2 Chronicles 35
As we have already noticed, we have one of the great results of the recovered Word here: the celebration of the Passover united with worship, the highest expression of divine life in the believer. The Passover was the foundation of worship, and thus the description of this feast is given in much greater detail than at the time of Hezekiah's Passover (2 Chron. 30:15-27), for it is accompanied by all the implements of the service of worship. In fact, in Hezekiah's times as we have already noticed, the Feast of Unleavened Bread, symbol of a holy life entirely consecrated to Jehovah, following the sacrifice of the pascal lamb, is emphasized much more than the worship itself.
Let us examine in detail the contents of this interesting chapter. It has been remarked, firstly, that worship is based on the revelation the Word of God had given about it to the people. No detail whatever is left to man's discretion or good pleasure. The books of Moses had been found again in the temple; they regulated the institution of the Passover and also of all the sacrifices that were offered on the occasion of this solemn feast. The Levites, having no further need now to bear the ark on their shoulders, were once again to put it in the most holy place, from which Amon had probably cast it out. This modified their service: Now they were to serve Jehovah their God and His people Israel (2 Chron. 35:3). Taking their place henceforth in the holy place, they were to slaughter the Passover and prepare it for their brethren.
Moreover, they were at the service of the priests. They set apart the burnt offerings, roasted the passover with fire, and boiled the sacrifices of peace offerings in pots for the people; they prepared their own portions and those of the sons of Aaron. Their service was regulated according to the king's commandment (2 Chron. 35:10,16), but this commandment itself was "according to the word of Jehovah through Moses... as it is written in the book of Moses... according to the ordinance" (2 Chron. 35:6,12,13). Here we also see that the Word of God contained all the inspired writings given up to the time of Josiah. All was to be prepared and ordered "according to the writing of David king of Israel, and according to the writing of Solomon his son" (2 Chron. 35:4), and lastly, "according to the commandment of David, and Asaph, and Heman, and Jeduthun the king's seer"( 2 Chron. 35:15). Thus no portion of the Word was neglected where it was a matter of worship and the order appropriate to the house of God.
How necessary this is in our day as well! It is exactly in these things that Christians, often even the most godly of them, fail completely. Being ignorant of what worship is — the collective adoration of God's children, joined together around the Lord's table — they also do not know what the service of the Levites (corresponding to present day ministries) consists of, confusing this service with that of the priests. They are just as completely ignorant that the Word alone has the right to regulate the order and organization in the house of God when it is a matter of the Assembly's service, just as in former days when it was a matter of the service of the temple. For us Christians the First Epistle to the Corinthians determines this order, just as the First Epistle to Timothy regulates the manner in which one is to conduct himself in the house of God. At the time of the celebration of Josiah's Passover we see order and conduct re-established according to the Word. Not only did the priests and the Levites occupy the places assigned to them, but also the singers, according to the commandment of David, Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun; and also the doorkeepers, who did not have to depart from their service, for their brethren the Levites prepared for them. Thus each part of this organism was at its appointed place, each one faithfully fulfilling his functions. That which bound all together into one common activity was the levitical service, coming down from its original high duties (carrying the ark), from now on no longer needed, to the most humble duties for the benefit of their brethren.
The functioning of the Assembly, the Church, the body of Christ, presents these same characteristics, when God's Word is directing it. Read, for example, Romans 12:4-8, 1 Corinthians 12 (the whole chapter), as well as 1 Corinthians 14: there you will find the same principles and the same truths that are presented in our chapter.
