(Again, there will be a lot of reading: perhaps ask for volunteers!)
In our last study we had begun to look at the reformations brought about by good king Josiah. We read that the ‘Book of the Law’ had been discovered.
Read 2 Kings 22:10-11
10 Then Shaphan the secretary informed the king, ‘Hilkiah the priest has given me a book.’ And Shaphan read from it in the presence of the king.
11 When the king heard the words of the Book of the Law, he tore his robes.
Why did he do that?
From time immemorial it had been the practice in Israel to express mourning, grief, and loss (Genesis 37:29). Here, the true significance of what had been read had now dawned on the king. He fully understood that Israel was now heading for disaster.
Read 2 Kings 22:12-13
12 He gave these orders to Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam son of Shaphan, Akbor son of Micaiah, Shaphan the secretary and Asaiah the king’s attendant: 13 ‘Go and enquire of the Lord for me and for the people and for all Judah about what is written in this book that has been found. Great is the Lord’s anger that burns against us because those who have gone before us have not obeyed the words of this book; they have not acted in accordance with all that is written there concerning us.’
Josiah needed to know the full extent of the punishment that was coming. He instructed his most trusted people to find a true prophet of the Lord. They did not have to look far, they probably knew the wife of another palace official who was a prophetess, and who by reputation had always uttered dire warnings concerning the plight of Israel.
Read 2 Kings 22:14-20
14 Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam, Akbor, Shaphan and Asaiah went to speak to the prophet Huldah, who was the wife of Shallum son of Tikvah, the son of Harhas, keeper of the wardrobe. She lived in Jerusalem, in the New Quarter.
15 She said to them, ‘This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: tell the man who sent you to me, 16 “This is what the Lord says: I am going to bring disaster on this place and its people, according to everything written in the book the king of Judah has read. 17 Because they have forsaken me and burned incense to other gods and aroused my anger by all the idols their hands have made, my anger will burn against this place and will not be quenched.” 18 Tell the king of Judah, who sent you to enquire of the Lord, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says concerning the words you heard: 19 because your heart was responsive and you humbled yourself before the Lord when you heard what I have spoken against this place and its people – that they would become a curse and be laid waste – and because you tore your robes and wept in my presence, I also have heard you, declares the Lord. 20 Therefore I will gather you to your ancestors, and you will be buried in peace. Your eyes will not see all the disaster I am going to bring on this place.”’
So they took her answer back to the king.
I almost imagine them saying to the king ‘Do you want the good news or the bad news?’ Yes, having dealt with the northern kingdom, the Lord was still going to bring disaster on the remnant in Judah. But he would delay the punishment until after the end of Josiah’s reign.
Read 2 Kings 23:1-3
1 Then the king called together all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem. 2 He went up to the temple of the Lord with the people of Judah, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the priests and the prophets – all the people from the least to the greatest. He read in their hearing all the words of the Book of the Covenant, which had been found in the temple of the Lord. 3 The king stood by the pillar and renewed the covenant in the presence of the Lord – to follow the Lord and keep his commands, statutes and decrees with all his heart and all his soul, thus confirming the words of the covenant written in this book. Then all the people pledged themselves to the covenant.
Again, if you have a personal faith, to promise ‘to follow the Lord and keep his commands, statutes and decrees with all his heart and all his soul ’ is possible.
But for ‘all the people’ it may have been what they mentally assented to, but their hearts needed changing too – and the prophet didn’t see any hope for the future. Note that 2 Chronicles 34:32-33 has ‘he made everyone in Jerusalem and Benjamin pledge themselves’ and ‘he made all the people in Israel serve the Lord their God ’
Read 2 Kings 23:4-20
4 The king ordered Hilkiah the high priest, the priests next in rank and the doorkeepers to remove from the temple of the Lord all the articles made for Baal and Asherah and all the starry hosts. He burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of the Kidron Valley and took the ashes to Bethel. 5 He did away with the idolatrous priests appointed by the kings of Judah to burn incense on the high places of the towns of Judah and on those around Jerusalem – those who burned incense to Baal, to the sun and moon, to the constellations and to all the starry hosts. 6 He took the Asherah pole from the temple of the Lord to the Kidron Valley outside Jerusalem and burned it there. He ground it to powder and scattered the dust over the graves of the common people. 7 He also tore down the quarters of the male shrine-prostitutes that were in the temple of the Lord, the quarters where women did weaving for Asherah.
