04.1.7.4. Four Kings In Judah - Josiah
FOUR GOOD KINGS IN JUDAH SUBSEQUENT TO THE DIVISION OF THE KINGDOM Chapter 7iv. - Josiah
Josiah (spelled Josias in Matthew 1:10) was the last of the good kings of Judah to be named in the genealogy of Jesus Christ (Matthew 1:10-11). His name means “sustained by Jehovah.” This last good King was prophesied over 300 years before his birth (1 Kings 13:2). He was eight years of age when he began to reign. The high points in his life were his conversion at the age of 16, finding the book of the law which had been lost, and the reformation of Judah. In the eighth year of his reign, Josiah began to seek after the God of David (2 Chronicles 34:3). His desire to seek the Lord was equivalent to spiritual enlightenment. The Psalmist said, “O satisfy us early with thy mercy; that we may rejoice and be glad all our days” (Psalms 90:14). In seeking the Lord early, Josiah turned from the way of the world, the carnal desires of youth, the vanities of imaginations, false friends, and evil counselors. Satisfaction is the cry of humanity, but God’s mercy alone can give lasting gratification. Realization of Divine mercy is one link in the chain of blessings that began in God’s eternal purpose and extends through the ceaseless cycles of eternity.
He has made everything appropriate in its time. He has also set eternity in their heart, yet so that man will not find out the work which God has done from the beginning even to the end. —Ecclesiastes 3:11 (NASB)
After Josiah’s conversion and prior to the discovery of the book of the law, he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem from idolatry. Six years later the book of the law was found, and he learned from it how defective his purging had been. Therefore, he proceeded to a cleansing that would be in accordance with Scripture rather than one that met the approval of traditions or his uninformed conscience. Conscience is revealed in Scripture as needing the aid of objective truth to develop it. Therefore, in regeneration the objective truth is written in the new heart as a power to govern and transform. Hence, the light of Josiah’s convicted conscience led him to discover the revealed law of God. “So let us know, let us press on to know the LORD...” (Hosea 6:3 NASB).
What appears to be a discrepancy between 2 Kings 23:1-37 and 2 Chronicles 34:1-33 disappears when one realizes that there was a partial restoration before the book of the law was found. The finding of the book of the law gave Josiah a new basis for his faith and courage. Knowledge of the law of God enlarges one’s concept of duty. The results of the law of God being lost were as follows:
(1) Knowledge of truth was lost. There must be an objective standard of truth. Without it, everyone does what is right in his own eyes.
(2) There was no true worship of God apart from His word: “God is spirit, and the ones worshipping must worship in spirit and truth” (John 4:24—translation).
(3) The services of the temple ceased.
(4) The sanctuary was polluted.
(5) False religion came in like a flood. The land was filled with idols.
(6) Crimes of violence and deeds of oppression abounded. Where there is no fear of God, there is hatred for men.
(7) Immorality was rampant.
The following are the results of finding the law of God:
(1) False religion was destroyed. (See Galatians 1:6-9; Galatians 5:12.)
(2) The people repented and turned to God.
(3) Truth was learned.
(4) The temple was beautified and opened for service.
(5) A measure of mercy was experienced.
(6) Truth was handed down to other ages.
(7) Temple service was no longer in vain. The following are ways the importance of Divine truth is seen:
(1) If we are in need of reviving, “Thy word has revived me” (Psalms 119:50 NASB). (2) If we are to grow, “desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby” (1 Peter 2:2).
(3) If we are to be fed, “man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD doth man live” (Deuteronomy 8:3).
(4) If our souls are enlightened, “The entrance of thy words giveth light”
(Psalms 119:130).
(5) If our hearts are comforted, they must be comforted “through patience and comfort of the scriptures” (Romans 15:4).
(6) If we are renewed, we are “renewed in knowledge” (Colossians 3:10).
(7) If we are to be established, God must “stablish you in every good word and work ” (2 Thessalonians 2:17).
(8) If we are to be conquerors, we overcome “by the word of their testimony” (Revelation 12:11).
