Gross Idolatry

He also tore down the living quarters of the male and female shrine prostitutes that were inside the Temple of the LORD, where the women wove coverings for the Asherah pole. [2 Kings 23.7]

Josiah took some significant steps to eliminate idol worship.

What stands out to me today is that there were prostitutes inside the Temple of the LORD! How did the worship of Almighty God digress to such a condition? It's just like how you eat an elephant: one bite at a time. And, apparently, it was only recognized as wrong after the Book of the Law was recovered and read. The gross idolatry Josiah eliminated obviously did not start out as such, but rather, started in tiny increments allowed (probably as concessions) which, over time, amounted to flagrant idolatry against God.

This should put today's Church on high alert. As much as the Church should guard against the obvious barrage of idolatry, she should be even more prudent to check herself for tiny infiltrations (concessions) of idolatry that have, over time, become gross idolatry in God's eyes while the Church is none the wiser. This is exactly what happened leading up to Josiah's reign. If it happened to Old Testament Israel, we can be sure it is just as much a problem with the New Testament Church for whom Israel was an example.

Idolatry's main mission is simply to take God's people's eyes off God alone. Think about that. And think about this:

You must not have any other god but me. [Exodus 20.3]

We can say, "God uses [inset anything here]..." but if there is as much as a slight risk that we trust "anything" in place of, or even alongside God, we have voluntarily victimized ourselves to idolatry.

So, what did Josiah do? He destroyed any and everything even slightly associated with idol worship!

Radical? Yes. Did it please God? Absolutely!

Is the Church today ready for such a purification? I believe she is getting ready because God is stirring her!

Father, help Your people to look in the mirror through Your eyes and not through their own. Help Your people to understand that their own hearts are deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, and so, only Your Word can be trusted to guide us into absolute truth.