Engaging With God and His Word

¹⁸ Then Shaphan the scribe told the king, saying, “Hilkiah the priest has given me a book.” And Shaphan read it before the king. ¹⁹ Thus it happened, when the king heard the words of the Law, that he tore his clothes. ²⁰ Then the king commanded Hilkiah, Ahikam the son of Shaphan, ^[e]Abdon the son of Micah, Shaphan the scribe, and Asaiah a servant of the king, saying, ²¹ “Go, inquire of the Lord for me, and for those who are left in Israel and Judah, concerning the words of the book that is found; for great is the wrath of the Lord that is poured out on us, because our fathers have not kept the word of the Lord, to do according to all that is written in this book.”

²⁷ because your heart was tender, and you humbled yourself before God when you heard His words against this place and against its inhabitants, and you humbled yourself before Me, and you tore your clothes and wept before Me, I also have heard you,” says the Lord. ²⁸ “Surely 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 calamity which I will bring on this place and its inhabitants.” ’ ” So they brought back word to the king. ²⁹ Then the king sent and gathered all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem. ³⁰ The king went up to the house of the Lord, with all the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem—the priests and the Levites, and all the people, great and small. And he read in their hearing all the words of the Book of the Covenant which had been found in the house of the Lord. ³¹ Then the king stood in his place and made a covenant before the Lord, to follow the Lord, and to keep His commandments and His testimonies and His statutes with all his heart and all his soul, to perform the words of the covenant that were written in this book. ³² And he made all who were present in Jerusalem and Benjamin take a stand. So the inhabitants of Jerusalem did according to the covenant of God, the God of their fathers. ³³ Thus Josiah removed all the abominations from all the country that belonged to the children of Israel, and made all who were present in Israel ^[h]diligently serve the Lord their God. All his days they did not depart from following the Lord God of their fathers.

 

WHEN WE ENGAGE WITH GOD:

 

He Changes Our Hearts

• God changes us
• God calls us to be different
• God is with us when we read His word.

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He Changes Our Mission

• Josiah became concerned with the people’s spiritual health
• Your conversations will be filled with truth and peace

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He Will Change the Way We Fight

• Josiah removed all “things” that were not of God
• Our viewpoint will be different
• The Bible can fight every single battle
• We stop fighting with our brothers and sisters
• We fight using the word

The Bible is the bread of life. Our manna for every day and every situation.