Josiah’s revival

Rebuilding The Ancient Ruins


“I will rebuild the Tabernacle of David, which has fallen, and I will rebuild its ruins, and I will restore it, in order that the rest of Mankind may seek the Lord, and all the Gentiles who are called by my name” (Acts 15:16)

“ Moses was warned by God, when he was about to erect the Tabernacle, for, ‘ See, he says, that you make all things according to the Pattern that was shown you on the Mountain’.” (Hebrews 8:5)

And when he saw the multitudes, he went up on the Mountain…. and he began to teach them (Matthew 5:1)

“And it came about when the King heard the words of the book of the Law that he tore his clothes.” (2 Kings 22:11)

When King Josiah discovered the lost book of the Law and read it, he tore his clothes in terror of God’s judgement; which he expected to fall on Israel because they had fallen so far away from the pattern which had been shown to Moses on the Mount. King Josiah, as an heir of David, had a responsibility to keep the pattern which had been passed down to him from Moses. The meticulous requirement of the Law, which was symbolized in the detailed pattern for the construction of the Tabernacle, was the pattern that was supposed to have been kept by the Kings of Israel. This pattern already began to fall into disrepair during the reign of Solomon. Solomon, in contradiction to the pattern, began to take for himself many wives and to accumulate riches and many chariots. The pattern that God gave Moses said this:

Deu 17:16 Only he(the King) shall not multiply horses to himself,

Deu 17:17 Neither shall he multiply wives to himself, that his heart turn not away: neither shall he greatly multiply to himself silver and gold.

The pattern also forbade sacrifice in the high places( Deut 12: 1-14), sacrifices were only to be offered at the temple in Jerusalem. Already in the reign of Rehoboam, Solomon’s son, High places were erected on the mountains of Israel in contradiction of the pattern. At their very inception a prophet of the Lord came to the Altar of the High places and prophesied against them, saying that in the distant future a King would arise, by the name of Josiah, and this King would destroy these high places and burn upon the altar the bones of the priests who had sacrificed there.

From the time of Solomon up to the time of the birth of King Josiah the nation of Israel was in constant decline, both Judah and Israel sacrificing on the high places and succumbing to idolatry, priest craft, sorcery and even male cult prostitution. Josiah was justified in tearing his garments when he compared the pattern that he saw in the lost book with the ruins of the tabernacle of David laying around him. In the book of Acts we see the apostles referring to the fallen ruins of the tabernacle of David and they realize that it is now their responsibility to raise again the fallen tabernacle according to the pattern that was given on the mount. This “Tabernacle of David” now refers not to a Tent constructed in the wilderness but to the habitation of God amongst his people. The Apostle John writes that Jesus was tabernacled amongst us, which refers to his taking on human flesh. When the life of Jesus Christ is manifested in his body we are able to say that he is Tabernacled amongst us. God lives not in Temples made by human hands but in his people the church.

Joh 1:14 And the Word became flesh, and did tabernacle among us, and we beheld his glory, glory as of an only begotten of a father, full of grace and truth. (YLT)

Now every house is built according to a pattern or a plan, and Moses was faithful in building the nation of Israel according to the pattern that was given to him on the mountain. He was given precise instructions and was accountable to God to build according to these instructions. Of course, there is a difference between that time and the dispensation of the new covenant in which we now live. He was building up a nation of people into an earthly State and the Laws that were received by Moses were Laws that dealt with the construction of a Nation/State. Since Moses’ day every nation and government on earth has benefited from this Judaic Law, this Law has become part of the Laws of every nation on earth. Even the dietary laws that were given to Israel are still practiced by many nations of the world.


However, we are not concerned with the Nation building pattern of Moses but with another pattern that is not of an earthly order but of a heavenly one.


“Every house is built by some one, but the builder of all things is God. Now Moses was faithful in his house as a servant,…….. but Christ was faithful as a Son over his house whose house we are.” ( Hebrews )


In the same manner that the house of David began to fall into ruins from its very beginning during the time of Solomon, so the house of Christ began to depart from their pattern soon after the Apostolic age. We departed as quickly from the pattern given to us, as Israel did from their pattern. The whole history of Israel is repeated in the church. The Old Testament scriptures have been given to us as examples so that we might learn from God’s dealing with the house of Israel.We understand this on a personal level. On a personal level we can see how God deals with us in the way he dealt with the children of Israel. We leave Egypt, which is the world, we go through the waters of baptism, which is the parting of the Red Sea, and we wander through the wilderness in our journey to the Promised Land. On a personal level we as individuals can all identify with these biblical examples or types.