Josiah's Passover was celebrated on the fourteenth day of the first month, not in the second month like Hezekiah's Passover, because the priests and the Levites had hallowed themselves and consecrated themselves to the Lord. This date corresponds to the year of the restoration of the temple, that is, the eighteenth year of Josiah's reign. As long as God's dwelling in the midst of His people was not an acknowledged fact, established once again, it was impossible to celebrate this feast. There cannot be any worship as long as the Lord's promise to be present in the midst of His own is not realized. A memorial to His death can be found everywhere, but how incomplete the memorial of the Passover would have been under Josiah, without the whole sphere of blessings associated with the priesthood and the worship of Jehovah. To celebrate the Passover as a simple memorial there would have been no need of all the service of worship with which Josiah surrounded it. Each Israelite family could have taken it in their own home. But though this memorial was the basis of worship, it was not worship itself. When the Passover was celebrated on the night of the departure from Egypt, or when on the night in which He was delivered up the memorial of the Savior's death was entrusted by Him to His disciples, this was not worship, properly speaking. Worship was not understood and realized until after deliverance, and it will keep this character eternally when it will be celebrated around the Lamb who was slain, His expiatory work being its basis and its center.
Thus we find three inseparable things in this chapter. They make up the greatness of this ceremony, of which it is said: "There was no passover like to that holden in Israel from the days of Samuel the prophet; neither did all the kings of Israel hold such a passover as Josiah held, and the priests, and the Levites, and all Judah and Israel that were present, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem" (2 Chron. 35:18). The year of the restoration of the temple and of setting the ark in its place — the year of the discovery of the book of the law — that year the Passover was celebrated and worship was recovered. So it is in our days, too. When the Assembly of the Living God, the dwelling place of God through the Spirit, is known; when the Word of God, the whole Word and nothing but the Word, is discovered and brought to light as the one and only rule for the Christian; then worship can take place in an intelligent manner around the memorial of the death and to the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The realization of these things is of necessity accompanied by great liberty and great joy. Never yet under the dispensation of the prophets had such a Passover been seen. Compare the voluntary offerings of the king, the princes, the priests, and the Levites (2 Chron. 35:7-9) with those that were offered under the reign of Hezekiah (2 Chron. 30:24), and you will easily ascertain the difference between these two Passovers.
Alas! this scene of joy is followed by a disaster. Josiah shows that he is not the king according to God's counsels. As so often happens, he fails in precisely that area in which, being his strongest point, he seemed to have the least need to be on guard.
He does not acknowledge the word of God when it is addressed to him — he whose ears until then had always been prompt to hear. "He hearkened not to the words of Necho from the mouth of God" (2 Chron. 35:22). What business did he have to enter into the conflict of the nations when it did not concern the people of God? Should he not have considered these events as directed by Jehovah and refrained from interfering? To engage in men's conflicts, to seek to anticipate their plans in order to thwart them, to participate in their politics, is to run headlong to certain defeat. Let us never forget that God has the upper hand over all that happens in the world. Man takes credit for directing these events, but he is only, like Pharaoh Necho, an instrument that God is using to attain the purpose which He — not man — proposes.
Thus, mortally wounded in combat, Josiah ends his career. There is a general mourning; the prophet Jeremiah writes his Lamentations about his death. As a prophet he understands that the last hope of a reign according to God has disappeared with this godly king; that is why these Lamentations are established as "an ordinance for Israel." But in presence of this mourning the eyes of Jeremiah turn to Another than Josiah: to Him who could say: "I am the Man that hath seen affliction by the rod of His wrath" (Lam. 3:1) — to Him who "sitteth solitary and keepeth silence, because He hath laid it upon Him. He putteth His mouth in the dust, if so be there may be hope. He giveth His cheek to him that smiteth Him; He is filled full with reproach (Lam. 3:3:28-30) — to Him who says: "Waters streamed over My head; I said, I am cut off: (Lam. 3:54) — but who through His very sufferings will bring an end to Israel's judgment: "The punishment of thine iniquity is accomplished, O daughter of Zion; He will no more carry thee away into captivity" (Lam. 4:22) — to Him finally who will establish His throne forever there where faithful Josiah's throne sank down and disappeared: "Thou, Jehovah, dwellest forever; Thy throne is from generation to generation" (Lam. 5:19).