiah's life was about to unfold.

Now remarkably, this may have been the only, the original, and only surviving copy of Moses' books. Some scholars say it was just the book of Deuteronomy. Jewish scholars say it was all five books of the Pentateuch. The other copies had likely been destroyed or lost during the early reign of Manasseh when worship of the Lord was nearly eradicated. 

So for sixty years, two full generations, the Jews had gone without the public reading or teaching of God's law. God's Word was left to gather dust, forgotten in a neglected corner of the temple. Imagine that, the Word lost for sixty years. And all the while, propped up by history and tradition and ritual, the people thought that they could live godly lives without it.

The scroll was right there in the temple, yet even the priests were blind to its presence. They busied themselves with religious activity and service to God while they walked right past the Word of God. The irony is staggering. We might feel incredulous reading this story, but how often does the same thing happen to us? 

The Word gets lost. It sits on a shelf unopened or by the door so we can carry it like a prop on Sundays. We attend services, we join small groups, we volunteer, we sing on the worship team, we help in the nursery, we serve in the soup kitchen, but the Word of God is not really at the center. We busy ourselves with spiritual activity while neglecting the very Word that gives it life.

Moving the Word from the corner to the center, that's what ignites a Josiah moment.

Now, the court secretary brought the lost scroll to the palace and read it aloud before Josiah. Its words laid bare the depth of the nation's sin, their neglect of the covenant, and the severity of the judgment that awaited them. And how did Josiah respond? Verse 19: 

When the king heard the words of the law, he tore his clothes.

Now, in biblical times, tearing one's clothes was a symbolic act of grief and horror and repentance. It was emotions too overwhelming for words alone. In that instant, Josiah was struck with the full reality of Judah's rebellion. The living Word of God pierced his heart and it left him utterly undone.

His response stands in marked contrast to that of his successor, King Jehoiakim. Rather than humbling himself, Jehoiakim cut a prophetic scroll up with his knife, piece by piece he tossed it into the fire, and then he angrily ordered that the prophet be apprehended and executed (see Jer. 36).

He didn't like the Word of God, but not Josiah. Determined to respond rightly, Josiah humbly sought guidance, sending a delegation to the prophetess Huldah, to understand the consequences of the nation's sin. Her prophecy carried a dual message. Judgment was coming on Judah because the nation had forsaken God and embraced idols. Disaster was inevitable. Yet because of his tender and humble heart, mercy would be shown to Josiah, sparing him from witnessing it and allowing him to die in peace.

Now, the rediscovery of God's Word ignited something powerful in Josiah's spirit. And with renewed resolve, he committed himself to lead Judah in wholehearted, covenant faithfulness to the God revealed in the scroll. Let's pick up the story in verse 29.

So the king sent messengers and gathered all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem. The king went up to the LORD's temple with all the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, as well as the priests and the Levites—all the people from the oldest to the youngest. He read in their hearing all the words of the book of the covenant that had been found in the LORD's temple.

And then the king stood at his post and made a covenant in the LORD's presence to follow the LORD and to keep his commands, his decrees, and all his statues with all his heart, and with all his soul in order to carry out the words of the covenant written in this book. He had all those present in Jerusalem and Benjamin agree to it. So all the inhabitants of Jerusalem carried out the covenant of God, the God of their ancestors.

So Josiah removed everything that was detestable from all the lands belonging to the Israelites. And he required all who were present in Israel to serve the LORD their God. Throughout his reign they did not turn aside from following the LORD, the God of their ancestors. (vv. 29–33)

So the prophecy, Huldah's prophecy, propelled Josiah into decisive action. He got everyone together, the leaders, the officials, every citizen in the region, and then in a powerful public moment, the king stands and he reads the Word of God aloud. He wanted everyone, great and small, young and old, to hear God's law. It was time to pull it out of the dusty corner and place it back center stage.

And with courage fueled by fresh conviction, Josiah led the entire nation in renewing their covenant with God. And then he launched one of the most sweeping, religious reforms in the nation's history.

Second Kings chapter 23 gives us a striking detail. He stripped the temple of every idol, altar, and trace of pagan worship. He dismissed court priests, the ones that were corrupt. He burned the Asherah pole that was right there in the temple. He demolished the quarters of the shrine prostitutes that lived on the temple grounds. He dismantled the altars where children had been offered to Molech. He smashed statues, burned sun chariots, outlawed mediums and psychics and astrologers and fortune tellers. He ordered the people to cleanse their homes of idols. He restored the celebration of the Passover, and he led the nation back to wholehearted, exclusive worship of Yahweh, their God. And it was all because Josiah rediscovered the Word.

