King Josiah - Part 2

For insightful perspectives of Israel and Bible prophecy, ask for our free monthly newsletter, the Levitt Letter. When you call, be sure to also ask for our free catalog with the latest videos, books, and music. Our correspondence course, the Institute of Jewish-Christian Studies, includes reading packets, teaching cassettes, and mail-in tests. You may want to join us on an upcoming tour of Israel, Greece, or the Holy Land Experience theme park in Orlando, Florida. Please contact us for more information. Okay, I did leave you on a cliffhanger there. God has promised that He will at least spare Josiah, in effect, the rest of his life. He's only 29, something like that. But, you know, with Hezekiah, several kings before, and he was a good king, he asked the Lord for more lifetime, and the Lord gave him 15 years. And he went on reigning, and successfully, and according to Scripture. But Josiah did not get those, and he was taken out now. So, he's sort of in my category, that is, the Lord says, I'm going to take you now. And he has his reasons, excuse me, and I'm going with Josiah, not with Hezekiah, I guess. I know you're sending so many prayers for me, and so on. It's okay. I mean, of course, it's okay. If it heals, it'll be the healing of the century, because this is not a backache. On the other hand, I don't mind going on, I really don't. Well, the king sent, and they gathered unto him all the elders of Jerusalem and Judea. And the king went up into the house of the Lord, and all the men of Judea, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem with him, and the priests, and the prophets, and all the people, both great and small. I mean, he called a meeting of the whole nation of Israel over finding this Bible. And he read in their ears all the words of the Book of the Covenant, which was found in the house of the Lord. Can you imagine the drama at the temple site, a million people, I don't know, and the king himself, who could read very well, reading it in their ears, nobody could escape hearing all the words of the Book of the Covenant. And the king stood by a pillar and made a covenant before the Lord to walk after the Lord and to keep his commandments, and his testimonies, and his statutes with all their heart and all their soul, to perform the words of this covenant that were written in this book. And all the people stood to the covenant, boy, picture that, people as far as the eye can see, all rising at once and standing to this covenant. And the king commanded Hilkiah, the high priest, and the priests of the second order, and the keepers of the door, to bring forth out of the temple of the Lord all the vessels that were made for Baal, Baal we say sometimes, and for the grove, and for all the hosts of heaven. And he burned them without Jerusalem in the fields of Kidron, and carried the ashes of them unto Bethel. He went across the line into Israel, I mean, it's Judah and Israel at this time, but he couldn't stand the idea that they had a temple up at Bethel, and he went up to there and threw up dead bones and stuff like this on their altar, and he was determined, it says in verse 7, he break down the houses of the sodomites that were by the house of the Lord, and he brought out the priests of the cities of Judah, and defiled the high places where the priests had burned incense from Geva to Beersheba, and break down the high places of the gates that were in the entering of the gate of Joshua, the governor of the city. He just tore the whole place up, he really did. He's had enough of this, and he's going to finish it. I'm going to skip through some verses, but it's a very interesting reading. I'm in 2 Kings 23, 15 here. Moreover, the altar that was at Bethel, and the high place which Cherubim, the son of Nabot, who made Israel a sin, had made, both that altar and the high place, he break down and burned the high place, and stamped its malted powder, and burned the grove, whew. You know, he dug up graves, he caused things to happen around these franchised temples that would put them completely out of business. Because you couldn't pray there anymore once he did it. I'll tell you, a visit from King Josiah to your town was the end of your town pretty much. Verse 21, And the king commanded all the people, saying, Keep the Passover unto the Lord your God, as it is written in the book of this covenant. Wow. You learned about Passover. Well, this is the crown jewel of the Jewish feast. This is the one. You have to have your land clean, or your house clean, everything clean, to do Passover. You have to purge out the leaven, you have to wear white, you have to make a house that is sanctified, just to do the service. I'm not sure they ever were doing Passover, because you lose the directions in the book of it. Maybe they were doing it after some form, but not like this one. Because once he says, Keep the Passover, verse 22, Surely there was not holden such a Passover from the days of the judges that judged Israel, nor in all the days of the kings of Israel, nor of all the kings of Judah. So in the 18th year of King Josiah, we're in this Passover, was holding to the Lord in Jerusalem. He had so cleansed all Israel that it was like somebody's house that has been cleansed foot by foot, and it's in perfect shape to do Passover. Then he calls the people together in verse 25, And like unto him, there was no king before him that turned to the Lord with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his might. He was, according to all the law of Moses, and neither after him arose there any like him. You can win a Bible quiz with the question, Who was the greatest king of Israel? Well, according to this, it was Josiah. Hezekiah did a good job, but they kept being, you know, his son was bad, his son was bad. Then we get to Josiah. The long run of really righteous kings were hard to come by. Toward the end of the chapter, the Lord says in verse 27, I will remove Judah also out of my sight, as I have removed Israel, and will cast off the city of Jerusalem which I have chosen, and the house of which I said, My name shall be there. Verse 29, In his days, Pharaoh Nico, king of Egypt, went up against the king of Assyria to the river Euphrates. This was ordinary Egyptians attacking the inland peoples, the Assyrians of Mesopotamia, and they would take the coastal road up the western coast of Israel and then turn inland at Megiddo and go across the pass. And Josiah didn't like that either. He decided he had enough of pagans going through the land, and king Josiah went against him, and he slew Josiah at Megiddo where he had seen him. This funeral, this cortege says, And his servants carried him in a chariot dead from Megiddo and brought him to Jerusalem and buried him in his own sepulcher. And the people of the land took Johias the son of Josiah and anointed him and made him king at his father's step. I just hate this because as it goes on and you find out the new king goes back to the habits of the old king and all that Josiah accomplished slowly declined and there were nepotism and problems in the temple again. And of course, I guess they didn't lose the Bible again by this time, everybody knew at least we have a copy, we know what it is. I stood there that day, I stood to the covenant, but things didn't get much better back after this. If you had but one word to describe Israel, what would that one word be? Incredible. Fulfillment. Unbelievable. Wow. Shalom.