Turn Away and Repent! Then Sin Will Not Be Your Downfall

When the secretary is reading the Book of the Law, the king is weeping, tearing his robes.

In the eighteenth year of the reign of King Josiah, the king finds the Book of the Law while repairing God’s temple, and mourns.

King Josiah gives these orders to his servants: “Go and inquire of the LORD for me and for the people and for all Judah about what is written in this book that has been found. Great is the LORD’s anger that burns against us because our fathers have not obeyed the words of this book; they have not acted in accordance with all that is written there concerning us.”

When the servants go to the prophet to carry out the king’s order, the prophet speaks the will of God:

“The LORD says, ‘According to everything written in the Book of the Law, I am going to bring disaster on this place and its people. Because they have forsaken me and burned incense to other gods and provoked me to anger by all the idols their hands have made. However, King of Judah, you heard the words of the Book of the Law and humbled yourself before the LORD and tore your robes and wept in my presence. I have heard you. Your eyes will not see all the disaster I am going to bring on this place.’ ”

The servants inform the king of what they’ve heard. Following the words of the Book of the Law, King Josiah immediately removes and burns the idols in the temple and gets rid of the burning incense to Baal. Then he keeps the Passover which has been forgotten (2 Kings 23).

When you come to realize that your action or custom is wrong, which you’ve kept for a long time, it’s hard to acknowledge the fact. Or perhaps you might admit to it, but it is difficult to change.

As the king of a country who had sovereign power for a long time, King Josiah repented in front of God, tearing his robes, after he realized that his ancestors and himself had not been obeying God’s words. He kept the Passover right away and was highly praised in the Bible: “Neither before nor after Josiah was there a king like him who turned to the LORD—with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his strength, in accordance with the Law of Moses.” If King Josiah had made an excuse by saying that he had only been following his ancestors, even after hearing the words of the Book of the Law, and didn’t return to God, what would have become of him and the destiny of his country?

Denying our mistakes and trying to justify them won’t let us undo what we’ve already done. To repent is to regret and fix our mistakes. When we acknowledge our faults truly and try to fix our mistakes, instead of making excuses, it is the time when we can fully repent. We don’t have to give up, thinking it’s too late. The time we think that it’s too late to turn back or change something does not exist. If we have now realized our faults, it is the best time to correct them.