Preached Sunday, September 25, 2011 from 2 Chronicles 34:1-33
Theme: The story of King Josiah shows us how God provides insight from His word to those who have an earnest heart to receive it.
(Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture references are taken from The Holy Bible, New King James Version; copyright 1982, Thomas Nelson, Inc.)
We come this morning in our study of the Kings of Judah to the last of Judah’s truly godly kings. With the end of his reign, the southern kingdom of Judah began its sad decline into captivity for seventy years in Babylon. And after his reign, no other godly king would arise in the lineage of King David to rule over the people of Judah until the great offspring of King David—our Lord Jesus—would be born nearly six centuries later.
This last godly king was King Josiah. And to gain a good appreciation of just how godly a king he was, I’d like to draw your attention to 2 Kings 23:25; and to the amazing assessment that God’s own word makes of him. There, we read;
Now before him there was no king like him, who turned to the LORD with all his heart, with all his soul, and with all his might, according to all the Law of Moses; nor after him did any arise like him (2 Kings 23:25).
You see; Josiah was placed on the throne after the reigns of his grandfather Manasseh and his father Amon. Both Manasseh and Amon had brought the people of Judah down into an unprecedented level of moral degradation and idolatry. They had brought the nation so far down into sin, in fact, that God had no alternative but to bring His just judgment upon it. But it was in the midst of that heritage of sin that Josiah arose and “turned to the LORD with all his heart, with all his soul, and with all his might”. There was never a king in all Judah’s history who turned to the Lord so whole-heartedly during so dark and dismal a period of time as Josiah. His story is a great encouragement to us that, even in the darkest of times, God is still able to raise up a reformer—a man of great faith who turns his people back to godliness.
There’s another way in which Josiah was a remarkable king. He was a man that God had called to the role of a spiritual reformer of his people—by name—a little over three-hundred years before he was born! Back in 1 Kings 12, we’re told the story of how the evil king Jeroboam—the first king of the northern kingdom of Israel—had sought to turn the Jewish people away from their faithfulness to the one true God. He wanted the people to be devoted to him rather than to God; so he made two golden calves, set up altars to them, and told the people, “It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Here are your gods, O Israel, which brought you up from the land of Egypt” (1 Kings 12:28). But in the first two verses of chapter 13, we’re told;
And behold, a man of God went from Judah to Bethel by the word of the LORD, and Jeroboam stood by the altar to burn incense. Then he cried out against the altar by the word of the LORD, and said, “O altar, altar! Thus says the LORD: ‘Behold, a child, Josiah by name, shall be born to the house of David; and on you he shall sacrifice the priests of the high places who burn incense on you, and men’s bones shall be burned on you'” (1 Kings 13:1-2).
And that is exactly what this last godly king, whose story we’re taking up today, did. 2 Kings 23:15-16 tells us this about the many things Josiah did to purge his kingdom of idolatry:
Moreover the altar that was at Bethel, and the high place which Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel sin, had made, both that altar and the high place he broke down; and he burned the high place and crushed it to powder, and burned the wooden image. As Josiah turned, he saw the tombs that were there on the mountain. And he sent and took the bones out of the tombs and burned them on the altar, and defiled it according to the word of the LORD which the man of God proclaimed, who proclaimed these words (2 Kings 23:15-16).
Now; over our next few times together, we’ll be considering some of the lessons that this great man Josiah has to teach us. But it’s particularly fitting that one of the first lessons we learn from him falls on a day we that we have set aside to remember and celebrate the way God works in our lives through His word.1 One of the many outstanding things that God Himself commended about Josiah was the way he that responded to the Scriptures.
In Isaiah 66:2, God says, “But on this one will I look: on him who is poor and of a contrite spirit, and who trembles at My word.” That’s the kind of person that God looks upon with favor—someone who doesn’t pridefully resist God’s word, or ignore it, or rebel against it when it says something he or she doesn’t like to hear; but who instead takes God’s word seriously, and humbles himself or herself before it, is sorry for their sin, and truly “trembles”—with reverent awe and holy fear—at whatever Almighty God has said.
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Now; turn with me to 2 Chronicles 34; and look at how Josiah’s story begins. We’re told in the first two verses;
Josiah was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem. And he did what was right in the sight of the LORD, and walked in the ways of his father David; he did not turn aside to the right hand or to the left (2 Chronicles 34:1-2).
Little Josiah had been born into a situation of great ungodliness. He became king at the tender age of eight because his wicked father had been assassinated by members of his own household staff. Neither his father nor his grandfather had been godly men. The only example they would have set before him would have been one of profound wickedness. And yet, his life was characterized by faithful obedience to God.
