SERIES: Enlightening Epitaphs of the Kings and Prophets
Josiah: “I Have Found the Book of the Law in the Temple!”
Introduction: Have you ever thought about the difference one good leader can make? We come today in our series on the kings and prophets of Israel to Josiah, the last good king of Judah. There were only eight kings out of 20 who could be called “good” in any sense of the word, but Josiah was one of the best. He was a remarkable exception to the ungodliness that characterized Judah during its final century of existence–from the beginning of Manasseh’s reign in 686 B.C. to the destruction of Jerusalem exactly 100 years later in 586 B.C. He is best known for rediscovering the Word of God and restoring it to its rightful place of prominence in the spiritual life of the people.
Historical background to Josiah’s reign
Josiah was eight years old when he became king and he reigned for 31 years, dying in battle at the age of 39. His grandfather was Manasseh, “the king with a nose ring,” and his father was Amon. You will recall from last Sunday’s message that Manasseh, who reigned longer than any other king of Judah or Israel, wasted most of his 55 years as king in a life of sin and idolatry and wickedness. He did repent while shackled in a Babylonian prison, and God graciously forgave him and restored him to his homeland and to his kingdom, but it was too late for him to have much positive influence on his son Amon.
Listen to the brief account of Amon’s life, as found in 2 Chronicles 33:21-25:
Amon was twenty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem two years. He did evil in the eyes of the LORD, as his father Manasseh had done. Amon worshiped and offered sacrifices to all the idols Manasseh had made. But unlike his father Manasseh, he did not humble himself before the LORD: Amon increased his guilt.
Amon’s officials conspired against him and assassinated him in his palace. Then the people of the land killed all who had plotted against King Amon, and they made Josiah his son king in his place.
If Amon was 22 when he became king, and if he died when he was 24, then he must have fathered Josiah when he was 16, for Josiah was eight when he became king. Not a very auspicious beginning for this young boy Josiah! To be born to a rebellious teenager and then to witness his father’s assassination at the tender age of 8 (the text says Amon was assassinated in his palace) could have set Josiah off on a path of anger and revenge. But we read instead that his life was characterized this way: “He did what was right in the eyes of the LORD and walked in the ways of his father David, not turning aside to the right or to the left” (2 Chronicles 34:2). That is a profound statement regarding the spiritual condition of this young king. No doubt he had mentors who helped him with the affairs of state in his early years, but they could not control his heart. He personally had to determine which direction he would go. And he went for God with his whole heart.
I think it’s possible for us to identify …
Five influences that enabled Josiah to make a difference, even as a teenager.
I want to stress that he was just a kid when the responsibility for this nation was thrust upon him. Is there anyone here who has an eight-year-old you would like to see become the President of the United States? How about a teenager? Even less enthusiasm, I suspect. I understand. Nevertheless, I think both teens and their parents often minimize the potential young people have to make a difference in their world. I hope that’s beginning to change at First Free. The fact that so many of our kids have been going on mission trips, with some going back again and again, is a signal they realize God can use them in some unique ways. Some of our kids are leading their friends to Christ and making a significant impact on their high school campuses.
One of our young men, Adam Erwin, who just graduated from college in December even published a book this Spring entitled “Navigating the Road Ahead,” providing excellent spiritual counsel to other kids who are just entering the college experience. That’s a major project for a 22-year-old! Yes friends, young people can make a difference, a huge difference for good in their world! Here are five things that helped Josiah have such an impact:
A godly mother. 2 Chronicles says nothing about Josiah’s mother, but 2 Kings 22 does. We read there that “his mother’s name was Jedidah, daughter of Adaiah. She was from Bozkath.” Then immediately the author adds, “He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord….” Women are rarely included in genealogical lists, though by all rights they should have been! When they were included, it was generally to make a special point. We know almost nothing about Jedidah, but her name means “beloved of God, beloved of Jehovah.” Chuck Swindoll writes,
The inclusion of the name Jedidah in the genealogical record makes a subtle statement about this boy Josiah: Although he had a godless father, he had a wise, godly mother. I think it was Abraham Lincoln who said, “No person is poor who has had a godly mother.” Josiah was, therefore, a rich little boy.1
That may be reading a little too much into just the meaning of a name, but perhaps not, for how else could this boy have turned so quickly to the Lord in such a traumatic time?
Let me stop for a moment and address the young people in the audience this morning. If you have a godly mother, do you realize how rich that makes you? I know there are times when your mother irritates you. I know you are tempted at times to be disrespectful. But I want to challenge you today to thank your mother and tell her how much you appreciate her godliness, her unconditional love for you, and her commitment to lead you in a godly path. And my point is not to diminish the influence of fathers. It’s just that Josiah didn’t have one of those, but he still made it because of his mother. The richest child, of course, is the one who has a godly mother and a godly father, if that child responds to their influence with personal godliness.
