2 Chronicles 34
At last we come to the reign of Josiah, the final light cast by a candle-end about to flicker out, followed by a deep night until the time when day breaks anew with the appearance of the true King according to God's counsels. Yet by grace this lamp of David shines with an outstanding burst of light before disappearing, making us anticipate future blessings. The Word tells us: Josiah "did what was right in the sight of Jehovah, and walked in the ways of David his father, and turned not aside to the right hand nor to the left" (2 Chron. 34:2). "The ways of David his father" — this same thing had been said of his two great predecessors, Jehoshaphat and Hezekiah (2 Chron. 17:3; 29:2). God's Word is not bountiful in its use of this praise which relates the ways of faithful kings back to the glorious beginnings of the kingdom of Israel. But even if this was so with the king, the people did not merit the same praise. Under the kings in a general way the nation corrupted itself more and more, awakening momentarily under the influence of an energetic and faithful king, but after him falling back quickly into the idolatry which, in fact, they had never abandoned since they came out of Egypt. Jeremiah, who began to prophesy in the days of Josiah, says, precisely in reference to this reign: "Treacherous... Judah hash not returned unto Me with her whole heart, but with falsehood, saith Jehovah" (Jer. 3:10). This quotation, among many others, suffices to reveal Judah's moral state, even in the best days of the kingdom.
2 Chron. 34:3-7 of our chapter describe Josiah's activity of cleansing Judah and Jerusalem from idolatry, and this dated from the beginning of his kingdom when he was still a young boy. Second Kings (2 Kings 23:4-20,24-27) describes Josiah's activity of cleansing the temple after he had reigned eighteen years. These two accounts give us two equally interesting instructions. The account in Kings connects the cleansing of the temple and of the city (and afterward the destruction of the altar at Bethel) to the discovery of the book of the law in the eighteenth year of Josiah's reign (2 Kings 22:3). The reading of the "book of the covenant" (2 Kings 23:2) incited the king to undertake this work (Jer. 11:1-8). The account in Chronicles has a bearing different from this. In accord with the account in Kings, the book of the law was found in the temple in the eighteenth year of Josiah's reign; in accord with this same account the discovery of the book of the law led to the renewing of the covenant between the king and all his people with God. Only, following this covenant, Chronicles does not mention the abolition of idolatry in the temple and at Jerusalem, but rather, the celebration of the Passover. This latter is mentioned only in passing in 2 Kings 23:21-23, whereas it occupies all of chapter 35 of 2 Chronicles.
Thus an incident common to both accounts, the discovery of the book of the law, in Kings resulted in the complete rejection of idolatry, beginning at the temple and its surroundings, and in Chronicles, in the solemnity of the Passover. This difference is simple when we consider the character of the book we are studying. Everything that treats of worship and the priesthood is inseparable, as we have already often noted, from the institution of the kingdom according to God's counsels. For the last time God gives an example in Judah and shows, as we shall see in the next chapter, what blessings are associated with the celebration of the Passover.
But the fact is that discovering and bringing to light the Scriptures, buried in the dust of a sanctuary abandoned for so long, brings with it these two capital features of the testimony in Israel: the rejection of idolatry and the feast of redemption. So likewise in our days for the Christian testimony it brings separation from the world and from evil, and the gathering of God's children around their passover, Christ, and around the memorial of His work.
As we have seen (2 Chron. 34:3-7), devotion to the Lord had begun at a very early age in Josiah: between his sixteenth and twentieth years. He was still very ignorant of God's thoughts and the consequences of the people's guilt, but he had an ardent desire to see Jehovah's land and city cleansed from so much uncleanness. The blessings granted to his ancestors' faith and the restoration of his grandfather Manasseh doubtless served as powerful motivations for him to walk in their ways. Added to this were the horror caused by the wretched example of his father Amon and the terrible fate which he had consequently suffered.
God blesses Josiah's zeal, causing him to discover His Word. If, as we see here, having Israel's cleansing at heart, he had limited himself to that alone, without feeling the need to repair the breaches of the house of God and giving it back its importance, the discovery of the book of the law would never have taken place. In our times the same thing has happened over and over again to Christians, full of zeal against the idolatrous practices of the Roman Church. Their efforts have not been crowned with success, however, because they did not have at heart the Church, the true Assembly of Christ.
The reading of this book works powerfully upon Josiah's conscience: "And it came to pass when the king heard the words of the law, that he rent his garments" (2 Chron. 34:19). He immediately feels the need to consult the Lord, for he recognizes his own guilt and that of "them that are left in Israel and in Judah." He declares that the evil goes back to "our fathers [who] have not kept the word of Jehovah." It is the confession of the complete ruin of all, the fruit of a common disobedience. Does any hope remain? When the prophetess Huldah is consulted, she gives the final answer: All the curses pronounced by the law cannot be revoked. Jehovah's wrath will overtake Jerusalem like an unquenchable fire, but as for the king, he will be the object of grace, for — the prophetess insists on this twice — he humbled himself before God (2 Chron. 34:27), rent his garments as a sign of mourning and distress, and wept tears of repentance. Because of this, he would be taken away before the evil, as it is said in Isaiah: "The righteous perisheth, and no man layette it to heart: and merciful men are taken away, none considering that the righteous is taken away from before the evil. He entereth into peace: they rest in their beds, each one that hath walked in his uprightness" (Isa. 57:1-2).
It might seem in the face of this explicit declaration on God's part that Josiah had nothing to do but to wait for deliverance without troubling himself about what would follow. Exactly the opposite effect is produced in this man of God. The understanding that he had received through the Word, "knowing therefore the terror of the Lord," impels him to shield the people while there is still time. He makes a covenant with Jehovah and "caused all that were present in Jerusalem and Benjamin to stand to it" (2 Chron. 34:32), the only means of returning to God under the law as long as a new covenant involving God alone had not yet been established. Josiah "made to serve, all that were found in Israel — to serve Jehovah their God" (2 Chron. 34:33). It was zeal for these souls, fear of the coming judgment for them, that made him act in this way. Josiah carried out the word spoken by the master to his bondservant: "Compel [them] to come in" (Luke. 14:23). What impelled him to this activity was the knowledge of grace for himself, announced by the word of the prophetess, and the revelation of the judgments which, while sparing the king, would overtake the people. Why should there not also be grace for others, he might ask himself — he who had realized through the reading of the book of the law that this judgment ought to have overtaken him as well?