Observation: This is the story of the recovery of the books of the law under king Josiah, after the Jews return from exile in Babylon. Idols are burned, practitioners of other faiths are exiled, and the whole land is called to observe the Passover again, in a way that has not been observed since the days of Joshua and the judges. These reforms are "radical" in the truest sense. The word "radical" refers to going back to one's "roots".
Application: Not going to lie, reading a text like this in a twenty-first century context is more than a little disturbing. Our society today values religious tolerance and coexistence. The reforms of Josiah, idol-burning and wizard-and-medium-exiling among them, seem historically bound to me. In other words, this strikes me as a descriptive text that recounts what happened then, rather than a prescriptive text commenting on what should happen now. All that said, I know in my own life there could be a lot of value in being "radicalized"...that is, going back to the roots of my faith, rather than hanging out in my comfortable nest of faith far above ground. Just as Josiah and the people discovered a treasure--the full Passover liturgy--right under their noses, maybe there are treasures of my own faith waiting to be uncovered, if I just open my Bible again, even the most familiar texts, and meet Jesus fresh, praying for my assumptions, my prejudices, and my unhelpful attitudes to burn away.
Prayer: Holy Spirit, take me back to my roots. To your story. To the Word made flesh, Jesus, my rabbi, my Lord. Amen.
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