A personal decision. In 2 Chronicles 34:3 we read that “in the eighth year of his reign, while he was still young, he began to seek the God of his father David.” A little elementary math would indicate that Josiah was either 15 or 16 years old when he began to seek God. I don’t know if this is describing his conversion or a time of re-commitment of his life in service to God. It seems to me that a large percentage of the young people who grow up in the church experience some kind of spiritual crisis in their teen years. If they respond to that crisis by seeking God and either recommitting their lives or dedicating themselves to His service, they find their spiritual walk rising to a whole new level and they begin to make a difference.
One of the great values of Christian camps and mission trips and retreats is that these opportunities allow kids to get away from the normal peer pressure and busyness of life in order to do business with God and experience Him in an intimate way.
Later in the same verse the author gives us another time marker. He says,
In his twelfth year (he’s now 19 or 20) he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem of high places, Asherah poles, carved idols and cast images. Under his direction the altars of the Baals were torn down; he cut to pieces the incense altars that were above them, and smashed the Asherah poles, the idols and the images. These he broke to pieces and scattered over the graves of those who had sacrificed to them. He burned the bones of the priests on their altars, and so he purged Judah and Jerusalem.
Apparently he dug up the graves of idolatrous priests and burned their bones on the idol altars. It is clear he meant business when it came to getting rid of idolatry.
By the way, what Josiah did here was a very specific fulfillment of a prophecy given some 300 years before when Jeroboam was the first king of the Northern Kingdom. You will perhaps recall that Jeroboam built golden calves in several northern cities in order to keep people from traveling to the Temple in Jerusalem, worried that if they went to Jerusalem their loyalties to the Southern Kingdom might be re-ignited. In 1 Kings 13:2 we read of a prophecy given against Jeroboam:
By the word of the LORD a man of God came from Judah to Bethel, as Jeroboam was standing by the altar to make an offering. He cried out against the altar by the word of the LORD: “O altar, altar! This is what the LORD says: ‘A son named Josiah will be born to the house of David. On you he will sacrifice the priests of the high places who now make offerings here, and human bones will be burned on you.’”
I’ll tell you something, friends, the prophetic Word is absolutely reliable. If God says it, it will happen, and it will happen just like He says.2
The next time marker in Josiah’s life finds him at age 25 or 26. Verse 8 says, “In the eighteenth year of Josiah’s reign, to purify the land and the temple, he sent … three leaders … to repair the temple of the LORD his God.” He’s no longer a teenager but he’s still a young man. Up to this point he has been engaged largely in demolition–tearing down the evil influences of his father and grandfather; now it’s time for rebuilding. Sometimes you have to tear down before you can rebuild. Some structures are so flawed that unless they are cleared away, there is no hope for improving them.
I’m a remodeler at heart. I love taking a house or a part of a house and seeing what I can do to renew it. But you never know what you’re going to find under old sheet rock. You have to be prepared to remove 2 x 4’s and joists that have dry rot in them, because if you just cover them up with new sheet rock, eventually you’re going to have cracks or worse. That’s true spiritually as well. You have to get rid of the old leaven, the corruption, the bad habits, the secret sins, the idolatry before you can rebuild God’s temple, which is identified in 1 Corinthians 6:19 as the believer’s own body.
The last king to put major resources into the repair of Solomon’s temple was Joash, and he had died 175 years before. Do you remember the Joash chest we talked about that he used to raise money for the temple repairs? I told you about a Joash chest that was used at Old Orchard Chapel in Webster Groves back in the late 50’s when I was just a kid.
Well, two weeks ago when I returned from our family reunion, I found this little chest in my office. It had attached this note from Barbara Brooks Rice, who also grew up in that church, though I hasten to add she is several years younger than I:
Dear Mike,
A few weeks ago you had a sermon in which you mentioned the Joash Chest that was at Old Orchard. I remembered that chest also, and when Old Orchard was sold to the P.C.A,. my father was given the chest to use at Mt. Olive Bible Church where he was preaching at the time. When Mt. Olive was later sold, the Joash Chest moved to my parents’ basement and has been there for over 20 years. As I am cleaning out the house following my mom’s death, I am finding things which bring back nice memories. I felt this Joash Chest had been in retirement long enough and so I am giving it to you to use or give to one of the churches which you feel can use it.
Barbara Rice
Thanks, Barbara, for that special memory.
