King Josiah

2 Chronicles 34-35 and 2 Kings 22-23

 

Major Acts

Sought after the Lord and did right in His sight

Fulfilled the prophecy of burning the priests bones on the idolatrous altar of 1 Kings 13:2

Purged Judah and Jerusalem from the idolatry, high places, etc.

Tore his clothes and humbled himself when he heard the Law of the Lord

Had the temple repaired and made a covenant before the Lord

Held a great Passover like none other in all the days of Israel

Was killed because he chose to fight someone who had no fight with him

 

Family Background

The grandfather of King Josiah of Judah was King Manasseh (2 Chronicles 33). Manasseh began his reign at age twelve and was very wicked; he and the people of Judah refused to hearken when the Lord spoke to them. So then “the Lord brought upon them the captains of the host of the king of Assyria,” and they took him captive to Babylon. Then Manasseh finally “humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers, and prayed unto him,” and the Lord brought him back to Jerusalem in his kingdom. “Then Manasseh knew that the Lord he was God.” And he removed the idols from the people and the temple, repaired the altar of the Lord, and sacrificed peace and thank offerings. Then Manasseh died and was succeeded by Amon his son.

Amon was the father of King Josiah. Amon began to reign at age twenty-two and was very wicked, just as his father had been in the beginning. He “humbled not himself before the Lord, as Manasseh his father had humbled himself; but Amon trespassed more and more.” Then some of his servants conspired against him and slew him, and the people made Josiah his son king in his place.

 

 

Josiah's Story

Josiah Prophesied

(1 Kings 12:26 through 13:6)

Jeroboam took over the northern kingdom (Israel), leaving only Judah to Rehoboam the son of Solomon. King Jeroboam worried, however, that the people would return to Rehoboam if they went up to Jerusalem to sacrifice, so he made two idols (in the form of calves) for the people to worship and set up altars in Bethel and in Dan.

And there came a “man of God out of Judah by the word of the Lord unto Bethel” as Jeroboam stood by the altar to burn incense. And the man of God “cried against the altar in the word of the Lord, and said, O altar, altar, thus saith the Lord; Behold, a child shall be born unto the house of David, Josiah by name; and upon thee shall he offer the priests of the high places that burn incense upon thee, and men's bones shall be burnt upon thee.” And he gave a sign from the Lord that the altar would be rent, and the ashes upon be poured out.

And when Jeroboam heard what the man of God had said, “he put forth his hand from the altar, saying, Lay hold on him. And his hand, which he put forth against him, dried up, so that he could not pull it in again to him. The altar also was rent, and the ashes poured out from the altar, according to the sign which the man of God had given by the word of the Lord.” That is the way in which King Josiah of Judah was prophesied.

 

Josiah's Life

(2 Chronicles 34-35 and 2 Kings 22-23)

“Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned in Jerusalem one and thirty years. And he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, and walked in the ways of David his father, and declined neither to the right hand, nor to the left. For in the eighth year of his reign,” when he was sixteen years old, “he began to seek after the God of David his father: and the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem from the high places, and the groves, and the carved images, and the molten images.” (2 Chron. 34:1-3)

He broke down and smashed into dust the altars and the idols. Also “he burnt the bones of the priests upon their altars” (2 Chron. 34:5), thus defiling them. “Moreover the altar that was at Bethel, and the high place which Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin, had made, both that altar and the high place he brake down, and burned the high place, and stamped it small to powder, and burned the grove. And as Josiah turned himself, he spied the sepulchres that were there in the mount, and sent, and took the bones out of the sepulchres, and burned them upon the altar, and polluted it, according to the word of the Lord which the man of God proclaimed, who proclaimed these words.” (2 Kings 23:15-16)

Josiah also had the temple in Jerusalem repaired. And Hilkiah the priest “found a book of the law of the Lord given by Moses.” “And Shaphan read it before the king. And it came to pass, when the king had heard the words of the law, that he rent his clothes.” (2 Chron. 34:15-19). And they enquired of the Lord from the prophetess Huldah, and she told the Word of the Lord that he would indeed “bring evil upon this place, and upon the inhabitants thereof, even all the curses that are written in the book which they have read before the king of Judah” because of the evil of the people, but that he would allow Josiah to live without these things having yet happened, because he had humbled himself before God and torn his clothes.

“And the king stood in his place, 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 his heart, and with all his soul...” And he caused all the people to stand to this covenant. So Josiah “took away all the abominations out of all the countries that pertained to the children of Israel, and made all that were present in Israel to serve, even to serve the Lord their God,” and he also held a very great Passover. “And there was no passover like to that kept in Israel from the days of Samuel the prophet; neither did all the kings of Israel keep such a passover as Josiah kept...”

“After all this, when Josiah had prepared the temple, Necho king of Egypt came up to fight against Charchemish by Euphrates: and Josiah went out against him.” Necho sent to him, telling him to stay out of it, that his battle was not against Judah, but against Charchemish, and that God was with him and had commanded him to make haste. “Nevertheless Josiah would not turn his face from him, but disguised himself, that he might fight with him, and hearkened not unto the words of Necho from the mouth of God, and came to fight in the valley of Megiddo. And the archers shot at king Josiah...and he died...And all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah.”