8 Josiah brought all the priests from the towns of Judah and desecrated the high places, from Geba to Beersheba, where the priests had burned incense. He broke down the gateway at the entrance of the Gate of Joshua, the city governor, which was on the left of the city gate. 9 Although the priests of the high places did not serve at the altar of the Lord in Jerusalem, they ate unleavened bread with their fellow priests.
10 He desecrated Topheth, which was in the Valley of Ben Hinnom, so no one could use it to sacrifice their son or daughter in the fire to Molek. 11 He removed from the entrance to the temple of the Lord the horses that the kings of Judah had dedicated to the sun. They were in the court near the room of an official named Nathan-Melek. Josiah then burned the chariots dedicated to the sun.
12 He pulled down the altars the kings of Judah had erected on the roof near the upper room of Ahaz, and the altars Manasseh had built in the two courts of the temple of the Lord. He removed them from there, smashed them to pieces and threw the rubble into the Kidron Valley. 13 The king also desecrated the high places that were east of Jerusalem on the south of the Hill of Corruption – the ones Solomon king of Israel had built for Ashtoreth the vile goddess of the Sidonians, for Chemosh the vile god of Moab, and for Molek the detestable god of the people of Ammon. 14 Josiah smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah poles and covered the sites with human bones.
15 Even the altar at Bethel, the high place made by Jeroboam son of Nebat, who had caused Israel to sin – even that altar and high place he demolished. He burned the high place and ground it to powder, and burned the Asherah pole also.
16 Then Josiah looked around, and when he saw the tombs that were there on the hillside, he had the bones removed from them and burned on the altar to defile it, in accordance with the word of the Lord proclaimed by the man of God who foretold these things.
17 The king asked, ‘What is that tombstone I see?’
The people of the city said, ‘It marks the tomb of the man of God who came from Judah and pronounced against the altar of Bethel the very things you have done to it.’
18 ‘Leave it alone,’ he said. ‘Don’t let anyone disturb his bones.’ So they spared his bones and those of the prophet who had come from Samaria. (1 Kings 13:31)
19 Just as he had done at Bethel, Josiah removed all the shrines at the high places that the kings of Israel had built in the towns of Samaria and that had aroused the Lord’s anger. 20 Josiah slaughtered all the priests of those high places on the altars and burned human bones on them. Then he went back to Jerusalem.
Josiah had systematically travelled throughout all the territory under his control, carrying out a complete, conclusive cleansing. Anything or anybody even hinting at pagan worship was completely destroyed.
What was the difference between the priests in verses 5 and 20, and those in verses 8-9? Some Levites, perhaps living locally, had been employed in offering sacrifices and burning incense to God at the ‘high places’ which had been used by true worshippers for many years before the Temple had been built – and the habit had continued. These were now returned to Jerusalem and ‘brought under control’ but perhaps not used in the Temple services.
Read 2 Kings 23:21-23
21 The king gave this order to all the people: ‘Celebrate the Passover to the Lord your God, as it is written in this Book of the Covenant.’ 22 Neither in the days of the judges who led Israel nor in the days of the kings of Israel and the kings of Judah had any such Passover been observed. 23 But in the eighteenth year of King Josiah, this Passover was celebrated to the Lord in Jerusalem.
We can only imagine the vast numbers encouraged to congregate in and around Jerusalem for this massive feast. A true time of celebration.
Read 2 Kings 23:24-25
24 Furthermore, Josiah got rid of the mediums and spiritists, the household gods, the idols and all the other detestable things seen in Judah and Jerusalem. This he did to fulfil the requirements of the law written in the book that Hilkiah the priest had discovered in the temple of the Lord. 25 Neither before nor after Josiah was there a king like him who turned to the Lord as he did – with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his strength, in accordance with all the Law of Moses.
What a joy! Here was a king who had led his people back from the brink and set them on the right road for the future.