Second Kings 23, verse 25 declares:

Before him there was no king like him who turned to the LORD with all his heart, all his soul and all his strength according to all the law of Moses, and no one like him arose after him. 

Wow! That's amazing.

Now, his story illustrates how a rediscovery or a re-engagement with God's Word, moving it from corner to center, can ignite a powerful chain reaction. 

• First comes conviction, a deep awareness of truth and the reality of sin. 
• And this conviction fuels courage, the bold action to do what is right even in the face of opposition. 
• And when conviction and courage take hold, they generate contagion, a ripple effect that transforms not only individuals, but families and communities.

Conviction, courage, contagion, those are the three hallmarks of a Josiah moment.

Now the dictionary defines conviction as “a firmly held belief or an opinion.” It's a strong persuasion or a certainty about something. Everybody has convictions, beliefs that shape how they see the world. Just tune into the news, switch from CNN to FOX, you'll see that there are lots of people who have opinions, and they express them with passion and certainty.

But conviction, Al Mohler reminds us, is not merely beliefs we hold, it's those beliefs that hold us in their grip, shape our decisions, and govern our lives. Conviction is a lens through which we interpret truth, right and wrong, and the purpose of our lives.

Now, Josiah had inherited a rich spiritual legacy, but at sixteen he made his own. He decided consciously to follow the Lord.

Under Manasseh and Amon, Judah had absorbed the gods and the practices of Assyria and Canaan and worship had become a whole jumble of Yahweh and foreign idols. But Josiah held two convictions that ran counter to his culture. First, he believed there was only one true God. Verse 3 says he began “to seek the God of his father David.” One God alone deserved his allegiance. 

The second conviction was that God alone defines right and wrong. Verse 2 tells us “he did what was right in the LORD's sight and he did not turn aside to the right or to the left. Morality to him wasn't a matter of personal preference or public opinion. It's not a question of my truth. Truth is anchored in God's law. 

But at this point, his convictions were largely untested, and the scroll of God lay forgotten in the corner. His commitment was real, but he hadn't yet encountered the words that would forge those convictions into something living and unshakable. And then came the moment. The scroll was rediscovered, read aloud, and he was confronted with the Word of God. Is this what you truly believe, Josiah?

Now believing in God as a vague religious notion is easy, but confronting the full weight of the Word of God, the full weight of Scripture, seeing your sin and embracing the cost of following Jesus, that's something else entirely.

So what are your convictions? What beliefs hold you in their grip? A conviction uninformed by Scripture will be weak, watered down, or woefully wrong.

Picture this: it's your girlfriend's birthday. You've been invited along with the group of girls to hit the town, and you're excited. You've got a cute new outfit hanging in the closet. You got the perfect pair of stilettos to go with it. Everyone's pitching in for a limo, and one of the girls has arranged an exotic male dancer, not a big deal, all in good fun. Now, you might carry a vague conviction from your general religious background that it's not a good idea, that it's not wise to get drunk or hook up.

But what if on the very day that that party was happening, you moved your Bible from the corner to the center and this was the passage you happened to read?

Now the works of the flesh are obvious, sexual immorality, moral impurity, promiscuity, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambitious, decessions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and anything similar. I'm warning you about these things—as I warned you before—that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. (Gal. 5:19–21)

Uh-oh. Now comes the question. Are you going to let the Word dictate your convictions? Does this belief, this one, spelled out so clearly here in black and white, hold you in its grip? And if this is what you believe, what are you gonna do about that party tonight?

• Now, a conviction informed by Scripture will be strong, steadfast, and sure. 
• A conviction uninformed by Scripture will be weak and watered down or willfully wrong. 
• In the end, your actions display what your convictions are. You may have a conviction that you love the Word of God, but your actions display whether or not you really do.

In a Josiah moment, conviction blossoms into courage, giving you the resolve and the backbone to do what is right. Now, it took courage for Josiah to embark on his spiritual cleanup project. Pagan worship had been Judah's norm for more than fifty years. It was mainstream.

In a single day, a woman in Jerusalem might pass a handful of Baal altars, dozens of road shrines, and countless Asherah poles. Beyond the city was Molech's altar where she might hear chants and drums and shrill instruments. That big cacophony that was meant to drown out the screams of a child laid on the glowing bronze arms and swallowed by fire.

The sights and sounds of idolatry were everywhere. The smells of it were everywhere. Incense thickened the streets. Chants and pagan songs echoed in the marketplace. Holidays, festivals, and even community games revolved around rituals to foreign gods. Meals began with offerings to the household idols. Children played with clay Baals and Asherahs. Parents prayed to adult versions for fertility, luck, and protection. From cradle to grave, idolatry shaped every milestone. Paganism was not just tolerated. It was celebrated, normalized, ordinary.