It was no mere coincidence that Hilkiah, the priest, found a “book of the law of the LORD” (2 Chronicles 34:14) because the priest was busy trying to set things in order (2 Kings 22:3-14). The law of God can be lost in the assembly place or home even though a copy of it may be located therein. Hence, the Bible is a lost book to those who neglect it, disbelieve it, or disobey God. As soon as a person has been quickened by the Spirit of God, he is made to realize the importance of the word of God in preserving his salvation. Paul referred the elders in Ephesus “to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified” (Acts 20:32). Both the God of the word and the word of God are identified in this passage. Placing the written word on a level with the incarnate Word, the Divine Being, is improper because that would lessen the glory of the Divine Being. However, the written word, which is the sword of the Spirit (Ephesians 6:17), has the power to accomplish a great work, the conversion and progressive sanctification of the one who has been begotten of God.
Josiah’s piety was demonstrated by his having a tender heart:
Because thine heart was tender, and thou didst humble thyself before God, when thou heardest his words against this place, and against the inhabitants thereof, and humblest thyself before me, and didst rend thy clothes, and weep before me: I have even heard thee also, saith the LORD. Behold, I will gather thee to thy fathers, and thou shalt be gathered to thy grave in peace.... —2 Chronicles 34:27-28
Since all by nature have stony hearts, all the threatenings in the world will do no good. The heart must be wrought upon by the power of God in order to become tender. One with a tender heart desires to know the will of God. Hence, a tender heart implies one’s readiness for spiritual things, a disposition to obey revealed truth, and the desire to make the things of God his chief business. The great things in the life of Josiah have been observed, but sin was displayed in his life when he “hearkened not unto the words of Necho from the mouth of God” (2 Chronicles 35:22). The good King “disguised himself”; that is, he clothed himself falsely. Disguising oneself means undertaking something which contradicts one’s character by dress, speech, or manner of life. Our hearts are so deceptive that while priding ourselves on our subjection to the Scriptures we may, like Josiah, refuse a message from God by a heathen messenger.
Necho, King of Egypt, slew Josiah at Megiddo. Egypt remained the dominant power until the fourth year of Jehoiakim, and in that year Nebuchadnezzar defeated Necho. Following Josiah’s death, all Judah and Jerusalem mourned his death. Although Josiah died at the age of 39, the length of his life did not determine his usefulness.
Surely there is a warning for God’s people in general in the sins of the four good Kings mentioned in Christ’s genealogy. Asa’s sin was relying on the King of Syria and not on God. Jehoshaphat joined affinity with wicked Ahab. Hezekiah sought his own glory in preference to God’s honor. Josiah refused a message from God by a heathen King. The sins of these good Kings were not recorded for our emulation but for a warning.
Spiritual decline continued in Judah, and the people were led into Babylonian captivity while Jehoiachin, grandson of Josiah, was reigning (2 Kings 24:8-16). God caused Judah to be carried away into captivity because of her sin:
Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, unto all that are carried away captives, whom I have caused to be carried away from Jerusalem unto Babylon. —Jeremiah 29:4 The sin was great which induced a loving God to cause His chosen people to be driven away into Babylonian captivity for seventy years. (See Deuteronomy 31:17-18.) The Lord had required Israel to observe every seventh year as a season of Sabbatic rest. This injunction had been practically ignored for four hundred and ninety years. Seventy Sabbatic years had been desecrated; hence, seventy years of captivity in Babylon was Israel’s punishment. The purpose of the captivity was not only to punish but also to reform. God’s people reap what they sow. The captivity taught Judah what it meant to be without the sanctuary, to be deprived of the Scriptures, and to be governed civilly by pagans.
Babylon represents the current system of religion to which many of God’s people have been subjected and to which many are rendering service. Any time Christians take part in a service not ordered by the Spirit of God, they are in spiritual captivity. It is impossible for religious Babylon, which lies in the lap of the Devil (1 John 5:19), and Christians to take common ground before God in worship and service. The heavenly character of God’s people cannot be known by an earthly system. The headship of Jesus Christ cannot be embraced by a totalitarian power of this world’s system. The saints of God cannot serve God in a system that recognizes nothing above the flesh.
Although Israel as a nation was on a downward course, God purposed the return of a remnant. It had been prophesied, and God provided for it by His ways in government. (See Jeremiah 25:1-38; Jeremiah 29:1-32.) God’s people, the Israelites, were cast out but not cast off. The captivity was God’s judgment upon His people for their sins, but it was judgment tempered with mercy. God’s covenant people are not immunized against either sinning or being punished for their sins. Responsibility always accompanies privilege.