Read 2 Kings 23:26-27
26 Nevertheless, the Lord did not turn away from the heat of his fierce anger, which burned against Judah because of all that Manasseh had done to arouse his anger. 27 So the Lord said, ‘I will remove Judah also from my presence as I removed Israel, and I will reject Jerusalem, the city I chose, and this temple, about which I said, “My Name shall be there.”’
Although the prophet had told King Josiah that he would live out his reign in peace, the punishment for his people’s persistent idolatry would still apply.
Read 2 Kings 23:28-29
28 As for the other events of Josiah’s reign, and all he did, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Judah?
29 While Josiah was king, Pharaoh Necho king of Egypt went up to the River Euphrates to help the king of Assyria. King Josiah marched out to meet him in battle, but Necho faced him and killed him at Megiddo.
At this time Assyria was struggling for survival, with many internal revolts and civil wars. Egypt was at this time a vassal state, and its armies had been called out to help. Josiah might not have been aware of the relative size of the force involved, but obviously he didn’t like foreign troops marching through his land, so went to stop them. A bad mistake. Verse 29 simply records that he was killed.
Pharaoh Necho was not interested in Judah, so simply dealt with this obstruction as he hurried on to Assyria. 2 Chronicles 35:21 adds ‘But Necho sent messengers to him, saying, “What quarrel is there, king of Judah, between you and me? It is not you I am attacking at this time, but the house with which I am at war. God has told me to hurry; so stop opposing God, who is with me, or he will destroy you.” ’
Read 2 Kings 23:30-32
30 Josiah’s servants brought his body in a chariot from Megiddo to Jerusalem and buried him in his own tomb. And the people of the land took Jehoahaz son of Josiah and anointed him and made him king in place of his father. 31 Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem for three months. His mother’s name was Hamutal daughter of Jeremiah; she was from Libnah. 32 He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, just as his predecessors had done.
Even after just three months, you can see which way the wind was blowing.
The involvement of Pharaoh Neco’s armies had failed, and in 609bc the Assyrians were defeated by Babylonians and Medes. Pharoah Necho escaped back to Egypt, but smarting under his recent defeat there was chance of an easy victory. Judah and their new king needed to be taught a lesson.
Read 2 Kings 23:33-35
33 Pharaoh Necho put him in chains at Riblah in the land of Hamath so that he might not reign in Jerusalem, and he imposed on Judah a levy of a hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold. 34 Pharaoh Necho made Eliakim son of Josiah king in place of his father Josiah and changed Eliakim’s name to Jehoiakim. But he took Jehoahaz and carried him off to Egypt, and there he died. 35 Jehoiakim paid Pharaoh Necho the silver and gold he demanded. In order to do so, he taxed the land and exacted the silver and gold from the people of the land according to their assessments.
Pharaoh Necho arrested Jehoahaz and installed a puppet-king in his place, with instructions to send the fine he had Imposed.
Read 2 Kings 23:36-37
36 Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem for eleven years. His mother’s name was Zebidah daughter of Pedaiah; she was from Rumah. 37 And he did evil in the eyes of the Lord, just as his predecessors had done.
So we see the same formula repeated. But even then, the Lord really didn’t want to carry out his dire threats. Perhaps one last try? Jeremiah was a prophet who had been prophesying to Israel and Judah for the last twenty years (Jeremiah 1:1-2).
Read Jeremiah 36:1-19
1 In the fourth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from the Lord: 2 ‘Take a scroll and write on it all the words I have spoken to you concerning Israel, Judah and all the other nations from the time I began speaking to you in the reign of Josiah till now. 3 Perhaps when the people of Judah hear about every disaster I plan to inflict on them, they will each turn from their wicked ways; then I will forgive their wickedness and their sin.’
4 So Jeremiah called Baruch son of Neriah, and while Jeremiah dictated all the words the Lord had spoken to him, Baruch wrote them on the scroll. 5 Then Jeremiah told Baruch, ‘I am restricted; I am not allowed to go to the Lord’s temple. 6 So you go to the house of the Lord on a day of fasting and read to the people from the scroll the words of the Lord that you wrote as I dictated. Read them to all the people of Judah who come in from their towns. 7 Perhaps they will bring their petition before the Lord and will each turn from their wicked ways, for the anger and wrath pronounced against this people by the Lord are great.’
