Supported by Jehovah
2 Kings 22-23; 2 Chron. 34-35
Contemporary Prophets: Jeremiah
At last, after more than three hundred years, the prophecy of “the man of God out of Judah” is fulfilled: “Behold, a child shall be born unto the house of David, Josiah by name; and upon thee [the idol altar at Bethel] shall he offer the priests of the high places that burn incense upon thee, and men’s bones shall be burnt upon thee” (1 Kings 13:22And he cried against the altar in the word of the Lord, and said, O altar, altar, thus saith the Lord; Behold, a child shall be born unto the house of David, Josiah by name; and upon thee shall he offer the priests of the high places that burn incense upon thee, and men's bones shall be burnt upon thee. (1 Kings 13:2)).
Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign...And he did that which was right in the sight of the LORD... For in the eighth year of his reign, while he was yet young [sixteen], he began to seek after the God of David his father: and in the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem from the high places, and the groves, and the carved images, and the molten images. And they brake down the altars of Baalim in his presence; and the images [sun-pillars], that were on high above them, he cut down; and the groves, and the carved images, and the molten images, he brake in pieces, and made dust of them, and strowed it upon the graves of them that had sacrificed unto them. And he burnt the bones of the priests upon their altars, and cleansed Judah and Jerusalem (2 Chron. 34:1-51Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned in Jerusalem one and thirty years. 2And he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, and walked in the ways of David his father, and declined neither to the right hand, nor to the left. 3For in the eighth year of his reign, while he was yet young, he began to seek after the God of David his father: and in the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem from the high places, and the groves, and the carved images, and the molten images. 4And they brake down the altars of Baalim in his presence; and the images, that were on high above them, he cut down; and the groves, and the carved images, and the molten images, he brake in pieces, and made dust of them, and strowed it upon the graves of them that had sacrificed unto them. 5And he burnt the bones of the priests upon their altars, and cleansed Judah and Jerusalem. (2 Chronicles 34:1‑5)).
“God’s purposes will ripen fast,” is true in a certain sense; yet in another sense, “The mills of God grind slow.”
Scoffers long may have asked, “Where is the promise of this coming prince, this child of the house of David, named Josiah?” And as generation after generation passed, and no prince of that name appeared, even the righteous may have questioned in their minds and wondered if God had forgotten, or doubted if the prophecy were really true. Did Jedidah (“beloved”) know of this prophecy when she named her firstborn? or the child’s grandmother, Adaiah (“Jah has adorned”)? They were of the town of Boscath, a “swell” (of ground), and at last the time had come when he should rise of whom the prophet had spoken; and the prophecy was now fulfilled—as all God’s word must be.
“And so did he in the cities of Manasseh, and Ephraim, and Simeon, even unto Naphtali, with their mattocks round about. And when he had broken down the altars and the groves, and had beaten the graven images into powder, and cut down all the idols throughout all the land of Israel, he returned to Jerusalem” (6-7). It took six years of labor to accomplish this; and “in the eighteenth year of his reign, when he had purged the land, and the house,” he commissioned his officers of state to repair God’s house. Levites were sent throughout the land to collect the money necessary for this work.
And they put it in the hand of the workmen that had the oversight of the house of the LORD, and they gave it to the workmen that wrought in the house of the LORD, to repair and amend the house: even to the artificers and builders gave they it, to buy hewn stone, and timber for couplings [or joists], and to floor the houses which the kings of Judah had destroyed. And the men did the work faithfully (10-12).
Manasseh, though restored personally, had not the energy—or influence perhaps—to do this work. Everything must have been in a ruined state when the young Josiah began his work of restoration.
And now a great discovery was made. A hid treasure (long lost, no doubt) was found, better than of gold or rubies rare.
And when they brought out the money that was brought into the house of the Lord, Hilkiah the priest found a book of the law of the Lord given by Moses. And Hilkiah answered and said to Shaphan the scribe, I have found the book of the law in the house of the Lord. And Hilkiah delivered the book to Shaphan. And Shaphan carried the book to the king.
