1. Josiah¡Çs Reformation and failure
We kept reading the Books of Kings. Last Sunday we learned that Josiah the king of Judah repented after reading ¡Æthe Book of the Agreement¡Ç which was found in the Temple. He understood that, if the people of Judah would still do wrong against God, the country must perish. Therefore he launched the religious reformation. However that attempt collapsed and Judah was destroyed after the death of Josiah. Today we will see more details of Josiah¡Çs movements in order to grasp the notion of the Providence which intervenes into the History. As I mentioned before, what we believe and worship determines our life and the future of the nation.

Josiah was enthroned in 640 BC and ruled Judah for 31 years. He was chosen as the successor to his father Amon at the age of 8. It was an urgent situation due to the assassination of Amon. Naturally, priests ruled the country in fact for the time being. When Josiah grew to be an adult, he wished to abolish the religious policy taken by his grand-father Manasseh and father Amon. He tried to restore the faith in Yahweh in that way.(see 2Chronicles 34:3)

The time corresponded to the decline of Assyrian power, which allowed Josiah to carry out the reformation against the idolatry forced by Assyrian Empire. And, in 623 BC, the 18th year of Josiah¡Çs reign (26 years old), a book was found at the Temple under renovation works. Hight priest Hilkiah, the finder brought it to the king. Then Josiah forwarded the Book with to the prophetess Huldah to make it authenticated*1. Once it was validated, the king reacted immediately. ; - He went up to the Temple of the Lord, and all the people from Judah and Jerusalem went with him. The priests, prophets, and all the people—from the least important to the most important—went with him. He read to them all the words of the Book of the Agreement that was found in the Temple of the Lord. The king stood by the pillar and made an agreement in the presence of the Lord to follow the Lord and obey his commands, rules, and laws with his whole being, and to obey the words of the agreement written in this book. Then all the people promised to obey the agreement.(2 Kings 23:2-3)

The newly found book is said to be ¡ÈUrdeuteronomium¡É which contained the basis of Deuteronomy. The expression in Deuteronomy 6:5, ¡ÈLove the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength, ¡É is found in that book too and both of them contain similar alerts and curses to those who won¡Çt respect the Law. And instructions to agree on covenants are the same in two.

Then the king and priests undertook together the rites instructed in the Book. ; - The king commanded Hilkiah the high priest and the priests of the next rank and the gatekeepers to bring out of the Temple of the Lord everything made for Baal, Asherah, and all the stars of the sky. Then Josiah burned them outside Jerusalem in the open country of the Kidron Valley and carried their ashes to Bethel.(2Kings 23:4)

Then Josiah also ordered to destroy alters for idolatry in provinces. ; - King Josiah brought all the false priests from the cities of Judah. He ruined the places where gods were worshiped, where the priests had burned incense, from Geba to Beersheba. … The priests at the places where gods were worshiped were not allowed to serve at the Lord’s altar in Jerusalem. But they could eat bread made without yeast with their brothers.(2 Kings 23:8-9 )

Furthermore Josiah conquered back Samaria which had been occupied by Assyria and purified the sanctuary there with fire. ;- Josiah also broke down the altar at Bethel—the place of worship made by Jeroboam son of Nebat, who had led Israel to sin. Josiah burned that place, broke the stones of the altar into pieces, then beat them into dust. He also burned the Asherah idol.( - 2 Kings 23:15 )

He also resumed the celebration of the Passover lavishly to commemorate the Exodus from Egypt as the starting point of the nation. It had been neglected for a long time. ; - The king commanded all the people, “Celebrate the Passover to the Lord your God as it is written in this Book of the Agreement.” The Passover had not been celebrated like this since the judges led Israel. Nor had one like it happened while there were kings of Israel and kings of Judah. This Passover was celebrated to the Lord in Jerusalem in the eighteenth year of King Josiah’s rule.(2 Kings 23:21-23)

Thus, Josiah tried to redirect the nation to righteousness. The act must rely on the faith in God. But the calamity took place. In 612 BC, Assyria was defeated by Babylonia which overtook the hegemony of the world. Then Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar II*2 competed with Egyptian king Necho. Josiah must join Babylonian military actions as one of its allies. He set out to fight against Egyptian army and was killed in Megiddo. He was 39 years old. His death was a great loss for Judah. After the incident, the nation followed the path leading to the ruin directly.

*1 Huldah http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huldah
*2 Nebuchadnezzar II http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nebuchadnezzar#Biography
*3 Battle of Megiddo http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Megiddo_(609_BC)

2. Despite faithfulness
Regardless of Josiah¡Çs repentance and his efforts to lead the nation rightly, God didn¡Çt change his mind to destroy Judah. Though Josiah ¡Èloved the Lord with all his heart, all his soul, and all his strength,¡É the Lord, his God made the reformation failed and let him lose the battle against Egypt and be killed. Then God put Judah to the ruin. Why? We will reflect on the question again by seeing the event from a different angle.

