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The Reformation Under Josiah

Jim Butler · 2018-04-08 · 2 Kings 23:1–30 · 1,872 words · 10 min

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Summary

Expository

The rediscovery of the word of God is the indispensable engine of true reformation, producing covenant renewal and the thorough removal of false worship, yet no human reformation can avert the just covenant wrath of God accumulated by persistent national apostasy.

Second Kings 23 records the sweeping reformation under King Josiah of Judah, in which the rediscovered book of the law became the instrument of comprehensive covenant renewal and the purging of idolatry from the land. This sermon traces the three decisive movements of that reformation: the public reading of Scripture, the solemn covenant renewal before the Lord, and the thorough removal of all false worship from Jerusalem, Judah, and even the northern territories. Though Josiah's obedience is unrivaled among Israel's kings, the passage closes with the sobering reality that no human reformation, however thorough, can avert the covenant wrath accumulated by persistent apostasy. The abiding lesson is that the word of God received must become the word of God obeyed — hearers must become doers.

Key quotes

It is not laid up in the king's cabinet as a piece of antiquity, a rarity to be admired, but it is read before the king.
The word received will indeed be put into practice.
Both Josiah's father and his grandfather were exceedingly wicked, evil men. And at that particular time, there was no law of the Lord that was being heeded to by the people of God in Judah.

Applications

  1. Receive the written word of God not as a curiosity to be admired but as a living standard to be obeyed in every area of life.
  2. Be doers of the word and not merely hearers, following the pattern of Josiah who responded to the law with immediate, thoroughgoing action.
  3. Pursue the removal of whatever forms of false worship or spiritual compromise have crept into your life, your family, and your community.
  4. Do not presume that personal or corporate reformation guarantees exemption from the consequences of long-accumulated sin — humble yourself before the covenant Lord.
  5. Recognize the central importance of maintaining and restoring the house of God, both the physical assembly and its ordered worship according to Scripture.

Questions this sermon answers

Why was the book of the law lost in Josiah's day?

The speaker suggests the law had not been absent throughout all of Judah's history but had fallen into disuse or been suppressed under the exceedingly wicked reigns of Manasseh and his son Amon, Josiah's father and grandfather.

What did Josiah do when the book of the law was found?

Josiah had the law read publicly before all the people, then led the nation in a solemn covenant renewal before the Lord and proceeded to systematically purge every form of false worship from Jerusalem, Judah, and the former northern territories.

Did Josiah's reformation save Judah from judgment?

No — despite Josiah's unparalleled obedience, the Lord did not turn from his fierce wrath against Judah because of the great provocation caused by Manasseh's sins, and he declared he would remove Judah from his sight as he had removed Israel.

Why is hearing the word of God not enough?

The speaker draws on James to argue that the word received must translate into the word obeyed — Josiah's example is held up as a pattern of someone who heard the law and immediately acted upon it rather than merely admiring it.

How does Josiah compare to other kings of Judah?

The passage declares that before Josiah there was no king who turned to the Lord with all his heart, soul, and might according to all the law of Moses, nor did any arise like him after him; the speaker notes he is also compared favorably to David and described as something of a second Moses.

2 Kings, chapter 23.

Scripture Reading: 2 Kings 23

God willing, we'll return to James 5 next Sunday evening. Tonight we're going to look at the Reformation under Josiah. King Josiah of Judah, he reigned from 640 to 609 BC, and he was one of the few good kings in Judah, and he's compared favorably to David. He's compared favorably as well to the law of Moses.

In fact, he is something of a second Moses as we move through the Josiah narratives. Hezekiah as well was a godly king. He is a second David in many respects. But tonight I want to look at this reformation under Josiah.

So beginning in chapter 23 at verse 1. Now the king sent them to gather all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem to him. The king went up to the house of the Lord with all the men of Judah, and with him all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the priests and the prophets and all the people, both small and great. And he read in their hearing all the words of the book of the covenant, which had been found in the house of the Lord.

Then the king stood by a pillar and made a covenant before the Lord to follow the Lord and to keep His commandments and His testimonies and His statutes with all his heart and all his soul to perform the words of this covenant that were written in this book. And all the people took a stand for the covenant. And the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest, the priests of the second order, and the doorkeepers to bring out of the temple of the Lord all the articles that were made for Baal, for Asherah, and for all the host of heaven. And he burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of Kidron and carried their ashes to Bethel.

Then He removed the idolatrous priests whom the kings of Judah had ordained to burn incense on the high places in the cities of Judah and in the places all around Jerusalem, and those who burned incense to Baal, to the sun, to the moon, to the constellations, and to all the host of heaven. And he brought out the wooden image from the house of the Lord to the brook Kidron outside Jerusalem, burned it at the brook Kidron, and ground it to ashes, and threw its ashes on the graves of the common people. Then he tore down the ritual booths of the perverted persons that were in the house of the Lord, where the women wove hangings for the wooden image. And he brought all the priests from the cities of Judah and defiled the high places where the priests had burned incense, from Geba to Beersheba.

Also he broke down the high places at the gates which were at the entrance of the gate of Joshua, the governor of the city, which were to the left of the city gate. Nevertheless, the priests of the high places did not come up to the altar of the Lord in Jerusalem, but they ate unleavened bread among their brethren. And he defiled Topheth, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, that no man might make his son or his daughter pass through the fire to Molech. Then he removed the horses that the kings of Judah had dedicated to the sun at the entrance to the house of the Lord by the chamber of Nathan Melech, the officer who was in the court.

