2 KINGS 21 AND 22 (FROM CAC'S NOTES)

^[p. 222] 2 KINGS 21 AND 22 (FROM CAC’S NOTES)

2 Kings 21: 1 - 12; 2 Kings 22: 1 - 9

As saints we do not dwell on what is evil, but we are not ignorant of it. God knows good and evil and so do men, but the saints know good and evil as God does; that is, they refuse the evil and choose the good. But the fact that refusing the evil is put first would show that this is the order of moral exercise in creatures who have once been in evil and have had to learn to refuse it.

There is one very solemn thing in 2 Kings 21, which is, I believe, prophetic of what is happening and will happen in christendom; that is, that Manasseh “did evil ... like the abominations of the nations that Jehovah had dispossessed”. He led Judah astray to do greater evil and more idolatry (verses 9 - 11). I have no doubt that as christianity is given up there will be more evil in christendom than there was in the heathen world before light from God came in.

But it is very beautiful to see that Jehovah was pleased to give a wonderful movement of recovery before bringing in the judgment. Josiah (meaning ‘Jehovah heals’) is the last king of Judah to show any devotion to Jehovah or any faithfulness in his ways. And he began young to do what was right in the sight of Jehovah.

There are great possibilities before the young and I believe the Lord is looking to the young in a special way to carry on His work and testimony and to see to the service of God. Consider how He is calling young saints now to be His confessors before the world! He has put these in the front rank in the testimony! I do not think it is going too far to say that the real strength of the testimony is in the young. “The dew of thy youth” refers to young men. Those brought up in the truth have a great advantage because they are not hampered by wrong teaching; they are, in one sense, free-born.

When Josiah was 26 he began to manifest his care for the house of Jehovah. We are told in Chronicles that “in the eighth year of his reign, while he was yet young, he began to seek after the God of David his father; and in the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem”, 2 Chronicles 34: 3. Then in the eighteenth year he takes in hand the repair of the house. We get more detail in Chronicles, which gives the spiritual history, but here we see that Josiah’s concern was that the money brought into the house of Jehovah should be given into the hands of them that did the work. Paul refers to Timothy as working “the work of the Lord, even as I”, and he mentions every one being “joined in the work and labouring” (1 Corinthians 16: 10, 16). It is interesting to see that in 2 Kings 22 there are men known as doing the work.

A bedridden sister sent a message to one she had never seen, ‘Tell him I pray for him every day’ (see 1 Thessalonians 5: 12, 13). The work in the house of God is largely now repairing. What breaches! It is all constructive. All true ministry has this character. It is not that anything will do, Ephesians will not do for Corinthians, nor Philippians for Thessalonians. In repairing it is, perhaps, more important to fit the right bit in the right place. “Let each see how he builds”, 1 Corinthians 3: 10.