One hundred years after Joash, Hezekiah also did some work on the temple. He repaired the doors, cleaned out the idols, restored the sacred furniture, and purified the worship. But then 57 years of near total neglect under Manasseh and Amon left the temple in need of major repair. Josiah made sure that sufficient money was available to do the work. He also set up a system with trusted men to supervise the work and pay the workers. The Levites served as supervisors, secretaries, scribes and doorkeepers.
The financial resources drew special attention from the chronicler, because in the processing of the funds a major discovery was made. And that brings us to a third major influence in Josiah’s early life that enabled him to make a difference as a leader:
An open Book. Listen to these words from verse 14:
While they were bringing out the money that had been taken into the temple of the LORD, Hilkiah the priest found the Book of the Law of the LORD that had been given through Moses. Hilkiah said to Shaphan the secretary, “I have found the Book of the Law in the temple of the LORD.” He gave it to Shaphan.
Then Shaphan took the book to the king and reported to him: “Your officials are doing everything that has been committed to them. They have paid out the money that was in the temple of the LORD and have entrusted it to the supervisors and workers.” Then Shaphan the secretary informed the king, “Hilkiah the priest has given me a book.” And Shaphan read from it in the presence of the king.
When the king heard the words of the Law, he tore his robes.
I have another story about Old Orchard Chapel (you’ll have to pardon me, but as people get older, their minds go back toward childhood more often). That century-old stone church building sits at the corner of Amelia and Fairlawn in north Webster. When my dad was pastor there, the church basement was only partially finished; the fellowship hall and church office just had a crawl space underneath. Later the crawl space was dug out to provide more classrooms, but when I was a kid it was dark and damp and served as a storage area for various and sundry boxes and files and old furniture. Those who know my penchant for caves will not be surprised that I loved that crawl space.
One day while exploring with a flashlight I discovered the original pulpit Bible that was used when the church was founded in 1890-something. It contained a record of important events like christenings and weddings and funerals. I was fascinated and thought I had made a major discovery, but it was of only mild interest to my father. After all, the building had belonged to another denomination back then, and there was no connection between those records and our congregation in the early 50’s. Besides, we were a Bible Church and all of us had multiple Bibles, so the only thing unique about that Bible was the hand-written entries.
But imagine if we were not a Bible church and didn’t have Bibles of our own, but rather were a church that gathered every Sunday, not to hear God’s Word but to hear social and political commentary and exhortations to be nice and do good works from a clergyman who wasn’t even a Christian himself. Imagine someone finding a Bible in the basement of that kind of church and bringing it to the pastor and asking, “What is this? It looks like our ancestors used it in worship. It looks like it records some major spiritual commitments. Why don’t we read the Bible anymore?”
Sadly, there are many churches today, perhaps even a majority, where the Word of God is as absent as in the imaginary church I have just described. At the very most the Bible has a ceremonial place. I remember a mainline church in Kansas City where Jan and I attended when we were first married. We went there as under cover missionaries so I could teach an adult Sunday School class. Every Sunday the pastor would read a passage from the big pulpit Bible, and then in his flowing robes he would ceremonially close the Bible and put it on a shelf inside the pulpit, and there it stayed while he waxed eloquently on the virtues of evolution or poetry or left-wing politics or some such topic.
For all practical purposes the Bible had disappeared from that church, and when at the young age of 20 (and with very little skill) I started teaching the Bible as best I could, the people’s hearts were stirred, and they began to wonder out loud why their pastor didn’t preach from the Bible. Not surprisingly I didn’t last very long there, but I’ll never forget that one of the elderly couples slipped me an envelope on my last Sunday thanking me for teaching the truth and enclosed was a $100 bill! That was a huge blessing for Jan and me as we were struggling through Bible College in 1964!
The one issue above all others that helped Josiah make a difference as a leader was the open Book, the rediscovery of God’s Word. That is what led to repentance; that is what led to revival; that is what postponed the judgment of the Lord for one more generation. One scholar has written wisely,
Despite the fact that God’s people were fickle, that the priests and rulers were often godless, and that many of the perils threatened the destruction of the written word of God, it did not perish. It survived the indifference of its friends, the ravages of time, and the willful plans of Satan…. The Bible will survive; of this we have no doubt. But will the generation that loses knowledge of it? This is our concern.3
Now a fourth major influence that enabled Josiah to make a difference as a leader was …
A responsive and humble heart. After Josiah heard the Word of God (and, by the way, only a small portion of God’s Word was written and available at that time. This Book of the Law was probably the five books of Moses, the Pentateuch–Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Number, and Deuteronomy, but perhaps just the Book of Deuteronomy) … as I was saying, after Josiah heard the Word of God for probably the very first time in his life at age 26, he not only tore his robes in anguish; he also sent the high priest to inquire of the Lord as to the meaning of what he heard. This much he knew: his people were not measuring up in any way to what he was hearing. Here’s what Josiah said:
Go and inquire of the LORD for me and for the remnant in Israel and Judah about what is written in this book that has been found. Great is the LORD’s anger that is poured out on us because our fathers have not kept the word of the LORD; they have not acted in accordance with all that is written in this book.
