The People Make a Covenant with the LORD

2 Kings 23:1-3 (text); Hebrews 10:12-18

Trinity and Pasig Covenant Reformed Churches • June 22, 2014 • Download this sermon (PDF)

Introduction

Congregation of Christ: Today, we come near the end of our series on the study of our worship service. After the sermon, the people promise to obey God’s will that they heard all throughout the service, particularly the sermon. We usually do this by singing a song that we call the “Song of Consecration.” Next Sunday will be the end of our series, in which we will study the Benediction and the Amen.

The text selected for this study is found near the end of 2 Kings, when Josiah was king of Judah, the southern kingdom of God’s chosen people. Remember that Israel was divided after the reign of Solomon: a northern kingdom called Israel, and a southern kingdom called Judah.

The books of 1 and 2 Kings describe this period in Israel’s monarchy after the reigns of Saul, David and Solomon from 970-586 B.C. Though some Jewish traditions attribute these books to Jeremiah, no one can really know who wrote these two books. But we see evidence that the author (or authors) were heavily influenced by the book of Deuteronomy in its many uses of Deuteronomic language. For example, “keeping all his statutes and his commandments” (Deu 6:2; 2 Kgs 23:3).

These books were probably written after the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple in 586 B.C. They teach that Israel’s good God is the one who was sovereign over the downfall and destruction of his own chosen nation. Why? Because Israel repeatedly violated his Law since they settled in the Promised Land of Canaan (2 Kgs 17:7–18). But even in judgment, there is also hope and promise that God’s chosen royal line that will produce the eternal King, the Messiah, has not been broken (2 Kgs 25:27–30). The LORD will also forgive and restore those who repent of their sins (1 Kgs 8:22-61).

Towards the end of Israel’s monarchy, there came a righteous king named Josiah, grandson of Israel’s most evil king, Manasseh. Josiah’s righteous works as a king is described in 2 Kings 22-23. For example, “And he did what was right in the eyes of the LORD and walked in all the way of David his father, and he did not turn aside to the right or to the left” (2 Kgs 22:2). He reigned for 31 years from 640-609 B.C. After Josiah’s death, Judah became a vassal of Egypt, and its next king, Jehoahaz, was imprisoned in Egypt. And we know that the alliance that Judah made with Babylon ended up in tragedy: Babylon itself destroyed Jerusalem and the temple 23 years after Josiah’s death.

As a righteous king, Josiah implemented many reforms in the spiritual life of his people. As part of these reforms, he and all his people renewed a covenant with the LORD, and then implemented these reforms. Our text this afternoon is about this covenant, “The People Make a Covenant with the LORD,” under two headings: first, The Content of the Covenant; second, The Implementation of the Covenant.

The Content of the Covenant

Verse 3 starts with “And the king stood by the pillar and made a covenant before the LORD.” Standing by a certain pillar in the palace or in the temple is a custom for the coronation of a king or the announcement of an important news by a king (2 Kgs 11:14). Here, it is the pillar in the temple, “the house of the LORD” (verse 2).

What was the covenant all about? Verse 2 says, “And he read in their hearing all the words of the Book of the Covenant that had been found in the house of the LORD.” Josiah, or the priests or the prophets, read the Book of the Covenant before all the people. Why was this so important? Because during the reign of his wicked grandfather Manasseh for 55 years and his son Amon for 2 years, the temple and the Book of the Covenant were neglected and forgotten. When Josiah became king, he restored temple worship, and in so doing, rediscovered the Book of the Covenant, which the people have long since forgotten.

Verse 3 says that the Book of the Covenant, most probably the book of Deuteronomy, has all the LORD’s “commandments and his testimonies and his statutes.” The Word of God was read in the hearing of all the people. Later, after the Babylonian exiles returned to Canaan, the Book of the Law was again rediscovered, and Ezra the priest read the whole book before all the returnees.

About 800 years before Josiah, at Mount Sinai, Moses read the Book of the Covenant before all Israel who came out of Egypt. In Exodus 24, there was the first worship service, a covenant-making ceremony. After hearing God’s Word, the people vowed with one voice, “All the words that the LORD has spoken we will do” (Exo 24:3). Moses took the blood of animal sacrifices and sprinkled it upon the people to ratify the covenant.

Today, we also renew our covenant with God every Lord’s Day. We listen to the Scriptures read, both law and gospel. We listen to the Word preached, and we are exhorted also to obey it as Christians. And after we hear God’s exhortation to holiness, we also promise to live holy and godly lives in the coming week. But we know we are forgetful people, who forget very easily and very quickly God’s words of encouragement. So we go every Lord’s Day to ask God to forgive our sins and our forgetfulness, and renew our covenant vow to God to obey. This is why our Lord’s Day worship service is also often called a Covenant Renewal Service.

