Marcus Mecum - Do Not Disturb - Part 1
As we look at 2 Kings 23, I would take a moment and say, I do think that we have a generation, I'm not here to say that there's not been this same issue, or similar issue that's existed throughout, probably, every generation to some extent. Could be social media, could be the fact that the whole world is right at our fingertips constantly. It seems to me that in a heightened way, this is something I want to talk to you about today. Because there is this ideology where people are pursuing what they would call their truth. "I'm trying to find my truth. I'm on a journey to find my truth. There's really no such thing as the truth there's just my truth what's the truth for me".
And I'm not so concerned with the culture and the world, and those who don't know the Lord, how their influence with this type of thinking. But I am concerned with those who are in the church. Because there is even more so than what I can remember, this idea where, "I know the Bible says, and I know the scriptures says, and I that the church history says, and I know these things, but I think this, and I feel this way about it". And so, I want to dig into that.
When I became a Christian 30 years ago, I never heard John 3:16, I didn't know of David and Goliath, I did not have a Bible background. A church background in the way that I guess that we would consider a church background, as something that's really integral to your daily life. And when I got saved they gave me a Bible. Did you know, this is true, this is actually a true thing. The church I became a Christian and I got saved in, the pastor of that church, him and his wife attend church with us online. They live in New Mexico, they attend church with us. I get texts from him, you know, every now and then. And so, ken and pat Willard, God bless you. Thank you so much for investing in me as a young man. Had nothing to give you, but you loved me.
But maybe because I didn't have the access to all the social media and, you know, a million different preachers that people have at their fingertips, and all the different ways that people go at life, at our fingertips. They put and they instilled in me a great value for the scriptures, they taught me not just how to want to come and hear a preacher talk, but how I should also desire to discover God's word for myself. And so, I say that to say that I would not be doing my job as a pastor if I did not speak to those, who are younger or new to their faith, or even those who've been serving God, and the Bible is not a big part of your life daily. I would not be a good pastor if I did not challenge you, and say, you really are missing one of the most wonderful of your walk with God, and that is getting to know God in a real way through his word, and through the scriptures.
John 8:31 says it like this, "If you continue in my word, then you will be my disciples". Not if you continue in your own way, or your own thoughts, or your own feelings, but if you continue in my word. People say, "Oh, well that's hard 'cause I got this, and I got that. And I think about it like this, and I think about it like that". I understand, I understand. But there's something powerful about coming underneath the authority of his word where you say in humility, "God", the Bible actually says it like this in 1 John 2:14 that, "You can be strong because the Word of God abides in you, and that's how you overcome the evil one".
You don't overcome evil and temptation by your own strengths, you become strong because you let his word abide in you. And no matter what your struggle is we all need his word to give us strength so we can overcome. Philippians 2:16 says, "I hold fast to the word of life, so that I will not run in vain". So, there is a priority that the scripture puts on scripture. And so, 2 Kings 23:17, "The king asked," this is speaking of the king Josiah. "He asked this question, 'what is that tombstone I see? What is that tombstone I see'? And the people of the city said, 'it Marks the tomb of the man of God who came from Judah and pronounced against the altar of Bethel the very things that you have done to it'. Josiah said, 'leave it alone. Don't let anyone disturb his bones".
And that's what I wanna talk to you аbout: don't disturb the bones. Do not disturb. "So they spared his bones and those of the prophet who had come from Samaria". I want to use that story, and I'll give you the back story of it briefly, to talk to you on that question, and that command. What is that tomb that I see? And do not disturb his bones. Now, the story here is Josiah has just become king in the nation of Judah. Now, this is significant because he's only eight years of age, he's the youngest king in the history of the nation of Judah, and even Israel. And when he takes the throne, Israel is in a spiritual decline, significantly, it's been in great decline.
The kings that had preceded Josiah, they had all, for generations, have done evil in the sight of the Lord, and so, idolatry was rampant. They were serving the false God of Baal and Asherah, Baal's mom. They were serving the God of Molech, where they would build altars to Molech, and they would bring their babies, their sons and their daughters and they would put them on the altar of Molech and basically fry their children to honor that false God. And this idol worship was rampant, and the wickedness in Judah was rampant. So, in Judah, Josiah has a different sense about him. He has a respect for God, and the Bible actually says, "Like David did".
So, he has a sense of the God that David served. At a young age he could look past the kings that had preceded him and there was something about David that had jumped over all those evil kings and had touched the heart of Josiah. And Josiah is cleaning up the City of Jerusalem, and specifically, he's cleaning the temple where God had been worshipped. It was in shambles, it was vandalized and broken down. The scripture even says that the book of the law had been lost.
