CLEANING HOUSE by Larry W Peebles June 21, 2019 19.21
It was apparent changes would have to be made. This would include habits, attitudes, and possibly personnel. If we were not successful in making these changes, we might not survive. This division of a large national homebuilder where I had recently accepted the position of Division President had five presidents in the past five years, and was struggling. My wife and I had prayed earnestly before I accepted the position, and felt this was definitely where the Lord was leading us. I trusted He would lead us through the challenges that would lie ahead.
I joined the division one month before their year-end, which gave me the opportunity to observe how the division operated. The results of that year would not be charged against me, although I would have to own the results the next year. We had one full year to show improvement. I spent that entire first month in the field observing how we built homes, how we delivered them to the customer, and how we interacted with the customer. I remember walking through one home thinking the paint, cabinets and tile work was actually good. We only needed to clean the trash and dirt out of the home and lay carpet, and this home was a decent home to present to the customer. Then I panicked. I realized the home was already carpeted, and all the trash and dirt I saw was resting on top of the new carpet. The carpet would have to be replaced. We simply could not ask the customer to accept that carpet, no matter how thoroughly we might have cleaned it. This was a new home, and everything in it needed to look and smell clean and new. This carpet was only one example, but was a clear indication of an attitude toward our professionalism and workmanship which caused this division to be banned from the most successful community in the market. This house needed a good cleaning and new carpet, but the whole division needed a good cleaning, and a new attitude and direction.
When the results for that year came in, I was told one more year like that one and the company would close the doors on the division. It was time to clean house. Reform began by insisting every associate and subcontractor become customer and quality focused. Initiatives were put in place to proactively repair damage already done with the existing customer base by correcting any and every outstanding issue with their home. We became obsessed with doing the right thing on the first attempt by talking about it in every small group and department meeting. Every process was studied for improvement, and consultants were brought in to teach and train. The desired change happened over time. It took several years to get the operation where it needed to be; fortunately, some results were evident in the first full year.
This reform eventually became a true “from worst to first” story. The results from that division grew every year, until the division led all other divisions in the company in quality and customer satisfaction benchmarks. Our success was measured by a nationally-recognized third party survey. Predictably, with that kind of focus on quality and customer service, our sales volume and profits also grew to lead the company. We became by far the largest builder in our local market, and were invited to build in almost every new home community. The division transformed from a mess to a success. When I retired after ten years, that trashy carpet was a distant memory, but it made a good story for the next leadership team. It was a great example of what can be accomplished with a change of focus.
Josiah, the sixteenth king of Judah, also inherited a mess. His reign began around 640 B.C., almost 300 years after the Israel/Judah kingdom split following the reign of King Solomon. As we study the kingdoms of Israel and Judah over that period of time, we see that both kingdoms fell away from God and back into the abominable religious practices of the people who occupied the land when God gave it to them. Keep in mind this was not merely bad theology. They worshipped the moon and stars, the ancient false gods, and listened to the prophecies of soothsayers and fortune tellers. They performed all sorts of bloody demonic rituals, including child sacrifice. Occasionally a king would come along that tried to pull the people back to Jehovah, the one true God who had delivered them from slavery in Egypt and set them into this land promised to Abraham.
King Hezekiah, Josiah’s great-grandfather, had led the last major reforms in Judah. He desired to walk in the ways of King David and restore the people to their God. His grandfather Manasseh, and his father Amon, both had intentionally undone these reforms, which led to Josiah’s difficult situation. His story can be found in 2 Chronicles Chapters 34- 35, and 2 Kings Chapters 22- 23.
He was eight years old when he became king. His father was murdered during a conspiracy among his own servants after reigning for only two years. Scripture says his father “did not humble himself before the Lord, but increased his guilt [by sinning] more and more.” Spiritually speaking, Judah was headed down a slippery slope. Things would have to change if they were to survive. At age sixteen Josiah began to “seek the God of his father David.” At age twenty, the twelfth year of his reign, he began to “purge Judah and Jerusalem of the high places [of idol worship], the wooden images, the carved images, and the molded images [of false gods].” (2 Chronicles 34:3). He broke down the altars of the Baals and the incense altars. He killed the false priests, “burning their bones on their altars.” He did this in Jerusalem and in all the surrounding cities. Reform was well under way.
At age twenty-six, during the eighteenth year of his reign, he made a discovery that distinguished him from previous reformers. It was that year he decided to rebuild the temple, “the house of the Lord his God”. He gave money collected throughout the kingdom to Hilkiah the high priest, who in turn paid it to workmen to repair and restore the house. In the process of cleaning out and rebuilding, “Hilkiah the priest found the Book of the Law of the Lord given by Moses”. (2 Chronicles 34:14). Imagine how far the people had drifted from the Lord if the high priest was not aware of the location of that Book. Under the trash and the dirt that had accumulated in the temple was an ancient treasure lost for so long that finding it was like a new discovery. It was immediately taken to the king and read before him. He was overwhelmed (tore his clothes and wept), and sought advice on what to do, as it was apparent Judah faced the great wrath of the Lord because “their fathers had not kept the word of the Lord”.
His fears were well founded. Beginning in 2 Chronicles 34:23, Huldah the prophetess gave the king the word of the Lord on the matter. Great calamity was indeed coming on Jerusalem and Judah because of the years of idol worship and witchcraft in the land. But because the king had humbled himself and wept and sought the Lord, he would not see the calamity in his lifetime. For the final thirteen years of his reign, he would finish his reforms with a new zeal and a word from the Lord.
He stood before the people of Jerusalem in the house of the Lord and publicly read the Book of the Law (34:30). While standing in the temple he made a public covenant to keep God’s law with all his heart and all his soul. He made the inhabitants of Jerusalem do the same. He ordered the priests and the Levites to organize themselves and the people to observe the Feast of the Passover, something they were supposed to be doing each year. They were to follow the Law and the teachings from David and Solomon with regard to the Feast. It was a grand feast, and the people willingly gave to it. In 2 Chronicles 34:18- “There had been no Passover like that since the days of Samuel the prophet [kings Saul and David]; and none of the kings of Israel had kept such a Passover as Josiah kept.” In 2 Kings 23:25- “There was no king like him who turned to the Lord with all his heart, with all his soul, and with all his might, according to the Law of Moses; nor after him did any arise like him.”
His reforms cleaned a messy house and gave Judah one last chance to change their habits, attitudes and devotion toward the Lord. They found the truth and they found the true God as they rediscovered the word of God given to Moses. Years later Josiah died from wounds he received in a battle with the king of Egypt. It was a battle he was not called to fight, but he would not listen to a warning from the Egyptian king. The great prophet Jeremiah lamented his death, and he was buried with his fathers in Jerusalem. The reign of the four kings who followed Josiah added together was not as long as his reign. Under their reign Judah fell away from the Lord again before their seventy year exile in captivity in Babylon.
The parallels are obvious for the church today and for this nation, both of which are in need of a good house cleaning. We must become disturbed with our current condition. It is now necessary we publicly declare we are returning to God. We must turn away from our false gods (such as money, material things, sports and entertainment) and child sacrifice, among others. Those false idols must be completely destroyed. We must turn away from false religions and rediscover the truth in the pure word of God. The next generation must be taught the word and the ways of God. This must all be done with all our heart and soul. It will take a renewed fear of the Lord to do this. He alone is worthy of our worship as our Savior and great Deliverer from our enemies and our sin. Our house needs a good cleaning- our future existence depends on it.
