Steady Progress ’Till A Tragic Fall

Feature 1 – September 2015 — Grace & Truth Magazine

JOSIAH
Steady Progress ’Till A Tragic Fall

Josiah, the last good king of Judah, came to the throne at the early age of eight years. The people of the land made him king. The story can be read in 2 Kings 21-23 and 2 Chronicles 33-36.

Background
His father, proud King Amon, was assassinated by some of his own servants after reigning only two short years. His grandfather, Manasseh, had been the worst king Judah ever had – the chief of sinners in his day! He filled Jerusalem with blood, reinstituted idolatry of all kinds after his godly father Hezekiah’s death, and seduced his people to do worse than the nations the LORD had destroyed before the children of Israel. Manasseh’s wickedness brought God’s judgment upon the land, and the Assyrians took him captive. But in captivity he humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers and was then restored to his kingdom. While his conversion was real, the people continued in their wickedness.

Childhood Years
What could an eight-year-old child do in such circumstances? We can well understand that almost nothing is said of the first few years of Josiah’s reign. One exception is that his mother’s and grandfather’s names are told us – Jedidah the daughter of Adaiah of Bozkath. They were probably a good influence in his life, for we read: “And he did what was right in the sight of the LORD, and walked in all the ways of his father David; he did not turn aside to the right hand or to the left” (2 Ki. 22:2 NKJV). Did they teach him the ways of his distant ancestor, King David, the man after God’s heart (Acts 13:22)? For next we read that “in the eighth year of his reign, while he was still young, he began to seek the God of his father David” (2 Chr. 34:3). Godly mothers and grandparents have often been a great help to their children and grandchildren – and still can be so today.

Teenage Years
How good it is when a teenager commits himself or herself to seek the Lord! Our Lord Jesus was clearly and eagerly about His Father’s business at age twelve. Isaac walked trustingly with his 100-year-older father Abraham, allowing his father to bind him and lay him on the altar they built at God’s command. David learned to trust the LORD in dangerous situations while still a teenager. Timothy’s mother and grandmother were women of faith who taught young Timothy the Holy Scriptures, which prepared him to receive salvation through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.

Combating Idolatry
We see further progress as Josiah grows older. His seeking the LORD resulted in active service, even beyond the borders of his kingdom. In the twelfth year of his reign “he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem of the high places, the wooden images, the carved images, and the molded images. They broke down the altars of Baal in his presence, and the incense altars which were above them he cut down, and the wooden images, the carved images, and the molded images he broke in pieces, and made dust of them and scattered it on the graves of those who had sacrificed to them. He also burned the bones of the priests on their altars, and cleansed Judah and Jerusalem. And so he did in the cities of Manasseh, Ephraim, and Simeon, as far as Naphtali and all around” (2 Chr. 34:3-6). Notice that he was actively involved in this purge, being where it was taking place! He was not sitting on his throne indulging himself while making suggestions or giving orders to others about what they should be doing.

Repairing The Temple
The next stage in Josiah’s life that God’s Word brings before us is when he was in his mid-twenties, fully mature. The work of purging the land and the temple – a negative yet much needed ministry – gave way to the more positive work of repairing the temple. The project was Josiah’s, yet many others had a part in it. The people as a whole contributed money – not only those of Josiah’s kingdom of Judah and Benjamin, but also those who had been left behind in Manasseh and Ephraim, along with the rest of Israel after the Assyrians had conquered the northern kingdom and taken many of its people into captivity. Likewise today, God’s people as a whole can support the work of building and repairing the house of God, which, as Ephesians 2:19-22 says, is growing “into a holy temple in the Lord.”

There were those who had specific tasks in this service of the LORD. Some who had leadership and supervisory roles are mentioned by name while others are grouped together by the work they did. There are parallels in the Lord’s work today. The doorkeepers, who were all Levites, had gathered this money. Faithful administration of finances given to further the work of God is of prime importance. Josiah’s officials saw to it that this money was passed on to the foremen who had the oversight of the house of the LORD. These in turn gave the money to the workmen buying the needed materials and doing the actual repair work: the craftsmen, builders, carpenters and masons. The men were faithful and could be trusted to handle these funds responsibly. Overseers are mentioned, some of them by name. Interestingly, Levites skilled with musical instruments were over the burden bearers and other workers. What a difference singing with grace in our hearts to the Lord makes when Christians work together, building for Him!

A Lost Book Found
When Shaphan the scribe brought Hilkiah the high priest the money that had been collected, Hilkiah gave him the book of the law which he had found in the house of the LORD. How long had this book laid among the rubbish and debris that had just been cleaned out so the house could be repaired? We don’t know. But for Hilkiah this was a major discovery.

Shaphan first read it himself and then brought it to the king and read it to him. When King Josiah heard the words of the book of the law, he tore his clothes in distress at what he was hearing. He sent a group of officials, headed by Hilkiah to Huldah the prophetess, to inquire of the LORD. He was concerned for he realized that “great is the wrath of the LORD that is poured out on us, because our fathers have not kept the word of the LORD, to do according to all that is written in this book” (2 Chr. 34:21). What were Josiah and his people to do? When would God’s wrath culminate in judgment upon them? Oh that we might in similar manner take God’s Word to heart when we read or hear it!

