No Respect For the Enemy

“And he defiled Topheth, which is in the valley of the children of Hinnom, that no man might make his son or his daughter to pass through the fire to Molech.” (2Ki 23:10 AV)

 

Way to go Josiah!  It’s not enough to simply remove sin or the temptation to sin.  One should disrespect it and defile it.  Josiah was the child king of Judah and the grandchild of Hezekiah.  Manasseh, Josiah’s father, did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD to the degree God pronounced irrevocable judgment on Judah by the hand of Babylon.  In response to God’s pronouncement of judgment, Josiah brings revival to Judah.  It does not change the mind of God.  God would still bring Babylon.  Josiah did the right thing even though there was no upside for Judah.  One of those things he did was to clean out all the idol worship and wickedness that had accumulated during his father’s reign.  Topheth was a place in the valley of the children of Hinnom where Josiah’s father conducted human sacrifices to pagan gods.  Note in particular what Josaih did to Topheth.  He didn’t treat it as if it was a minor fault.  He didn’t merely cut down the grove and remove the idols.  He defiled it.  He made Topheth a place of disgust and disdain.  It wasn’t enough to remove the source of sin.  Josiah made sure it was treated in such a way that it would never be a stumbling block again.

Prior to salvation, I like most teenagers, was heavy into rock music.  Most of the music back then was depressing.  My generation was the post-Vietnam war generation.  We were the byproduct of the drug and free-love movement.  Our music reflected the idea of hopelessness.  Before I accepted Christ, I was a depressed teenager.  There was no hope in my world and suicide was a common event.  I even thought about it from time to time.  Now that we are all grown up, that tendency remains.  We were raised to believe only the negative.  Our sunshine was stolen from us.  So, when the LORD saved me, one of my strongholds was the depressing music to which I was addicted.  When God dealt with me concerning this music, I had a collection of well over several hundred albums.  These albums took up a bookshelf.  It was only two weeks after Jesus saved me that I found myself at the garbage cans, breaking these albums in half.  My father, who collected music, could not understand why I would do such a thing.  If I didn’t want them anymore, I could always sell them and get a bit of my money back.  He could not understand why I would snap all those records into bits and throw away money.  I had to.  To me, they were not money.  They were a source of depression and suicidal thoughts.  If they corrupted my mind and heart, they would do the same to others.  They needed to be destroyed.

If we are to gain victory over besetting sin, a violent overthrow is the only solution.  Paul states,  “And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled.” (2Co 10:6 AV)  Note he uses the word ‘revenge’.  Sin has exacted a great cost from us.  It has left us in ruins.  We have lost ground.  We have suffered much.  It is about time we treated wickedness in the same manner it treats us.  It is about time we make a target of our own temptations are react swiftly, zealously, and dramatically so that sin would no longer reign in our mortal bodies.  It is about time we smash, crushed, set aflame, or demolish all those things that draw us away from intimacy with God.  It is not even good enough for the dump.  It all must go!