To perform the words

Then the king stood in his place and made a covenant before the LORD, to follow 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. – 2 Chronicles 34v31

As we saw earlier when Josiah became king he set about bringing great reform to the nation. They discovered the ‘book of the law’ and that indeed became the standard for the nation under Josiah.

When that happened King Josiah made a promise before God. The promise was the follow the Lord, to keep His commandments, to keep His testimonies, to keep His statutes. He promised to do it with all His heart and with all His soul.

What a great promise to make. But Josiah made another promise. He promised that the nation would also perform all the words of the covenant.

All those plans are great and noble, but unless they carry through and do it then it is really worthless.

The wonderful thing here is that Josiah and the people did all that they said, including ‘performing all the words of the covenant.’

It is vital that we are doers of the word, and not hearers only. If we are only doers of the word then we deceive our own selves. The proof of our faith and commitment is in the doing.