Josiah

LIFE LESSONS
JOSIAH
COMMUNION SUNDAY
DR. JIM DIXON
2 CHRONICLES 34:29-33
NOVEMBER 9, 2003

In the year 1622, a Spanish galleon was moving westward through the Atlantic towards the Gulf of Mexico. This Spanish galleon was named the Nuestra Señora de Atocha. As it moved westward in the midst of a hurricane, it was low in the water. The Nuestra Señora de Atocha was low in the water because it was laden with treasure. Historians tell us that it had thousands of bars of gold bullion and silver, each bar weighing 70 pounds. It had hundreds of thousands of gold and silver coins. It had a treasure that today would be worth more than $1 billion. It was some place in the Gulf of Mexico in the region of the Gulf of Mexico that the Nuestra Señora de Atocha went down. It remained at the bottom of the sea for 363 years.

On July 20, 1985, a treasure salvage company owned by a man named Melvin A. Fisher discovered the Spanish galleon at the bottom of the sea. Melvin A. Fisher had been a chicken farmer. He was tired of dealing with chicken feed, so he formed this treasure salvage company after reading an article about the Nuestra Señora de Atocha. He acquired $10 million from supporters in the corporate community, and those investors enabled him to buy sophisticated equipment and he found the Spanish galleon just 40 miles west of Key West, Florida, only 50 beneath the surface of the ocean.

According to International law, the treasure was his. After paying off all of his investors, Melvin A. Fisher was left with hundreds of millions of dollars. Of course, the story of the Nuestra Señora de Atocha is the story of treasure lost and treasure found. That’s the story we have before us today. The story of Josiah, King of Judah, is the story of treasure lost and treasure found.

We have two life lessons this morning. The first life lesson is this: The Word of God is treasure. On September 2, 1992, an advice column you’ve all heard of called “Dear Abby” appeared in newspapers all across the country containing a letter from a guy named Bill. This guy named Bill had written to Dear Abby to kind of tell her his story. Bill said he grew up in a home where he was kind of in a conflicted relationship with his dad. His dad was very wealthy and his family very rich. Bill wanted all the things growing up that money could provide but his father was afraid of spoiling him. As Bill approached high school graduation, he wanted his father, for his graduation from high school, to get him a brand-new car. He knew that most high school graduates didn’t get a new car, but he thought rich kids could and he knew other kids from rich families who were getting a brand-new car for their high school graduation.

He’d studied hard. He’d been a good student. He had taken his father to the showroom of a local dealership to show him the sports car that he really wanted for his graduation. He’d taken his dad there numerous times. Graduation day came and that morning his father called him into his study. His dad said, “Son, I’m very proud of you. I’m very pleased with you and I love you. I want to give you a gift.” His father gave him a package that was beautifully wrapped and said, “Son, this is for you.” Bill took the gift and he opened it up. When he opened the box, there was a Bible inside, a beautiful Bible, leather bound with Bill’s name inscribed upon it. Bill was disappointed. In fact, he was devastated. He was angry. He said to his dad, “You knew I wanted that car for graduation. It wasn’t like you didn’t have the money. And here you give me this Bible.” In anger, Bill throws the Bible back on the desk in his father’s study and Bill just walks out. From that point on, Bill and his dad were completely alienated.

Bill went away to college. He never came home during the summers. After college, he went to work in the business world, but he never came home. His father wrote him, his father called him, but Bill didn’t want a relationship with his dad. Finally, a phone call came that Bill’s dad had died. Bill went home to settle the estate and to enter into his inheritance. As he was going through the house, he found the Bible that he had left in his father’s study, the Bible that his father had given him for his high school graduation. He reopened the box and then he took the Bible out. He opened the Bible and a cashier’s check fell out. It was dated the day of his high school graduation and it was for the exact amount of the sports car he had wanted at that dealership.

Now, Dear Abby loved that story from Bill because she ran that story a number of times. I’ve heard or read the story on a number of occasions. I’ve seen various versions of it. In one version he opens the Bible and the keys to the car fall out and a receipt that said, “paid in full.” But every time I’ve read the story, I’ve been a little disappointed because, as the story is normally told, the treasure that is lost is a car. Normally the car is portrayed as the treasure lost as reflected in the cashier’s check or the key. In better renditions of the story, sometimes the treasure lost was the relationship that Bill could have had with his father. And certainly it is a treasure to have a good relationship with your mom or your dad.

I think in my mind and in my heart, the real treasure in the story is the Bible itself. That’s the real treasure. Most renditions of the story just miss that. They just miss the fact that the real treasure is the Bible itself. It was our Lord Jesus Christ who tells us that the Bible is treasure. It was the Lord Jesus Christ who told us that the Word of God is treasure. We look at Matthew, chapter 13, and Jesus tells the Parable of the Scribe and his old and new treasure. Of course, scribes dealt with the Word of God. Their singular focus was upon Torah. Their singular focus was upon the Bible, the Word of God. Jesus told the Parable of the Scribe and the old and new treasure and how the Bible is treasure and how a scribe is able to take out of that treasure that which is old (reflecting the Old Covenant) and now in Christ there is the New Covenant, new treasure.