I have a theory of how this might have happened. In 2 Kings 22:1, we’re told, “His mother’s name was Jedidah the daughter of Adaiah of Bozkath.” The fact that his mother and his maternal grandfather are both mentioned—particularly in a way that suggests that a reader of that time might have known who they were—leads me to suspect that they had a very godly influence upon him that endured throughout his life. Perhaps their influence illustrates what it says in Proverbs 22:6; “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.”
Now; we go on in the next verse to read why it was that, from these early influences, his whole life went on to be characterized by godliness:
For in the eighth year of his reign, while he was still young, he began to seek the God of his father David . . . (v. 3a).
I suspect He spent his early growing-up years in a godly environment. Externally, there would have been godly influences and examples deliberately placed around him. But in the eighth year of his reign—when he was sixteen years of age—he embraced that godliness in a personal way, and made it his own. Perhaps he had traced the history of his own father and grandfather, and saw where their ungodliness had led them and their people; and made the personal resolve that he would be a very different king—a king that sought God just as his great predecessor King David had done.
By the way; that reminds us of one of the repeated lessons that we have found in the story of the kings of Judah. There needs to be a point in our life when we cease depending on someone else to live the devoted Christian life for us, stand—as it were—on our own two feet, and commit ourselves to living faithfully for the Lord on our own. We must become ‘independently dependent’ upon the Lord; and learn to walk with Him in daily obedience and active trust on our own initiative—just as the godly mentors and examples God has given to us have taught us.
Well; that’s what Josiah did. And as we read on, we see how he put that obedience to action as king;
and in the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem of the high places, the wooden images, the carved images, and the molded images (v. 3b).
His royal father and grandfather had made a real mess of things. They had turned their people away from God and had filled the land with idolatry. Josiah’s grandfather had repented and had removed the idols from their place; but he didn’t destroy them. Then Josiah’s father brought them all back, placed them all back where they had once been, and even set up more of them! But in his twelfth year, at the age of twenty—after having grow increasingly in his commitment to the Lord—Josiah “began to purge Judah and Jerusalem” of these wicked things.
He even got the people involved;
They broke down the altars of the Baals 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 (vv. 4-5).
Amazingly, he even put these reforms into forceful action in the northern regions of Israel:
And so he did in the cities of Manasseh, Ephraim, and Simeon, as far as Naphtali and all around, with axes. When he had broken down the altars and the wooden images, had beaten the carved images into powder, and cut down all the incense altars throughout all the land of Israel, he returned to Jerusalem (vv. 6-7).
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Now; in all this, Josiah was proving himself to be a king who truly honored God. He would not put up with any of the wickedness and idolatry in his kingdom that his predecessors had brought in. He was a man who truly sought God.
But this is when we come to a very remarkable spiritual truth that’s illustrated to us from his life. God looked upon this young man, who was already demonstrating a remarkable love and devotion to Him, and honored that love and devotion in a wonderful way. He graciously gave faithful young Josiah an even greater level of insight that would lead to an even greater level of love and devotion!
That’s a principle of how God works in the lives of His people, by the way. It’s something that we need to apply to our own encounters with God’s word. Do you remember what the Lord Jesus taught us? In Mark 4:24-25, He said, “Take heed what you hear. With the same measure you use, it will be measured to you; and to you who hear, more will be given. For whoever has, to him more will be given; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him.” Do you want to grow in devotion to God? Do you want to grow in spiritual insight? Do you want to grow in wisdom from God’s word? Then be faithful with what you already have been given from Him! Do faithfully what He has given you to do today! Act faithfully upon the truth from His word that He has given you at this time! And when you prove faithful to what He has already given you, He will then entrust you with even more.
Josiah had proven faithful to what he had already been given. And now, God was about to give him more. And it’s one of the most remarkable events in all the stories of the kings of Judah! It happened when he was twenty-six years old. We’re told;
In the eighteenth year of his reign, when he had purged the land and the temple, he sent Shaphan the son of Azaliah, Maaseiah the governor of the city, and Joah the son of Joahaz the recorder, to repair the house of the LORD his God (v. 8).
The Levites had been collecting the money that God had commanded the people of Israel to give for the upkeep of the temple. The temple had been neglected for years, and the money had not been given to those who were to do the repairs. So, Josiah commanded these men to see to it that the work was resumed.
When they came to Hilkiah the high priest, they delivered the money that was brought into the house of God, which the Levites who kept the doors had gathered from the hand of Manasseh and Ephraim, from all the remnant of Israel, from all Judah and Benjamin, and which they had brought back to Jerusalem. Then they put it in the hand of the foremen who had the oversight of the house of the LORD; and they gave it to the workmen who worked in the house of the LORD, to repair and restore the house (vv. 9-11).