The prophetess had a twofold message from the LORD for the delegation to take to the king. To the man who had sent them to inquire of Him the LORD gave a solemn message of judgment. He said He would bring calamity on Judah and its people – all the curses written in the book that had been read before the king. The people had forsaken the LORD, worshiped other gods and provoked Him to anger by their works. God’s wrath would not be quenched.

But the LORD went on with a word to the king of Judah who had sent them to inquire of Him: “Because your heart was tender, and you humbled yourself before God when you heard His words against this place and against its inhabitants, and you humbled yourself before Me, and you tore your clothes and wept before Me, I also have heard you” (v.27). The LORD went on to tell Josiah that judgment would not fall upon Judah during his lifetime. God looks at the heart. He appreciates a heart that listens to Him, that bows in humble repentance before Him. He values a right attitude.

Appropriate Action
The delegation brought word back to the king. He then called together the officials of the land, the priests and Levites, and all the people, great and small. He himself “read in their hearing all the words of the book of the covenant which had been found in the house of the LORD” (v.30). The king stood in his place by the pillar “and made a covenant before the LORD, to follow the LORD, and to keep His commandments and His testimonies and His statutes with all his heart and all his soul, to perform the words of the covenant that were written in this book” (v.31). He made all the people there take a stand, and they all took a stand to do according to the covenant.

He then commanded the priests and Levites to bring out of the temple all the articles that had been made for the idolatrous worship of Baal, the Asherah and all the host of heaven. All these things he burned and carried the ashes to Bethel, where Jeroboam, during the days of King David’s grandson, had begun the worship of the golden calves in the kingdom of Israel (1 Kings 12:25-33). Josiah burned, destroyed and defiled all that had been connected with the idolatry of his predecessors, even the high places that Solomon had built for the idols of his heathen wives. He did not stop with his own realm, but did likewise with that which remained of the idolatry of the northern kingdom, desecrating these things by burning men’s bones on them. He dealt with the idolatry in more painstaking detail than any king before him. God’s Word commends him for turning to the LORD with all his heart and soul and might according to all the law of Moses, and states that there was no king like him after him. His heart was right and he commanded his people rightly. But sadly, these reforms did not continue after his death as the hearts of the people were not really in them. As with Josiah, God still looks for service from the heart!

The Passover
After this thorough cleansing of the temple and of the land, Josiah kept a Passover to the LORD. All was done according to the commands of the LORD – according to godly order. The Passover was celebrated on the proper day. The king and the leaders, and the chiefs of the priests and Levites generously gave thousands of lambs, goats and cattle to the people for sacrifices. Priests and Levites diligently worked together through the whole day. Singers and gatekeepers were in their assigned places, and the Levites prepared Passover offerings for all so each one could be doing what God had long before given them to do. How wonderful it is today when each person in an assembly, or local church, functions in his or her proper place – working together with every other brother and sister to the glory of God!

Not only did they keep the Passover, but they also kept the Feast of Unleavened Bread for seven days. No Passover like this had been kept since the days of Samuel, hundreds of years before. This was a most joyful and memorable occasion, doubtless the high point in King Josiah’s reign. His pathway had gone steadily upward.

Self-will And The Resulting Crash
And then we come to an anticlimax, a tragic “after all this.” Josiah had continued his godly efforts, but suddenly this upward pathway was interrupted. Pharaoh Necho of Egypt passed through the land with his army to assist the weakened Assyrian Empire against the rising power of Babylon. Josiah attempted to interfere. Rather than continuing to work in the LORD’s interests, he involved himself and his people in the politics of the world around him. This also is a real danger for believers today, whom God calls pilgrims and strangers in the world on the one hand and ambassadors for Christ on the other (Heb. 11:13; 2 Cor. 5:20).

Sad to say, like Josiah, many Christians refuse to learn this lesson. Josiah’s refusal to listen to the words of Necho given by God proved costly. Despite disguising himself to go into battle, he was shot with an arrow and died from the wound. God does not call on Christians to participate or even take sides in the world’s politics or its wars. Ignoring this, or outright refusing this, many Christians have lost their testimony and usefulness for God in the world. Thankfully our eternal salvation cannot be lost for we are kept by the power of God and are secure in our Lord’s safekeeping!

How important it is to obey God! Josiah died at the age of thirty-nine. Had he heeded the word from the LORD not to interfere in a war that God was not sending him into, he might conceivably have lived much longer and God’s judgment upon Judah would have waited still longer. But once Josiah was dead, things quickly fell apart in Judah. The king the people then chose was quickly deposed by Pharaoh Necho, and the king he replaced him with proved to be a wicked man with no fear of God who was soon conquered by the Babylonians. All Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah, and Jeremiah also lamented for him. The passing of this good, godly king proved to be a tragic loss for Judah. There is still no substitute for obedience and the fear of the Lord!

By Eugene P. Vedder