One of the more interesting stories in the Bible is
the story of King Josiah. We just covered his story in Kids’ Church a few
months ago. [2] The way we usually
tell the story goes something like this: Josiah became king at just eight years
old. He was a good king and followed God. During his reign, the temple was
repaired, and the priests found a book of the law which had been neglected.
Josiah commanded the people to do what God’s law said. The end.
There is, however, more to the story. [3] In
the accounts of Kings and Chronicles, there are three kings spotlighted as the
best kings in the history of the nations of Israel and Judah: David, Hezekiah, and Josiah. We know about
David, and I’m going to talk about Josiah. Hezekiah was a good king, he
followed God and took down the idols that people were worshipping. [4] His son Manasseh…turned out to be
the worst king in the history of
Israel and Judah. I’m not sure what happened between Hezekiah and Manasseh, the
Bible doesn’t say. But Manasseh was a bad dude. [5] 2 Kings 21 describes his reign in this way: “He did what was evil
in the sight of the LORD, following the abominable practices of the nations
that the LORD drove out before the people of Israel.” Some of his
transgressions: He rebuilt the pagan
shrines that Hezekiah destroyed; he built altars to foreign gods in the temple
of God; he practiced forbidden rites and dealt with mediums; and even “made his
son pass through fire,” which could refer either to actual child sacrifice or
ritual dedication to a foreign god. He
killed people who had supported and served Hezekiah, including prophets
faithful to God; tradition says that the prophet Isaiah was killed by Manasseh.
[6] 2 Kings 21:9 says of the nation
of Judah, “Manasseh misled them to do more evil than the nations that the LORD
destroyed before the people of Israel.”
One might think that due to Manasseh’s wickedness,
God would punish him and Judah with great misfortune. However, that is not the
case! Manasseh enjoyed a long reign in Jerusalem—fifty-five years. Manasseh’s reign was a time of prosperity and
growth for Judah. Assyria, the dominant nation at the time, supported Manasseh
and his rule. But as far as following God and doing what was right, Manasseh
was the worst king of all.
Manasseh’s son Amon was also a bad king, continuing
the practices of his father. [7] Unlike
Manasseh, however, Amon was a weak and ineffective king, and after only two
years on the throne he was assassinated by his palace servants. Did you ever wonder why Josiah was made king
at only eight years old? It’s because
his father was killed at a young age, either 24 or 25. Under Manasseh and Amon, Judah had turned
fully to the dark side. These wicked
kings had turned God’s chosen people, [8]
God’s holy nation, into an Evil Empire.
[9] What would happen now
that the king was just a young boy?
Would the nation fully succumb to the forces of evil, or would a new
hope rise? [10]
For details about Josiah’s reign, we have to go to 2
Chronicles 34. [11] In verse 3, it
says that “in the eighth year of his reign, while he was still a boy, he began
to seek the God of his ancestor David, and in the twelfth year he began to
purge Judah and Jerusalem of the high places, the sacred poles, and the carved
and cast images.”
The Bible does not say where these influences came
from. But as soon as Josiah became old enough to make his own decisions, he
began to turn the country around. He sought the God of David. He allowed God to
lead. [12] And a few years later, he
began to take down the sacred poles, the shrines to foreign gods, and the idols
that Judah had been worshipping.
Josiah’s reforms reached a climax a few years later.
[13] 2 Chronicles 34:8: “In the
eighteenth year of his reign, when he had purged the land and the house, he
sent Shaphan son of Azaliah, Maaseiah the governor of the city, and Joah son of
Joahaz, the recorder, to repair the house of the LORD.” The temple had been
neglected and even desecrated with idols during the time of Manasseh and Amon,
and Josiah decided to repair the temple. No one could have predicted what they
would find.
During the repair and renovation of the temple, [14] the high priest Hilkiah found
something very precious—a copy of “the book of the law.” [15] Scholars
believe that this was either the whole Torah, the five books of Moses, or
perhaps just the book of Deuteronomy. Obviously, under the evil kings that
reigned in Jerusalem for the 57 years before Josiah, no one had read or
followed the book of God’s law. [16] For another 18 years, no one knew
this book existed. That’s a total of 75
years—only the oldest residents of Jerusalem would possibly remember a time
when the children of Israel, God’s chosen people, had known and followed the
word of God.
Hilkiah and the temple secretary Shaphan brought the
scroll and read it to Josiah. [17] When
Josiah realized what the nation had been doing for the past 75 years, he tore
his clothes in mourning and determined to make things right with God. [18] 2
Chronicles 34:31 says “The king stood in his place and made a covenant before
the LORD, to follow the LORD, keeping his commandments, his decrees, and his
statutes, [19] with all his heart
and soul, to perform the words of the covenant that were written in this book.”
