Israel had been in captivity for eighty years when Josiah ascended the throne of Judah, and the judgment of God had already been pronounced on Judah because of the sins of Manasseh his grandfather (2 Kings 21:10-16). In spite of all the evil, God was pleased to raise up His servant king Josiah, giving a little respite before the execution of the judgment that had been pronounced, and giving His people time for repentance and to turn from all their sins to Himself. Just as we have the assembly of Philadelphia in Revelation 3 before Laodicea, which is to be spued out of the mouth of Christ, so have we the pious Josiah before judgment comes upon the nation of Israel, upon the kings, the priests, the prophets and the people.
After Manasseh's captivity in Babylon because of the enormity of his sins, he prayed to the Lord and "He was intreated of him," and on returning to the land he showed the fruits meet for repentance, taking away the strange gods, and the idolatrous altars, and repairing and sacrificing to God on His altar. He also commanded his people to serve the Lord the God of Israel (2 Chr. 33:11-16). All this had no effect on Amon his son, the father of Josiah, but it may have influenced the young child who came to the throne about two years after Manasseh's death, for from the beginning of his reign, at eight years old, he took the right road, doing what "was right in the sight of the Lord," and walking "in the ways of David his father," and declining "neither to the right hand, nor the left" (2 Chr. 34:1. 2).
At sixteen years of age, "in the eighth year of his reign, while he was yet young, he began to seek after the God of David his father" (2 Chr. 34:3). How delightful this must have been to the God of Israel, especially after the dreadful wickedness of king Ahaz and of Manasseh and Amon. There had been a break in the line of wickedness during the reign of Hezekiah, but it is sorrowful to record that it was during the fifteen years of extra life that Hezekiah had received that the wicked Ahaz had been born. Josiah found, as everyone else has found, that those who seek after God do not seek in vain; and how good it is when one seeks the Lord while still young.
When he reached the age of twenty, Josiah became very active in his zeal for the God of Israel. Starting at his very doors, "he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem" from all connected with idolatry, then continued this cleansing work "in the cities of Manasseh, and Ephraim, and Simeon, even unto Naphtali … and cut down all the idols throughout the land of Israel" (verses 3-7). With divinely given wisdom the young king realised that every trace of idolatry must be removed not from his own kingdom only, but from the whole inheritance of God which had been defiled by the kings of Israel.
The purging of the land and of the house had taken some years, and in "the eighteenth year of his reign," at the age of twenty-six, the zeal of good king Josiah for Jehovah was unabated. Hitherto the work had been of destruction of idols, and cleansing from all connected with idolatry, but now he had time to repair the damage that had been caused to the house of God. It was not sufficient to destroy what was false, there must be the re-establishment of the worship of Jehovah, and for this His house must be restored. What pleasure there must have been for the Lord to see this son of David's zeal for His house, a faint anticipation of Him who could say, "The zeal of Thy house hath eaten me up."
In this great work of recovery the king had with him the governor of the city and the recorder, and they in turn brought the people in, for "Manasseh and Ephraim, and all the remnant of Israel" joined with "all Judah and Benjamin" in providing the means for the repairing of God's house. How good it is in this day, as in that day, when all the people of God are interested in the house of God, and have the privilege of contributing to it. Few have the great devotion that marked the poor widow of Mark 12:41-44, who gave her all for the support of God's house, but we can all help to maintain God's testimony in His house in some small way.
There were many who did the actual work, and some had the oversight, and they were marked by "faithfully" working in what was given them to do. Levites, scribes, officers and porters all had their part to play, the overseers being named, and there being mention too of those "that could skill of instruments of music" (verses 10-13). If there was faithfulness, there was also happiness in the work of the Lord, the musicians bringing out the praises of those who were engaged in this blessed service for the God of Israel.
While engaged in the repairing of the house of God, "Hilkiah the priest found a book of the law of the Lord given by Moses … and Shaphan carried the book to the king … 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" (2 Chr. 34:14-19). Well might Josiah rend his clothes on reading of what lay in store for Israel on forsaking their God and turning to idols. Yet how great the contrast between the attitude of Josiah and that of his son Jehoiakim who, when he heard the words written in Jeremiah's roll, cut it with his penknife and cast it into the fire (Jer. 36:23).
Josiah, knowing that the Lord was his only resource with His judgment before him, sent chosen servants saying, "enquire 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" (2 Chr. 34:21). Simple faith in God and in His word, and the desire to do the will of God, gave the faithful king the intelligence to discern the mind of God disclosed in His word and to understand what should be done in that solemn hour.