And he burned the chariots of the sun with fire, the altars that were on the roof, the upper chamber of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and the altars which Manasseh had made in the two courts of the house of the Lord. The king broke down and pulverized there and threw their dust into the brook Kidron. Then the king defiled the high places that were east of Jerusalem, which were on the south of the Mount of Corruption, which Solomon, king of Israel, had built for Ashtoreth, the abomination of the Sidonians, for Chemosh, the abomination of the Moabites, and for Milcom, the abomination of the people of Ammon. And he broke in pieces the sacred pillars and cut down the wooden images and filled their places with the bones of men.

Moreover, the altar that was at Bethel and the high place which Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who made Israel sin, had made, both that altar and the high place he broke down. And he burned the high place and crushed it to powder and burned the wooden image. As Josiah turned, he saw the tombs that were there on the mountains, and he sent and took the bones out of the tombs and burned them on the altar and defiled it according to the word of the Lord, which the man of God proclaimed, who proclaimed these words. Then he said, what gravestone is this that I see?

So the man of the city told him, it is the tomb of the man of God who came from Judah and proclaimed these things, which you have done against the altar of Bethel. And he said, let him alone, let no one move his bones. So they let his bones alone with the bones of the prophet who came from Samaria. Now Josiah also took away all the shrines of the high places that were in the cities of Samaria, which the kings of Israel had made to provoke the Lord to anger.

And he did to them according to all the deeds he had done in Bethel. He executed all the priests of the high places who were there on the altars and burned men's bones on them, and he returned to Jerusalem. Then the king commanded all the people, saying, Keep the Passover to the Lord your God, as it is written in this book of the covenant. Such a Passover surely had never been held since the days of the judges who judged Israel, nor in all the days of the kings of Israel and the kings of Judah.

But in the eighteenth year of King Josiah, this Passover was held before the Lord in Jerusalem. Moreover, Josiah put away those who consulted mediums and spiritists, the household gods and idols, all the abominations that were seen in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, that he might perform the words of the law which were written in the book that Hilkiah the priest found in the house of the Lord. 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 arise like him. Nevertheless, the Lord did not turn from the fierceness of his great wrath, with which his anger was aroused against Judah, because of all the provocations with which Manasseh had provoked him.

And the Lord said, I will also remove Judah from my sight, as I have removed Israel, and will cast off this city, Jerusalem, which I have chosen, and the house of which I said, my name shall be there. Now the rest of the acts of Josiah and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the Chronicles of the kings of Judah? In his days, Pharaoh Necho, king of Egypt, went to the aid of the king of Assyria to the river Euphrates, and king Josiah went against him. And Pharaoh Necho killed him at Megiddo when he confronted him.

Then his servants moved his body in a chariot from Megiddo, brought him to Jerusalem, and buried him in his own tomb. And the people of the land took Jehoahaz, the son of Josiah, anointed him, and made him king in his father's place." Amen.

Opening Prayer

Well, let us pray and ask God's help as we look to this passage of Scripture. Our Father, we thank you for the written word. We thank you for this history of Israel. We thank you, God, for the way that you have informed us of these things so that we may learn, that we may be admonished, that we may be encouraged, that we may be consoled with the knowledge of who you are.

As well, our God, we pray that you would cause us to reflect upon this godly man, Josiah, cause us to reflect upon the reality that the word received will indeed be put into practice. May we learn what James tells us in his book, that we are to be doers of the word, not merely hearers. Give us grace in these things and give us the Holy Spirit now to guide, to lead, to direct and strengthen us. And we pray through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Amen.

Introduction

Well, to fully appreciate and understand the Reformation under Josiah, we need to go back to chapter 22, at least to discover what Josiah discovered. If you look at chapter 22, specifically in verses 3 to 20,

Discovery of the Book of the Law

they discovered the book of the law. Josiah gave orders to fix the temple. This is similar to what Joash had done previously, and this shows concern for the house of God. We see a desire to restore the house to what it was supposed to be, the way Deuteronomy chapter 12 had mandated, that there would be a central sanctuary for the worshipers in Israel, but it had fallen into disrepair.

As I read through chapter 23, you can see why it had fallen into disrepair. There was great wickedness in the land of Judah at that particular time. So, Josiah gives the order to rebuild, to refix, to do maintenance on the house of the Lord. In the midst of this, Hilkiah finds the law of God.

He finds the book of the law. Now, we ought to understand that it probably wasn't absent throughout the entirety of the history of Judah, for Hezekiah was a godly man. There were a few other godly kings. Asa was another godly man.

But probably the reference to this finding of the law means that it had gone away or had been misused or disused under Manasseh and Ammon. So both Josiah's father and his grandfather were exceedingly wicked, evil men. And at that particular time, there was no law of the Lord that was that was being heeded to by the people of God in Judah or by Judah. And so this law is discovered.

It is read to Josiah. Notice specifically in chapter twenty two at the end of verse ten and Shaphan read it before the king. Now, Matthew Henry makes this observation. With reference to the finding of the law, he says, it is not laid up in the king's cabinet as a piece of antiquity, a rarity to be admired, but

The Word Read Before the King

it is read before the king. They don't immediately think, hey, we can sell it on eBay or we can sell it on 24-hour bidding. We can fetch a good price for this law of Yahweh that was missing and is now found.

Scripture References

Study notes

Theological terms

  • Book of the Law×6
  • Covenant Renewal×2
  • Covenant Wrath
  • High Places×4
  • Idolatry×5
  • Reformation×4
  • Regulative Principle

People cited

  • Matthew Henry