At first Shaphan said nothing of the new-found treasure. It may not have been a treasure in his eyes. Like many at the present time, he was more occupied with workmen and money than with God’s book, which He has magnified, not merely above all Christian work or missionary enterprise (though these have their place), but “above all [His] name” (Psalm 138:22I will worship toward thy holy temple, and praise thy name for thy lovingkindness and for thy truth: for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name. (Psalm 138:2)). Shaphan did not despise the book, but he had not yet, like many a modern scribe, realized the importance of that blessed volume. Then—after money, and overseers, and workmen, had all been mentioned—“then, Shaphan the scribe told the king, saying, Hilkiah the priest hath given me a book” —only a book! “And Shaphan read it before the king.”
“And it came to pass, when the king had heard the words of the law, that he rent his clothes” (34:19). He then commanded the temple curators, and his servant Asaiah, “Go, inquire of the LORD for me, and for them that are left in Israel and in Judah, concerning the words of the book that is found: for great is the wrath of the LORD that is poured out upon us, because our fathers have not kept the word of the LORD, to do after all that is written in this book” (34:21). It was no doubt the Pentateuch—either the original, as written by Moses, or the temple copy (Deut. 31:2626Take this book of the law, and put it in the side of the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, that it may be there for a witness against thee. (Deuteronomy 31:26)) used in days gone by at the coronation of their kings (see Deut. 17:1818And it shall be, when he sitteth upon the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write him a copy of this law in a book out of that which is before the priests the Levites: (Deuteronomy 17:18); 2 Chron. 23:1111Then they brought out the king's son, and put upon him the crown, and gave him the testimony, and made him king. And Jehoiada and his sons anointed him, and said, God save the king. (2 Chronicles 23:11)). How long it had been lost is not known; probably since the beginning of Manasseh’s reign at least.
“And Hilkiah, and they that the king had appointed, went to Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum the son of Tikvath, the son of Hasrah, keeper of the wardrobe, (now she dwelt in Jerusalem in the college [or the second district];) and they spoke to her to that effect” (34:22). Why they did not inquire of Jeremiah, or Zephaniah (who were contemporary with Josiah—Jer. 1:33It came also in the days of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah, unto the end of the eleventh year of Zedekiah the son of Josiah king of Judah, unto the carrying away of Jerusalem captive in the fifth month. (Jeremiah 1:3); Zeph. 1:11The word of the Lord which came unto Zephaniah the son of Cushi, the son of Gedaliah, the son of Amariah, the son of Hizkiah, in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah. (Zephaniah 1:1)), is uncertain. Anathoth, Jeremiah’s birthplace, was only three miles from Jerusalem, and so within easy reach. Both these prophets however may have been too young at the time to be consulted as prophets by the nation (see Jer. 1:22To whom the word of the Lord came in the days of Josiah the son of Amon king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign. (Jeremiah 1:2)).
Huldah’s answer was a most impressive one. In wrath God remembers mercy; and like his great-grandfather Hezekiah, Josiah is comforted with the assurance that there would be a postponement of the impending judgments during his day because he, like Hezekiah, humbled himself. He at once gathered all the elders of the land together, and with them and the priests and Levites, “and all the people, great and small: and he [or, one] read in their ears all the words of the book of the covenant that was found in the house of the LORD.”
“And the king stood by a pillar, and made a covenant before [Jehovah], to walk after [Jehovah], and to keep his commandments and his testimonies and his statutes with all [his] heart and with all [his] soul, to perform the words of this covenant that were written in this book. And all the people stood to the covenant” (2 Kings 23:33And the king stood by a pillar, and made a covenant before the Lord, to walk after the Lord, and to keep his commandments and his testimonies and his statutes with all their heart and all their soul, to perform the words of this covenant that were written in this book. And all the people stood to the covenant. (2 Kings 23:3)). On the young king’s part this was all real, no doubt, but one has only to read the earlier part of Jeremiah’s prophecy to see how hypocritical it was with the mass of the people (see Jer. 3:1010And yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah hath not turned unto me with her whole heart, but feignedly, saith the Lord. (Jeremiah 3:10)). They had enthusiastically entered into covenants with the Lord before, and the outcome was always the same—breakdown, and wider departure from God than ever before.
The work of reformation is then extended: “And Josiah took away all the abominations out of all the countries that pertained to the children of Israel, and made all that were present in Israel to serve, even to serve the LORD their God. And all his days they departed not from following the LORD, the God of their fathers” (2 Chron. 34:3333And Josiah took away all the abominations out of all the countries that pertained to the children of Israel, and made all that were present in Israel to serve, even to serve the Lord their God. And all his days they departed not from following the Lord, the God of their fathers. (2 Chronicles 34:33)).