On a corporate level we as the church may also identify with the nation of Israel in their wanderings.The birth of the Church of God at Pentecost by the Holy Spirit marks the beginning of two thousand years of church history. This compares with the birth of Israel as a nation. At the end of the Church’s dispensation, where we find ourselves now, the Church has fallen into the same disarray as the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah immediately before their final judgement. We have disunity, we have our high places upon which we offer sacrifices that are not acceptable to God, we have idolatry equal to if not worse than the idolatry of that age. We even have a cult of male prostitution in the form of homosexual evangelical churches springing up all over the world today. We have a vast array of error spreading on one hand from pompous church traditionalism and on the other extreme we have corrupt television evangelists. The word of God is being prostituted as a means of selfish gain. Dead doctrinal orthodoxy maintains the middle ground. The Tabernacle of David has fallen; and the Holy presence of God amongst his people is no longer witnessed.

If we read the book of Kings carefully it can be seen that many of the Kings were reasonably good men, but again and again we read the condemnation that “they did not do away with the high places”. There are many good leaders in the Church today, but God is not being served in the way he requires. Over the ages many good men in the church have brought in reforms that have eliminated the more gross errors in the church but if we take note we will see that often the general errors of preceding movements and denominations are carried through into the next generation. King Josiah was not like these leaders, he not only eliminated the gross errors such as male cult prostitution, but he also pulled down the high places.God is calling us today to rediscover the lost pattern from which we have fallen.King Josiah broke down the High Places.

“the altar that was at Bethel and the high place which Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who made Israel sin, he broke down” ( 2 Kings 23:15)

He sought to serve God in God’s way and not his own. At the culmination of Israel’s history a King got really serious about restoration to the pattern that had been shown on the mountain. When Martin Luther reformed the church he took with him into Protestantism many of the errors of the Roman system. He did away with gross error like the celibacy of the clergy, but he kept the clergy. He kept high places.The people were accustomed to having a professional elite of ministers, they preferred the religious model of the catholic system where the Priest was exalted above the people and was paid to serve in ministry. This is one of the high places that is still exists in almost every church today, be it catholic, protestant or Pentecostal.

Luther did away with the popish system of the Sacrifice of the Mass, but kept the Mass. If one has to visit a Lutheran church today it is obvious to the casual observer that much of the system bears a close resemblance to the Catholic Church. Most protestant churches today also have their clergy and their Sunday “Mass” This is because man is naturally religious and delights in ritualism and pomp. The fallen human heart always perpetuates hierarchy and pharisaic pride.To eat the body of the Lord and to drink his blood is not a “breaking of bread” ceremony on Sunday morning but the incarnation of the life of Jesus in his body the church. We can say we have eaten of his flesh and drunk his blood when there is no more problem in the church with divorce, and when there are no more orphans on the street because they have been absorbed into the Church. We can say that the ruined Tabernacle of David is restored when it is counted but a small thing to give up ones life to become a missionary and go to the ends of the earth. The Church glorious will be revealed when we do not love our lives unto death.

The Church today and the Church of every age is influenced by its environment. In the mediaeval days of Kings and Nobles the way in which the church strayed from the pattern of the apostles was in a lavish hierarchy of Bishops, Cardinals and Popes. Jesus’ pattern, his way of life, was ignored. The Universities of the middle ages produced learned prelates who were adept in the politics of the Court. In the high-powered business world of today the lack of spiritual maturity expresses itself in Churches that are run like corporations, “Pastors” take on the form of executives and teaching is done in the form of business seminars. We are taking our example from Microsoft, Harvard University and Politics. Christ’s pattern shown on the mount is ignored. Instead, the pattern is copied from the culture of the world in which the church is immersed. A world culture of consumerism that is saturated in worldly pleasure produces churches that tickle the senses with professional spectacles to attract and keep the patronage of their “customers”.

The true pattern that we are called to imitate is not the pattern of the world nor that which was shown to Moses on Mt. Sinai. We are not called to build a state, an empire or a corporation. Nor should we imitate the church pattern of previous generations. Just as Moses initiated the birth of a Nation by the giving of the Law on a Mountain, Jesus initiated a new Kingdom through the giving of the Sermon on the Mount. This new pattern made the old Law obsolete, and the new order is of a completely different kind and nature to the previous one. The pattern of Christ’s life as described in the Sermon on the Mount is the pattern that we have fallen from.In fact most Christians are not even aware that we are called to literally pattern our lives on Christ and the Apostles.

As we rediscover the Pattern of Christ as Josiah rediscovered the Law of Moses, we will also tear our garments as he rent his garments, in expectation of God’s righteous judgement. How do we say that we love our enemies if instead of taking the gospel to the Muslims we are delivering to them cruise missiles in Iraq? This is the perception that Muslims have of the “Christian” nations. Do we take care of widows and orphans in Africa or are we taking care of ourselves? Are we seeking God’s Kingdom first or Mammon? We cannot serve both at the same time. Are we laying up for ourselves treasures on earth in contradiction to the pattern of Christ? Are we offering our other cheek to those who slap us? If someone wants to sue you, and take your shirt, do you let him have your coat also? The early church lived these simple rules and in this way Christ was tabernacled amongst them.

Jesus called his apostles to be servants and least of all and today an Apostle is considered to be someone who insists on flying only first class. Many missionaries today have it as their ambition to become “mission executives.”