The high priest responded by contacting a prophetess named Huldah. And here is the message she sent to the king:
“This is what the LORD, the God of Israel says: Tell the man who sent you to me, ‘This is what the LORD says: I am going to bring disaster on this place and its people–all the curses written in the book that has been read in the presence of the king of Judah. Because they have forsaken me and burned incense to other gods and provoked me to anger by all that their hands have made, my anger will be poured out on this place and will not be quenched.’ Tell the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of the LORD, ‘This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says concerning the words you heard: Because your heart was responsive and you humbled yourself before God when you heard what he spoke against this place and its people, and because you humbled yourself before me and tore your robes and wept in my presence, I have heard you, declares the LORD. Now I will gather you to your fathers, and you will be buried in peace. Your eyes will not see all the disaster I am going to bring on this place and on those who live here.’”
I suspect Josiah received very little joy from this message. He would not see the destruction of his nation, but it would nevertheless happen in the near future.4 This message motivated him to call the nation to repentance so that possibly the judgment might yet be averted. But he knew that repentance had to start with himself, and that brings us to the fifth and final influence that enabled him to make a difference:
A commitment to obedience. Beginning in verse 29 we read how the king called together all the leaders and went up to the Temple. Before all the people he personally read to them the Word of God. Then he stood and made a covenant “to follow the LORD and keep his commands, regulations and decrees with all his heart and all his soul, and to obey the words of the covenant written in this book” (34:31). Not only did he take this action personally; it goes on to say, “Then he had everyone in Jerusalem and Benjamin pledge themselves to it” (34:32). He also “had all who were present in Israel serve the Lord their God, and as long as he lived, they did not fail to follow the Lord, the God of their fathers” (34:33). Are you beginning to grasp the difference you can make as a godly leader–in your home, at work, in your church, or even in your nation?
The next chapter tells us that when Josiah was 26 years of age, he demonstrated his obedience by celebrating Passover in Jerusalem. Passover had been neglected entirely since Hezekiah’s day, and this was such a notable event that the account of it takes up most of chapter 35. By calling the whole nation to observe Passover, Josiah was acknowledging that sin could only be atoned by blood sacrifice. And I would say to us today that any efforts toward revival and renewal in God’s church are condemned to failure without a similar focus on the fact that sin is forgiven only by a blood sacrifice–the ultimate sacrifice that Christ made for us. People must get right with God before they can clean up their lives, and the only way to get right with God is to come to Him by way of the cross.
Now there is one final chapter in Josiah’s life that is both strange and troubling.
One fatal mistake that shortened Josiah’s life and hastened the end of the nation
Allow me to read the account and then comment briefly. 2 Chronicles 35:20-24:
After all this, when Josiah had set the temple in order, Neco king of Egypt went up to fight at Carchemish on the Euphrates, and Josiah marched out to meet him in battle. But Neco sent messengers to him, saying, “What quarrel is there between you and me, O king of Judah? It is not you I am attacking at this time, but the house with which I am at war. God has told me to hurry; so stop opposing God, who is with me, or he will destroy you.”
Josiah, however, would not turn away from him, but disguised himself to engage him in battle. He would not listen to what Neco had said at God’s command but went to fight him on the plain of Megiddo.
Archers shot King Josiah, and he told his officers, “Take me away; I am badly wounded.” So they took him out of his chariot, put him in the other chariot he had and brought him to Jerusalem, where he died. He was buried in the tombs of his fathers, and all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for him.
Let me briefly rehearse the events here. The king of Egypt is heading to battle to help the Assyrians stop the progress of the Babylonians, who were fast becoming the dominant power in the region. Josiah feels threatened and goes out to stop him. The king of Egypt makes it clear that he has no quarrel with Josiah, and in addition he claims God has told him to hurry and that if Josiah slows him down, he will be opposing God. Josiah refuses to listen and ends up losing his life.