So, imagine it's a church with no Bible. It's not that hard to imagine. 'Cause they're all over the place, but y'all know what I'm talking about, c'mon. And so, Josiah instructs Shaphan, who is a scribe, who kinda acts as his right hand man, and Hilkiah, the priest to go and restore, and cleanse the temple. And get it fixed back up, and, you know, get the walls painted and get the carpet replaced. C'mon, make it look decent, just try to get the stuff together, and as they're going through the rubble, and they're fixing different things, they go down into a chamber. And there in that chamber is a treasure chest, and locked within that treasure chest is not gold or silver, or some precious Jewel. But in that treasure chest is an old book, and they pull out the old book, and they dust it off.
And they discover that that's the book of the law, and they opened the book of the law, and they began to read it. And Shaphan, the scribe begins to translate what the Bible there says. And as he begins to read it, he recognizes the name of Josiah in the text, from 1 Kings 13. And so, they take this book of the law to the king, to Josiah, they tell him the story, as they were restoring the temple they stumbled upon this chest, and they found the book of the law. And as they were reading the book of the law, they discovered something that they felt that he would be interested in, and so they begin to the text from 1 Kings 13 to Josiah. And it mentions specifically, "A king will be born in Judah, his name will be Josiah, he'll be eight years of age".
And as Josiah is hearing them read this ancient text, he's acknowledging that the text is talking about me. "Where did you get this? How old is this book? Who wrote this book? How could anyone possibly know that I'm the only king that's ever been in Israel by the name of Josiah? No ones ever taken the throne at the age of eight, in the nation of Judah. Who could've possibly known this? Who could have wrote this"? And they're reading a prophesy that's 326 years old. Three hundred and twenty six years before Josiah came on the planet, a prophet, a man of God came from Judah, and he prophesied to Jeroboam, an evil king. That God was gonna raise up a godly young man in the nation of Judah. And he said, "As confirmation to this prophesy, the altar that you're offering these sacrifices to false Gods on is gonna split in half".
And as he said it the altar split in half, and Jeroboam, angry as king that anyone would defy him said to, "Arrest that man of God, and let's kill him". And as he sticks his hand out his hand withers up. And then the king decides, well maybe I should be a little bit more careful with this guy. And so, he kinda warms up to the man of God says, "Hey, I'm sorry about that. Didn't mean that, didn't really wanna kill you. Could you pray for me that my hand would be okay"?
And so, he prays for him and restores his hand. And Josiah hears that story. That story is read, he tears his clothes which represents he repents. He cries out to God for direction. What he has to do, he surrounds himself with some spiritual advisors, which include Shaphan, and Hilkiah, it also includes a prophet by the name of Huldah, and they tell him that he is to follow exactly what that prophet, that man of God had said is his to do, to clean up the wickedness of his nation. And so, Josiah begins to go through Jerusalem, and he is cleaning up the city. He's tearing down the high places, the altars that were built to all these false Gods, and he's cleaning the nation.
And he's even going to the extreme that he's going in tombs that are in the mountainside, in the hillside. And he's taking the bones out of the tombs that are the bones of the priest that had misled God's people and the nation of Israel to idol worship. And there's prophets, and there's all these ungodly leaders that had deceived God's people and the nation of Israel into this idol worship. And so, he's going into the tombs and he's crushing the bones. He's wiping the idol worship, not just in present day, but he's getting rid of any sign of this idol worship. And as he's doing this, he comes upon a tomb that looks different. We don't know why it looks different, we don't have any details behind why it looks different. But something about this tomb that he comes upon is different from all the other tombs.
I have my sneaking suspicion that it was because all the other tombs were regularly visited, because they were the tombs of the priest and the prophets that were there influencing the nation to idol worshipping. Because idol worship was still a big thing. They were going, and visiting these tombs, and maybe putting flowers, and decorations to honor these past priests and prophets. We don't know the details, but it seems to me that maybe there was something about those tombs that stood out. And then he gets to the tomb that is different, maybe it's overgrown, maybe it's not visited, maybe there's no one going to that tomb.
And whatever it is, he knows, Josiah knows that there's a reason why all these idol worshippers are staying away from this tomb. There's a reason why they're avoiding it, there's a reason why they're drawn to this one, and this one, and this one, but they're not drawn to this one and that peaks the curiosity of the young king and he says, "What is this tombstone I see? What is this tombstone that I see"? What I want you to notice is Josiah is a new generation leader. I want you to notice that Josiah is moving the nation in a new direction, that a spiritual awakening is happening in Israel. That a revival is sweeping through the nation of Judah. And as all of this is going on, this young king has the wherewithal, the wisdom, and the insight to pause and stop.
