Leading with integrity: lessons from King Josiah’s restoration
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In 2 Kings 22, Josiah becomes king at the amazingly young age of 8 years old. At that point the book of the law had been so discarded by those who came before him that it had been completely lost. Eighteen years into his reign, Josiah had ordered the temple to be restored, and during that process the book of the law was found.
As Josiah reads the words that had long been neglected, he is convicted and calls the people to repentance. He begins to rid the land of all the idolatrous things that had become the objects of their worship. Many of the familiar things are mentioned such as the "high places" where false gods were often worshiped.
Somewhat surprisingly, the passage also mentions a number of things that had actually been set up in the temple. The passage mentions several articles of worship for Baal, Asherah, and other starry hosts that were in the temple. They removed items dedicated to the sun that were at the temple entrance. Apparently, they had even set up living quarters for male shrine prostitutes in the temple.
Seeing as how the temple had been recognized as the dwelling place of God among His people, it's amazing to think that the people had allowed these things sinful things to be set up in the temple.
Less we be too quick to point out their shortcomings while failing to recognize our own failures, Scriptures like Galatians 4:6 tell us about a dwelling place of God in our time. Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!"
Christ resides within us. Yet, how often have we allowed the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life (1 John 2:16) to take up residence within our affections right alongside the presence of God.
In the same way that the temple had become a corrupted presence in the nation of Israel, when we as leaders allow pride or self-interest to take up residency in our motivations, we become a corrupted presence in our places of work and ministry.
When we consistently elevate other motivations in our work over the motivation of seeing our work done to the glory of God, we inevitably find our light shining a little less brightly and our testimony becoming a bit more veiled.
As leaders, we need to strive to be more like Josiah. We need to be proactive in ridding our minds and hearts of the pride and self-interest that would seek to gain a foothold. Rather, we need to limit the space pride and self-interest can occupy by inviting God's Spirit to have an ever-growing presence in our motivations.
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