#DailyDevotion Humble Repentance Is Met With Grace In Christ Jesus
September 15
2 Chr 34:1–4, 8–11, 14–33
2Ch 34:26-28 But to the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of the LORD, thus shall you say to him, Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Regarding the words that you have heard, (27) because your heart was tender and you humbled yourself before God when you heard his words against this place and its inhabitants, and you have humbled yourself before me and have torn your clothes and wept before me, I also have heard you, declares the LORD. (28) Behold, I will gather you to your fathers, and you shall be gathered to your grave in peace, and your eyes shall not see all the disaster that I will bring upon this place and its inhabitants.'” And they brought back word to the king.
King Josiah was brought up with the name of the Lord and worshipped him. When he became king he sent out his servants to clean the land and then the temple of the foreign gods which the people had been worshipping. His cleansing of the land might seem pretty radical in today’s polite society. It wasn’t enough to break up the idols but he pulverized them to powder and even burnt their priest bones to turn them to dust.
In the midst of his cleansing the temple they found the book of Moses, the book of the Law. So it must have been that he knew of the Lord by word of mouth of those who still worshipped the Lord despite the mass numbers of people who did not worship solely or abandoned him altogether. When Josiah heard the book of the Law read to him he fell down in repentance for himself and for his people. He tore his clothes and humbled himself before the Lord vowing to do everything in the book of the Law.
It was his humility and repentance that move the Lord to have mercy on Josiah during his reign. He would live and die in peace and be gathered to his fathers, i.e. those who had been faithful to the Lord. Yet the Lord knew Judah and her kings would turn away from him as soon as Josiah was dead and therefore was going to bring the curses their ancestors spoke before they entered the Promised Land.
This is a lesson unto us that when we hear the word of the Lord and are convicted of our sins we should not rebel against the Lord and tell him and his messengers to not judge us (for it is the Lord who judges us by his word) but rather like Josiah fall down in humble repentance. Indeed every day we should humble ourselves before the Lord, confess our sins, our failing to keep his word and beg for his forgiveness. The good news is the Lord Jesus Christ, himself, has come and made atonement for our sins. Jesus has won for us the forgiveness we seek and need. He has sent his messengers out with this word of forgiveness with his authority to pronounce absolution upon us even as he did king Josiah.
As king Josiah produced fruits in keeping with repentance you and I also will spurn our wicked acts and turn from them. If we have caused damage we will repair the damage our sins have caused to the best of our ability. For those who have experienced the grace of God in our Lord Jesus Christ cannot be joyful and free if our repentance is not sincere. We may fall again, but we return again and be repentant never excusing but confessing our iniquity and turning from it again.
Heavenly Father, ever make your word present among us that we may know your will, humbly repent of our sins and receive absolution from the servants of your Son Jesus Christ who purchased and won our forgiveness by the spilling of his innocent blood and death. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.