This sermon, 2 Kings 22: The Rest of the Story, was preached at Grace Presbyterian Church in El Paso, Texas on Father’s Day 2018. You can listen to the audio version or keep reading, the transcript follows.
2 Kings 22: The Rest of the Story
I’m going to be honest with you; I guess I should be considering where I’m standing. It’s a heavy responsibility to share God’s word with others, and it’s frightening at times to stand here.
I’m here today because of a late-night text. And by late-night, I mean around 8:30 or 9 pm. I’m not really a night person. Anyway, Jessica texted and asked if I would preach on June 17. I responded sure and crawled into bed not thinking anything of it. The next morning when I got up, I went straight to the calendar to write it down and immediately panicked.
June 17 is Father’s Day. Today is Father’s Day. Did you know that? Here’s the problem. I can’t preach on Father’s Day.
So, I texted Jessica back and said, “That’s Father’s Day.”
She responded with “So.”
Me- “I can’t preach on Father’s Day. I’m a girl.”
I basically got an “um, so am I” response.
My Backstory: Women Can’t Preach
When I was in 7th grade a friend and I were sitting on the bathroom floor in my house painting our toes, and I remember her looking up at me and saying, “you should be a pastor one day.” I just as clearly, without hesitation answered back, “girls can’t be pastors.” She shrugged her shoulders, and we went back to our toes. No love lost, no righteous indignation. Just a simple no, because the facts in my world told me that wasn’t how things were done.
Growing up I never saw women in the pulpit. Sure, they gave speeches, I heard a few teach, and I even remember one presenting from the pulpit on Mother’s Day. But Sunday morning the pulpit was for men.
Father’s Day sermons were full of thank yous for coming to church and not being on the golf course followed by challenges to be better stronger men and dads. So, I guess this is where I’m supposed to thank you for being here and not on the golf course today, though I was secretly wishing you would be playing golf so that my nerves would settle.
But here we are. And we find ourselves in 2 Kings 22.
2 Kings 22: The Story
Are you familiar with this story? It’s of a young boy king who is choosing to go a different direction than his father and grandfather before him. His immediate family tree was not full of spiritual models for him to follow. Josiah’s dad, Amon, was an idolater. Josiah’s grandfather, Manasseh, was also an idolater. 2 Kings 21:20-22 says of Amon, “He did evil before the Lord, just like his father Manasseh had done. He followed in the footsteps of his father and worshiped and bowed down to the disgusting idols which his father had worshiped. He abandoned the Lord God of his ancestors and did not follow the Lord’s instructions.”
They had strayed from believing in one God as their ancestors had and had allowed for the construction of temples and worship of false gods. A conspiracy rose up against King Amon, and his servants killed him. They executed those who killed him and Josiah, his young 8-year-old son, was crowned king. But young Josiah was different than his dad and grandfather. In vs. 22:2 we read “He did what the Lord approved and followed in his ancestor David’s footsteps; he did not deviate to the right or the left.”
A Few Lessons From 2 Kings 22
There are some great lessons in here about being intentional in our parenting, about raising up our children to walk with God, and how when we weren’t given godly models of fathers we are still responsible, just as the boy king Josiah was, in our choices of how we live our lives… but let’s not get cliché this Father’s Day. Let’s keep reading. Because there is more to the story.
When Josiah has been on the throne for 18 years, so he’s around 26, he begins repairs to the Lord’s temple. He commands that those who are working on the repairs and the foreman should be paid and trusted, rather than micromanaged.
There is a sermon there about paying those fairly who work for you, about trusting those you employee and lead and setting an example for those around you to do the same. Josiah knew the character of the foreman; he had a relationship with them where he could place complete trust in them. This is in complete and total contrast to the relationship his father Amon had with those he led. Amon’s servants conspired against him and killed him. Josiah’s servants were so trusted he did not require an audit of the silver they handled. I hope your boss and your family can trust you like that, that you and I have built relationships that those around us know they can count on us. It’s also an acknowledgment that running a house of worship, like the one we are in, takes money and that generosity is essential for its upkeep. I know I’ve heard that sermon.
