Josiah’s faithfulness had not changed the heart of the people, rather it overruled the state of things for the time, for if we would learn further the true moral condition of the people we should read the prophecy of Jeremiah. In his pleadings and tears we see the heart of God yearning over His erring people, seeking to recall them to their first love. He told them, “I remember thee, the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals, when thou wentest after Me in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown.” Jer. 2:22Go and cry in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith the Lord; I remember thee, the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals, when thou wentest after me in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown. (Jeremiah 2:2). But sad to say, these pleadings were in vain; they had forsaken the Lord. They preferred their own cisterns — the work of men’s hands — to the Lord who is the fountain of living waters. Josiah’s Passover, as another has remarked, “was like the last glimmering of the lamp which God had lighted among His people in the house of David. It was soon extinguished in the daress of the nation which knew not God.” “Light accepted bringeth light, light rejected bringeth night.”
This has its sad counterpart in the history of the church. Christendom, so blessed through the light of the gospel for nearly two thousand years, is fast going back into the darkness of unbelief and superstition. That light first shone on men in Him, who, when here, was “the light of the world.” But men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil, and sought to get rid of that light at the cross. Now it shines from the glory in Him, the risen and ascended Man at the Father’s right hand, and is reflected in His redeemed ones down here. “For God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” 2 Cor. 4:66For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. (2 Corinthians 4:6). “Ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord.” Eph. 5:88For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light: (Ephesians 5:8).
The giving up of truth, which we see on every hand, is only preparing the way for the great apostasy, upon which the judgment of God will fall first (1 Peter 4:1717For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? (1 Peter 4:17)). But faith will shine the brighter as the darkness deepens, as we see in Josiah. May we seek grace to walk in the light, as children of light, with our lamps trimmed, and ready for the heavenly Bridegroom when He shall appear.
After the death of Josiah, the people of the land made Jehoahaz his son king in Jerusalem. He reigned only three months and did evil in the sight of the Lord. Necho, king of Egypt, put him in chains and then put the land under tribute. Jehoahaz died in Egypt.
Then Necho made Eliakim, another son of Josiah, king, but changed his name to Jehoiakim. He was twenty-three years old and reigned eleven years in Jerusalem, but he too did evil in the sight of the Lord. But the king of Egypt was not the one to carry out God’s judgment on the nation; they were to be carried to Babylon. Accordingly in the days of Jehoiakim, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon came up against Jerusalem and Jehoiakim became his servant. But after three years he rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar. Then the Lord sent bands of the Chaldeans, the Syrians, the Moabites, and the Ammonites against Judah to destroy it, because of their disobedience. Finally Nebuchadnezzar came and carried Jehoiakim in chains to Babylon.
ML 02/01/1959