Moreover the altar that was at Bethel, and the high place which Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin, had made, both that altar and the high place he brake down... And as Josiah turned himself, he spied the sepulchers that were there in the mount, and sent, and took the bones out of the sepulchers, and burned them upon the altar, and polluted it, according to the word of the LORD which the man of God proclaimed, who proclaimed these words [see 1 Kings 13:22And he cried against the altar in the word of the Lord, and said, O altar, altar, thus saith the Lord; Behold, a child shall be born unto the house of David, Josiah by name; and upon thee shall he offer the priests of the high places that burn incense upon thee, and men's bones shall be burnt upon thee. (1 Kings 13:2)]. Then he said, What title is that that I see? And the men of the city told him, It is the sepulcher of the man of God which came from Judah, and proclaimed these things that thou hast done against the altar of Bethel. And he said, Let him alone; let no man move his bones. So they let his bones alone, with the bones of the prophet that came out of Samaria (2 Kings 23:15-1815Moreover the altar that was at Beth-el, and the high place which Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin, had made, both that altar and the high place he brake down, and burned the high place, and stamped it small to powder, and burned the grove. 16And as Josiah turned himself, he spied the sepulchres that were there in the mount, and sent, and took the bones out of the sepulchres, and burned them upon the altar, and polluted it, according to the word of the Lord which the man of God proclaimed, who proclaimed these words. 17Then he said, What title is that that I see? And the men of the city told him, It is the sepulchre of the man of God, which came from Judah, and proclaimed these things that thou hast done against the altar of Beth-el. 18And he said, Let him alone; let no man move his bones. So they let his bones alone, with the bones of the prophet that came out of Samaria. (2 Kings 23:15‑18)).
It is not certain if this remarkable incident occurred before or after the finding of the copy of the law in the temple (see Author’s Introduction). It proves however that after the lapse of at least three centuries the prophecy of the Judean prophet was still fresh in the minds of men. God not only lets none of His words fall to the ground, but takes care also that in some way or other they are preserved in the memories of those concerned in them. No doubt the inscription on the tomb of the man of God would help to keep the occurrence from being forgotten. How awed and encouraged Josiah the king must have felt, to know that he had been named and appointed by God, so many generations before, for the work he was doing. How it would tend to impress on him the force and meaning of such scriptures as Psa. 139. And witnessing how literally the prophecy of the man of God was fulfilled, he and all his people, would be convinced that the prophecies of Huldah and Jeremiah against themselves would in like manner be exactly fulfilled.
Moved, no doubt, by what was written in the recovered book of the law regarding the Passover, Josiah began proceedings to commemorate this forgotten feast in Jerusalem. Careful preparations were made that everything might be done according to the written word of God. It was in the eighteenth year of his reign, so was probably celebrated immediately after the completion of the temple repairs and the finding of the book (compare 2 Chron. 34:88Now in the eighteenth year of his reign, when he had purged the land, and the house, he sent Shaphan the son of Azaliah, and Maaseiah the governor of the city, and Joah the son of Joahaz the recorder, to repair the house of the Lord his God. (2 Chronicles 34:8) and 35:19).
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 (2 Chron. 35:2-42And he set the priests in their charges, and encouraged them to the service of the house of the Lord, 3And 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, 4And 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. (2 Chronicles 35:2‑4)).
It was all to be done according to what was written. Josiah evidently took great care as to this, and so became a beautiful example for all who long to please and follow the Lord, declining “neither to the right hand nor to the left,” like this godly king. Some in the kingdom might think him too much bound to the letter of these writings, but he would have God’s approval, which was quite enough. No one can say where the willful departure of a hair’s breadth may not eventually lead. The safety of all is to keep as far away from the edge of the precipice as possible. “Then shall I not be ashamed, when I have respect unto all thy commandments” (Psa. 119:66Then shall I not be ashamed, when I have respect unto all thy commandments. (Psalm 119:6)).
