The Dawning of God's Grace

Josiah was eight years old when he began his reign as king of Israel. According to 2 Chronicles 34 Josiah “did right in the sight of the LORD.” During his reign, he sought religious reform and “walked in the ways of his father David and did not turn aside to the right or to the left.”

But Josiah didn’t have a record of God’s Law until he was 26. When he at last heard the Law of God read to him by the scribe Shaphan after it had been discovered by the high priest Hilkiah, king Josiah “tore his clothes.” He was deeply sorrowful for the ways in which Israel had strayed from God’s Law.

Like Josiah’s kingdom before the finding of the book of the Law, I think it’s possible to desire the things of the Lord- peace, justice, love sacrifice, humbleness, etc.- before we have Christ in our lives, but without Christ, the truth of those things is hidden from us. Our sinful hearts have no resistance to a world that tells us that we should be more concerned with ourselves and we seek those things only because of that self-concern. I think it’s possible to desire to be free of our sins before we have Christ in our lives, but without Christ, we do not know that sin is that which we desire to be free of.

If there is desire in us to do right before we have Christ, it is God working in us, building the foundation of Christ so that when He comes to us and we receive Him, it is all the more glorious. It is so that the freedom from enslavement to sin is all the more sweet. It is God’s way of setting us apart so that when Christ comes to us, the treasure we receive is that much more satisfying because it affirms that which God has been putting in our hearts- that which the world has been trying to convince us to deny. It is His blessing of allowing us to see that He’s been with us for a long time. We should “tear our clothes” when we realize how we’ve been ignoring Him and all the ways in which we’ve strayed. But we should also be overjoyed to see His grace come upon us like the dawn. In that joy, we should then let that light show fully for all to see.