Israel’s history after the death of Joshua was a very sorrowful one. His conquests put the people in possession of the land of promise. It was divided up under the guidance of Jehovah, and many cities were allotted to the various tribes that were still occupied by the enemy; but divine power was available for the expulsion or destruction of all those, if only the people of God had faith to use it. In Judges 1:1, we read: “Now after the death of Joshua it came to pass, that the children of Israel asked Jehovah, saying, who shall go up for us against the Canaanites first, to fight against them? And Jehovah said, Judah shall go up: behold, I have delivered the land into his hand.” Had Israel continued on this line, all would have been well, but poor flesh can never be trusted. Accordingly the book of Judges is a story of miserable failure. Again and again Israel turned their back upon Jehovah, and worshipped idols, and as frequently He delivered them into the hands of their foes. But the Book of Judges not only tells us of repeated failures; it also tells us of various spiritual revivals in the mercy of God. From time to time men of faith were raised up (Gideon being the brightest of them all) who laid hold upon God on behalf of His wayward people, and they were used of Him to deliver them from their oppressors, and to lead them back to their God.
David’s day was the greatest revival of all. Everything was in ruins when Jehovah took him from the sheep folds, and made him king over His people. The priesthood had broken down both morally and spiritually, and the king of the people’s choice had been slain, and the excellent Jonathan with him. “Then the Lord awaked as one out of sleep, and like a mighty man that shouteth by reason of wine” (Psa. 78:65). In David and Mount Zion He gave His people a new start in grace. But the effects of every revival were but transient. Of later revivals those in the days of Jehoshaphat and Hezekiah may be specially mentioned. Josiah was the last instrument thus graciously raised up by God before He suffered “the boar out of the wood to waste His vineyard, and the wild beast of the field to devour it” (Psa. 80:13). Since that awful catastrophe, which upset the whole order of nations as established by the Most High, the people of Israel have not been in possession of the land. All claim to it has been forfeited, whatever Jewish pride and self-will may say in our time. The people will not again possess the good land until He comes whose right it is to reign. Then grace will give what righteousness now refuses, and the seed of Abraham will enjoy rest and peace forever.
In speaking of Josiah as Israel’s last revivalist, I am not over the fact that he was King of Judah. His little kingdom included (territorially) the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin, which alone remained to the house of David after the great disruption which followed the death of Solomon. The ten tribes which revolted at that time and made Jeroboam the son of Nebat their king have not been re-united to their brethren to this hour. At various times the kingdom of Judah received valuable additions in exercised souls who left the Northern Kingdom because of its appalling evils, and migrated to the South, where (at least under certain pious kings) the Word of God was still somewhat respected (2 Chron. 11:13-17). The spiritual energy that leads to separation from real evil is always precious in the sight of God (2 Tim. 2:19-22). Mere quarrelsomeness He hates (2 Tim. 2:24).
Although the majority of the people of God did not acknowledge his authority (and indeed many of them were no longer in the land, having been carried away by the kings of Assyria) Josiah, being a man of faith, regarded his tiny remnant of a nation which was once as numerous as the sand of the sea, as representative of Israel. The unity of the people of God was very real and precious to him, notwithstanding centuries of grievous failure. Upon the holy table in Jerusalem’s sanctuary there still stood the twelve loaves with pure frankincense upon them (Lev. 24:5-9; 2 Chron. 13:11), teaching that His own are always under the eye of God and covered with all the acceptability of Christ. What God saw in His grace, Josiah saw in the simplicity of his faith. On the same principle Paul, several centuries later, spoke of “our twelve tribes” (Acts 26:7), and James addressed his Epistle to “the twelve tribes that are scattered abroad, greeting” (James 1:1).
Josiah lived in the late evening of Israel’s national history; we are living in the late evening of the history of the Church. For Israel, the time of divine repudiation and banishment was near (Hosea 1:9; 9:3). For Christendom something analogous is impending. He who is holy and pure will shortly spew out of His mouth the unreal mass who profess to be Christians and are not (Rev. 3:16). The fruitless branches will be cut out of God’s olive tree (Rom. 11:22). All who are truly Christ’s will be caught up to meet their Lord in the air (1 Thess. 4:17). In his day, Josiah was confronted with division, confusion and every evil work. The same things confront us now. The young king was profoundly moved by the written Word of God when it was brought before him and he was determined to be obedient in all things thereto. The feeling that the hour was late, and that the position was hopeless, did not check in Josiah’s soul the sense of responsibility. Hoary customs were cast aside, and every trace of evil in the land was stamped out to the best of his ability. Many professed to follow the king in his holy zeal, but Jehovah who knows the secrets of all hearts, said, “Judah hath not turned unto me with her whole heart, but feignedly” (Jer. 3:10). In all ages the people love to move with the tide. If the tide is flowing in the right direction (as in the Protestant Reformation), many will go with it—outwardly; but if the tide is flowing in the wrong direction the mass will go with it eagerly. The latter was seen in the days of Israel’s worst kings, and we have seen it also in Christendom.
The Scriptures which influenced Josiah so wonderfully were principally the five books of Moses. We are immeasurably more favored than he, for we hold in our hands the complete revelation of God. Is it our habit to read, mark, learn and inwardly digest? Or is it possible that the bustle of the twentieth century, with the many side attractions that the restlessness of flesh has provided for everybody, is diverting us from the study of the Word of God? Foolish souls are we, if this is so. The Scriptures, as we meditate upon them, bring us into the presence of God; they lay bare our consciences and they quicken our spiritual affections. They enrich us divinely. Enjoyment leads to action. Every evil thing in our lives is cast out. We scrutinize our ecclesiastical associations; will they stand: the test of the Word of God? Religious organizations and fellowships which betray the human hand we renounce as earnestly as Josiah renounced and destroyed the many religious evils which filled his realms. The Church rises up before our souls, in its wondrous unity as Christ’s body and God’s habitation, and in the light of it we seek by grace to walk while we wait for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.