Baptismal Meditation

2 Kings 23:12: The altars which Manasseh had made in the two courts of the house of Yahweh, the king broke down; and he smashed them there, and threw their dust into the brook Kidron.

Josiah was one of the great heroes of the faith, providing an example not only for leaders of the church but for every believer. All leaders of the church are to imitate his zeal in destroying anything idolatrous in the church, but every believer is responsible to do the same – making war against the flesh and the idols of his own heart. We are made of dust; we are each a land to ourselves; and God calls us to keep that land free from altars to Baal and shrines to Molech.

Baptism signifies this responsibility. Through baptism, we are made priests and installed in the liturgical community of the church to worship the Father, and Him only. By baptism, we are joined to the greater Josiah, and participate in His war against the idols. Baptism is the work of the Spirit, the gift of the Spirit, the fire from heaven that destroys idols.

But baptism is not only a call to responsibility. It is not even primarily a call to battle. It is above all, first of all, a promise. It is a call to responsibility only because it is first of all a promise. That promise is the promise of the gospel, the promise of forgiveness, cleansing, purging, and renewal; the promise that the Lord has fulfilled in Jesus, to cast down the vanities of His people.

When Josiah destroys the altars of Manasseh, he threw the dust into the Kidron brook that runs through the valley between Jerusalem and the Mount of Olives, so that the living water of the brook could remove the defilement of those idolatries and cleanse the land. Baptism comes with the promise of the new covenant, the promise given through Ezekiel, that the Lord will “sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and a new spirit within you. I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes.”

As you raise Mary, by all means teach her to imitate Josiah in destroying idols wherever she finds them. But teach her to do this in faith, in the confidence that what God promises in baptism is true, with the assurance that the living waters of the Kidron washed her and made her clean.