I am not the most mechanically inclined, but I love assembling furniture. Give me one of those sleek Scandinavian kits and an afternoon, and it is so satisfying to see the final product.

My aptitude is fertile ground for hubris, however. “I saw the floor model, so I don’t need the instruction manual. I’ve got this!”

Inevitably, the front panels wind up facing the rear, and the cabinet doors are hung upside down. When I finally surrender and crack open the instructions, I have to demolish everything I have so carefully—but incorrectly—built.

This is what happened to the kings of Judah. They had cast aside God’s instruction manual for years. By the time King Josiah found it, shrines, altars, and high places dedicated to false gods had been built all over the country. Josiah’s demolition crew had their work cut out for them as they systematically desecrated all the sites for idol worship.

“Furthermore, Josiah got rid of the mediums and spiritists, the household gods, the idols and all the other detestable things seen in Judah and Jerusalem. This he did to fulfill the requirements of the law written in the book that Hilkiah the priest had discovered in the temple of the Lord” (2 Kings 23:24).

When we say we are broken before the Lord, this is what it means: we let God smash what our pride has built in order that he might construct a new life in us. Yes, it’s painful, but the eternal product is more than satisfying—it’s heavenly.