Josiah told the Levites to put the ark in its proper place in the temple, and not bear it any longer on their shoulders. This is the last historical reference to the ark in Scripture. It would almost appear, from Jer. 3:1616And it shall come to pass, when ye be multiplied and increased in the land, in those days, saith the Lord, they shall say no more, The ark of the covenant of the Lord: neither shall it come to mind: neither shall they remember it; neither shall they visit it; neither shall that be done any more. (Jeremiah 3:16), that it had been made an object of ostentatious display and was possibly carried by the Levites in procession through the streets of Jerusalem. It is never after heard of, and probably destroyed when the temple was burned by the Chaldees (2 Chron. 36:1919And they burnt the house of God, and brake down the wall of Jerusalem, and burnt all the palaces thereof with fire, and destroyed all the goodly vessels thereof. (2 Chronicles 36:19)).
The king further commanded the Levites: “Kill the pass-over, and sanctify yourselves, and prepare your brethren, that they may do according to the Word of the LORD by the hand of Moses” (italics added). And such a Passover it was! “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” (35:18). It even exceeded the great Passover under Hezekiah, which had not been equaled since “the time of Solomon son of David king of Israel” (2 Chron. 30:2626So there was great joy in Jerusalem: for since the time of Solomon the son of David king of Israel there was not the like in Jerusalem. (2 Chronicles 30:26)). Josiah’s Passover surpassed that of all the kings, and found its equal only in that of the prophet Samuel.
And now comes the closing act in this stirring drama of Josiah’s life. 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 (35:20-21).
Josiah was given a fair warning and he should certainly have heeded it. Necho came against Assyria, and had no quarrel with Josiah. He was a man of enterprise and energy. It was he who attempted to connect the Red Sea with the Nile by a canal. Phoenician navigators, under his patronage, circumnavigated the continent of Africa. He came by sea on this expedition, and landed at Accho. So he was not even on Josiah’s territory when that king marched his forces against him.
Nevertheless Josiah would not turn his face from him, but disguised himself, that he might fight with him, and hearkened not unto 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 (35:22-24).
“Why shouldest thou meddle to thy hurt, that thou shouldest fall?” said the king of Israel to Amaziah, Josiah’s ancestor, years before (2 Kings 14:1010Thou hast indeed smitten Edom, and thine heart hath lifted thee up: glory of this, and tarry at home: for why shouldest thou meddle to thy hurt, that thou shouldest fall, even thou, and Judah with thee? (2 Kings 14:10)). Josiah should also have been familiar with the proverb that had been copied by the men of Hezekiah, “He that passeth by, and meddleth with strife belonging not to him, is like one that taketh a dog by the ears” (Prov. 26:1717He that passeth by, and meddleth with strife belonging not to him, is like one that taketh a dog by the ears. (Proverbs 26:17)). And another: “It is an honor for a man to cease from strife: but every fool will be meddling” (Prov. 20:33It is an honor for a man to cease from strife: but every fool will be meddling. (Proverbs 20:3)). It was not an act of faith, else why disguise himself? There is no record of any prayer before the battle, as in the case of so many of his godly ancestors; and this rash act of Josiah seems unaccountable. He may have suspected that Necho had some ulterior design on his kingdom. But as the king of Egypt strongly disclaimed any such intention, Josiah’s unprovoked attack on him was wholly unjustified. And God, who is the God of peace and righteousness, would not preserve him, as he had Jehoshaphat. We may look at Josiah’s early end in another way: The people were utterly unworthy of such a godly ruler, and their wickedness, in spite of external reformation, called loudly for judgment, so the righteous was taken away from the evil to come. Viewed from this standpoint, it was a mercy to the man himself; but to the nation at that time, it seemed a dire calamity.
They evidently realized this, for we read, “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 to this day, and made them an ordinance in Israel: and, behold, they are written in the lamentations.” These “lamentations” must not be confused with Jeremiah’s Lamentations, written after Jerusalem’s fall (compare Jer. 22:1010Weep ye not for the dead, neither bemoan him: but weep sore for him that goeth away: for he shall return no more, nor see his native country. (Jeremiah 22:10); Zech. 12:1111In that day shall there be a great mourning in Jerusalem, as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon. (Zechariah 12:11)).
Josiah was the last good king to sit on the throne of David, “till He come whose right it is.” And he was the last whose body found a resting place among the kings, “the sepulchers of his fathers.”