8 Baruch son of Neriah did everything Jeremiah the prophet told him to do; at the Lord’s temple he read the words of the Lord from the scroll. 9 In the ninth month of the fifth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah, a time of fasting before the Lord was proclaimed for all the people in Jerusalem and those who had come from the towns of Judah. 10 From the room of Gemariah son of Shaphan the secretary, which was in the upper courtyard at the entrance of the New Gate of the temple, Baruch read to all the people at the Lord’s temple the words of Jeremiah from the scroll.
11 When Micaiah son of Gemariah, the son of Shaphan, heard all the words of the Lord from the scroll, 12 he went down to the secretary’s room in the royal palace, where all the officials were sitting: Elishama the secretary, Delaiah son of Shemaiah, Elnathan son of Akbor, Gemariah son of Shaphan, Zedekiah son of Hananiah, and all the other officials. 13 After Micaiah told them everything he had heard Baruch read to the people from the scroll, 14 all the officials sent Jehudi son of Nethaniah, the son of Shelemiah, the son of Cushi, to say to Baruch, ‘Bring the scroll from which you have read to the people and come.’ So Baruch son of Neriah went to them with the scroll in his hand. 15 They said to him, ‘Sit down, please, and read it to us.’
So Baruch read it to them. 16 When they heard all these words, they looked at each other in fear and said to Baruch, ‘We must report all these words to the king.’ 17 Then they asked Baruch, ‘Tell us, how did you come to write all this? Did Jeremiah dictate it?’
18 ‘Yes,’ Baruch replied, ‘he dictated all these words to me, and I wrote them in ink on the scroll.’
19 Then the officials said to Baruch, ‘You and Jeremiah, go and hide. Don’t let anyone know where you are.’
The officials realised that what they had just heard was dynamite – verse 16 ‘they looked at each other in fear ’ and very wisely they told Baruch and Jeremiah to escape and hide.
Read Jeremiah 36:20-32
20 After they put the scroll in the room of Elishama the secretary, they went to the king in the courtyard and reported everything to him. 21 The king sent Jehudi to get the scroll, and Jehudi brought it from the room of Elishama the secretary and read it to the king and all the officials standing beside him. 22 It was the ninth month and the king was sitting in the winter apartment, with a fire burning in the brazier in front of him. 23 Whenever Jehudi had read three or four columns of the scroll, the king cut them off with a scribe’s knife and threw them into the brazier, until the entire scroll was burned in the fire. 24 The king and all his attendants who heard all these words showed no fear, nor did they tear their clothes. 25 Even though Elnathan, Delaiah and Gemariah urged the king not to burn the scroll, he would not listen to them. 26 Instead, the king commanded Jerahmeel, a son of the king, Seraiah son of Azriel and Shelemiah son of Abdeel to arrest Baruch the scribe and Jeremiah the prophet. But the Lord had hidden them.
27 After the king burned the scroll containing the words that Baruch had written at Jeremiah’s dictation, the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah: 28 ‘Take another scroll and write on it all the words that were on the first scroll, which Jehoiakim king of Judah burned up. 29 Also tell Jehoiakim king of Judah, “This is what the Lord says: you burned that scroll and said, ‘Why did you write on it that the king of Babylon would certainly come and destroy this land and wipe from it both man and beast?’ 30 Therefore this is what the Lord says about Jehoiakim king of Judah: he will have no one to sit on the throne of David; his body will be thrown out and exposed to the heat by day and the frost by night. 31 I will punish him and his children and his attendants for their wickedness; I will bring on them and those living in Jerusalem and the people of Judah every disaster I pronounced against them, because they have not listened.”’
32 So Jeremiah took another scroll and gave it to the scribe Baruch son of Neriah, and as Jeremiah dictated, Baruch wrote on it all the words of the scroll that Jehoiakim king of Judah had burned in the fire. And many similar words were added to them.
Note the response of Josiah when the scroll had been read to him 2 Kings 22:11 ‘When the king heard the words of the Book of the Law, he tore his robes’, and compare that to the response of the King and his officials in verse 24 ‘The king and all his attendants who heard all these words showed no fear, nor did they tear their clothes’
There would be repercussions.
