For those who study the value of numbers in the Scriptures, we find three eights among these, two tens and a twelve. Eight is the resurrection number, showing God’s power. Ten is the number of human responsibility. Twelve, of course, is the number of government. We see each of these principles at work in this man, the best of Judah’s kings.
The Mother
Mothers are important. They form the character of their child in its earliest years, affecting, for a son, what he will be like and do when he becomes a man. For example, Jezebel and Athaliah were evil and influenced their times and families, plunging the northern kingdom into lawlessness and idolatry. But Josiah’s mother’s name, Jedidah, means “beloved” and tells us that a loving woman brought up her young son in a loving home. This is so important, for we see that an unloved child often becomes cruel and lawless.
In Josiah’s case, he also had a grandfather whose name Adaiah means “adorned by Jehovah.” These two individuals experienced the idolatry of Manasseh’s reign and then the brief and disastrous reign of Amon, who was assassinated after two short years. Jedidah and Adaiah are not mentioned in 2 Kings by chance. Their names are there because God desired to recognized the faithful service they performed in bringing up the little boy to be a righteous king (2 Ki. 22:1).
We may be reminded of two people in the New Testament: the mother and grandmother who brought up Timothy for the Lord. He eventually worked with and for the apostle Paul. Paul wrote to Timothy reminding him of “the unfeigned [sincere] faith which is in thee, which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois and in thy mother Eunice” (2 Tim. 1:5 KJV, Also see 3:14-16).
Purging The Land
After reforms and the miraculous defeat and death of Sennacherib’s army, Hezekiah died. At the end of his life he had made the mistake of entertaining the Babylonian envoys who were apparently recruiting allies for their planned rebellion against Assyria. This took place later when Babylon joined forces with the Medes. After Hezekiah’s death, idolatry once more took over in Judah, and the worship of Jehovah was forgotten, perverted and blended in with the worship of the gods of the nations.
With idolatry came a mass of evil, cruel and twisted practices. But Josiah had received a godly upbringing. First, in the eighth year of his reign, “he began to seek after the God of David his father.” Then in the twelfth year, presumably after he had drawn closer to the Lord GOD of Israel, “he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem” (2 Ki. 23:1-19; 2 Chr. 34:3-7). There was a prolonged period of cleansing the land from the foul fertility gods and their high places. In the middle of this activity, while repairing the temple, the book of the law was found. Reading it gave the whole movement of reform added momentum.
A Book Found
Hilkiah showed this book to Shaphan, one of the king’s scribes. Shaphan took the book to the king and read it before him. Josiah’s response was one of horror for the sins of his people. He tore his clothes in repentance and immediately sent his servants to consult the prophetess. She did not mince her words: Judgment was inevitable, but not in Josiah’s time.
Today, the judgments of the end times threaten as the world staggers at the news of “wars and rumours of wars” (Mt. 24:6-8). And yet, how many of us have relegated the Bible to the storage rooms of our minds? How often do we neglect the reading of God’s sacred Word? Do we, then, frequently follow the customs of men instead of striking out afresh along the way which God has shown us?
According to Scripture, men have the leadership role among the people of God (1 Cor. 11:2-16; Eph. 5:22-33; 1 Tim. 2:8-3:13). But it may often be the case in times of decline that the women are more faithful than the men. Huldah was one of these. Her name means “mole,” which produces the idea of a tiny, nearsighted woman. God uses the weak, the poor and the unlikely (See 1 Corinthians 1:26-29). Through an envoy, she told Josiah what God wanted him to know. It was not a pleasant or easy message, but it gave the young king encouragement. Then the king read the book to all the people (2 Chr. 34:29-32).
The House Of God
Solomon’s temple was the one place in the whole world where God was to be worshiped. It was the place where Jehovah, the Creator and covenant God, had chosen to set His Name (See Deuteronomy 12:1-7).
Just as Josiah cleansed the temple Solomon had built – “made with hands” – so God expects us to cleanse that which we have in our day. The Lord Jesus said, “Where two or three are gathered together unto My Name, there am I in the midst of them” (Mt. 18:20). We look forward to that day when the whole company of the redeemed, “the Body,” will be gathered to Him who is our Head.
Josiah called all his people together, all who could get to the temple site. There he personally read the book of the law aloud to the assembled people. Everyone, without exception, heard the Word of God. The work of reform went on speedily. Idolatry was stamped out. The priests of the heathen gods were put down and the temple worship was reestablished. None of this could have been fully achieved had not the people, at that time, been in agreement with the king and his ministers. We must follow this example.
Jeremiah asked, “Who has stood in the counsel of the LORD, and has perceived and heard His Word? Who has marked His Word and heard it?” (Jer. 23:18). We probably do not need someone to read aloud to us or go, like some of our ancestors, to a church where we might gather together to read a chained Bible. Most of us have Bibles in our homes, but one wonders how many of us have the Bible in our hearts. Ezekiel tells how God will convert Israel at the end of this age, after the day of the LORD: “Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you and you shall be clean. From all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you” (Ezek. 36:25-27). Concerning the new covenant which God will make with Israel at that time, Jeremiah wrote: “I will put My law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts, and will be their God. And they shall be My people” (Jer. 31:33). We who are believers have new hearts and new spirits already, but it is only by careful study of the Bible that we enable God to write the Word of God in our hearts.
A Passover To Remember
Finding the Word of God in the temple was a turning point for Israel at that time and the keeping of Passover was the high point of Josiah’s reign. Keeping Passover marks a new beginning. Passover signifies the time when we realized that “Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us” (1 Cor. 5:7). As the original Passover held in Egypt was the beginning for Israel, so the reviving and keeping of the festival in Josiah’s day brought the people back to a fresh start. Sadly, for Josiah’s kingdom it all seemed to fade away and his reign ended in weeping.
None of us is perfect. All of us “fall short,” and Josiah and his people were like the rest of us. In all the attempts at reform in the Bible, none of them is complete. Consider what the good king Jehoshaphat did – something that Josiah should have done:
That there is no record of Josiah’s doing this may be one of the causes of the rapid decline as soon as his reign was over. There must be a heart change in all the people, rather than a political and social change imposed by a government.
The Death Of Josiah
Like many rulers before and after, Josiah began to have ideas beyond his own area of responsibility. It was his job to protect his people. Perhaps incensed at the Egyptian king’s intrusion into his land, or perhaps having ideas of seeking favor from the rising Babylonian Empire, Josiah went to war with Pharaoh Necho. In spite of the assurances of the Egyptian king, Josiah thought he could take on the might of the second greatest Near and Middle Eastern war machine – that of the Pharoah of Egypt. Josiah was defeated, he died and was mourned. The kingdom descended into disorder and then the dominance of Egypt, and later Babylon.
A Final Caution
The apostle Paul was well aware of these things and that even the best of us are liable to make mistakes. With maturity and success in the Christian life there may come overconfidence. Pride, jealousy and a tendency to rely on our own achievements rather than on God are likely to cause us to fall.
Paul spoke wise words when he said, “I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection; lest that, by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should become a castaway” (1 Cor. 9:27). Paul was not saying that it might be possible for him or anyone else to lose their salvation. That, at least, is assured for it is the Lord Jesus who has bought us with His precious blood. However we may lose out on the rewards and the crowns which God wishes to bestow upon us (See 1 Corinthians 3:12-15).
May we live to His honor and glory, even to the end!
By Roger Penney