It demanded allegiance like a rainbow-colored banner stretched across the busy street, loud, proud, and unashamed. And worst of all, it had invaded the most sacred space, the temple of the Lord Himself.

Now don't be fooled into thinking that idolatry is a relic of some primitive past. Today our culture parades its idols just as boldly: 

• Sex, sass, self-definition 
• Prestige, power, push for position 
• Fame, fortune, hero fixation 
• Glitz, glamour, gratification 
• Selfies, snaps, online sensation 

From the first cell phone ping to the last like of the day, these modern gods incessantly demand our worship.

And when Josiah began tearing down idols, he wasn't just tweaking religion, he was dismantling the cultural fabric of his nation, overturning what generations had accepted as normal. And it came with enormous risks. 

Politically, Judah was under a serious shadow and rejecting their gods could look like rebellion.

Socially, people had household idols. They cherished traditions, they didn't want to surrender. Even amongst the priests in the royal court, powerful figures were invested in keeping idol worship alive.

Josiah risked resistance, revolt, even assassination. And that's what makes his reform so remarkable. His convictions weren't hidden in his heart. They were lived out publicly, boldly at great risk. He chose to stand against tradition, against culture, and even against the expectations of empires because he was gripped by the truth written in the scroll. Convictions demand courage in the kind that is counter-cultural often, and often it comes at great cost.

Now this is a True Woman conference, and I would be remiss not to highlight that one of our major goals at True Woman conferences is to expose the popular ideas of womanhood that we so often cling to as false gods, and to call the church to reclaim the goodness of God's design for male and female.

And this heartbeat drives True Woman conferences, True Woman books, True Woman Bible study, True Woman podcasts. Our aim is to challenge you to move the Bible from the corner to the center when it comes down to your very identity of who you are as a woman.

Because in our culture, feminism hasn't just whispered an alternative. It has enthroned an idol, towering like an Asherah pole in every woman's courtyard, looming over our hearts, casting a shadow across every thought and choice, demanding our loyalty and bidding us to bow. It's time to rise up like Josiah and tear it down.

Why? Because what you believe about who you are as a woman touches everything:

• Your identity 
• Your attitude toward men 
• Your view of masculinity and femininity 
• Your capacity to build and sustain relationships 
• The choices you make 
• The goals you pursue 
• Your understanding of gender, sexuality, and morality 
• Your perspective on singleness, marriage, and family 
• How you interact with your husband 
• How you raise your children 
• How we engage with culture 

Your convictions about womanhood have consequences that extend far beyond your own story.

Now, in Scripture we learn that God's good design for the two sexes, His reason for creating male and female is inseparably tied to the story of Jesus—the Bridegroom who loved His Bride, the Church, and gave His life for her.

Now for these past seventeen years of True Woman conferences, our mission has been to tear down cultural idols that blind us to the beauty of the gospel story. And because God has so closely linked His design with the redeeming love of Christ, we believe that revival will break out in hearts and homes when those idols finally fall.

When that happens, others will be drawn to the beauty of a life that puts the gospel story on display—a life so joyful, so radiant, and so contagious that it cannot help but attract.

Stirrings of revival are exactly what we've witnessed in the Dominican Republic across Latin America, Germany, Vietnam, and among Hispanic communities in Europe. Earlier this year I was in Brazil, and I was overwhelmed to witness the fire for Jesus that the True Woman message is igniting in Gen Z.

Now, a Josiah moment moves the Word from corner to the center, it sparks conviction, courage, and contagion. And the thing I love most about Josiah’s story is how contagious his zeal for God was. Josiah wasn't a gloomy, stern-faced killjoy. He was magnetic. His enthusiasm and his exuberance were infectious as part of his quest to restore covenant faithfulness to Yahweh, he decided to host the biggest, most celebratory, most extravagant Passover feast party ever. He reinstated it as a national observant after years of neglect. 

The Bible records the enormity of his generosity. Josiah donated money from his personal treasury and from his personal herds—30,000 lambs and 3,000 cattle. With an estimated 30,000 people in Jerusalem, the scale of his gift was staggering. His provisions ensured that every single resident of Jerusalem and every visitor from afar could participate in the Passover.

Spurred by his example, his officials also gave. There was abundance for all. The priests and the Levites matched their zeal. They managed the logistics. The finest musicians in the land rehearsed for the extravagant outdoor celebration. And then came the big day and 2 Chronicles 35:18 declares, 

No Passover had been observed like it in Israel since the days of the prophet Samuel. None of the kings of Israel ever observed a Passover like the one that Josiah observed. 

After that Passover, King Josiah's reform became a movement of revival that swept across the city and the nation, igniting hope and devotion not seen in generations.