And say, "Before I go any further I have to ask a question about this tombstone. I have to ask a question about out our history, about our heritage. I have to ask a question about God's people's history. And what is it that God has done historically through his people. Because I need to go back and learn how God's moved in the past. It's not that God's not moving in a fresh way with me, but I can't move in a new way with going back and learning a little bit more about the old way". And so, he goes back and he says, "What is this tombstone I see"? And they begin to say, "Oh, this is the man of God. This is the guy that 326 years ago prophesied to Jeroboam that God was gonna raise up a young king in Israel by the name of Josiah. You, king.
This is the grave, this is the tomb of the man of God who prophesied your birth, your reign as king, your mission, your purpose, and your destiny. Could you imagine being Josiah? Imagine? You're standing on the grave of the man who God would use to speak about your life, your destiny, your mission, your purpose, and your call. You're standing on his tomb, and you're standing there at the bones of the man who's changed your life and is changing the direction of a nation. What must that have been lie? To think back, I'm standing at the place, where a man 326 years ago was somehow so close to the Creator of the universe, that he would allow that God to speak through him about my life today and now".
What must that have been like? So, he says this, "Don't disturb those bones. All the other graves is fine. All the other legacies is fine, but this one, don't disturb it. This one we preserve, this one we protect, this one we regard, this one we cherish, this one we treat differently because this one has one has something that should endure forever". And in that moment something powerful happens, not only with Josiah, but something powerful happens with a young man that is there. This is how the baton is passed from one generation to another in the Kingdom of God.
If you were to go to Jeremiah 26, and fast forward there, you would know that at this point the Josiah generation has done what it could do. And now, that generation is gone, it's died, and the Hilkiah's are gone, the Shaphan's, those spiritual advisors that had surrounded Josiah, that generation is gone. That generation's job is done. They're not on the planet anymore, and God's raised up the Jeremiah generation. And now, Jeremiah is the fiery prophet that's doing the same thing that Josiah did to his generation.
Now, Jeremiah is preaching to his generation about turning to God, and honoring God, and to doing what God says and to turn away from idolatry and idol worse, and he's doing, and it's so troubling the conscience of his generation that they go to Jeremiah and they arrest him, they imprison him and they sentenced him to death. And as Jeremiah is on death row, he's awaiting his execution, they're trying to determine the exact way they're going to kill the prophet and the exact timing of his death. And as they're discussing this a young man enters the courtroom by the name of Ahikam, who verse 24 of Jeremiah 26 says is the son of Shaphan. He is the son of the man who was there with Josiah when he heard the book of the law. He was there with Josiah as they hear from the prophet Huldah what their mission was to be. Shaphan was there. Hilkiah was there.
And if read the text, one of the things that Shaphan did that's so interesting is he brought his son along with, as a little boy along with him. Ahikam. And Ahikam came with him as they're cleaning up the nation, as they're getting rid of all the altars and they're doing all these things. And he was there when Josiah looks at the tomb and says, "What is this tombstone that I see"? And he's there as he hears the story that they told Josiah about the man of God, who 326 years earlier had prophesied, his life and his purpose, and he was there when Josiah is having that moment with God. The realization that he sent by God, assigned by God to the planet, at that time, in the earth to do something great for God. And he hears Josiah say, "Don't disturb the bones".
And now fast forward, the Josiah generation's gone, the Jeremiah generation is on the earth and now, the Word of God is also being threatened. Now, the life of God and what God is wanting to say, how God is wanting to speak is being threatened. And now, in the same way that Josiah stands up and say. "Don't disturb the bones". Ahikam walks into that courtroom, and the Bible says, "He supports Jeremiah, and they throw out the court case. And Jeremiah, not only does he live, but he continues to go on and be a prophet and speak for God to his generation".
And what I want you to see is that every generation has to have someone that will say, "You don't disturb the bones". You see, bones are the structure of the body, bones are the foundation of the body. You cannot have a body without bones. And the scripture when it speaks of bones, it's symbolic of this book, of God's word, it's symbolic of truth. And so, in serving God what we learn is that there are some things that are temporal, you to a grave, after very long the flesh is gone, the organs gone, but the bones are there because the bones represent something that's eternal, they represent things that don't change.
They represent things that are the same yesterday, today, and forever. These are the non-negotiables. These are the absolutes, these are the inherencies of God, and their bones you do not disturb. They're sacred, they're divine, and throughout all generations there are bones that God teaches each generation you do not disturb these bones.