Tuesday Morning Devotion (Life Cleaning)

⁸In the 18th year of his reign, to purify the land and the temple, he sent Shaphan son of Azaliah and Maaseiah the ruler of the city and Joah son of Joahaz the recorder to repair the house of YHWH his God.

¹⁴And as they were taking out the silver that had been brought to the house of YHWH, Hilkiah found the book of YHWH’s Torah {instruction} given by the hand of Moses. ¹⁵And Hilkiah said to Shaphan the scribe, “I have found the book of YHWH’s Torah in the house of YHWH.” And Hilkiah gave Shaphan the book. ¹⁶And Shaphan brought the book to the king, and he also gave the king the this message: “Your servants are doing everything that was assigned them to do.” ¹⁷And they poured out the silver that was found in the house of YHWH, and they gave it to the people who were supervising and to the people who were doing the work. ¹⁸Then Shaphan the scribe told theking, “Hilkiah the priest gave me a book, and Shaphan read from it before the king. ¹⁹And as the king head the words of the Torah he tore his garments. — 2 Chronicles 34:8, 14-19

Today I’m going to clean house. It’s not just an ordinary cleaning. I’m planning to move just about everything at some point, vacuum it all and clean the carpets. It will take quite a bit of time. Who knows what I’ll find!

King Josiah had a similar problem with his entire kingdom. He’d inherited it from his father Amon, who had inherited it from Manasseh, neither of whom were good kings. Manasseh did put on a temporary reformation. His son undid what he had accomplished. You can read the whole story in 2 Chronicles 33.

But Josiah went all the way. He wanted to purify the worship of the entire kingdom. Part of that plan involved cleaning out the temple, the house of YHWH and repairing it as a center of worship. But when you start cleaning out a building that hasn’t been in use for a long time, who knows what you’ll find? Josiah’s folks found a book of the Torah and they weren’t too happy with what it said. It demanded even more reforms of them than they had already been trying to accomplish.

Josiah’s activities and reform were an attempt to cleanse and revive a nation. My work today will be to clean up a house, a building.

What about your life?

It’s very easy to get into the habit of living the way we’ve always lived, and doing the things we’ve always done. We’re not certain why, but we just keep on keeping on. But have we examined all these things in our lives? Have we gone to clean out the temple of YHWH that is our body, soul, and mind? If we did, what would we find there?

I got my “Church Laughs” cartoon today from Christianity Today. Every Tuesday morning they send me an e-mail cartoon. (You can subscribe to there list by going to http://lists.christianitytoday.com/t/7507981/2729411/126949/0/ with your web browser.) Today they show a confused looking lady talking on the phone, and she’s saying, “They’re putting choruses in hymnbooks and projecting hymns onto the screen. It’s getting so I can’t remember what I’m not supposed to like.”

Is your spiritual life beginning to feel like that? Perhaps it’s time to do some “soul” housecleaning, to examine why you do the things you do. Perhaps somewhere in their God will guide you to a book of instruction from him.