In that same chapter, Matthew 13, Jesus speaks of the kingdom of heaven as a treasure lost in a field, lost and found. He speaks of the kingdom of heaven as a pearl of great price. The message of the kingdom is treasure. God wants you to know today this book is treasure. This book is treasure.

Josiah, King of Judah, understood the treasure of the Word of God. Josiah was the 16th king of Judah. There were only 20 kings. Three of the remaining four were his sons. They were approaching the end of the Kingdom of Judah. It would soon be destroyed. Of course, Judah and Israel had both fallen into apostasy and they had abandoned the faith of their fathers.

Josiah ascended the throne when he was eight years old. When he was 16 years old, he had a kind of spiritual conversion and he committed his life to God. When he was 26 years old, an amazing thing happened. He commanded that the temple be restored, that it be repaired and that it be purified. It had been left in ill repair and pretty much abandoned. Josiah commanded that the temple be restored. As the workers went in to restore the temple, they found the Book of the Covenant. They found the Torah, the Book of Moses, the Pentateuch—Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus and Deuteronomy. Of course, Bible scholars today and historians debate whether it was the full Torah they found, the full Pentateuch, or was it just the Book of Deuteronomy. They don’t know, but they know it had been a treasure lost and now it was found. Somehow the Word of God had just disappeared in Israel, disappeared in Judah. They were so apostate that they had rejected the Word of God. Perhaps, many historians believe, Manasseh, generations before, had commanded the burning of all Torahs, all scriptures in Israel during his wicked years. And thus, the scriptures were scarce. Josiah had never seen this Book of the Covenant, but when he saw it, he knew it was treasure. He had it read in his hearing and then he had it read in the hearing of the elders. Then he had it read in the hearing of the men of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem and the priests and the Levites. It was treasure for all, and he knew it. How about you? Do you know it? Do you know that the Word of God is treasure? As you sit there this morning, in this moment, is God’s Word treasure to you?

I want you to see a clip from the movie “Amistad.” It’s the story of African men, women, and children brought on a slave ship from Africa towards Cuba. They rebelled and took the ship. They thought they were returning to Africa, but they were brought instead to America. They were awaiting trial in America and a missionary gave one of the Africans a Bible. Amba, who cannot read English and does not speak English, has this Bible that was given to him. Just by looking at the pictures, he can understand the gospel story. Just by looking at the pictures, he sees that this book is treasure. He knows this book is treasure. Do you know that?

The Greeks sought the Elysian Fields, the mythological land of light, sun, green meadows, and beautiful flowers. They never found it, but the Bible speaks of paradise. The Bible speaks of heaven itself and tells us how to get there. Francisco Coronado sought the Seven Cities of Cibola and the Seven Cities of Gold. He never found them. But the Bible speaks of the heavenly city. The Bible speaks of the New Jerusalem with streets of gold and gates of pearl. Ponce de Leon sought the Fountain of Youth. He never found it, but the Bible speaks of eternal life and tells us that all who believe in Christ will one day be made anew. “Like the freshness of the morning dew,” the Bible says, “your youth will return to you.” The Bible is treasure. “All flesh is grass, all of its glory like the flower of the grass. The grass withers. The flower falls. The Word of the Lord abides forever.” The Word of God is treasure.

This is the first life lesson. The second life lesson is, do not waste the Word of God. Do not neglect all of the things God has given you in your life. Do not waste them. Many of you have heard of Shah Jahan. Shah Jahan built the Taj Mahal. He built it as a memorial for his wife, although he really built it for the manifestation of his own glory. He built temples throughout India. He built the Peacock Throne, which today is valued at more than $100 million. Shah Jahan ascended the throne of India in 1627 upon the death of his father Jahander. The name Jahander means “conqueror of the world.” Shah Jahan hated his father, longed to have his father’s power and his father’s wealth. Historians tell us that when Shah Jahan ascended the throne he was perhaps the wealthiest man in the world.

Many of you have a diamond ring. Many of you, certainly many women here this morning, have a diamond ring. Maybe your diamond is small. Maybe it’s half of a carat. Maybe you’ve done well and your diamond is a full carat. Maybe your husband splurged and you have a 2-carat diamond or maybe you have a group of diamonds that are larger still. Shah Jahan had hundreds of thousands of carats of diamonds. A carat is a unit of weight and measurement of weight equal to 200 milligrams. Shah Jahan had hundreds of thousands of carats of diamonds and more than a million carats of emeralds, and some emeralds are more valuable than diamonds. He had treasures beyond imagining. He was one of the wealthiest men in the world. And what a waste, because he did nothing to help anybody. He was hated even by his own family, who were incarcerated in the last seven years of his life. Think what he could have done for the poor. Think what he could have done for the oppressed. Had he become a believer and a follower of Christ, think what he could have done for the kingdom of heaven and for the church of Jesus Christ.

