317. JOSIAH'S STAND FOR TRUTH
"Like unto him was there no king before him"
The death of Hezekiah brought his son Manasseh to the throne. His reign of 55 years was the longest of all the kings of Judah, but it is notorious for its unrighteousness (2 Kgs.21:l). He came to the throne at the age of twelve and conducted a campaign for idolatry, reversing all the good that his father had done (2 Kgs. 21:3). Manasseh deliberately set out to provoke the Lord to anger. He set up idols throughout Judah and led the people into greater evil than the original Canaanites. He even set up idols in the Temple itself, of which Yahweh had said, "In this house will I put my name for ever". The prophets arose to declare God's impending judgment against the king and his people. Of especial abhorrence to God was the massacre of thousands of innocent people: "he filled Jerusalem" with their blood. It should be noted that the evil of Manasseh's reign was indelibly imprinted upon Judah, for when some 50 years later the Babylonians came against Jerusalem, it was Manasseh's reign that received principal blame (2 Kgs. 24:3-4).
In his later years Manasseh repented and tried to repair the damage he had wrought (2 Chron. 33:11-17). Yet it was to little avail, for when his son Amon succeeded him, he followed the evil ways of his father's former life. After two years Amon was slain in a conspiracy. The people of the land slew the conspirators and anointed Josiah, son of Amon, king in his stead.
Our aim in this lesson about Josiah is to see the need to carry out reformation in our lives when the Word of God exposes our shortcomings.
2 Kings 22 & 23
A ROOT OUT OF A DRY GROUND.
With such a background it is remarkable to read the summary of Josiah's life:
"And 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" (2 Chron. 34:2).
It is interesting to note the expression, "David his father", for whilst it is true that he was in the line of David yet there is more intended than this. He was the "son of David" because he thought and acted like David, in contrast to Amon his actual father. Josiah = "Yah supports", or "Yah heals". His mother's name was Jedidah, meaning "beloved of Yah", and she came from Boscath, meaning "stony ground". Since Josiah was such a key man in the Divine plan we might see in these details a shadow of the greater Son of David. Mary was beloved of Yahweh and she gave birth to one who grew up as a root out of dry ground (Luke 1:30, 32, 38; Isa. 53:2).
AN EARLY BEGINNING.
He was a child of only eight years when he began to reign. His in fluence in those early years would have been negligible, but at the age of 16 he "began to seek after the God of David his father" and his faith motivated him to perform a great work of reformation. What caused Josiah to seek the God of his father David, when the nation as a whole had apostasised? There were at that time a number of very faithful elders, e.g. Hilkiah the high priest (2 Kgs. 22:8), Shaphan the scribe (father of three faithful sons, Jer. 26:24; 29:3; 36:10), Achbor (father of courageous Elnathan, Jer. 36:12, 25), Asahiah the king's servant (2 Kgs. 22:12), Maaseiah the governor of Jerusalem, and others (2 Chron. 34:8).There was also the voice of the prophets Jeremiah (Jer. 1:2) and Zephaniah (1:1), and Huldah the prophetess (2 Chron. 34:22). From such as these the young king received instruction in God's ways. In the midst of teen age he learnt the answer to the question posed by David: "Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his ways? By taking heed thereto according to thy word" (Psa. 119:9).
By prayer and meditation on the Word he came to see the beauty of God's ways. Then Josiah realised the extent that evil was being practised throughout his realm. This made an enormous impact upon the mind of the young king. His heart was set on fire with the need for reform, and so at the age of 20 he commenced his sweeping purge and reformation (2 Chron. 34:3).
JOSIAH'S REFORMATION (2 Kings 23:5-20).
He began by deposing the idolatrous priests (margin "Chemarim", black-robed priests, Hos. 10:5) throughout Jerusalem and the cities of Judah. Then the king removed the idol from the house of Yahweh and burned it in the valley of Kidron. He ground it to powder, which he cast upon the graves of the children of the people (v.6). By so doing he showed that vanity and death would be the lot of those who worshipped idols. He demolished the house of the Sodomites (cf. Deut. 23:17). The king then moved his demolition workers to the countryside of Judah. In every city they utterly destroyed the high places and idols (v.8). He turned to the Valley of Hinnom where children had been offered as burnt sacrifices to Molech, and defiled its altar (called Topheth) (v.10; 2 Kgs. 21:6). So thorough was he, that not only were the abominations set up by Amon and Manasseh removed, but also those which remained from Ahaz's and Solomon's reigns.
