The history of Israel being ended, we now find, to the end of this book, the history of the kings of Judah. Before considering its details, let us enter upon a general subject of greatest importance.
THE REVIVALS OF THE END
Outwardly, no doubt, Judah “yet walk[ed] with God” (Hos. 11:1212Ephraim compasseth me about with lies, and the house of Israel with deceit: but Judah yet ruleth with God, and is faithful with the saints. (Hosea 11:12)); but its ruin had already long been manifest. It had been particularly accentuated since godly Jehoshaphat had sought an alliance with Ahab. All the while keeping up this outward appearance, given up by Ephraim from the beginning of its existence, Judah was morally far from God. The prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel inform us about its inward condition. It is thus that Isaiah, describing Judah’s state during this period, writes: “For as much as this people draw near with their mouth, and honor me with their lips, but their heart is removed far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment taught of men; therefore, behold, I will proceed to do marvelously with this people, to do marvelously, even with wonder, and the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their intelligent ones shall be hid” (Is. 29:13-14). And again: “This is a rebellious people, lying children, children that will not hear the law of Jehovah” (Isa. 30:99That this is a rebellious people, lying children, children that will not hear the law of the Lord: (Isaiah 30:9)). And again, at the eve of the invasion of Sennacherib: “The sinners in Zion are afraid; trembling hath surprised the hypocrites: Who among us shall dwell with the consuming fire? who among us shall dwell with everlasting flames?—He that walketh righteously, and speaketh uprightly; he that despiseth the gain of oppressions, that shaketh his hands from taking hold of bribes, that stoppeth his ears from hearing of blood, and shutteth his eyes from seeing evil” (Isa. 33:14-1514The sinners in Zion are afraid; fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites. Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings? 15He that walketh righteously, and speaketh uprightly; he that despiseth the gain of oppressions, that shaketh his hands from holding of bribes, that stoppeth his ears from hearing of blood, and shutteth his eyes from seeing evil; (Isaiah 33:14‑15)). It is useless to multiply quotations. Furthermore, we shall have occasion to return to the subject when, with regard to Josiah’s reign, we consult Jeremiah concerning the subject of the moral history of Judah.
In the midst of this state of things, Ahaz, king of Judah, had made it his business to alter the fundamental institutions of the temple of the Lord. We do not see the people protesting in the least against this profanity. They let him do as he pleased. And so the wrath of the Lord was kindled against Judah under the reign of Ahaz (2 Chron. 28:99But a prophet of the Lord was there, whose name was Oded: and he went out before the host that came to Samaria, and said unto them, Behold, because the Lord God of your fathers was wroth with Judah, he hath delivered them into your hand, and ye have slain them in a rage that reacheth up unto heaven. (2 Chronicles 28:9)) delivering it into the hand of Ephraim, and against Ahaz, “for Jehovah humbled Judah because of Ahaz king of Israel, for he had made Judah lawless, and transgressed much against Jehovah” (2 Chron. 28:1919For the Lord brought Judah low because of Ahaz king of Israel; for he made Judah naked, and transgressed sore against the Lord. (2 Chronicles 28:19)). Only ungodly Manasseh later surpassed the iniquity of Ahaz.
But, between these two kings God raised up a testimony in Judah. We are entering the period of revivals, properly so called; the first, that of Hezekiah, with which we are about to be occupied; the second, that of Josiah. The prominent characteristic of these revivals is that they are absolutely the fruit of the grace of God. They are not foreseen, no preliminary work introduces them, no sign of repentance on part of the people precedes them. They are the direct work of the Spirit of God and break forth in a brilliant way in the midst of the ruin of Judah. Hezekiah is the son of a profane father who was devoted to idolatrous abominations. Hezekiah’s son Manasseh surpassed Ahaz in apostasy. Manasseh’s son Amon was just as apostate as he, but Amon’s son, Manasseh’s grandson Josiah, is the instrument of the second revival in Judah. After him comes the period of the end, when the lamp of David seemed extinguished forever.
