“…make all things according to the pattern….” – – HEBREWS 8:5
By the time Josiah became King of Judah, God’s people (to whom He gave the Law) had drifted step by step until their religious way of life was quite foreign to God’s instructions. A factor which added to the falling away was the misplacement of the book of the Law.
During Josiah’s reign, the Temple was being repaired, and the book of the Law was found. Upon reading the book the King became greatly distressed for they were worshipping and living in contrast to what God had earlier specified (2 Kings 22).
Immediately, Josiah set out to go back–back before the falling away–and do things the way they used to be done as specified (and as pleasing) to God (2 Kings 23). He taught the people the truth (v:2), they agreed “to keep His commandments” (v:3), they eliminated from their religious practices that which was not according to the will of God, (vv:4-20), and they began doing those things in religion which they had not been doing but should have been doing (vv:21-23).
Truly Josiah restored the Jewish religion as God had ordained it to be. As a result, Josiah was spared of Jehovah’s wrath (22:18-20).
Just as there had been a restoration of the Jewish religion during the Old Testament times, there has also been a restoration of the Christian religion within the New Testament times.
As with the Jews, God gave the church a law (Gal. 6:2), a pattern to follow (2 John. 9; 1 Cor. 4:6; Rev. 22:18-19); and , like the Jews, the church drifted away (2 Thes. 2:3). Such resulted in denominationalism and great confusion–something of which God did not ordain (1 Cor. 14:33) nor of which does He approve (Matt. 15:13).
Following the example of Josiah, several men in the 1800’s saw the problem and began to teach this restoring principle, that is, to go back–back before the falling away, back before denominationalism–and do things in religion the way they used to be done as specified (and as pleasing) to God. They sought to build all things according to the pattern (Heb. 8:5), speak only as the oracles of God (1 Pet. 4:11), and whatever was done had to be authorized by the Lord (Col. 3:17).
We at London & Macomb [Barnes] strive to follow the God-given example of Josiah’s restoration, and we beckon all to do the same, for men will not be saved by merely being religious–but by being religiously right (Mt. 7:21-23).
Gary Henson