If then we have allowed the Tabernacle of God to fall into ruins we should be tearing our garments upon perceiving it. Nehemiah wept when he saw the ruins of the Temple. What should God’s habitation look like today? The Apostles of the early church walked as Christ did on the earth. God dwelt among them, he aims at nothing less today. The Tabernacle of God is God’s manifest dwelling among his people, not lavish church buildings. We should not be pouring our efforts into buildings; they will be the first thing to be confiscated when persecution begins. The Apostle Paul exhorts us to imitate the pattern of his life. Follow me as I follow Christ he said. Christ was manifest in his mortal flesh. Paul is a fit pattern to follow. Let us not be deceived by a shallow teaching that promises salvation without repentance, and apostleship without walking in the way Christ walked.

God is looking for men and woman in this day that will be as zealous in the work of restoration as was the young King Josiah. The tabernacle of David, which has fallen, must be rebuilt; the ruins must be restored in order that the rest of Mankind may seek the Lord, and all the Gentiles that are called by his name. (Acts 15:17)

Act 15:16 After these things I will return, And I will build again the tabernacle of David, which is fallen; And I will build again the ruins thereof, And I will set it up:

Act 15:17 That the residue of men may seek after the Lord, And all the Gentiles, upon whom my name is called,


The restoration of the Church to its first pattern is crucial to the winning of the Gentiles to Christ. The church as it is today with its high places and idolatry (covetousness) can never command the awe of the unbelievers as it did in the first century church. The holy lives of the apostles and their Christ likeness provoked the jealousy of the Jews and the awe of the gentiles. Extravagant church buildings and professional Hollywood style meetings do not command the awe of the unbelievers but their derision. If we are to stir up the envy and sincere interest of those are without God in this world we must return to the pattern of the apostles. The way things stand today; the Church is subject to nothing else but ridicule. What can we expect when what we see in church is a weak imitation of what is offered by the World. The salt has lost its savour.

The Spirit of prophecy is stirring many in this age to speak against the materialism/idolatry, false prophets and high places that abound in the church. Nevertheless, if we are to examine the Scriptures we will see that a shallow lukewarm church is to be expected in the last days before the coming of Christ. King Josiah’s reforms were a brief respite in the continuing degeneration of the Kingdom of Judah. Within another generation after Josiah Israel was completely conquered by Babylon and led into exile. Josiah was commended by the Lord for his wholehearted repentance and his attempts at restoration, but the nation of Israel was not restrained for long from a downward spiral into utter destruction. Josiah’s son did evil in the sight of the Lord and so did his grandson, and Jerusalem was soon after burned to the ground.

God’s grace will be on the few that repent and seek to serve him in the way of the fathers, but the scriptures indicate that in these last days there will be a massive falling away into apostasy, and finally a domination of the church by Babylon, the false church, before the coming of the Day of the Lord. How can this be, you may ask. How could God allow the Church to fall under the power of Babylon?

This was the same question that Habakkuk asked when God told him that he was going to bring the Babylonians to bring judgement on Israel. We now see Babylonian religion conquering the church in the form of idolatry, which is covetousness. We see false prophets prophesying peace and safety to a generation of christians who have never repented from sin, and a priesthood of professional church executives seek to be first. This false religion, whose protagonists suppose that godliness is means of gain, is going to increase, and the love of many will grow cold before the coming of the Lord.

Unless we have the courage to stand up against the accepted practice of our day as Josiah did, we run the risk of growing cold with the many and falling under the judgement of God. God’s judgement is in being deceived along with the majority as happened in the last days of Judah.

2Th 2:11 And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie,
2Th 2:12 so that all those who do not believe the truth, but delight in unrighteousness, might be condemned.



Jeremiah the prophet repeatedly warned Judah of the judgement that was coming on them but they refused to believe him and accused him of being a traitor. Their obstinacy culminated in King Zedekiah having all his sons slaughtered and having his eyes put out by Nebuchadnezzar.He refused to acknowledge what he knew to be the truth and paid for it by being led blinded and chained into prison.

If the Old Testament example in the book of Kings has anything to teach us today it is that the visible Church can expect to have a parallel evolution into apostasy as was experienced by the Kingdom of Israel. Israel started in Glory and ended in disgrace. However, there was always a hidden remnant that loved God and was loved by him. Josiah was one of these. If we want to be part of that hidden remnant, let us return as Josiah did to the pattern that was shown on the Mount, and rebuild the Tabernacle of David. Even if the “church” falls into the inevitable apostasy that will take place in these last days, at least a standard will be raised for those who love the truth.

Let us not be complacent and accept the present state of affairs as being all that God expects for his Church. As scandals continue and the general behaviour of Christians slides into conformity with a wicked generation, let us return to the Pattern as Josiah did and lift up again the standard that was Christ’s intention for the Church.

Let the one who does wrong, still do wrong, and let the one who is filthy, still be filthy, and let the one who is righteous, still practice righteousness, and let the one who is holy, still keep himself holy.

Behold I am coming quickly….