In Hezekiah's life there are two events which foreshadow the restoration of Jehovah's worship and the destruction of the enemy; that is, the passover and the overthrow of the Assyrian have each a prophetic bearing. But again what closer illustration of the history of Israel than in the life of Manasseh, wickedness and rebellion against God, then captivity in a Gentile's dungeon, and lastly restoration, not merely deliverance from a foreign land, but restored to his kingdom! As to all Israel, their national iniquity is ended, and they are eating the fruit of their doings. Their restoration is yet to come. And come it will as surely as Manasseh was restored to his kingdom.
Manasseh has fearful prominence among the wicked kings of Judah, even the fierceness of Jehovah's wrath is attributed to the sins and provocations of Manasseh (2 Kings 23:26; 24:326Notwithstanding the Lord turned not from the fierceness of his great wrath, wherewith his anger was kindled against Judah, because of all the provocations that Manasseh had provoked him withal. (2 Kings 23:26)
3Surely at the commandment of the Lord came this upon Judah, to remove them out of his sight, for the sins of Manasseh, according to all that he did; (2 Kings 24:3), Jer. 5:44Therefore I said, Surely these are poor; they are foolish: for they know not the way of the Lord, nor the judgment of their God. (Jeremiah 5:4)). He is singled out for his sins, and as the object of God's mercy, as no other, before or since.
The passover kept by Josiah seems more extensively observed by the people than that of Hezekiah, at whose invitation some mocked (chap. 30:10). There was no passover before or after like that of Josiah, and none like him that turned to the Lord with all his heart “according to all the law of Moses” (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)). Notwithstanding the Lord turned not from His fierce anger. But Hezekiah's soul has a deeper thought of the mercy of God; for to him the first thing was to receive the pardon of all sin, and then the service of God. Both begin by cleansing the house of the Lord. This was imperative, for in vain would Hezekiah draw nigh to God while the temple was defiled. The difference is that Josiah did it as preparing himself for the eating of the passover; Hezekiah, as that which was imperatively due to God. It is the “passover” which fills the heart of Hezekiah, and in the first year, in the first month, having put the temple in order and the priests and Levites in their places, he sent to all Israel to come to the passover. This is more than “according to all the law of Moses” which characterized Josiah.
The holding this feast so filled Hezekiah's heart, that if he could not keep it on the day which was regularly appointed, he would on that which was graciously permitted, and all Israel were in that condition to which this permission is granted by God. And when the passover is finished, then all present went out to the cities of Judah and brake the images, and then returned to their own cities. But it was in the eighteenth year that Josiah kept the passover. He would have them all first prepared, as he said to the priests: “So kill the passover, and sanctify yourselves and prepare., &c.” It was due preparation “according to the law of Moses” moved Josiah, not the mercy of God beyond law, which seemingly occupied and filled Hezekiah, insomuch that when he was told that some had taken the passover without having cleansed themselves, i.e., without legal preparation, which was a sin in the eye of the law, he looks higher than the law, to the sovereign mercy of God, and prays, “the good Lord pardon every one.” Josiah cleaves to the law, and acts righteously in cleaving, but it did not bring him joy and gladness as to Hezekiah and the people with him (chap. 30:26). The book of the law is found (not that he searched for it); and he reads. What is the effect of the law upon his soul? He rends his clothes: it brings distress. The Lord answers to his weeping and promises mercy beyond the provisions of the law (chap. 34:24-28). The reading the law may have quickened him in his work of purging the land, but it did not make him, joyful; on the contrary he rends his clothes. When Moses went up the second time on mount Sinai to meet the Lord, He proclaimed His name as the merciful, gracious, and longsuffering Lord, and yet as visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children—wondrous mingling of law and grace which only He Who gave the law could do. Josiah slave to the law, as a good Jew. Hezekiah, in spirit, rested on the mercy which was in store for thousands. Hezekiah prepares himself to purge the land by eating the passover. Josiah prepares himself to eat the passover by breaking the images. In eating the passover, there is confession of sin and helplessness; there is the profession of faith in Him, Who said, “When I see the blood I will pass over,” and still more emphatically, though symbolically, given by the Lord Himself, “Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood, &c.” Man prefers and follows in the path marked by Josiah. It is not God's way. His way is to eat the passover first, and thus to get eternal life. How else could we break down images? It would be Satan casting out Satan.