The memory of this just and energetic king is blessed. When only twenty years of age he began the herculean task of cleansing his kingdom of its abominations (2 Kings 23:4-144And the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest, and the priests of the second order, and the keepers of the door, to bring forth out of the temple of the Lord all the vessels that were made for Baal, and for the grove, and for all the host of heaven: and he burned them without Jerusalem in the fields of Kidron, and carried the ashes of them unto Beth-el. 5And he put down the idolatrous priests, whom the kings of Judah had ordained to burn incense in the high places in the cities of Judah, and in the places round about Jerusalem; them also that burned incense unto Baal, to the sun, and to the moon, and to the planets, and to all the host of heaven. 6And he brought out the grove from the house of the Lord, without Jerusalem, unto the brook Kidron, and burned it at the brook Kidron, and stamped it small to powder, and cast the powder thereof upon the graves of the children of the people. 7And he brake down the houses of the sodomites, that were by the house of the Lord, where the women wove hangings for the grove. 8And he brought all the priests out of the cities of Judah, and defiled the high places where the priests had burned incense, from Geba to Beer-sheba, and brake down the high places of the gates that were in the entering in of the gate of Joshua the governor of the city, which were on a man's left hand at the gate of the city. 9Nevertheless the priests of the high places came not up to the altar of the Lord in Jerusalem, but they did eat of the unleavened bread among their brethren. 10And he defiled Topheth, which is in the valley of the children of Hinnom, that no man might make his son or his daughter to pass through the fire to Molech. 11And he took away the horses that the kings of Judah had given to the sun, at the entering in of the house of the Lord, by the chamber of Nathan-melech the chamberlain, which was in the suburbs, and burned the chariots of the sun with fire. 12And the altars that were on the top of the upper chamber of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and the altars which Manasseh had made in the two courts of the house of the Lord, did the king beat down, and brake them down from thence, and cast the dust of them into the brook Kidron. 13And the high places that were before Jerusalem, which were on the right hand of the mount of corruption, which Solomon the king of Israel had builded for Ashtoreth the abomination of the Zidonians, and for Chemosh the abomination of the Moabites, and for Milcom the abomination of the children of Ammon, did the king defile. 14And he brake in pieces the images, and cut down the groves, and filled their places with the bones of men. (2 Kings 23:4‑14)). There were vessels used in idolatrous worship to be removed from the temple; there were “idolatrous priests whom the kings of Judah had ordained,” to be “put down”—them that burned incense to “Baal, to the sun, and to the moon, and to the planets.” “And he brake down the houses of the sodomites [men consecrated to vile purposes], that were by the house of the LORD, where the women [also consecrated to heathen deities] wove hangings [tents] for the groves.” Joshua the governor of the city had high places at the entrance of his gate. Josiah fearlessly destroyed them. He took away the “horses that the kings of Judah had given to the sun, at the entering in of the house of the Lord, by the chamber of Nathan-melech the chamberlain... and burned the chariots of the sun with fire. And the altars that were on the top [or roof] of the upper chamber of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and the altars which Manasseh had made in the two courts of the house of the LORD, did the king beat down” (or shattered). He seems to have had few sympathizers or supporters in his reforms, and superintended some of the work personally (see 2 Kings 23:1616And as Josiah turned himself, he spied the sepulchres that were there in the mount, and sent, and took the bones out of the sepulchres, and burned them upon the altar, and polluted it, according to the word of the Lord which the man of God proclaimed, who proclaimed these words. (2 Kings 23:16)). He could not be blamed if the mass of the people were hypocritical and unreal (see Zeph. 1:55And them that worship the host of heaven upon the housetops; and them that worship and that swear by the Lord, and that swear by Malcham; (Zephaniah 1:5)). Genuine repentance is not brought about by a king’s command, but he did all that lay in his power, and did not permit a single visible vestige of idolatry to remain in his realm. It is significant that when this last righteous king of Judah died, the whole land was outwardly cleansed of its abominations. And when his work was done, God called him home, though an Egyptian arrow was His messenger. “And like unto him was there no king before him, that turned to the LORD with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his might, according to all the law of Moses; neither after him arose there any like him” (2 Kings 23:2525And like unto him was there no king before him, that turned to the Lord with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his might, according to all the law of Moses; neither after him arose there any like him. (2 Kings 23:25)).