King James Daily Bible Study Devotional
Message Title: Produce Much Fruit
Date: Saturday May 19, 2012
Today's Chapters: 2 Chronicles 34-36

Hello My Friend,

For a plant or tree to produce much fruit it needs to be purged, the word purge means to remove the impurities from the vine so that it can produce. A plant can be alive, but it will not or does not produce much fruit unless it has been purged. When we accept Jesus Christ as our Savior we become a branch on His vine, we are purged, the impurities of sin that defiled our bodies are removed. Once you receive Christ you abide in the Vine forever, since we are attached to Him we can expect Him to do some pruning and shaping to purge us. When we allow Christ to prune and shape us we will become fruitful, but He cannot do it on His own, we must do our part if we want to produce much fruit.

“Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.” - John 15:3-7.

For over sixty years God was no where to be seen in Jerusalem, at least that is what many of God's faithful probably thought as they grew up not even being able to worship God in the temple. However, all that was about the change when Josiah became king, he began purging the Judah and Jerusalem.

“Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned in Jerusalem one and thirty years. And he did that which was right in the sight of the LORD, and walked in the ways of David his father, and declined neither to the right hand, nor to the left. For in the eighth year of his reign, while he was yet young, he began to seek after the God of David his father: and in the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem from the high places, and the groves, and the carved images, and the molten images. Now in the eighteenth year of his reign, when he had purged the land, and the house, he sent Shaphan the son of Azaliah, and Maaseiah the governor of the city, and Joah the son of Joahaz the recorder, to repair the house of the LORD his God.” - 2 Chronicles 34:1-3,9.

Josiah did not want the same fate as his father, he purged himself of the corruption that he witnessed from his father and chose to serve God. Josiah served God the best he knew how according to what he learned from other godly people, which is what most of is try to do. Sometimes we do not know the right thing to do, but if we let Christ lead us He will prune and shape us to grow with Him. Jesus gave us an example to follow, as Christians, we have to be the ones to step up and be the next example. “If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you. Verily, verily, I say unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord; neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him. If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them.“ - John 13:14-17.

As the Levites were cleaning up the temple they made a huge discovery, they found the Bible. A man named Shaphan brought the book to king Josiah and read it to him, immediately he learned that they were not doing all they could to live in the will of God and that they were in grave danger. He prayed to God then sent for someone who could explain exactly what their fate headed for, a prophetess named Huldah gave him some dire news.

“Thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will bring evil upon this place, and upon the inhabitants thereof, even all the curses that are written in the book which they have read before the king of Judah: Because they have forsaken me, and have burned incense unto other gods, that they might provoke me to anger with all the works of their hands; therefore my wrath shall be poured out upon this place, and shall not be quenched. And the king went up into the house of the LORD, and all the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and the priests, and the Levites, and all the people, great and small: and he read in their ears all the words of the book of the covenant that was found in the house of the LORD. And the king stood in his place, and made a covenant before the LORD, to walk after the LORD, and to keep his commandments, and his testimonies, and his statutes, with all his heart, and with all his soul, to perform the words of the covenant which are written in this book.” - 2 Chronicles 34:24,25,30,31.

Josiah knew the fate of Judah, but that did not stop him from serving God on His terms in fact, it encouraged him to do more for God, he didn't stop in Judah, he purged all of Israel. Jesus is returning and when He does every person born will stand before Him in judgment, the fact that we who are saved will not be cast into the lake of fire does not give us the right to serve God on our own terms. Christians are not perfect, we cannot be sinless, but we can learn and grow as we allow Christ to purge the things we know are sin from our lives. “What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.” - 1 Corinthians 6:19,20.

Josiah's leadership abruptly ended when he attempted to stop Pharaoh Necho's plans to attack the Assyrians, which fulfilled the prophecy by Huldah that he would not have to see the destruction that was about to take place. Once Josiah died it did not take long for Jerusalem and all of Judah to be destroyed. This time there was no room for repentance, God left Israel to it's ruin, some escaped, but most were carried off as slaves to Babylon, for seventy years the Jews were under the control of Babylon.

“But they mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words, and misused his prophets, until the wrath of the LORD arose against his people, till there was no remedy. Therefore he brought upon them the king of the Chaldees, who slew their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion upon young man or maiden, old man, or him that stooped for age: he gave them all into his hand. And all the vessels of the house of God, great and small, and the treasures of the house of the LORD, and the treasures of the king, and of his princes; all these he brought to Babylon. And they burnt the house of God, and brake down the wall of Jerusalem, and burnt all the palaces thereof with fire, and destroyed all the goodly vessels thereof. And them that had escaped from the sword carried he away to Babylon; where they were servants to him and his sons until the reign of the kingdom of Persia:” - 2 Chronicles 36:16-20.

God gives people ample time to repent, meaning to seek Him through His Son, Jesus Christ. However, there comes a time when it's too late to repent, once a person dies and they see Jesus face to face it's over for them if they have not accepted Him, they will be in hell. “For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment; The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished:” - 2 Peter 4,9. What will be worse is when they have to be resurrected to face Him a second time for judgment. “He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son. But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.” - Revelation 21:7,8.

Today's Psalm: 65:3 - “Iniquities prevail against me: as for our transgressions, thou shalt purge them away.”

Today's Proverb: 16:6 - “By mercy and truth iniquity is purged: and by the fear of the LORD men depart from evil.”

Today's Prayer: God, Forgive me for seeking other means to help me become fruitful instead of just being patient for You to work in me and bring forth much fruit. I long to serve You wholeheartedly and in Your will, I know that it takes time, obedience, prayer, and studying Your Word that prunes me and shapes into the likeness of Your Son. Give me Your power, wisdom and guidance as I become a hearer and a doer of Your Word. I pray in Jesus' name. Amen

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