These revivals have a particular importance for us. We are witnessing the end of the history of Christendom, which, except for the pagan idolatry involved in Judah’s apostasy, has the greatest moral analogy with the end of the Judah’s history. Judgment has been pronounced long ago by the Word upon the present state of things (read 2 Timothy: 2 Peter; and Jude), and no one takes heed. At the moment of their sudden destruction, men will yet be crying, “Peace and safety.” For the time being the grace of God by these revivals is placing a dam before the torrent that will sweep them away. He is using them to withdraw from the already condemned mass a greater or smaller number of souls who have become attentive to the voice of His gospel. He thus is making ready for His Beloved to take His own to Himself, by completing the number of the elect so that not one of them will be wanting at that last call when they are finally being gathered together.
These revivals at the end do not all have the same character, but when one seeks to distinguish them from the returns to godliness that preceded them, one finds first of all that they concern not only the king, but are shared by the people; next, that despite their diversity they have as common characteristic a complete rupture with the traditions which by their antiquity appeared respectable in the eyes of men, but were not the teaching of the Holy Spirit and had not been instituted by God. The revivals at the end are, in a word, a rupture with tradition and a return to that which was at the beginning. This fact strikes us particularly in the history of Hezekiah and in that of Josiah. David, the head of the royal family, had never sacrificed upon the high places; he had had but one concern: to find a place for the ark of the Lord. This place having been found in Zion, he clave to it and worshipped God there. Solomon does not follow his father’s walk but turns aside from it in that he sacrificed to the Lord upon the high places, a dangerous practice that bore abominable fruit when the king’s heart allowed him to be carried away by strange women(1 Kings 11:77Then did Solomon build an high place for Chemosh, the abomination of Moab, in the hill that is before Jerusalem, and for Molech, the abomination of the children of Ammon. (1 Kings 11:7)). Since that time the sacrifices upon the high places, this tradition of Solomon’s reign, were no more banished from Judah, and one can say, as we have already observed, that the high places were part of its national religion. We have reason to affirm then that this religion, while keeping some features of the truth, had given up that which was from the beginning, and which went back, not only to David, but to Moses (see Deut. 12:1-21These are the statutes and judgments, which ye shall observe to do in the land, which the Lord God of thy fathers giveth thee to possess it, all the days that ye live upon the earth. 2Ye shall utterly destroy all the places, wherein the nations which ye shall possess served their gods, upon the high mountains, and upon the hills, and under every green tree: (Deuteronomy 12:1‑2)). It had facilitated Jehoshaphat’s alliance with the king of Israel, for even if there was no moral bond existing between them, the conformity of certain religious practices between their two peoples blinded this godly king to the impiety of such a mutual alliance. This initial laxity bears its fruits sooner or later. Iniquitous Ahaz attacks, not the high places of Solomon, but the things established by him according to the model David had communicated to him in the beginning, that is to say, the house of God itself. He treats lightly all the divine principles proclaimed in the arrangements of the temple, just as in our own day all doctrines are treated lightly, without any more respect for the divine institution of the things of Christianity than the respect Ahaz had for the altar and the lavers.
We have said that the common characteristic of the end time revivals is separation from the religion of the day, in order to return to that which was taught at the beginning in the Word of God. We go on to find, under Hezekiah, (and even more radically under Josiah, who carried this out throughout the whole territory of Canaan), the complete destruction of all that stood in relationship to the high places, statues, groves, incense, priests, and all this religion of soothsayers, mediums, and others toward which Israel had been drawn. In comparing Josiah’s history with that of Hezekiah, we shall observe the distinctive characteristics of these revivals, for, as we have mentioned, each has its special character according to the different epochs of time, the needs of which God knows. Let us confine ourselves for now to considering the revival which characterizes the reign of Hezekiah.