LESSON FOR THE JUNIOR CLASSES
STUDY SCRIPTURE: 2 KINGS 22 :14-20
Lesson 3 March 20, 2021
Key verse
“Since your heart was tender and you humbled yourself before the LORD when you heard what
I spoke against this place and against its inhabitants, that they would become an object of horror and a curse, and you have torn your clothes and wept before Me, I have heard you” declared the LORD”.
2 Kings 22:19
INTRODUCTION AND STUDY.
Have you ever forgotten very important things that you should have done?
Have you ever been so busy going to school or doing your part-time job that you forget that you should have done some Bible Study or go to Worship service or even distributing some food for the poor?
All of us tend to forget very important thing sometimes. But there are some things that God the Father do not want you ever to forget. He has told us in the Bible that there are some things that we must always do and there are some instructions that He has given us that we must always follow.
Because He is a loving Father He warns us that if we stray away from doing what we should do over and over again our hearts will become not responsive or even against what He has taught us. We will behave as if these things are not very important even though they really are.
That was what happened to the children of Israel over many years. They had the Scriptures that were written by Moses, they had the right forms of worship in the Temple that reminded them of the presence of God. They had the teachings of the many prophets, and sometimes God even punished them a little to remind them that they were on the wrong path.
But despite all of that the Kings and rulers forgot God and began worshiping all kinds of strange gods and did all kinds of terrible things in their worship that the pagans around them did. They would even follow the pagan practise and burn their children in the fire offering them a sacrifice to the horrible god called Molech. That was a horrible thing and God was angry and very displeased with them.
It got so bad that God said that there was nothing that He could do to save and correct the people. He would have to send them into exile out of their own country for a long time so that their heart would be cleansed. The exile would be so unpleasant that they would change their behaviour and commit themselves to following God the Father alone.
Things have gotten really bad. The people were neglecting the Temple and they were not reading their Bibles. They did not know really what God wanted them to do.
But in this depressing and horribly bad situation a young man named Josiah came to the throne as King when he was very young, about eight years old. When he was 16 He began to clean up the place, repair the Temple, destroy all the pagan gods that the people had been worshipping, destroyed the images made of metal, and some of wood.
The changes he made were big and wide that he thoroughly cleaned up the land of things that offended God the Father.
Now you would not have expected that a young man like that with a terrible father and a terrible grandfather who were all wicked would turn to God and do the right thing. But his heart was tender toward God and he wanted to do the things that would please God,
Remember right away that no matter how bad the people around you are, even if they are family and parents, you do not have to be like them. All you have to do is still want to please God and God will help you to change. He will protect you and lead you, and guide you in the right way.
When Josiah’s officials were cleaning the Temple and repairing it they found the book of the Law of God and they brought it to Josiah and read what God had written done as instructions for the nation of Israel. Josiah was shocked and amazed. He became fearful when he learned what God had wanted the nation to do. He realized they were following God the way they should have.
Josiah learned from the section of the Bible that had been found that God was extremely angry with the nation because they had followed idolatry, worshiped all kind of strange gods, treated their fellow men badly, and that they were doing everything that God told them not to do. They had been doing those wrong things for so long that their heart had become hard. They did not really want to change. So God was determined to destroy the nation and send them into exile into a faraway strange country.
Josiah was so pained that he tore his clothes and wept.
Josiah was such a God fearing person that he got some of the high officials in the nation together to go to a prophetess named Huldah who was wise and well-respected. She lived in Jerusalem near the Temple.
Now the problem was that among the men that was sent to the wise prophetess Huldah was the High priest and the chief Scribe in the country. They should have known what God wanted. But it seems they did not. So they have to find somebody who was very close to God and who spoke to God and to whom God talked to all the time.
So the team of high level official men went to the prophetess Huldah to hear what God wanted because she had a better understanding of the heart of God than they had. She was a very wise woman.
She was very direct and clear with them and was very blunt and straightforward in what she said God wanted. She told them straight out that the people had been so wicked that God determined to bring on them all the curses that were written in the Book of the Law that they had found in the Temple. The wrath of God would not be turned away.
However she had a special message for the king Josiah. She told the messengers that because Josiah loved God, and was very hurt when he heard what God wanted and the people had rejected, and because he had torn his clothes and wept bitterly, God had seen that his heart was tender toward Him. Because of that tenderness of heart God would not allow the disaster that was predicted to come on the nation while he was alive. God would spare him from seeing all the bad things that would happen to the nation and the people.
Despite that message from the prophetess Huldah Josiah continued with his reforms and tried to get the people to go back the following the Covenant that their forefather Abraham and they had with the Lord God.
Remember therefore that you must always do your best to follow the Commandments of God. If you make a mistake all you have to do is to go to God and pray, asking for forgiveness. He is a good God and He will help you and forgive you.
But you must change your bad ways.
It you do not God the Father will have to allow pain to come to you and it will continue until you change.
We learn from the Lesson that God knows your heart and if your heart is tender toward Him and if you really want to do what is right and you do not like to see the things that are happening around you that are bad, He will respect you and He will help you.
So keep away from doing things that are against God and always do what is pleasing to God.
Love your friends, family, neighbours and your fellow men and try to correct them nicely when they are doing things that are wrong.
Keep close to God.
Do not follow people who do bad things and do not respect the instructions of God.
Get close to the people who are close to God for they will be able to help you and give you good guidance.