Despite King Josiah’s spiritual reforms, Manasseh’s idol worship and \u201cdisgusting actions\u201d had taken their toil on the nation. Jeremiah 5 tells us that although Judah’s outward worship had been correctly reestablished, the inward worship of idols remained in the people’s hearts. And shortly after Josiah’s death, the true condition of the people’s hearts resurfaced.<\/p>\n
The heart is always the issue with Father God. In Psalm 51, King David prayed that God would create in him a clean heart. He wasn\u2019t saying, \u201cChange the way I behave.\u201d He was saying, \u201cChange my heart.\u201d It\u2019s not that how we outwardly behave isn\u2019t important; it\u2019s just that we\u2019ve got to start inwardly with the heart. We can go through all the right motions without our hearts being right, but they\u2019ll never last that way. But if the heart is right, everything else will fall into place.<\/p>\n
David knew better than to try and change his heart himself. In fact, he knew he couldn\u2019t. When David said, \u201cCreate in me a clean heart, O God,\u201d he was going back to the language of creation itself, found in the first chapters of Genesis. The Hebrew word create<\/em> (b\u0101r\u0101’<\/em><\/span>) used in Psalm 51 is the very same Hebrew word used in Genesis. It is a word used\u00a0 in connection with God, because it usually means to create something out of nothing. Human beings can fashion, arrange, and remodel things. But they can never create anything in the true sense of the word. We can\u2019t bring into being something that never existed before. So we need God to create a clean heart in us. Without it, we will fail.<\/p>\n Edgar Allen Poe wrote a short story called, \u201cThe Tell-tale Heart.\u201d It’s about a man who murders someone and buries the body under his floorboards. But he is unable to escape the haunting guilt of his deed. He begins to hear the heartbeat of his dead victim. Drenched in a cold sweat, he listens as the heartbeat pounds on and on, relentlessly growing louder and louder. Eventually it becomes clear that the pounding, which drives the man insane, is not coming from beneath the floorboards but from his own chest.<\/p>\n “LORD, create in us a new heart this day so we might serve You wholeheartedly.”<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n =============================================================<\/p>\n\n\n\n 2 Kings 23 KJV<\/p>\n\n\n\n 1<\/sup>\u00a0And the king sent, and they gathered unto him all the elders of Judah and of Jerusalem.\u00a02<\/sup>\u00a0And the king went up into the house of the\u00a0LORD, and all the men of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem with him, and the priests, and the prophets, and all the people, both small and great: and he read in their ears all the words of the book of the covenant which was found in the house of the\u00a0LORD.\u00a03<\/sup>\u00a0And the king stood by a pillar, and made a covenant before the\u00a0LORD, to walk after the\u00a0LORD, and to keep his commandments and his testimonies and his statutes with all\u00a0their\u00a0<\/em>heart and all\u00a0their\u00a0<\/em>soul, to perform the words of this covenant that were written in this book. And all the people stood to the covenant. 4<\/sup>\u00a0And the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest, and the priests of the second order, and the keepers of the door, to bring forth out of the temple of the\u00a0LORD\u00a0all the vessels that were made for Baal, and for the grove, and for all the host of heaven: and he burned them without Jerusalem in the fields of Kidron, and carried the ashes of them unto Beth-el.\u00a05<\/sup>\u00a0And he put down the idolatrous priests, whom the kings of Judah had ordained to burn incense in the high places in the cities of Judah, and in the places round about Jerusalem; them also that burned incense unto Baal, to the sun, and to the moon, and to the planets, and to all the host of heaven.