Then Josiah's zeal for true worship took him to the cities of Israel in the north. His love of Yahweh and His people caused him to pursue his objectives as far north as Naphtali. Never had there been such an earnest attempt to remove the wickedness of idolatry and superstition. Josiah personally supervised the work and only when it was completed did he return to Jerusalem (2 Chron. 34:3-7). "A CHILD SHALL BE BORN € JOSIAH BY NAME". Of especial interest are the actions of the king when he went to the altar of Bethel, 16 kilometres north of Jerusalem. This altar had a most significant history. When the kingdom divided, Jeroboam set up an idol, a calf at Bethel, and this became a source of transgression throughout the history of the ten tribes (1 Kgs. 12:27-33; Amos 3:14; 4;4; see lesson 8). Shortly after, God sent an unnamed prophet from Judah to denounce this altar and to proclaim these words, "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". The details of the event are given in 1 Kgs.13:1-10. This shows the importance of Josiah in the purpose of God. Three hundred and sixty years passed and then the young king devastated the altar at Bethel and took from the nearby sepulchres the bones of those priests who had offered thereon and burnt them upon the altar (2 Kgs. 23:15-23). Josiah's role in the purpose of God was the elimination of idolatry in Israel. This he did throughout the length and breadth of the land, and so the idols which had been set up from the days of Solomon and Jeroboam through to Manasseh and Amon were destroyed.
REPAIRING THE HOUSE AND FINDING OF THE BOOK OF THE LAW (2 Chronicles 34:8-33).
In the 18th year of his reign, when the king was 26 years of age, he began to restore true worship. A deputation of four faithful men was sent to oversee the repairing of the house of God, the expense being met by a large sum of money that had been offered by both Israel and Judah when visiting the Temple during the years of reformation (vv.8-9). The skilled workmen responded to the spirit of the king and no account of the money was kept because they could be trusted (2 Kgs. 22:7). In the midst of these events a book of the Law of Moses was discovered (v.14 € margin). Shaphan, the wise and faithful scribe, delivered the precious document to the king. When its words of threatened judgment (e.g. Lev. 26; Deut. 28) were read before the king, he rent his clothes and wept in dismay. He perceived anew how far the people had strayed, and realised that divine judgment was impending (v.19). Immediately he despatched a deputation to Huldah the prophetess. She revealed that the curses of the book would certainly be brought upon the nation, but that the king would be spared because of his humility before God (vv.23-28).
Thus the king's faithfulness preserved a generation in Judah. Yet, for all this, they did not respond within their heart, for Jeremiah, prophesying at the very time of Josiah's inspiring reformation, indicted them in strong terms for their evil ways (Jer. 2:20; 6:13, 19).
Despite the irreversible sentence which had been passed on the nation through Huldah the prophetess, Josiah was not content to sit back, having secured his own deliverance, and wait for the inevitable. If the curse could not be averted from the nation as a whole, then perhaps some individuals could be saved from the consequences. He gathered the elders together, and caused them to make a new covenant of personal integrity to Yahweh (2 Chron. 34:29-33). Despite the example of their king, the people were unaffected by what was done. The reform was superficial, and not of the heart:
"And yet for this her treacherous sister Judah hath not turned unto me with her whole heart, but feignedly, saith the Lord" (Jer. 3:10).
THE GREAT PASSOVER (2 Chronicles 35:1-19).
The climax of Josiah's restorative work was the convening of a great Passover, a feast which had apparently lapsed over the years of apostasy. Everything was prepared in the proper manner € the sacrifices according to the Law of Moses; the Priests' and the Levites' Temple service according to the writings of David and Solomon (vv. 2-6, 15). The king's largeness of heart brought many to the feast from the northern tribes (vv. 17-18). By his personal commandment every detail was meticulously observed (vv. 6, 10). Never had there been such an outstanding Passover Feast as in the 18th year of King Josiah.
BELOVED OF JUDAH (2 Chronicles 35:20-27).
Pharaoh-Necho, King of Egypt, passed through Israel on his way to make war at Carchemish by the River Euphrates (2 Kgs. 23:29). Josiah went to Megiddo to resist the Egyptians, but was fatally wounded by the archers and brought back to Jerusalem. There he was buried in a solemn and memorable funeral. As the nation contemplated his stirring faith and courage they were brought to grief and remorse. Many years later the prophet Zechariah used this incident to describe the depth of mourning that will overtake the Jewish people when they realise that they pierced the Son of God (Zech. 12:9-14).
LESSONS FOR US:
- Despite difficult times, we must labour with the same zeal as Josiah, to strengthen the Truth in the last days.
- It is most important to pray and study the Word of God if we would be useful vessels in the ecclesia.
- Diligence and self-sacrifice are essential in the lives of the leaders of God's people.
- We cannot love God without loving the people of God. Josiah's heart reached out to all Israel and he sought to reform the whole nation.
- Though faithfulness is not always appreciated by fellow mortals, it will be rewarded by Christ in the day of resurrection.
REFERENCE LIBRARY:
"The Story of the Bible" (H.P. Mansfield) € Vol. 6, No. 4
PARAGRAPH QUESTIONS:
- What did Josiah do when the Book of the Law was found?
- What prophecy was fulfilled during Josiah's reform ?
3. Why did Josiah's reforms ultimately fail?
4. How can we be like Josiah today?
ESSAY QUESTIONS:
1. Write an account of Josiah 's reforms.
- What was God's purpose in raising up Josiah?
- Outline the important events in the life of King Josiah.
- Write a character study of King Josiah. What lessons can we learn from his life?