God hates waste. He doesn’t want to see it your life. He doesn’t want to see it in mine. With regard to money, he has instructed us in the tithe, which, by the way, means one tenth. I sometimes hear people speak of tithing 1% of their income or tithing 2% if their income. That’s not possible because a tithe means one tenth and it’s the first tenth, before taxes. It’s gross, not net. God’s given us that standard because He doesn’t want us to waste our money. He wants us to be motivated to use it for the cause and for the purpose of the kingdom of heaven.

God calls His people to volunteer their time, that we don’t waste our time. He calls us to use our gifts and talents, that we don’t waste our gifts and talents. God hates waste, and He doesn’t want to see the Word of God wasted. He doesn’t want to see the Bible wasted. Josiah didn’t waste the Bible. He knew it was treasure, and so he sat and he heard it. He heard it, he read it, and then he submitted himself to it. He entered into a covenant to follow with all of his heart and all of his soul all the words of the covenant that were written in this book. He did not waste it, and he lived it out. Then he called the people around him to do the same. He did not waste it. Ultimately the Word of the Covenant and the Word of God was wasted in Judah and the subsequent generation rejected the Word of God again. That’s why, ultimately, Judah fell. It’s a warning to us not to neglect the Word of God. I hope you’re not wasting it. I hope you have a desire for it.

When I was growing up, I went with my brothers and my mom and dad many times to Missouri because my mother had grown up in Missouri. I had cousins in Missouri. My grandfather and my aunt and uncle were there. They had farms, and I loved going to the farm, which we did many summers. I loved all the animals and the chickens that were just running everywhere and the cattle and the orchards and the vegetable gardens. It was just a fun place to be as a kid. I loved the food. I loved the fried chicken. It just seemed like it tasted so good on the farm. My aunt could cook wonderful fried chicken, as could my mom. More recently, when our kids had been born and Barb and I wanted to go back to Missouri and have our kids experience the farm, we took Drew and Heather with us and went to the farm in Missouri. We wanted them to experience those things.

I remember one night my aunt made fried chicken. She just made a ton of it. I just kept eating it because I love it. Afterwards, my uncle said he thought that I’d eaten two whole chickens. I don’t think that was true, but the next morning I got up early. There were already breakfast smells in the kitchen. My uncle was up and the rooster crowed. I said, “That sure is a proud sounding rooster you have there.” My uncle said, “Well, he ought to be proud. Last night two of his kids entered the ministry!” That story is semi-fictitious, but it is true that I love the farm. I love food. I love fried chicken. I love food today. I look forward to every meal. I’m already looking forward to lunch. I love food.

My mother is here. She is always at the second service. In a few months she’ll be 91. She still looks forward to her next meal. You get a little wiser as you get older in how you eat, but she still looks forward to every meal. That’s healthy. If you don’t desire to eat, if you don’t look forward to your next meal, that’s not a sign of good health. What’s true of the body is true of the soul.

How’s your appetite when it comes to spiritual things and the Word of God? Do you look forward to every meal? Do you long to feed your soul? Are you looking forward to being in the Word and having your soul fed? Is that something that you hunger and thirst for? And do you hunger and thirst for it every day? If you don’t, something is wrong in your soul.

As we look at these life lessons and we move from the kings to the prophets, we want to remember the importance of the Word of God. That’s why we focus every Sunday on the Word of God. It’s treasure. We don’t want to waste it. It’s food for our soul. We want to read it. We want to submit to it. We want to share it.

I’m mindful as we close of the words that Paul wrote to Timothy as recorded in 2 Timothy, chapter 3. Timothy was his child in the faith. Paul wrote to Timothy and he said, “You have observed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my love, my faith, my steadfastness, my patient endurance, my persecutions, my sufferings—what befell me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra, what persecutions I endured. Yet from them all, the Lord rescued me. All who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted while evil men and imposters will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed knowing from whom you have received it and how, from childhood, you have been acquainted with the scriptures, with the sacred writings, the Word of God that is able to instruct you for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All scripture is inspired of God and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, that the man or woman of God might be complete, equipped for every good work.” This book is treasure. Don’t neglect it.

As we come to the table this morning and we partake of the bread and the cup, we remember the story revealed in the Word, the story of the cross and how Christ died for us and how His blood was shed on our behalf. We think of His mercy and His grace. We want to remember the covenant and we want to commit ourselves anew to the covenant. Part of that commitment as we pray this morning and as you meditate this morning should be that you be more faithful in the Word. It is that you would view it as treasure and that you would hunger for it, thirst for it, look forward to every meal. It is that you would be in the Word every day. Let’s look to the Lord with a word of prayer.