Judah became one of satellite states of Babylonia in 597 BC and the majority of the leaders were brought to the suzerain state as captives*1. And Ezekiel was raised there as a prophet to give these words of God. ; - The Lord spoke his word to me, saying: “Human, if the people of a country sin against me by not being loyal, I will use my power against them. I will cut off their supply of food and send a time of hunger, destroying both people and animals. Even if three great men like Noah, Daniel, and Job were in that country, their goodness could save only themselves, says the Lord God.(Ezekiel 14:12-14)

People under captivity still kept the easy and baseless guess that the Lord would save Jerusalem because certain righteous persons must remain in the Holy City. For the people, the loss of Jerusalem meant the loss of homeland to go back to. Therefore they were not courageous enough to face sincerely the severe reality. Ezekiel alone appealed to them for giving up such an illusion. Because no human can be sinless before God. Paul stated it clearly. ; - ¡ÈSo are we Jews better than others? No! We have already said that Jews and those who are not Jews are all guilty of sin…. There is no one who understands. There is no one who looks to God for help. All have turned away. Together, everyone has become useless. …There is no one who does anything good; …"They have no fear of God(Psalm 36:1).¡É(Romans 3:9-18)

And sins can be never redeemed with any human acts. The salvation can be possible only thanks to God¡Çs mercy, never through human righteousness. And we see the very mercy in the Cross and redemption of Jesus alone.

* Babylonian captivity http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babylonian_captivity

3. The salvation beyond the disasters
Ezekiel said, ¡ÈEven a righteous man like Josiah is a mere sinner before the eyes of God. Those who must perish will perish.¡É Nonetheless we will see the salvation behind the ruin. Today¡Çs invocation verses are Ezekiel 14:21-22; - This is what the Lord God says: My plans for Jerusalem are much worse! I will send my four terrible punishments against it—war, hunger, wild animals, and disease—to destroy its people and animals. But some people will escape; some sons and daughters will be led out. They will come out to you, and you will see what happens to people who live as they did. Then you will be comforted after the disasters I have brought against Jerusalem, after all the things I have brought against it.

The people under Captivity aspired to the end of painful days and returning back to Jerusalem. But God announced to the people the terrible future through Ezekiel¡Çs prophecy, the destruction of the Holly City. Because as long as they had the homeland to come back to, they won¡Çt repent from heart. As a matter of fact, they had kept believing in the easy and baseless prediction. But when they lost Jerusalem they must admit the harsh reality.

Jewish people who lost country and way to go back to Jerusalem commenced to compile traditions of ancestors in order to undeerstand the signification of the devastation. Then they recognized that it was the punishment of God for their arrogance and unfaithfulness. Thus they were led to repent. The contents of 5 Books of Moses (Torah/Pentateuch) were said to be finally configured during the Babylonian Captivity. Through that process, the people, who had been the ethnic group formed around the House of Davide and the Temple of Jerusalem, turned into the religious body.

The salvation of God comes after the judgement and sufferings. When we see the Providence of God behind whatever happens to us, painful incidents must turn into blessings. Presently, Japan is undergoing calamities triggered by the Tohoku earthquake. But we must see the salvation beyond those sufferings. Now is the very time to recognize that.

I want to present you here about the book, ¡ÈThe child who never grew(1950),¡É as a very adequate example for today¡Çs lecture. The book was written by Pearl S. Buck*2, a Nobel-Prized writer, the author of ¡ÈThe Good Earth (1931).¡É S. Buck tells in the book the personal story of her daughter, of whom mental development stopped at the age of 4.

Pearl S. Buck was born and spent her youth in China. Her parents were missionaries. She married Dr. John Lossing Buck, an agricultural expert. The couple had a daughter who had some mental problem. More precisely, she was affected by phenylketonuria which wasn¡Çt yet easily curable at that time. Pearl S. Buck returned to the United States with the daughter to seek medical treatments for her. They consulted numerous doctors but in vain. And the long stay in US apart from the husband led the couple to divorce. After a long journey, she and her child arrived at Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, one of very famous clinics in US. Pediatrics there examined the child and one doctor promised her to continue efforts to heal the child. But another advised to accept the reality that the hope of improvement didn¡Çt exist for the time being. At that moment, Pearl S. Buck understood that she must admit courageously the fact. In other words, her daughter won¡Çt be cured. In 1930, She took a very hard decision to trust the child to an institute. However she could think afterwards that taking the decision was God¡Çs mercy. Since then, Pearl S. Buck lifted her activities to write novels. 10 years of sufferings taught her to recognize the importance of facing the reality.
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She published works one after another, for example ¡ÈThe Good Earth (1931),¡É ¡ÈSons (1933)¡É and A House Divided (1935).¡É They were highly estimated and she was honored with the Nobel Prize in literature. After the world war II, she spent almost all of her prize-money and royalties to establish ¡ÈWelcome House, Inc.,¡É the first international, interracial adoption agency. aThen she founded the Pearl S. Buck Foundation to ¡Èaddress poverty and discrimination faced by children in Asian countries.¡É In that way, she tried to support children born between American soldiers and Asian women. They were scars of American occupation in Asian countries during the war. Pearl S. Buck became Mother of numerous children thanks to having a disabled daughter. What an award! The story teaches us that the courage to accept the reality sincerely produced a big fruit.

To finish today¡Çs lecture, I want to give you another example of fruits of sufferings. A Japanese pastor Susumu Kouno who devoted his life to an institute of Hansen¡Çs disease, wrote a poem of which theme is sufferings and pains:
— There are prayers we can pray only under pains of sickness. There are miracles we can believe only under pains of sickness. There are words we can listen to only under pains of sickness. There is a sanctuary we can reach at only under pains of sickness. There is the face we can look up at only under pains of sickness. Oh! Without those pains I won¡Çt be a human.—

Now we learn that the people of Judah could see the truth only under sufferings of the Captivity as the words of God can be grasped only in a very harsh situation.

*1 Five Books of Moses http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentateuch
*2 Pearl S. Buck http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pearl_Buck