Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

נ Nun

Josiah Promises Again to Obey the Covenant

23 Then the king called together all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem. ² He went up to the Lord’s temple. The people of Judah and Jerusalem went with him. So did the priests and prophets. All of them went, from the least important of them to the most important. The king had all the words of the Book of the Covenant read to them. The book had been found in the Lord’s temple. ³ The king stood next to his pillar. He agreed to the terms of the covenant in front of the Lord. The king promised to serve the Lord and obey his commands, directions and rules. He promised to obey them with all his heart and with all his soul. So he agreed to the terms of the covenant written down in that book. Then all the people committed themselves to the covenant as well.

⁴ Certain things in the Lord’s temple had been made to honor other gods. They were the god named Baal, the female god named Asherah and all the stars in the sky. The king ordered Hilkiah the high priest to remove those things. The king ordered the priests who were next in rank and the men who guarded the doors to help Hilkiah. Josiah took those things that had been in the Lord’s temple and burned them outside Jerusalem. He burned them in the fields in the Kidron Valley. And he took the ashes to Bethel. ⁵ Josiah got rid of the priests who served other gods. The kings of Judah had appointed those priests to burn incense. They burned the incense on the high places of the towns of Judah. And they burned it on the high places around Jerusalem. They burned incense to honor Baal and the sun and moon. They burned it to honor all the stars. ⁶ Josiah removed the Asherah pole from the Lord’s temple. It had been used to worship the female god named Asherah. He took it to the Kidron Valley outside Jerusalem. There he burned it. He ground it into powder. And he scattered it over the graves of the ordinary people. ⁷ He also tore down the rooms where the male temple prostitutes stayed. Those rooms were in the Lord’s temple. Women had made cloth for Asherah in them.

⁸ Josiah brought all the priests from the towns of Judah and destroyed the high places. He destroyed them from Geba all the way to Beersheba. The priests had burned incense on them. Josiah broke down the gate at the entrance of the Gate of Joshua. It was on the left side of Jerusalem’s city gate. Joshua was the city governor.

²¹ The king gave an order to all the people. He said, “Celebrate the Passover Feast to honor the Lord your God. Do what is written in this Book of the Covenant.” ²² A Passover Feast like that one had not been held for a long time. There hadn’t been any like it in the days of the judges who led Israel. And there hadn’t been any like it during the whole time the kings of Israel and Judah were ruling. ²³ King Josiah celebrated the Passover Feast in Jerusalem to honor the Lord. It was in the 18th year of his rule.

²⁴ And that’s not all. Josiah got rid of those who got messages from people who had died. He got rid of those who talked to the spirits of people who had died. He got rid of the statues of family gods and the statues of other gods. He got rid of everything else the Lord hates that was in Judah and Jerusalem. He did it to carry out what the law required. That law was written in the book that Hilkiah the priest had found in the Lord’s temple. ²⁵ There was no king like Josiah either before him or after him. None of them turned to the Lord as he did. He obeyed the Lord with all his heart and all his soul. He obeyed him with all his strength. He did everything the Law of Moses required.

A Treasure in Clay Jars

4 So because of God’s mercy, we have work to do. He has given it to us. And we don’t give up. ² Instead, we have given up doing secret and shameful things. We don’t twist God’s word. In fact, we do just the opposite. We present the truth plainly. In the sight of God, we make our appeal to everyone’s sense of what is right and wrong. ³ Suppose our good news is covered with a veil. Then it is veiled to those who are dying. ⁴ The god of this world has blinded the minds of those who don’t believe. They can’t see the light of the good news that makes Christ’s glory clear. Christ is the likeness of God. ⁵ The message we preach is not about ourselves. Our message is about Jesus Christ. We say that he is Lord. And we say that we serve you because of Jesus. ⁶ God said, “Let light shine out of darkness.” (Genesis 1:3) He made his light shine in our hearts. His light gives us the light to know God’s glory. His glory is shown in the face of Christ.

⁷ Treasure is kept in clay jars. In the same way, we have the treasure of the good news in these earthly bodies of ours. That shows that the mighty power of the good news comes from God. It doesn’t come from us. ⁸ We are pushed hard from all sides. But we are not beaten down. We are bewildered. But that doesn’t make us lose hope. ⁹ Others make us suffer. But God does not desert us. We are knocked down. But we are not knocked out. ¹⁰ We always carry around the death of Jesus in our bodies. In that way, the life of Jesus can be shown in our bodies. ¹¹ We who are alive are always in danger of death because we are serving Jesus. This happens so that his life can also be shown in our earthly bodies. ¹² Death is at work in us. But life is at work in you.