After Josiah read the Book of the Covenant, all the people joined in a covenant vow before the LORD “ to walk after 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 this covenant that were written in this book.”

This is why we also sing a Song of Consecration after the sermon. You sing this song as your covenant vow to obey God’s will as revealed in his word with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. You vow to live holy lives during the coming week wherever God has placed you: work, school, home, market, malls, or restaurants. As you go about your various tasks this week, remember what you have promised to the LORD, and pray that the Spirit will be your help to keep them.

The Implementation of the Covenant

Verses 4-24 of 2 Kings 23 continue with a description of Josiah’s righteous reforms in his kingdom. He destroyed all the idol-worship in the land, Baal and Asherah, and all their high places, shrines, poles, horses, altars, pillars and household idols. Even the male cult prostitutes, mediums and necromancers were eliminated.

Because of Israel’s wickedness, the seven feasts appointed by God for Israel were also forgotten “since the days of the judges who judged Israel, or during all the days of the kings of Israel or of the kings of Judah” (2 Kgs 23:22). Josiah rediscovered the feasts, and the Passover was especially mentioned in verses 21-23 (622 B.C.).

One of the most abominable forms of idol worship that man has invented is the sacrifice of their own children to their gods. The people of Judah joined the Canaanites in offering their children to the idol-god Molech. Josiah also destroyed this idol and stopped this wicked idolatry.

We usually think of David and Hezekiah as the most faithful kings of Israel. Who else among Israel’s kings was more righteous than these two? It was Josiah, who is described in this chapter with these wonderful words, “Before him there was no king like him, who turned to the LORD with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his might, according to all the Law of Moses, nor did any like him arise after him” (2 Kgs 23:25). No one more righteous before or after him, David included.

But though King Josiah was faithful and righteous in his reign, it was not enough to turn away God’s wrath on the nation because of the people’s wickedness and provocations against God, especially during the 55-year reign of Manasseh. Righteous Josiah could not turn away God’s burning anger:

Still the LORD did not turn from the burning of his great wrath, by which his anger was kindled against Judah, because of all the provocations with which Manasseh had provoked him. And the LORD said, “I will remove Judah also out of my sight, as I have removed Israel, and I will cast off this city that I have chosen, Jerusalem, and the house of which I said, My name shall be there (2 Kings 23:26-27).

But in spite of God’s anger on the people, the LORD gave one promise to Josiah the faithful king: he will not be alive to see Babylon destroy Jerusalem and the temple in 586. The LORD said,

because your heart was penitent, and you humbled yourself before the LORD… and you have torn your clothes and wept before me, I also have heard you, declares the LORD. Therefore, behold, I will gather you to your fathers… and your eyes shall not see all the disaster that I will bring upon this place (2 Kgs 22:19-20).

And so, Josiah’s reign ended sadly and tragically, because of his people’s wickedness. His reign ended when he was killed in a battle in the city of Megiddo against Egypt’s Pharaoh Neco. No one really knows why he went against Neco’s powerful army, maybe to signal that Judah was on the side of another power, Babylon. It was 23 years after Josiah was killed, when even the people under his reign have also died, Jerusalem and its temple were destroyed, ironically, by King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon.

Dear Congregation of Christ: As tragic as Josiah’s death may seem, after the exiles returned from Babylon, they rebuilt the temple in Jerusalem. But even this temple was destroyed by the Romans about 500 years later because of Israel’s apostasy. Our Lord Jesus Christ not only prophesied this physical destruction by the Romans, but he also prophesied that his body is the Temple that will be destroyed by his enemies at the cross, to be raised again from the dead on the third day.

Our reading in Hebrews 10:12-18 says that by his sacrifice on the cross, “he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.” You are those who are being perfected by his once-for-all sacrifice for your sins. In eternity past, he himself made a covenant with the Father and the Spirit to redeem you from your slavery to sin, Satan and death. He promised the Father that he will come down from heaven and be perfectly obedient to his Law, even unto death on the cross (Phl 2:6-8). He is truly your Covenant-Keeper, unlike Israel and us who are covenant-breakers. Just as good King Josiah was killed because of the sins of his people, so Christ our Eternal King and our unblemished, spotless Passover Lamb suffered and was killed under God’s righteous wrath against our sins.

So even though we are like the wicked Israelites who deserve God’s wrath of destruction in hell, he has made a gracious covenant with us: “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws on their hearts, and write them on their minds.” The Spirit guarantees your salvation from sin, saying, “I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.”

Therefore, whenever we sing our Song of Consecration, just as we will sing in a few moments, “O Jesus, I Have Promised,” remember that it is the Spirit himself who enables us to do so, not our own sinful selves. But we are to strive with all our heart, soul, mind and strength to obey and to do God’s will for our lives, by the grace of Christ:

And Jesus, I have promised
To serve Thee to the end;
O give me grace to follow
My Master and my Friend!