And in the course of the work being done, we’re told about an amazing discovery that the high priest made in the temple:
Now when they brought out the money that was brought into the house of the LORD, Hilkiah the priest found the Book of the Law of the LORD given by Moses (v. 14).
Can you imagine it? The word of God had been so neglected that a copy of it was ‘found’ tucked-away somewhere in the temple! It may have been that Josiah’s father and grandfather—in their rebellion—had tried to destroy all the copies of the law and rid the land of God’s word. But in the providence of God to His people, a copy—perhaps the only copy left—was found! It must have been handled by the high priest with a trembling hand—and perhaps even with tears of joy in his eyes! Throughout the dark reign of the previous two kings, God’s precious word was not lost! And do you realize, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, that—in the providence of God to us, living some two-thousand five-hundred years later—we may be in debt to the discovery of this priest Hilkiah for the copy of the complete Bible we now have in our hands this morning?
Look at what happened next:
Then Hilkiah answered and said to Shaphan the scribe, “I have found the Book of the Law in the house of the LORD.” And Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan. So Shaphan carried the book to the king, bringing the king word, saying, “All that was committed to your servants they are doing. And they have gathered the money that was found in the house of the LORD, and have delivered it into the hand of the overseers and the workmen.” Then Shaphan the scribe told the king, saying, “Hilkiah the priest has given me a book.” And Shaphan read it before the king (vv. 15-18).
Josiah had already proven himself to be very faithful with what God had entrusted to him. But now, look at how Josiah reacted to this further revelation from God’s word!
Thus it happened, when the king heard the words of the Law, that he tore his clothes. Then the king commanded Hilkiah, Ahikam the son of Shaphan, Abdon the son of Micah, Shaphan the scribe, and Asaiah a servant of the king, saying, “Go, inquire of the LORD for me, and for those who are left in Israel and Judah, concerning the words of the book that is found; for 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” (vv. 15-21).
Truly, Josiah was the kind of man Isaiah spoke of—a man who was ‘poor and of a contrite spirit’, and who ‘trembled’ at God’s word! At the king’s command, they went to Huldah the prophetess; and they told her of the king’s inquiry.
Then she answered them, “Thus says the LORD God of Israel, ‘Tell the man who sent you to Me, “Thus says the LORD: ‘Behold, I will bring calamity on this place and on its inhabitants, all the curses that are written in the book which they have read before the king of Judah, because they have forsaken Me and burned incense to other gods, that they might provoke Me to anger with all the works of their hands. Therefore My wrath will be poured out on this place, and not be quenched.’”’ But as for the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of the LORD, in this manner you shall speak to him, ‘Thus says the LORD God of Israel: “Concerning the words which you have heard—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,” says the LORD. “Surely I will gather you to your fathers, and you shall be gathered to your grave in peace; and your eyes shall not see all the calamity which I will bring on this place and its inhabitants”’” (vv. 23-28).
Josiah had been faithful with the portion of truth that God had entrusted to him. And so, God entrusted even more truth from His word. And in response, Josiah proved to be a very faithful king with that additional truth God had entrusted to him. The Bible tells us;
Then the king sent and gathered all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem. The king went up to the house of the LORD, with all the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem—the priests and the Levites, and all the people, great and small. And he read in their hearing all the words of the Book of the Covenant which had been found in the house of the LORD. Then the king stood in his place 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. And he made all who were present in Jerusalem and Benjamin take a stand. So the inhabitants of Jerusalem did according to the covenant of God, the God of their fathers. Thus Josiah removed all the abominations from all the country that belonged to the children of Israel, and made all who were present in Israel diligently serve the LORD their God. All his days they did not depart from following the LORD God of their fathers (vv. 29-33).
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Let me close by suggesting a few conclusions that we can draw from this story about God’s word.
First, let’s remember that—no matter how spiritually dark the times may be; no matter how much man may seek to ignore God’s word, or hide it, or even rid the world of it—God does not forget His word. He keeps it in this world, and protects it, and stands by everything that He said in it!
Second, let’s remember that the God who protects His word, and that ordains that it be faithfully proclaimed in this dark world, also looks favorably upon those who display a contrite and humble heart before Him by trembling at that word when they hear it.
And finally—and most wonderfully shown to us in the life of this great man Josiah—let’s remember that those who have a sincere and humble heart to seek after God, and who faithfully put what insight He has given them to good use, will be entrusted with even more. As the apostle James has written:
Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does (James 1:21-25).
1Our church family regularly supports the ministry of the Gideons International—an organization that places copies of God’s word in people’s hands. And on the Sunday mornings that we highlight the Gideons, we also take the time to highlight the power of God’s word to change lives. The morning that this message was preached was just such a Sunday.