What No State, Church, Or Parent Could Ever Do

Judah has never sincerely returned to me. She has only pretended to be sorry. I, the LORD, have spoken!   Jeremiah 3:10

Josiah personally oversaw the reforms. It was not a popular uprising of the people; it was a state program. Josiah did away with the pagan priests, the Asherah poles, and the pagan shrines (see 2 Kings 23:5-8). So it is not surprising that “throughout the rest of his lifetime, [the people of Judah] did not turn away from the LORD” (2 Chronicles 34:33).

But as soon as Josiah died, things went back to the way they were. With the right leader you can change the laws of the land, but unless the hearts of the people are changed too, revival will be short-lived.

If you are just conforming to the expectations of others, then when you are with a different crowd, you will adapt your behavior to fit the new social pressures. Righteousness flows from the heart!

It must have been hard for the prophet Jeremiah to watch the people slide back into their old, idolatrous ways after King Josiah’s death, but then God gave one of the most wonderful promises in all the Old Testament: “The day is coming . . . when . . . I will put my instructions deep within them, and I will write them on their hearts” (Jeremiah 31:31, 33).

God was promising to do what no state, church, or parent could ever do: get his law into the minds and hearts of the people. Jeremiah must have wondered how God would do this.

More than six hundred years later, another King came, not to impose new laws but to bring new life. The risen Lord Jesus Christ invites us to come as we are, with our confused minds and our stubborn hearts.

And when we come to him, his Spirit enters our soul, and he puts the desire for righteousness within us. That is why a Christian loves God and longs for righteousness. That is why a Christian prays, and why, when a Christian sins, it is not long before he or she feels the need to come to Christ and be forgiven.

For further reading, see Mark 7