The messengers of the king knew who had the mind of God, and they went to Huldah the prophetess, who said to them, "Thus says the Lord God of Israel" (2 Chr. 34:23) How good it was that the Lord had His servant who could speak His word to the devout king, just as He had His interpreter ready for the Ethiopian eunuch who desired to know of whom the prophet Isaiah was speaking (Acts 8:27-35). With the word of God completed, and having the Spirit of God with us and in us, we can at all times come to Him to know His mind and will for every occasion and circumstance of life.
Through Huldah the king learned that there was no turning back of the divine judgment, but that God had taken account of his tender heart, of his repentance and his weeping, and that the judgment would not take place in his day. God, in His mercy, delayed the judgment on account of the fidelity of good king Josiah. Hezekiah also delayed the coming judgment when he "humbled himself for the pride of his heart" (2 Chr. 32:26). Yet the answer from the heart of Hezekiah cannot be compared with that of Josiah, for Hezekiah seemed to be more concerned with himself when he said concerning the judgment that his folly would bring upon his house, "Good is the word of the Lord which thou hast spoken … if peace and truth be in my days" (2 Kings 20:19).
When Josiah heard the word of the Lord through Huldah, "the king sent and gathered together all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem … and all the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and the priests and the Levites, and all the people, great and small: and he read in their ears all the words of the book of the covenant that was found in the house of the Lord" (2 Chr. 34:29-30). All who were available heard that day the word of God from the lips of their king.
It was with the very best of motives that the good king brought the people into a covenant with God that day, for he could not know as we now know the impossibility of man after the flesh "to walk after the Lord, 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 the covenant which are written in this book" (2 Chr. 34:31). Yet in spite of not understanding the weakness of their flesh, it could be written, "all his days they departed not from following the Lord, the God of their fathers" (2 Chr. 34:33). God took account of the desires of the king's heart, and of those of a people who followed him.
More than three hundred years before Josiah was born, while king Jeroboam was standing to burn incense before his idolatrous altar at Bethel, a man of God from Judah "cried against the altar in the word of the Lord, and said, O altar, altar, thus says 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 13:1-2). This prophecy was literally fulfilled, as is seen in 2 Kings 23:15-18. God can name His servants long years before they are born, as in the case of Josiah, or as seen in Cyrus, whom God used for the help of His people after the captivity (Isa. 44:28; Isa. 45:1). And this is the God who has chosen us in Christ "before the foundation of the world" (Eph. 1:4).
Good king Josiah's work of cleansing had revealed the awful catalogue of evil that existed in the land. He had removed the idolatrous altars of Ahaz, Manasseh and Jeroboam, which had defiled and corrupted the worship of the true God. God's house had to be cleansed and repaired, and the high places, that Solomon had built for the idols of his foreign wives, Josiah defiled. There had even been worship of the sun at the entrance of the temple, and all connected with this the king removed (2 Kings 23:4-14).
Having accomplished this great work of cleansing, "the king commanded all the people, saying, Keep the passover unto the Lord your God, as it is written in the book of this covenant" (verse 21). The priests, the Levites, the singers and the people all had their part in this remarkable celebration, so that it could be written, "And there was no passover like that kept in Israel from the days of Samuel the prophet; neither did 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" (2 Chr. 35:18).
What was written "in the book of Moses" (2 Chr. 35:12), and what David had commanded concerning the singers (2 Chr. 35:15), regulated the proceedings on that great day. God's word had laid hold on the heart and mind of the king, and this caused him to set aside all that was not in accordance with it, and he did not allow anything of his own thoughts, or of the thoughts of others, to intrude into that which God had commanded for His worship, even if it were in days of great weakness, and just before the final stroke of divine judgment was about to fall.
Well has it been recorded in the Scriptures concerning this faithful king, "And like him there was 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). What a wonderful commendation! In spite of all the evil with which he had been surrounded, the heart of the king had been set upon God, and God had given him the wisdom, the strength and the grace to do that which was pleasing in His sight.
After such a faithful reign, with so much for the glory of the Lord and the good of His people, how very sad is the end of such a reign. Josiah, like his forefather Amaziah in 2 Kings 14:8-14, meddled with strife that he ought to have kept away from, and it brought about his death. Josiah should not have meddled with the conflicts of the king of Egypt, and especially when he had been warned by the king of Egypt to forbear from meddling with God, "that He destroy thee not" (2 Chr. 35:21). This was the only dark blot on the bright history of good king Josiah, and surely the Lord has given it as a warning to His people not to meddle with strife to which He has not called them.
Had Josiah sought the mind of God in this matter, he would have been spared, but had he finished his course without a blot on his record, he would have been the only one to have done so, save the true Son of David, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone is perfect. How much there is for us to admire and to learn from the reign of good king Josiah but it is to Him who alone is perfect that we look as an Object for the heart and mind, the One who fulfilled all God's will on earth, and is even now carrying out the will of God from the place of glory and honour that He fills at God's right hand in heaven.
Wm. C. Reid.