2 Chronicles 34

2 Chronicles 34:1

P. King Josiah (Chaps. 34, 35)34:1-7 The idolatrous altars which Manasseh had removed from the city (2Ch_33:15) had been brought back by Amon and the people. In the eighth year of his reign the teenaged King Josiah . . . began to seek the God of his father David. Four years later he started his reforms. Josiah made sure that the same mistake would not be made again, so he completely destroyed everything connected with idolatry and burned it or ground it to powder. He extended his reforms to the farthest reaches of Israel. 34:8-18 Like the great reformers before him, he soon turned his attention to repairing the temple. A copy of the Book of the Law was subsequently found and read . . . before the king. Every major or minor revival of true faith has involved a rediscovery of the teaching of the Word of God. The great Reformation of the sixteenth century was no exception. 34:19-28 Josiah took its warnings seriously and sent to Huldah the prophetess to see if there was still a chance for mercy. Her words only confirmed that God’s wrath was on the way. However, Josiah would be spared from seeing Judah’s day of calamity because his heart was tender and he humbled himself and believed the Word of the Lord. 34:29-32 Even though Josiah knew that judgment was inevitable, he still gathered . . . the people and entered into a covenant with the LORD. He set the Word of God before the people so that they might understand how grave their situation was and see the deep need for repentance. 34:33 Because of his strong leadership, he was able to promote fidelity to the LORD throughout his lifetime. The contents of verse 33 are treated in much greater detail in 2Ki_23:4-20. The reform that followed the finding of the law and the making of the covenant was even more thorough than Josiah’s first purge of his kingdom.