\u00a06<\/sup>\u00a0And he brought out the grove from the house of the\u00a0LORD, without Jerusalem, unto the brook Kidron, and burned it at the brook Kidron, and stamped\u00a0it<\/em>small to powder, and cast the powder thereof upon the graves of the children of the people.\u00a07<\/sup>\u00a0And he brake down the houses of the sodomites, that\u00a0were\u00a0<\/em>by the house of the\u00a0LORD, where the women wove hangings for the grove.\u00a08<\/sup>And he brought all the priests out of the cities of Judah, and defiled the high places where the priests had burned incense, from Geba to Beer-sheba, and brake down the high places of the gates that\u00a0were\u00a0<\/em>in the entering in of the gate of Joshua the governor of the city, which\u00a0were\u00a0<\/em>on a man\u2019s left hand at the gate of the city.\u00a09<\/sup>\u00a0Nevertheless the priests of the high places came not up to the altar of the\u00a0LORD\u00a0in Jerusalem, but they did eat of the unleavened bread among their brethren.\u00a010<\/sup>\u00a0And he defiled Topheth, which\u00a0is\u00a0<\/em>in the valley of the children of Hinnom, that no man might make his son or his daughter to pass through the fire to Molech.\u00a011<\/sup>And he took away the horses that the kings of Judah had given to the sun, at the entering in of the house of the\u00a0LORD, by the chamber of Nathan-melech the chamberlain, which\u00a0was\u00a0<\/em>in the suburbs, and burned the chariots of the sun with fire.\u00a0\u00a012<\/sup>\u00a0And the altars that\u00a0were\u00a0<\/em>on the top of the upper chamber of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and the altars which Manasseh had made in the two courts of the house of the\u00a0LORD, did the king beat down, and brake\u00a0them\u00a0<\/em>down from thence, and cast the dust of them into the brook Kidron.\u00a0\u00a013<\/sup>\u00a0And the high places that\u00a0were\u00a0<\/em>before Jerusalem, which\u00a0were\u00a0<\/em>on the right hand of the mount of corruption, which Solomon the king of Israel had builded for Ashtoreth the abomination of the Zidonians, and for Chemosh the abomination of the Moabites, and for Milcom the abomination of the children of Ammon, did the king defile.\u00a0\u00a014<\/sup>\u00a0And he brake in pieces the images, and cut down the groves, and filled their places with the bones of men.\u00a015<\/sup>\u00a0Moreover the altar that\u00a0was\u00a0<\/em>at Beth-el,\u00a0and\u00a0<\/em>the high place which Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin, had made, both that altar and the high place he brake down, and burned the high place,\u00a0and\u00a0<\/em>stamped\u00a0it\u00a0<\/em>small to powder, and burned the grove.\u00a016<\/sup>\u00a0And as Josiah turned himself, he spied the sepulchres that\u00a0were\u00a0<\/em>there in the mount, and sent, and took the bones out of the sepulchres, and burned\u00a0them\u00a0<\/em>upon the altar, and polluted it, according to the word of the\u00a0LORD\u00a0which the man of God proclaimed, who proclaimed these words.\u00a017<\/sup>\u00a0Then he said, What title\u00a0is<\/em>that that I see? And the men of the city told him,\u00a0It is\u00a0<\/em>the sepulchre of the man of God, which came from Judah, and proclaimed these things that thou hast done against the altar of Beth-el.\u00a018<\/sup>\u00a0And he said, Let him alone; let no man move his bones. So they let his bones alone, with the bones of the prophet that came out of Samaria.\u00a0\u00a019<\/sup>\u00a0And all the houses also of the high places that\u00a0were\u00a0<\/em>in the cities of Samaria, which the kings of Israel had made to provoke\u00a0the\u00a0LORD\u00a0<\/em>to anger, Josiah took away, and did to them according to all the acts that he had done in Beth-el.\u00a020<\/sup>\u00a0And he slew all the priests of the high places that\u00a0were\u00a0<\/em>there upon the altars, and burned men\u2019s bones upon them, and returned to Jerusalem.\u00a021<\/sup>\u00a0And the king commanded all the people, saying, Keep the passover unto the\u00a0LORD\u00a0your God, as\u00a0it is\u00a0<\/em>written in the book of this covenant.