In closing this series of papers on “Josiah and his Times,” we shall in few words advert, first, to the fact of his celebration of the passover; and, secondly, to the solemn close of his history. Our sketch of this truly interesting period would, unquestionably, be incomplete were these things omitted.
And first, then, as to the fact — so full of interest and encouragement — that, at the very close of Israel’s history, there should be one of the brightest moments that Israel had ever known. What does this teach us? It, very manifestly, teaches us that, in darkest times, it is the privilege of the faithful soul to act on divine principle, and to enjoy divine privileges. “We look upon this as a most weighty fact for all ages, but specially weighty at the present moment. If we did nothing more, by writing our papers on Josiah, than to impress this great fact on the mind of the christian reader, we should consider that we had not written in vain. If Josiah had been influenced by the spirit and principle which, alas! seem to actuate so many in this our day, he never could have attempted to celebrate the passover at all. He would have folded his arms and said, “It is useless to think of maintaining, any longer, our great national institutions. It can only be regarded as a piece of presumption to attempt the celebration of that ordinance which was designed to set forth Israel’s deliverance from judgment by the blood of the lamb, when Israel’s unity is broken, and its national glory faded and gone.”
But Josiah did not reason like this. He simply acted upon the truth of God. He studied the scriptures, and rejected what was wrong and did what was right.
Jerusalem: and they killed the passover on the fourteenth day of the first month.” (2 Chronicles 35:1.) This was taking higher ground than Hezekiah had taken, inasmuch as he kept his passover “on the fourteenth day of the second month.” (Chap. 30:15.) In so doing, Hezekiah was, as we know, availing himself of the provision which grace had made for cases of defilement. (See Numb. 9:9-11.) The divine order, however, had fixed “the first month” as the proper period, and to this order Josiah was enabled to conform. In short, he took the very highest ground, according to the truth of God, while lying low under the deep sense of personal and national failure. This is ever the way of faith.
“And he set the priests in their charges, and encouraged them to the service of the house of the Lord, and said unto the Levites that taught all Israel, which were holy unto the Lord. Put the holy ark in the house which Solomon, the son of David, king of Israel, did build: it shall not be a burden upon your shoulders, serve now the Lord your God, and his people Israel. And prepare yourselves by the houses of your fathers, after your courses, according to the writing of David king of Israel, and according to the writing of Solomon his son; and stand in the holy place, according to the divisions of the families of the fathers of your brethren the people, and after the division of the families of the Levites. So kill the passover, and sanctify yourselves, and prepare your brethren, that they may do according to the word of the Lord by the hand of Moses.”
Here we have Josiah taking the loftiest ground, and acting on the highest authority. The most cursory reader cannot fail to be arrested, as he scans the lines just quoted from the inspired record, by the names of “Solomon” — “David” — “Moses” — “all Israel” — and, above all, by the expression — so full of dignity, weight, and power — “That they may do according to the word of the Lord.” Most memorable words! May they sink down into our ears, and into our hearts! Josiah felt it to be his high and holy privilege to conform to the divine standard, notwithstanding all the errors and evils which had crept in, from age to age. God’s truth must stand forever. Faith owns and acts on this precious fact, and reaps accordingly. Nothing can be more lovely than the scene enacted on the occasion to which we are now referring. Josiah’s strict adherence to the word of the Lord is not more to be admired than his large-hearted devotedness and liberality. “He gave to the people, of the flock, lambs and kids, all for the passover offerings, for all that were present, to the number of thirty thousand, and three thousand bullocks: these were of the king’s substance. And his princes gave willingly unto the people, to the priests, and to the Levites,.....So the service was prepared, and the priests stood in their place, and the Levites in their courses, according to the king’s commandment...And the singers, the sons of Asaph, were in their place, according to the commandment of David, and Asaph, and Heman, and Jeduthun the king’s seer; and the porters waited at every gate; they might not depart from their service; for their brethren the Levites prepared for them. So all the service of the Lord was prepared the same day, to keep the passover, and to offer burnt offerings upon the altar of the Lord, according to the commandment of king Josiah. And the children of Israel that were present kept the passover at that time, and the feast of unleavened bread seven days. And there was no passover like to that kept in Israel, from the days of Samuel the prophet; neither did all the kings of Israel keep such a passover as Josiah kept, and the priests, and the Levites, and all Judah and Israel that were present, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. In the eighteenth year of the reign of Josiah was this passover kept.”
