Pulverize the Idol

Most of the kings tolerated the high places. They eased into the standard of the day, when Baal worship was the norm.

But Josiah recovered a fire from a former age. He “began to seek the God of his father David” (2 Chronicles 34:3). His passion stretched back all the way to Moses, who rendered a golden calf into powder (Exodus 32:20).

“ … he tore down the altars and the Asherah poles and crushed the idols to powder and cut to pieces all the incense altars throughout Israel.” (2 Chronicles 34:7)

Josiah pulverized every idol to the point of no return. He cut off the altars that were cutting off the nation’s spiritual vitality. And in the wake of his passion, revival flowed.

When Jesus told us to cut off the hand that causes sin, he wasn’t talking about a temporary fast. We can’t take back the fingers that we've thrown into the flame (Matthew 5:27-30).

There are “high places” in the soul that need a permanent break. Even if they are fine for another, God has told you to gouge it out. Until we crush them beyond the point of return, they squash our vitality in Christ.

Renewal will always elude us while we pause what Christ has told us to pulverize. Sometimes the Master says, “Take a break.” But there are strongholds over which he speaks, “Take it down.” Know the difference between what you can abstain from for a season and what you must abolish, once and for all.

There were two men whose zeal for the Lord reduced the idols of the age to powder. In both cases, out of the rubble of a decisive destruction, God brought a restoration of revelation (2 Chronicles 34:14-18; Exodus 34:1-28).

Revelation from Yahweh follows the relinquishment of the idol.

Destroy the old altar once and for all, and out of the dust, God will unearth the long-awaited revival of your soul.