\u00a022<\/sup>\u00a0Surely there was not holden such a passover from the days of the judges that judged Israel, nor in all the days of the kings of Israel, nor of the kings of Judah;\u00a023<\/sup>\u00a0But in the eighteenth year of king Josiah,\u00a0wherein<\/em>this passover was holden to the\u00a0LORD\u00a0in Jerusalem. 24<\/sup>\u00a0Moreover the\u00a0workers with\u00a0<\/em>familiar spirits, and the wizards, and the images, and the idols, and all the abominations that were spied in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, did Josiah put away, that he might perform the words of the law which were written in the book that Hilkiah the priest found in the house of the\u00a0LORD.\u00a025<\/sup>\u00a0And like unto him was there no king before him, that turned to the\u00a0LORD\u00a0with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his might, according to all the law of Moses; neither after him arose there\u00a0any\u00a0<\/em>like him. 26<\/sup>\u00a0Notwithstanding the\u00a0LORD\u00a0turned not from the fierceness of his great wrath, wherewith his anger was kindled against Judah, because of all the provocations that Manasseh had provoked him withal.\u00a0\u00a027<\/sup>\u00a0And the\u00a0LORD\u00a0said, I will remove Judah also out of my sight, as I have removed Israel, and will cast off this city Jerusalem which I have chosen, and the house of which I said, My name shall be there.\u00a028<\/sup>\u00a0Now the rest of the acts of Josiah, and all that he did,\u00a0are\u00a0<\/em>they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? 29<\/sup> In his days Pharaoh-nechoh king of Egypt went up against the king of Assyria to the river Euphrates: and king Josiah went against him; and he slew him at Megiddo, when he had seen him.\u00a030<\/sup>\u00a0And his servants carried him in a chariot dead from Megiddo, and brought him to Jerusalem, and buried him in his own sepulchre. And the people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of Josiah, and anointed him, and made him king in his father\u2019s stead. 31<\/sup>\u00a0Jehoahaz\u00a0was\u00a0<\/em>twenty and three years old when he began to reign; and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. And his mother\u2019s name\u00a0was\u00a0<\/em>Hamutal, the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah.\u00a0\u00a032<\/sup>\u00a0And he did\u00a0that which was\u00a0<\/em>evil in the sight of the\u00a0LORD, according to all that his fathers had done.\u00a033<\/sup>\u00a0And Pharaoh-nechoh put him in bands at Riblah in the land of Hamath, that he might not reign in Jerusalem; and put the land to a tribute of an hundred talents of silver, and a talent of gold.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a034<\/sup>\u00a0And Pharaoh-nechoh made Eliakim the son of Josiah king in the room of Josiah his father, and turned his name to Jehoiakim, and took Jehoahaz away: and he came to Egypt, and died there.\u00a035<\/sup>\u00a0And Jehoiakim gave the silver and the gold to Pharaoh; but he taxed the land to give the money according to the commandment of Pharaoh: he exacted the silver and the gold of the people of the land, of every one according to his taxation, to give\u00a0it\u00a0<\/em>unto Pharaoh-nechoh. 36<\/sup>\u00a0Jehoiakim\u00a0was\u00a0<\/em>twenty and five years old when he began to reign; and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. And his mother\u2019s name\u00a0was\u00a0<\/em>Zebudah, the daughter of Pedaiah of Rumah.\u00a037<\/sup>\u00a0And he did\u00a0that which was\u00a0<\/em>evil in the sight of the\u00a0LORD, according to all that his fathers had done.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Despite King Josiah’s spiritual reforms, Manasseh’s idol worship and \u201cdisgusting actions\u201d had taken their toil on the nation. Jeremiah 5 tells us that although Judah’s outward worship had been correctly reestablished, the inward worship of idols remained in the people’s hearts. And shortly after Josiah’s death, the true condition of the people’s hearts resurfaced. 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