What a picture! King, princes, priests, Levites, singers, porters, all Israel, Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem — all gathered together — all in their true place, and at their appointed work, — according to the word of the Lord” — and all this, “in the eighteenth year of the reign of Josiah,” when the entire Jewish polity was on the very eve of dissolution. Surely this must speak to the heart of the thoughtful reader. It tells its own impressive tale, and teaches its own peculiar lesson. It tells us that no age, no circumstances, no influences, can ever change the truth of God, or dim the vision of faith. “The word of the Lord endureth forever” and faith grasps that word, and holds it fast, in the face of everything. It is the privilege of the believing soul to have to do with God and His eternal truth; and moreover, it is the duty of such a one to aim at the very loftiest standard of action, and to be satisfied with nothing lower. Unbelief will draw a plea from the condition of things around to lower the standard, to relax the grasp, to slacken the pace, to lower the tone. Faith says, “No!” emphatically and decidedly, “No!” Let us bow our heads in shame and sorrow, on account of our sin and failure, but keep the standard up. The failure is ours; the standard is God’s. Josiah wept and rent his clothes; hut he did not surrender the truth of God. He felt and owned that he and his brethren and his fathers had sinned, but that was no reason why he should not celebrate the passover according to the divine order. It was as imperative upon him to do right as it was upon Solomon, David, or Moses. It is our business to obey the word of the Lord, and we shall assuredly be blessed in our deed. This is one grand lesson to be drawn from the life and times of Josiah, and it is, undoubtedly, a seasonable lesson for our own times. May we learn it thoroughly! May we learn to adhere, with holy decision, to the ground on which the truth of God has set us, and to occupy that ground with a larger measure of true devotedness to Christ and His cause!
Most gladly would we linger over the brilliant and soul-stirring scene presented in the opening verses of 2 Chron. 35, but we must bring this paper to an end, and we shall merely glance, very rapidly, at the solemn and admonitory close of Josiah’s history. It stands in sad and painful contrast with all the rest of his most interesting career, and sounds in our ears a note of warning to which we are bound to give our most serious attention. We shall do little more than quote the passage, and then leave the reader to reflect upon it, prayerfully and humbly, in the presence of God.
“After all this, when Josiah had prepared the temple, Necho, king of Egypt, came up to fight against Charchemish by Euphrates: and Josiah went out against him. But he sent ambassadors to him, saying, What have I to do with thee, thou king of Judah? I come not against thee this day, but against the house wherewith I have war; for God commanded me to make haste: forbear thee from meddling with God, who is with me, that he destroy thee not. Nevertheless, Josiah would not turn his face from him, but disguised himself, that he might fight with him, and hearkened not to the words of Necho from the mouth of God, and came to fight in the valley of Megiddo. And the archers shot at king Josiah; and the king said to his servants, Have me away, for I am sore wounded. His servants therefore took him out of that chariot, and put him in the second chariot that he had; and they brought him to Jerusalem, and he died, and was buried in one of the sepulchers of his fathers: and all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah. And Jeremiah lamented for Josiah; and all the singing men and the singing women spake of Josiah in their lamentations unto this day, and made them an ordinance in Israel: and behold, they are written in the Lamentations.” 2 Chron. 35:20-25.
All this is very sad and humbling. We do not wish to dwell upon it further than is absolutely needful for the purpose of instruction and admonition. The Holy Spirit does not expatiate; but He has recorded it for our learning. It is ever His way to give us men as they were — to write the history of their “deeds first and last” — good and bad — one as well as another. He tells us of Josiah’s piety, at the “first;” and of his willfulness, at the “last.” He shows us that so long as Josiah walked in the light of divine revelation, his path was illuminated by the bright beams of the divine countenance; but the moment he attempted to act for himself — to walk by the light of his own eyes — to travel off the straight and narrow way of simple obedience, that moment dark and heavy clouds gathered around him, and the course that had opened in sunshine, ended in gloom. Josiah went against Necho without any command from God, yea, he went in direct opposition to words spoken “from the mouth of God.” He meddled with strife that belonged not to him, and he reaped the consequences.
“He disguised himself.” Why do this, if he was conscious of acting for God? Why wear a mask, if treading the divinely appointed pathway? Alas! alas! Josiah failed in this, and in his failure he teaches us a salutary lesson. May we profit by it! May we learn, more than ever, to seek a divine warrant for all we do, and to do nothing without it. We can count on God, to the fullest extent, if we are walking in His way; but we have no security whatever, if we attempt to travel off the divinely appointed line. Josiah had no command to fight at Megiddo, and hence he could not count on divine protection. “He disguised himself;” but that did not shield him from the enemy’s arrow. “The archers shot him” — they gave him his death-wound, and he fell, amid the tears and lamentations of a people to whom he had endeared himself by a life of genuine piety and earnest devotedness.
May we have grace to imitate him in his piety and devotedness, and to guard against his willfulness. It is a serious thing for a child of God to persist in doing his own will. Josiah went to Megiddo when he ought to have tarried at Jerusalem, and the archers shot him and he died. Jonah went to Tarshish, when he ought to have gone to Nineveh, and he was flung into the deep. Paul persisted in going to Jerusalem, though the Spirit told him not, and he fell into the hands of the Romans. Now, all these were true, earnest, devoted servants of God; but they failed in these things; and though God overruled their failure for blessing, yet they had to reap the fruit of their failure, for “our God is a consuming fire.” Heb. 12