GOD’S WILL IS GOING TO BE DONE

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In Christ, Mark

The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

After all this, when Josiah had set the temple in order, Necho king of Egypt went up to fight at Carchemish on the Euphrates, and Josiah marched out to meet him in battle. But Necho sent messengers to him, saying, “What quarrel is there, king of Judah, between you and me? It is not you I am attacking at this time, but the house with which I am at war. God has told me to hurry; so stop opposing God, who is with me, or he will destroy you.”

Josiah, however, would not turn away from him, but disguised himself to engage him in battle. He would not listen to what Necho had said at God’s command but went to fight him on the plain of Megiddo.

Archers shot King Josiah, and he told his officers, “Take me away; I am badly wounded.” So they took him out of his chariot, put him in his other chariot and brought him to Jerusalem, where he died. He was buried in the tombs of his ancestors, and all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for him.

Jeremiah composed laments for Josiah, and to this day all the male and female singers commemorate Josiah in the laments. These became a tradition in Israel and are written in the Laments.

The other events of Josiah’s reign and his acts of devotion in accordance with what is written in the Law of the Lord—all the events, from beginning to end, are written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah.

And the people of the land took Jehoahaz son of Josiah and made him king in Jerusalem in place of his father.

2 Chronicles 35:20-27, 36:1

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

We can be a stubborn people at times. So often, we just want our way when it comes to life, even when we believe in a God who is omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient, a God who always ensures that His will is done whether we cooperate with Him or not.

Maybe this starts when we are children. Remember those days when you challenged the authority of your parents constantly. They had a will for us and our lives and it seems like we made a business out of rebelling against their wishes. Maybe you are a parent reading this today and seeing it in your own children.

Yes, we seem to have such a hard time submitting to the will of the Lord even when we pray for it to come. You’ll recall the words of what has been historically known as the Lord’s Prayer, the prayer that Jesus taught us to pray, the prayer that includes a petition for God’s will to be done here on earth as it is done in heaven (Matthew 6:9-13). We say these words but do we really mean them? Do we really desire for God’s will to be done in our world and in our lives?

I would say that it doesn’t matter what we want. For God’s will is going to be done one way or another. We can either accept it or reject it but we should take caution in rejecting anything that the Lord is trying to do as we may do so to our demise.

If you want a point-in-case regarding this, look at today’s passage as we look at the final part of King Josiah’s life. You’ll recall that Josiah had done nothing but great work in the name of the Lord, restoring the Judean Israelites to loyal and faithful service and worship unto God and God alone, just as He had commanded, just as He had desires. There was no doubt that it was God’s will for the people of Israel to live in full, uncompromising obedience to Him. It was His will. And when the people chose to chase after their own desires, desires which often led them to worship false gods, we found that God brought His judgment on the people with the intent of bringing them back to His will, a will He had for them to serve and worship Him and Him alone.

Josiah had shown sound judgment during his reign, stringently remaining loyal to God and as a result, he and the people of Judah flourished. All was good, that is until Josiah decided to challenge the will of God he had once been so committed to. Look at the passage once again:

After all this, when Josiah had set the temple in order, Necho king of Egypt went up to fight at Carchemish on the Euphrates, and Josiah marched out to meet him in battle. But Necho sent messengers to him, saying, “What quarrel is there, king of Judah, between you and me? It is not you I am attacking at this time, but the house with which I am at war. God has told me to hurry; so stop opposing God, who is with me, or he will destroy you.”

Josiah, however, would not turn away from him, but disguised himself to engage him in battle. He would not listen to what Necho had said at God’s command but went to fight him on the plain of Megiddo. Archers shot King Josiah, and he told his officers, “Take me away; I am badly wounded.” So they took him out of his chariot, put him in his other chariot and brought him to Jerusalem, where he died. He was buried in the tombs of his ancestors, and all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for him.

Jeremiah composed laments for Josiah, and to this day all the male and female singers commemorate Josiah in the laments. These became a tradition in Israel and are written in the Laments.

The other events of Josiah’s reign and his acts of devotion in accordance with what is written in the Law of the Lord—all the events, from beginning to end, are written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah.

And the people of the land took Jehoahaz son of Josiah and made him king in Jerusalem in place of his father.

Scripture tells us that a conflict was on the horizon. Necho, the king of Egypt, was poised for a battle at Carchemish on the Euphrates. Necho had no beef with Josiah and was not attacking him and yet Josiah brought his fighting forces forward to challenge Necho and his army. It was at this juncture that Necho tried to explain to Josiah about why he was entering into war. Look again at his words:

“What quarrel is there, king of Judah, between you and me? It is not you I am attacking at this time, but the house with which I am at war. God has told me to hurry; so stop opposing God, who is with me, or he will destroy you.”

It wasn’t Necho’s will to do what he was doing. It was strictly God’s will and that will didn’t include Josiah being involved. In fact, Necho basically told Josiah that if he warred against him and his Egyptian forces, he wasn’t opposing Egypt but rather God and that would not result in a favorable outcome for Josiah who should have known better as a devout man of faith.

But Josiah was bent on doing his own thing. He should have just turned around and returned to Jerusalem with his men but he didn’t. He chose to challenge God and His will and as we read that didn’t turn out well for Judah’s king.

For Josiah refused to listen to Necho and instead decided to disguise himself and engage in battle, as if he could conceal himself from the God who sees and knows everything, a God who can never be deceived. It would be a lethal decision as an archer's arrow struck Josiah and he died in Jerusalem after being taken from the battlefield. It was a sad way for a dedicated man of God to end his life but through Josiah’s death, God’s word is trying to teach us an important lesson:

God’s will is going to be done, no matter what.

We would be well served to pay attention to this lesson and not challenge God’s will in our own lives. Let us all remain devoted to the words of our Savior, praying for God’s will to be done in our world and in our lives, asking Him to use us as instruments of His will, and then placing our total faith and trust in Him as He does just that.

Amen

In Christ,

Mark

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