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2 Kings, chapter 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. 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. 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, 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 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.