Dust, Money, and Faithful Men Text: 2 Kings 22:3-7
Introduction: The Rot of Neglect
We live in an age that loves the spectacular. We want the conference high, the dramatic conversion, the viral moment. We are spiritual adrenaline junkies, always looking for the next big thing. And in our pursuit of the novel and the noisy, we have forgotten the sacred duty of maintenance. We want to build new things, but we are loath to repair the old things. Our spiritual lives are filled with grand intentions and decaying foundations. We have Bibles on our shelves and apps on our phones, but the walls of our own hearts are crumbling, the mortar is cracked, and there is a fine layer of dust over everything.
This was the state of Judah. After the long and wicked reigns of Manasseh and Amon, the house of God was not so much desecrated as it was neglected. The idolatry was grotesque, to be sure, but the immediate problem Josiah addresses is not a theological treatise but a construction project. The Temple was falling apart. This is a profound spiritual picture. When a nation forgets God, His house is the first thing to go. Not because of a dramatic lightning strike from heaven, but because of the slow, insidious rot of simple neglect. The worship stops, the tithes dry up, the priests grow lazy, the roof leaks, and the dust settles. The physical state of the Temple was a perfect mirror of the spiritual state of the people.
Into this decay steps a young king, Josiah. And what is his first great act of reformation? It is not a new program. It is not a rebranding campaign. It is a work order. He tells his men to go fix the house. This is where all true reformation begins. It does not begin with a vision statement; it begins with a broom. It begins with the unglamorous, foundational, tedious work of sweeping out the corners, repairing the breaches, and dealing honestly with the resources God has provided. Before the Word of God can be found, the house of God must be set in order. And as we will see, God has a peculiar affection for the kind of men who can be trusted to do this work faithfully.
The Text
Now it happened in the eighteenth year of King Josiah, that the king sent Shaphan, the son of Azaliah the son of Meshullam the scribe, to the house of Yahweh saying,
"Go up to Hilkiah the high priest that he may count the money brought into the house of Yahweh which the doorkeepers have gathered from the people.
And let them give it into the hand of those who do the work, who have the oversight of the house of Yahweh, and let them give it to those who do the work, who are in the house of Yahweh, to repair the damages of the house,
to the craftsmen and the builders and the masons and for buying timber and hewn stone to repair the house.
Only no accounting shall be made with them for the money given into their hands, for they deal faithfully."
(2 Kings 22:3-7 LSB)
A King's Command (v. 3-4)
The work of reformation begins with leadership. It begins with a clear, authoritative command.
"Now it happened in the eighteenth year of King Josiah, that the king sent Shaphan, the son of Azaliah the son of Meshullam the scribe, to the house of Yahweh saying, 'Go up to Hilkiah the high priest that he may count the money brought into the house of Yahweh which the doorkeepers have gathered from the people.'" (2 Kings 22:3-4 LSB)
Josiah is twenty-six years old. He has been king for eighteen years, and now the work begins in earnest. True reformation is not the fruit of youthful passion alone; it is the fruit of settled conviction. Josiah sends his scribe, Shaphan, a high-ranking official, to the house of Yahweh. This is not a suggestion. It is a royal decree. The executive is directing the work. This is how God has structured the world. Authority flows from the top down.
And what is the first order of business? It is financial. "Go...count the money." Before a single hammer can swing, the books must be in order. This tells us that spiritual revival and fiscal responsibility are not enemies; they are blood brothers. A church that is sloppy with its money is a church that is sloppy with its theology. A desire for God's glory and a desire for a clean balance sheet are two sides of the same coin of faithfulness.
Notice also where the money came from. It was "gathered from the people." The resources for the work were already there. The people had been giving, but their gifts had been languishing in a collection box, unused and uncounted. The problem was not a lack of resources, but a lack of leadership. God almost always provides His people with what they need to do His will. What is often missing are the leaders with the vision and integrity to put those resources to work. The money was there, but it was just piling up. It took a godly king to say, "Count it, and get it to the men who can use it."
The Chain of Trust (v. 5-6)
The king's command establishes an orderly and practical plan. God is not a God of confusion, but of order.
