What is an example of repentance in Scripture?

Mike Davenport explains in this video that the Bible gives us many pictures of what repentance looks like in a person’s life. We see one such example in the life of Josiah. Following Hezekiah’s death, there was 77 years of wickedness that plagued the entire nations before Josiah took the throne.

At the age of 8, he began to follow the Lord with all of his heart. One of the signs of the following of the Lord was that he began removing all of the idols, altars, and high places. This is one of the signs of repentance. That is what true repentance looks like – turning to the Lord with all of your heart, soul, and might.

Deuteronomy 6:5 (NKJV) - "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength." 

The Bible gives us many pictures of what repentance looks like in a person's life. One of the ones that really stands out in my mind is looking at the life of King Josiah. King Josiah's great-grandfather was Hezekiah, and Hezekiah was one who followed after the Lord, and led the people of Judah in the ways of the Lord. But following Hezekiah's death, there were two sons back to back. There was Manasseh and then Manasseh's son Ammon.

And between the two of them, 77 years of wickedness. Not just personal wickedness, but leading the entire nation into wickedness. And there were 77 years of this before King Josiah takes the throne. And King Josiah ascended the throne at eight years of age. And the Bible tells us that at the age of eight, he began to follow the Lord with all of his heart.

And one of the signs of this following of the Lord was four years later at age 12, he began removing all of the idols, the altars in all of the high places. This is one of the first signs of repentance, is removing those things that offend God, those altars that we and our idolatrous hearts have built. But he didn't stop there. At the age of 18, the men who were repairing, which is another sign of his repentance, the repair of the temple, these men that were repairing ran across the law of God. And they brought that law of God and they read it to Josiah.

And what happened to Josiah? Well these are actually the words of the Lord. The Lord said go back to Josiah and said this, this is what I've seen in you Josiah, your heart has become tender. You have humbled yourself before the very words of God and you've humbled yourself before me, the living God. You have torn or rent your clothes and you have been moved to tears.

These were the signs that we see in the life of Josiah, true repentance that, as a nation, this true repentance looked like removal and repair and a restoration of worship. And what did that repentance look like for him as a man? It was a tenderness of heart, a humility before the Word of God, a humility to vary God Himself, and the sign of that repentance, and the tearing of clothes, and the tears that came to this man as he was moved because of these transgressions against the living God. And as he comes to the end of his life, this is what God said of Josiah, that of all the kings that came before him and of all the kings that came after him, there was not one like Josiah who gave, turned to the Lord with all of His heart, with all of His soul, and with all of His might. That's what true repentance looks like.

Turning to the Lord with all of your heart, with all of your soul, and with all of your might.