2 Chronicles 35

2 Chronicles 35:1

35:1-6 Like Hezekiah before him, Josiah encouraged the priests and Levites to carry out their appointed service. They were to put the holy ark back in the temple, organize themselves in their respective divisions, take up their station in the temple, and be cleansed and ready to celebrate the Passover. There are several suggestions as to why the ark had been removed from the temple, and was now to be returned. The priests may have carried it on their shoulders from place to place to protect it from being profaned. Manasseh or some other idolatrous king may have ordered it to be removed. Josiah may have had it removed elsewhere while the temple was being restored. 35:7-19 Since the land was impoverished by the Assyrians, Josiah provided most of the animals for the feast, with other leaders and priests providing what they could. The Mosaic ordinances for the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread were followed to the letter. Amid songs of praise, the king and the people celebrated the most notable Passover . . . since the days of Samuel. It was not the largest or most elaborate, but it was the most pleasing to Jehovah, perhaps because of the quality of the worship. This Passover was held in the same year as the great temple restoration (v. 19; cf. 2Ch_34:8ff). 35:20-24 Nothing is mentioned about the next thirteen years of Josiah’s reign. When he was thirty-nine he went out to fight against Necho king of Egypt. The Egyptian army was on its way to fight alongside the Assyrians against the Babylonians (2Ki_23:29). Josiah could not imagine that God’s hand was behind Necho’s movements and did not inquire of the Lord to see if the pharaoh’s words were true. Although he disguised himself, he was killed in the battle. His people greatly mourned his loss, and those who believed the Word of the Lord knew that with Josiah gone, divine wrath was imminent (2Ch_34:22-28). John Whitcomb comments on these events. Now came one of the strangest episodes in Old Testament history. The heathen king, Necho II of Egypt, informed Josiah that “God hath commanded me to make haste” and that if Josiah interfered with God’s plan, God would destroy him (2Ch_35:21). We would immediately dismiss such a statement as propaganda, of course, were it not for the explanation by the Chronicler that Josiah “hearkened not unto the words of Necho from the mouth of God”! Furthermore, Necho must be believed, for Josiah was killed. What does this mean? Did Josiah lose his salvation because of disobedience?

No, for Huldah had said he would die “in peace” (2Ch_34:28). Was Pharaoh-necho a prophet of Jehovah? No, for God had spoken to pagan kings directly at various times without necessarily transforming their hearts (see Gen_12:17-20; Gen_20:3-7). We may conclude that God wanted to maneuver the Egyptian army to the Euphrates so that Nebuchadnezzar could destroy it as well as the Assyrian army, and thus fulfill His warning that the Babylonians would conquer and chasten Judah (see Jer_25:8-11). 35:25-27 Jeremiah . . . lamented Josiah’s death. The singers remembered him even after the captivity. Josiah was a man of one Book; he lived by the Law of the LORD, and his faithfulness is forever recorded in the Word of the Lord. In Jer_22:16 we read, " ‘He judged the cause of the poor and needy; then it was well. Was not this knowing Me?’ says the LORD." Josiah evidenced by his life that he knew God. He started early to seek the Lord (2Ch_34:3) and carefully obeyed the subsequent light he received. “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 rise like him” (2Ki_23:25).