"And let them give it into the hand of those who do the work, who have the oversight of the house of Yahweh, and let them give it to those who do the work, who are in the house of Yahweh, to repair the damages of the house, to the craftsmen and the builders and the masons and for buying timber and hewn stone to repair the house." (2 Kings 22:5-6 LSB)
We see a clear chain of delegation here. The money goes from the high priest to the hands of the supervisors, the foremen of the project. And they, in turn, are to give it to the workers. This is simple, direct, and efficient. There is no bloated bureaucracy, no committee for the disbursement of funds, no endless series of meetings. The authority is given to the men on the ground, the ones who have oversight of the work.
The purpose is explicit: "to repair the damages of the house." This is a conservative project. They are not building a new, contemporary worship center. They are not trying to innovate. They are restoring what has been lost. Reformation is always a recovery. It is about going back to the blueprint, back to the foundation. The most radical thing a church can do in a rebellious age is to be doggedly conservative, to repair the old paths.
And who does the work? Craftsmen, builders, and masons. This is skilled labor. The house of God is to be built with excellence. There is a profound dignity here in the work of the hands. The kingdom of God is not built by mystics and dreamers alone; it is built by carpenters and stonecutters. It is built by men who know how to make a straight line and a square corner. Piety without practical skill is useless. All lawful work, done with excellence for the glory of God, is sacred work.
The Currency of Faithfulness (v. 7)
This brings us to the most remarkable verse in this section, a verse that ought to convict our entire generation.
"Only no accounting shall be made with them for the money given into their hands, for they deal faithfully." (2 Kings 22:7 LSB)
Stop and let that sink in. No audits. No receipts required. No oversight committee breathing down their necks. The money was simply handed over to the foremen, and the crown required no accounting of them. Why? Because their character was their accounting. Their integrity was their collateral. "For they deal faithfully."
This is the currency of a healthy society. Our world runs on suspicion. We have built a vast, soul-crushing bureaucracy of regulations, compliance officers, and audits precisely because we assume that everyone is a potential thief. We have low-trust societies because we have low-character people. We have tried to create systems so clever that they do not require men to be good. The result is that we are drowning in red tape while the rot continues unabated.
But here, in the middle of a corrupt and decaying nation, was a remnant of men who could be trusted. Their word was their bond. They dealt faithfully. The Hebrew word here is emunah. It means firmness, fidelity, steadfastness. It is the word used to describe the very faithfulness of God Himself. These men, in their humble work, were imaging the character of their God. They were the kind of men on whom you could build a reformation. Before they ever found the Book of the Law, the law was already bearing fruit in their lives. This is the kind of integrity that God honors, and it is the necessary soil for any true revival.
The Prelude to Revival
This story is more than just a historical account of a building project. It is a paradigm for all true reformation, both personal and corporate. This mundane, practical, and faithful work was the direct prelude to one of the greatest revivals in the Old Testament.
It was while they were carrying out this straightforward task, counting the money and repairing the walls, that Hilkiah the priest found the Book of the Law. The Word of God was discovered in the middle of faithful work. This is not a coincidence. God does not grant spiritual breakthroughs to the lazy. He does not entrust His Word to the careless. Revival is not a lightning strike out of a clear blue sky. It is the fire that falls on a rebuilt altar.
You want revival in your own life? You want to see God move in your family, in your church, in our nation? Then start where Josiah started. Start by repairing the breaches. Start with the mundane. Balance your checkbook with absolute integrity. Do your job with diligence and excellence, as unto the Lord. Fulfill your promises. Speak the truth. Be the kind of man or woman who "deals faithfully," who needs no army of accountants to ensure your honesty.
God founds His reformations on the bedrock of character. He was able to shake the entire nation of Judah because there were men at the foundation who were solid, men who could be trusted with money because they could be trusted with anything. Before God gives you the great things, He tests you with the small things. He looks for those who are faithful in the little, so He can make them rulers over much.
The discovery of the Word of God brought Josiah and the people to their knees in repentance. But that discovery would not have happened if the king had not first commanded the work, and if there had not been faithful men to carry it out. Our duty is to deal faithfully in the here and now, to sweep our own front porch, to repair our own section of the wall. And as we do, we should not be surprised if, in the middle of all that dust and hard work, we once again uncover the glorious, life-shattering, nation-reforming Word of God.