Think of your nation for a moment.  Now imagine for a moment that all the evil being done in your land would be exposes.  The curtain lifted.  Every brothel and sex trafficking ring exposed.  Every secret and hidden meeting to deceive people exposed.  Every abuse exposed.  It would be horrific in most nations.

And it was horrific for Israel.

A copy of the Scriptures was found in a dusty corner in the temple, and was given to King Josiah.  When he read it, he was broken in grief and humility as he read the Word of God.  His nation had drifted so far from the truth.  So far.  And with a covenant renewal, Josiah began to deal with the evil in the land.  How evil had it become?

• Inside the LORD’s temple were aritcles made for Baal, Asherah, and the whole heavenly host
• There were idolatrous priests the kings of Judah had appointed to burn incense at the high places in teh cities of Judah and the areas surrounding Jerusalem
• They had burned incense to Baal and to the sun, moon, constellations and the whole heavenly host
• There was an Asherah pole in the LORD’s temple
• Male prostitutes had houses and lived in the temple (probably for any preference of lustful desire)
• The women were weaving tapestries for Asherah
• The priests had burned incense at the high places
• They sacrificed their children in the fire to the god of Molech
• The horses were dedicated to the sun
• The chariots were also dedicated to the sun
• There were altars on the roof and in the courtyard of the temple
• There were high places across Jerusalem which Solomon had built
• There were sacred pillars and Asherah poles everywhere
• There was an altar at Bethel, an Asherah and the high place that Jeroboam built
• There were shrines in the cities of Samaria made to provoke the LORD

Now to get a picture of this, remember that Baal and Asherah were highly sexualized.  Ahserah was a massively breasted fake deity and Baal was a god of fertility encouraging sexual perversion of any and all kinds.  And these were the things in the temple of the LORD.  Along with the prostitutes to promote these evil practices.  Sexual sin has always been an enticement that has led God’s people astray.

Josiah exposed and dealt with it all.  He completely removed it all and the people who were “priests” of these practices.

“In addition, Josiah removed the mediums, the spiritists, household idols, images, and all teh detestable things that were seen in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem.  He did this in order to carry out thw words of the law that were written in the book that Hilkiah the priest found in the LORD’s temple.  Before him there was no king like him who turned to the LORD with all his mind and with all his heart and with all his strength according to the law of Moses, and no one like him arose after him” (2 Kings 23:24-25).

And though there was great revival in the land, the LORD’s judgment had to persist because of Manasseh.  The LORD has said that the shedding of innocent blood by Manasseh was so great that there had to be justice.

It’s tragic when people lose their hold onto the Word of God.  The drift and neglect eventually takes a nation deeper and more sinful than they realize, justifying each step along the way.  And then one day there is the wake-up moment, “How did we get here?”  It’s memorialized in this song by Casting Crowns: