What Hidden Looks Like

“Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign, and… he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, and walked in the ways of David his father; and he did not turn aside to the right hand or to the left. For in the eighth year of his reign, while he was yet a boy, he began to seek the God of David his father, and in the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem of the high places, the Asherim, and the carved and the metal images… 

“Now in the eighteenth year of his reign, when he had cleansed the land and the house, he sent… to repair the house of the Lord his God… Then Shaphan the secretary told the king, ‘Hilkiah the priest has given me a book.’ And Shaphan read from it before the king.

“And when the king heard the words of the Law, he tore his clothes…

“‘Thus says the Lord,.. Because your heart was tender and you humbled yourself before God when you heard his words.., and you have humbled yourself before me and have torn your clothes and wept before me, I also have heard you…’ 

“Then the king gathered together all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem. [He] went up to the house of the Lord, with all the men of Judah… all the people both great and small. And he read in their hearing all the words of the Book of the Covenant that had been found in the house of the Lord. The king stood and made a covenant before the Lord, to walk after the Lord and to keep his commandments and his testimonies and his statutes, with all his heart and all his soul, to perform the words of the covenant that were written in this book… 

“And he died and was buried in the tombs of his fathers. All Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah. Jeremiah also uttered a lament for Josiah; and all the singing men and singing women have spoken of Josiah in their laments to this day.” 2 Chronicles 34:1-3,8,18-19,26-27,29-31; 35:24-25

Josiah exhibited his deep knowledge of and reverence for God by living uprightly. From an early age, his mission was to obey God, his mode self-forgetfulness, his service Spirit-led. He had no need to prove his significance, only to live for the God who had given him the privilege to rule as king. His life was hidden in the character and countenance of his Lord, and therefore deeply mourned when it was over for the light that had been extinguished.

With any new course, we set the direction, gait, and tempo. We decide whom to serve and who gets the credit. As we begin a new day or endeavor, what do seek first? Is our desire to make a name for ourselves, or discover how to make God’s name known? Do we rely on our own smarts and strength, or seek first the Lord and conform our thinking and actions to His? (Proverbs 3:3-6; Micah 6:8; Matthew 6:33; Romans 12:1-2; Colossians 3:1-3)

How well hidden are we in Christ? What needs cleaning out, putting off, or setting up in order for His character and ways to be exemplified?

Lord, so hide me in You that others see only Jesus and Your glory in all my words and deeds. (Acts 4:13)