But sadly, that spiritual awakening came to a tragic abrupt end. King Josiah was struck by an enemy arrow, and the nation grieved deeply, grieving the sudden loss of their beloved king. His untimely death felt as though it was the nation's last hope being torn away. The judgment held back for Josiah's sake now loomed over Judah. 

And just four short years later, Babylon besieged Jerusalem, carrying off nobles and royal family members and the most promising young men. And the superpower subsequently returned to destroy the city flat in the temple and exiled most of the population.

Was Josiah's reform for nothing? No. Many returned to the Lord. His courage and his faith left a lasting mark on the next generation. Boys and teens growing up under his reign witnessed his bold devotion to God firsthand. Josiah was a brief light in a darkening nation, but his example fortified the resolve of those who came after him—like Daniel in the lion's den, Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, and the furnace, all refusing to bow to a foreign God, because that's what they had seen in their king, Josiah.

Even in his short reign, Josiah pointed beyond himself. The reign of Judah's last good king foreshadowed the reign of the holy and eternal king. Josiah's lavish Passover with its abundant sacrifices pointed to the coming Lamb of God, Jesus, whose blood would cover the sins of the world. Pierced by an enemy's arrow, Scripture notes that Josiah became a shadow of him who would also be pierced and bleed out for His people.

King Josiah died at age thirty-nine, and his national reform movement came to an end.

Movements rise and fall. Rulers rise and fall. Politicians rise and fall. Nations rise and fall. Empires rise and fall. But Josiah moments—hearts awakened, courage sparked, revival kindled—blaze as beacons throughout history, shining the spotlight on King Jesus who conquered sin and death and whose kingdom will never fall.

Amy was an ordinary teacher in Belfast, Ireland until at sixteen she made a life-changing discovery in Scripture—1 Corinthians 3:12–15. She was thinking about that. That passage warns that only what is built on Christ will endure.

And while her friends dreamed of comfort and romance, Amy felt a pull to live differently and to pour her life into what was eternal. Her conviction leapt into action one icy morning when she saw a shivering mill girl on the street, mocked as a “shawly” for her ragged shawl. The girl was the kind that society and even churches dismissed.

Most would have walked on, but not Amy. The teenager gathered “shawlys” by the dozens and then hundreds and found them seats in churches and even bought them bonnets so that they could sit unashamed.

Bold and disruptive and socially shocking, Amy was discovering a courage that springs from a Scripture-based conviction. That courage carried her across the continents to India where she found young girls trapped in temple prostitution. And while others looked away, Amy stepped in. She rescued them, welcomed them as daughters, and built a sanctuary for hundreds of children that continues to this day. Her courage proved contagious.

And through her life example in nearly forty books, Amy Carmichael inspired thousands to live with holiness, boldness, and costly compassion. Her life became a blaze of conviction, courage, and contagious faith, which was an echo of Josiah's own moment of rediscovery. Sparking renewal not only in her soul, but in countless lives around the world.

Conviction. Courage. Contagion.

Each domino in a Josiah moment triggers the next. But to develop a godly conviction, you must rediscover God's Word and place it at the center of your life. And there's a second crucial prerequisite. When Josiah heard the Word, he tore his garments in raw anguish.

That was the part that really struck my heart when I was studying this passage, that when he read the Word, he was just overcome with contrition and confession.

His conviction didn't ignite, his courage couldn't take root, contagion would not sweep until he had responded with contrition and confession. A humble and teachable heart was the catalyst that set the entire sequence in motion.

It was a challenge to me because as I was reading, I was going, “Is that the way I respond?” Do I have a heart that when I see something in God's Word I go, “Oh God, I fall so short. Oh God, I'm sorry. Oh God, teach me.”

I want to invite you to step into this Josiah moment because we've heard the Word that leads us to Jesus, that points to Him from beginning to end, that points us to our Savior.

I want to open up the front here for you to respond. You can come and kneel for a moment. Do you need to move the Word from the corner to the center? Is there an idol in your heart, in your life that you need to tear down? Whatever that is. It may be bitterness or unforgiveness. Maybe it's your pride; maybe it's your appearance; maybe it's that relationship; maybe it's that sexual sin, whatever it is. Is there an idol you need to tear down? Is there a commitment you need to make?

We're going to enter into worship now. Would you stand please? As Shane and Shane lead us in this, please come forward. If you need to go to the prayer room to receive some prayer, there are prayer warriors sitting at the back. You can come with a sister, come two or three of you to pray and just make a public confession that I will stand on this Word. Have that moment where you allow what you have heard to confront your heart and respond with a humble heart and confession, and saying, “Oh God, oh God, it's been sitting in the corner. Help me move it to the center.”

All Scripture is taken from the CSB.