But let’s keep reading.
Because there is more to the story.
In vs. 8 Hilkiah the high priest tells Shaphan the Scribe look, I’ve found the law scroll in the Lord’s temple. Shaphan then takes it and reads it to the King and the King tears his clothes in repentance. The word of God is powerful! It’s life-changing when we allow it to be. But that’s not the whole story.
Most sermons would stop here or jump to vs18-20 and the words from God’s prophet to the King –
“Say this to the king of Judah, who sent you to seek an oracle from the Lord: ‘This is what the Lord God of Israel says concerning the words you have heard: You displayed a sensitive spirit and humbled yourself before the Lord when you heard how I intended to make this place and its residents into an appalling example of an accursed people. You tore your clothes and wept before me, and I have heard you, says the Lord. Therefore I will allow you to die and be buried in peace. You will not have to witness all the disaster I will bring on this place. Then they reported back to the King.”
Obviously, the lesson here is that Scripture demands a response, it is life-giving when followed, it brings us peace, it pushes us to be better than we are, it calls for repentance and renewal, and it is not stagnant, it demands action.
The Bible is full of treasures, and this is a treasure story. Sunday School lessons showed me in Indian Jones style how Josiah found the lost treasure, the word of God, and how it transformed him and his people.
But that’s not the whole story.
What happened from the time the scribe read the book of the law to the words of the oracle in vs. 18. What is the rest of the story?
The Power of a Good Edit
Before we go further, I want to talk to you about the power of a good edit. I’m a content writer by day. All day I sit at my computer and craft stories for companies, magazines, and marketing agencies. I write copy, social media posts, blogs and occasionally some of that good old-fashioned email spam that finds its way to you. As I write, I chose what goes into the story and what stays out.
The information I leave out of the story is just as vital to how the story reads as the information that I leave in. The story changes completely when certain elements are edited out.
Them Be Fightin’ Words
Think back to last week’s sermon. How many of you were here when Jessica preached on Saul’s conversion? But that’s not really what she preached on, was it?
No, she preached about Stephen’s prayer and how Saul was present for his stoning.
She preached on how his prayer was a catalyst towards Saul’s conversion and how God invited Ananias in to witness restorative justice in the conversion of Saul. Saul, who God renamed Paul, would suffer greatly for the sake of Christ.
When we tell the story of Saul blinded by God on the road as the beginning point of his conversion story, it takes on a completely different meaning and tone than when we begin it with his participation in Stephen’s stoning, and Stephen’s prayer that God forgive those who were killing him. Suddenly prayer is powerful, Saul isn’t chosen randomly, and Ananias isn’t a sucker for showing up, it’s a reminder that God listens and though He offers salvation and forgiveness he can do so while simultaneously handing out justice and he invites believers, like Ananias and like us, to actively participate.
What we leave out of the story and what we choose to leave in changes the story entirely.
Back to Josiah in 2 Kings 22 and the Rest of the Story
Just as Josiah discovered missing treasure in the temple, there is a section of 2 Kings 22 that is often edited out. It is not told as part of the treasure hunt because it does not always fit with the teller’s theology.
There is a missing treasure here for us to discover.
Upon hearing the book of the law read out loud, Josiah repents and tears his clothes. He sends the High Priest, the scribe, and others to seek out an “oracle from the Lord” to confirm that this is, in fact, God’s word. So in vs. 22:14 we read “So Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam, Acbor, Shaphan, and Asaiah went to Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shullam son of Tikvah, the son of Harhas, the supervisor of the wardrobe…
Have you heard of Huldah?
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard about the boy king Josiah and how he repented, and yet Huldah never came up. Yet she plays a vital role in this story and in the transformation of Josiah and the people he is leading.
