Disaster is pronounced on Israel and Judah for their great sin.

Josiah will not see it because he humbled himself before God. He acknowledged who he was and who God was. He confessed his guilt in not following the law, even though he hadn’t known it. He didn’t make excuses. He humbled himself.

A humble posture says I have no standing here. I have nothing to say. I have nothing. You, God, are everything. My life and all that I have, this world and all that is in it, is all in Your hands.

Josiah starts seeking the Lord for himself when he is sixteen. By the time he is twenty, he’s directing choices to set things right in the temple.

As they are cleaning the temple, they find the book of law. Each king had been supposed to write his own copy of the law to help him learn and meditate on it.

The kings stopped learning the law for themselves, and they did evil.

If you ever notice your daily Bible reading slipping away, becoming less, getting missed, wake up to what’s going on. You are being tempted to death. God’s word is life. Jesus says that man doesn’t live only by bread but by the word of God.

God’s word also says that if a man follows God’s statutes, his good rules God established for us, then we will live by them. They give life.

David says his life wasted away, his bones groaned, he felt like death, when he had sinned and hadn’t humbled himself to confess. He got new life when he confessed his sin and received the Lord’s gracious mercy. He went from wallowing in tears and pain to rejoicing.

Josiah realizes how greatly he and his people have sinned, missed the mark of what God had expected from them. He cries. It’s upsetting to him. Is your heart broken over how you have offended the Lord Most High, the holy and exalted one, who sits in majesty over all creation? Humble yourself. He is holy and perfect. You are supposed to be. But you can’t, not without Him. You need Him. Acknowledge that!