But, as yet, the law could not be set aside: where there was faith, the individual could rise above it, and God responds to the faith He gives. Josiah as a good king, under law, prepares himself, and because he is good, he bows under the law in deep distress. His purging of the land, and his repairing of the temple could not prevent his tears. Nor was the law given to wipe away tears, rather to cause them to flow. Both kings are noted for zeal, but it is manifested differently. Hezekiah sends to Ephraim and to Manasseh (tribe) and to others to come and keep the passover. Josiah sends to destroy all the visible traces of idolatry both in Judah and in the cities of Manasseh (tribe). That is the land of the tribe of Manasseh, for at that time Israel was carried into captivity by the Assyrian. Why need Josiah interfere with those who are aliens to Israel? It was sufficient for Josiah to know that these aliens were dwelling in God's land, and the land must be purged.
Evidently Hezekiah is on higher ground than Josiah, and it is said of him that none before or after were like him (Hezekiah). He is noted for his trust in the Lord (2 Kings 18:55He trusted in the Lord God of Israel; so that after him was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor any that were before him. (2 Kings 18:5)), that is, he took the ground of grace. Josiah took rather the ground of law. Hezekiah was sick nigh to death and was tried, that he might know all that was in his heart. Just the way of God with His saints who live by faith. Josiah was not so put to the proof and tested. Hezekiah's path was like the path of the just, shining brighter and brighter unto the perfect day; and he passes away in peace, after knowing the increasing brightness of the power of God Who healed him of his disease and restored him so as to go again to the house of the Lord, and gave deliverance and victory over his enemy. Josiah passes onward, having the blessings of a faithful Jewish servant under the law, but fails to discern the will of God at the close of his life. Perhaps a little elated with his prosperity, and with the reform that he had effected in his kingdom, he endeavors to withstand the king of Egypt and is slain, and his dead body brought to Jerusalem. The difference of the deaths of these two kings is worthy of our notice. May the Holy Spirit lead us to apprehend His teaching in it.
Now in sending to destroy all trace of idolatry, before keeping the passover, is just the way that religious man (the religion of the world) approves. Many Christians even follow in the same path, and believe it to be the right way. And if it were law without grace under which we were placed, it would be quite right. Many attempt to approach God in this path, not considering, what may seem a paradox, that the farther they advance in this path, the farther is God from them. And if they could approach God by this path, and receive His pardon and justification, it would not be God justifying the ungodly, but the purged. But purged from what? From sin? But the nature is sinful: if any could purge himself from the sin that dwells in him, he must purge himself from his nature, without having any other—for he is supposed on his way to God to receive the new nature—where then would he be? The gospel speaks differently. The unpurged, the lost, are called, are invited in the gospel; for even Christ, our passover, was slain for us. We are keeping the feast that followed it, the feast of unleavened bread.
How Satan must deride the attempt of any man to make himself clean, and fit for the presence of God. The Lord said of Job that he had no equal in the earth, not excepting his three friends, that he was perfect and upright; and when his calamity suddenly burst on him and overwhelmed him in body as in circumstance, he not knowing God's love and inscrutable wisdom uttered intemperate words; yet even then he knew enough of himself to say, “If I wash myself with snow water and make my hands never so clean, yet shalt Thou plunge me in the ditch, and mine own clothes shall abhor me.” He did not know the utter vileness of his nature: this can be learned only in the presence of God Whose divine light makes the heart bare. When brought to that light, he says, “Behold, I am vile.”
A man sometimes speaks of finding his way to God! He never will. He may be brought to God, but he will never find the way to Him. Why the Lord Himself only brings us to God by the shedding of His own precious blood, and will man pretend to come in the name and strength of his own works, after the truth is declared in the cross of Christ? That cross which proves the vileness of man as well as proclaims the infinite love of God?
It was the object in giving the law, that man might know his own vileness and impotency, but he, full of conceit of himself, accepted the law as the means of life, and sought to establish his own righteousness by that which could only be for himself, the ministration of death. But we have seen that the best man in the earth says, Behold, I am vile. Truly the nature is vile, and man, to cleanse himself, must destroy his own nature. Then where is he? There is one, only one, way of being cleansed and fit for the presence of a holy God, and that is not by our endeavors which, were it possible, would take a long time (and death might supervene) but by the Holy Spirit's application of the blood of Christ. There is a perfect, immediate, and eternal cleansing. His blood cleanseth from all sin.