Reign of Josiah // Week 3

The Reign of King Josiah

Josiah was king of Judah in the 7th century BC. He brought about major religious reforms and is often credited with compiling important Hebrew scriptures. Josiah became king of Judah at the age of eight, after the assassination of his father, King Amon, and reigned for thirty-one years. He is mentioned in the genealogy of Jesus and is described as a very righteous king. He dealt with many issues, both personally and as a leader of a nation. His life and story is one that can have great impact on the church today when it comes to leadership, repentance and resistance.

Best Practices for Missional Community Bible Study Facilitation

• As you begin each study, pray that God will speak to you through his Word.
• Listen attentively to other members. Encourage only Bible reading from phones during the study.
• Work to include everyone’s voice by asking follow-up questions, restating what you heard someone say, and asking for more details to thoughts given by group members.
• It is often helpful for someone to take notes of the discussion and send them out afterwards to reinforce key learnings from the study.
• Pray for one another and be accountable to applying the word of God to your lives.
  

General Questions:

1. What does this scripture communicate about the heart of God?
2. What does it teach us about ourselves?
3. Does it challenge our thinking/beliefs in a new way?

Sermon Specific Question:

1. 2 Kings 23:1–20 – The kingdom has strayed away from the God of Israel. In the process of returning, we see the simple, humble act of Josiah to simply read the word of God and let Him work. When we see ourselves or others needing to return to good, do we take the same approach? How does the word of God do more than our own words?
2. We read in verse 4 that there is a statue of Baal in the temple of God. This took place in an agrarian society with great dependence on crops and rain. We should first ask: how did the priests allow this? Is it that they too doubted the power of YHWH? How would you define doubt?
3. When Josiah does the “house cleaning” of Israel, he disassociates himself from other countries and their influence. In your process of sanctification, how have you seen God call you to His distinctiveness and away from other influences? Is it possible to worship something else though we know God calls us only to Himself above all things?
4. Special task: ask people this week to evaluate their hearts with regard to worship and to lay those things down, create distance, and allow God to refine them more into His likeness.