Growing up I heard of one female prophet, a judge named Deborah. Her story was told as a reminder to men that when they refused to stand up and take their rightful place as leaders that God would hand over the responsibility to women and heaven forbid those women would receive not only leadership roles but the credit for victory as well. Deborah was held up as an example of a time when men were not following their God-given role as leaders.
So obviously this Huldah living in the time of Josiah was simply the only prophet available because the men were doing so badly, right? Wrong. Huldah was a contemporary of Jeremiah and Zephaniah. Have you heard of them?
There was not an absence of men. Josiah is described in 2 Kings 23:25 as the most righteous king, and when he entrusted this task to the high priest (who was a male), the temple scribe (also male) and others whom he trusted (all male) they sought Huldah out. They had already recognized this scroll as the words of God, but they sought out authentication from a prophet. In this case a prophetess.
Theologian Christa McKirland, the first to have introduced me to Huldah, wrote this of the prophetess, “some have credited her with initiating the Old Testament canon as we know it today. In the same way that women were the first to testify to the resurrection of Christ, the living Word, how poetic might it be that the first person to authenticate the written Word might also have been a woman.”
Those are powerful words to a young girl who once said, “girls can’t be pastors.”
Photo by Ben White on Unsplash
When We Are Sloppy With Scripture
The Bible, all of it, even the parts that we believe contradict our firmly held opinions and understanding of God need to be told. They must be told. I can not give you just part of the story; I do not get to take out scripture and read it to justify my point. I must, we must, wrestle with the whole text because there is treasure there waiting to be discovered.
Standing here, sharing Scripture with you, is not a task to be taken lightly. It should terrify me, but not because I’m a girl. It should terrify me because the word of God is powerful and not to be treated flippantly.
When we are sloppy with scripture, when we allow for the mishandling of it and the editing of it to make our point stronger we end up twisting it to support poor leadership decisions. We blindly follow leaders who demand we trust them because Romans 13 says to obey the laws of the government because God has ordained the government for his purposes.
We have to dig deeper and find the rest of the story.
We must hold one another accountable as we dig deeper into God’s word.
We do not get to misuse and abuse Scripture to support our agendas.
We HAVE to tell the rest of the story because when we don’t the Bible begins to lose its transformative power.
When we edit the Bible to say what we want to say we give power to evil.
It’s a slippery slope to leave Huldah out. It leads to the mishandling of texts to justify oppression and cruelty as “biblical.” It was done to justify slavery and it’s being done today, here and now, to justify the tearing apart of families.
A Challenge For All of Us!
Since it is Father’s Day I will leave this charge for you dads, and really it is one for all of us, when you read scripture, when you teach it to your children or anyone you lead don’t leave out the parts you don’t understand or the parts that you feel contradict your beliefs. They aren’t there to contradict or confuse you. They are there to help you see the world differently and to grow into a richer fuller person.
Questioning what you read is good, it helps you grow. Ask the hard questions of the texts, ask God to reveal to you the meaning beyond your point of view and listen to how God is speaking to others through the text.
The Bible is powerful; it’s life-changing, it calls us to action. It transformed Josiah’s life and the lives of the people he led, and it can do the same for us.
Perhaps if I had known the rest of King Josiah’s story my answer to my friend that day while we were painting our toes would have gone more like this:
“You should be a preacher one day.”
“Yeah, maybe I should.”
See, Josiah was surrounded by religious trappings. He was working to right the wrongs of his ancestors before him. But it wasn’t until the word of God entered into Josiah’s life and confronted him head-on, that He entered fully into a relationship with God. One that flowed into repentance and life-altering change. One that moved him to action.
Have you allowed God’s word to do the same for you?
Decide today to be like Josiah. Seek out the treasures in God’s word, tell the unfamiliar hidden stories and allow them to utterly change you.
Share with us in the comments how God’s word has transformed your life.
Featured Image by Natasha Brazil on Unsplash