What is the lesson here? Could it be that Josiah became a man of the Book to the exclusion of becoming a man of the Spirit? You see, God does not speak only through the Bible; He also speaks through people, through circumstances, through wise counsel, through pain, and through many other ways. I would never ascribe the same level of authority to any of these other sources as I do the Word of God. But acknowledging that they have less authority is not equivalent to saying we should not listen to them at all.
But, you say, why should a leader of God’s people have any reason to believe that a pagan Egyptian king is speaking for God? Yet apparently Neco was, for the Chronicler says, “He would not listen to what Neco had said at God’s command.” (35:22). The writer of Chronicles assumed his audience knew other information that authenticated the divine origin of Neco’s message. Interestingly enough, an apocryphal explanation appears in 1 Esdras 1:26 where Jeremiah is said to have confirmed that Neco’s words were from God. This is quite feasible, for Josiah certainly had prophets around him, and a message from an approaching enemy would have motivated him to seek confirmation from the prophets. But if this is true, Josiah refused to listen to his own prophets, and he paid for it with his life.
I believe God would have us be sensitive not only to His Word, but also to the voice of His Spirit as He speaks in a variety of ways to us. Always (and I can’t emphasize this too much), always we must compare what those other voices say to the Word of God, for the Spirit of God will never contradict the Word of God. But let us not get into the frame of mind that the Bible is all we need. We also need others–their wisdom, their counsel, their encouragement, and occasionally their rebuke.
Conclusion: Well, we have come to the end of our epitaphs of individual leaders of God’s people. We have seen an incredible variety of messages on the tombstones of the kings of Israel and Judah–mostly negative but a few positive. We have seen the epitaph of . . .
Solomon: “I Intend to Build a Temple for the Name of the Lord My God.”
Rehoboam: “He Rejected the Advice the Elders Gave.”
Asa: “He Did not Seek Help from the Lord, But Only from the Physicians.”
Jehoshaphat: “There Is Some Good in You.”
Jehoram: “He Passed Away to No One’s Regret.”
Joash: “Because You Have Forsaken the Lord, He Has Forsaken You.”
Amaziah: “He Did What Was Right in the Eyes of the Lord, But Not Wholeheartedly.”
Uzziah: “Pride Led to His Downfall.”
Ahaz: “In Time of Trouble He Became Even More Unfaithful.”
Hezekiah: “He Sought His God and Worked Wholeheartedly. And So He Prospered.”
Manasseh: The King with a Nose Ring.
Josiah: “I Have Found the Book of the Law in the Temple.”
What will your epitaph be? What impact are you making on your generation? Friends, the time to think about that is now, when you still have a chance to make a difference. It has been said that only two things from this world are going to survive until the next: the Word of God and people. The leaders whose epitaphs are positive and noble and encouraging are those who seemed to understand that. They staked their lives on God’s Word and they cared enough for the people they led to pursue repentance and revival for the nation.
Prayer: Lord, may we at First Free never abandon Your Word or Your Spirit. May the Bible never be found buried in the basement of our church. Rather, will you help us to count Your Word as more precious than gold. May we obey it, and then impact the people around us with its truths. And may it never become an end in itself, but always a bridge to the Living Word, Jesus Christ, through the power of Your Holy Spirit. Amen.
DATE: September 22, 2002
Tags:
Godly mother
Book of the Law
Obedience
1. Chuck Swindoll, “A Teenager Who Made a Difference,” from Insights, 1984, 10.
2. In verses 6 & 7 an interesting item of information is provided, namely that Josiah did not limit his reforms to his own nation of Judah. He also went north, to the old territory of Israel (now occupied and ruled by Assyria but with some Jewish people still living there) and tore down the altars and crushed the idols there also. All the tribes mentioned in verse 6 were tribes of the now-defunct northern kingdom.
3. C. E. Autry, Revivals of the Old Testament, 34, cited by Walter C. Kaiser, Quest for Renewal, 120.
4. Interestingly, Hezekiah received a similar message 75 years earlier, but his response was very different from Josiah’s. When told that tragedy would strike his nation but not during his lifetime, Hezekiah reacted very selfishly. Listen to the account from Isaiah 39:5-8:
Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of the LORD Almighty: The time will surely come when everything in your palace, and all that your fathers have stored up until this day, will be carried off to Babylon. Nothing will be left, says the LORD. And some of your descendants, your own flesh and blood who will be born to you, will be taken away, and they will become eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.”
“The word of the LORD you have spoken is good,” Hezekiah replied. For he thought, “There will be peace and security in my lifetime.”
In other words, his attitude was that as long as he didn’t personally have to suffer, he didn’t care about his descendants. When Josiah, on the other hand, got the news that God was extending grace to him but the nation would suffer later, responded by trying even harder to get the nation to repent.