Josiah completed the cleansing of the nation from all the heathen shrines and
idols. He even celebrated a Passover,
the first held in Jerusalem in decades. [20] “No Passover like it had been kept
in Israel since the days of the prophet Samuel; none of the kings of Israel had
kept such a Passover as was kept by Josiah, [21] by the priests and the Levites, by all Judah and Israel who
were present, and by the inhabitants of Jerusalem.”
This is a truly great story, isn’t it? A nation in deep darkness, led into evil by
wicked rulers for decades. The temple
defiled and neglected. All hope for
redemption extinguished. [22] And in the midst of this dark time
of wickedness and apostasy, a child-king takes the throne. He is just a boy…but he became a hero. [23] 2 Kings 23:25 describes Josiah in this way: “Before him there
was no king like him, who turned to the LORD with all of his heart, with all of
his soul, with all of his might, nor did any arise after him.”
Judah and Jerusalem were led out of evil by king
Josiah. God’s people, rescued and redeemed from the dark side. [24] This
is the point where I close the story with “And they all lived happily ever
after,” right? Well…this is the Bible, not a Disney fairy tale. And the story doesn’t exactly end like we’ve
been led to believe.
During Josiah’s time, the political situation in the
ancient Near East was changing in a profound way. [25] For
300 years, the entire region was dominated by the nation of Assyria in what
scholars call the Neo-Assyrian Empire. The empire stretched from Egypt in the
south, north into Turkey and Iran in the east. The Assyrians were known for
their military strength and brutality, spreading fear throughout the entire
region.
However, by the time of Josiah’s reign, the Assyrian
empire began to collapse. The death of the powerful emperor Ashurbanipal in 627
BC led to a series of brutal civil wars as nobles and generals scrambled for
the throne. I keep hearing stuff online about “Game of Thrones,” and I’ve never
watched it since I don’t watch much TV. But it sounds like there’s lots of
political intrigue, figurative and literal backstabbing, alliances building and
crumbling, and dragons. Well, there aren’t any dragons in this story, but the
situation around Judah was a lot like the politics in Game of Thrones. New
powers like Babylon to the east and Scythians in the north pressured the
borders of the empire. Egypt, which had long been subject to the Assyrians,
began to recover and rise up, although their ruling pharaoh had been installed
by Assyria. Stuck in the middle of this
power vacuum was the nation of Judah and its king Josiah.
Around 609 BC, Assyria was embroiled in a conflict
with Babylonian forces and the Assyrians called on Egypt for aid. Pharaoh Neco II led his army and attempted to
cross the territory of Judah, on the way to relieving Assyrian forces in Harran.
[26] Josiah refused to let the
Egyptian army pass and met them in battle at Megiddo, a strategic hill
overlooking the Valley of Jezreel.
So we have here King Josiah, better than any king
before or after him, who followed God with all of his heart and strength. He is facing off against an ancient enemy,
the Egyptians led by Pharaoh Neco, an ally of the hated Assyrians. We know how
this story goes, right? Those who are faithful
to God will have success. Josiah is on
his way to a great victory over the heathens. [27] 2 Chronicles 35:21: “But Neco sent envoys to him, saying,
“What have I to do with you, king of Judah? I am not coming against you today,
but against the house with which I am at war; [28] and God has commanded me to hurry. Cease opposing God, who is
with me, so that he will not destroy you.”
I can imagine Josiah’s response to this message from
the pharaoh. What is going on here? This Egyptian pharaoh is telling Good King
Josiah that God has commanded him to hurry on his way? Neco even claims that “God is with me.” This foreigner, this heathen, is calling on
the name of God? We are God’s chosen
people, we have the book of God’s law, we swore a covenant to God and celebrated
the Passover. [29] What does an Egyptian Pharaoh know about God’s will? 35:22 But Josiah would not turn away from
him, but disguised himself in order to fight with him. He did not listen to the
words of Neco from the mouth of God, but joined battle in the plain of
Megiddo.” Wait a second, this is weird,
this is not how the story is supposed to go—
[30]
Verse
23: The archers shot King Josiah; and the king said to his servants, “Take me
away, for I am badly wounded.” So his servants took him out of the chariot and
carried him in the chariot of his deputy, bringing him to Jerusalem. There he
died, and was buried in the tombs of his ancestors.
Hold on, stop everything! This is not how the story
ends, is it? That can’t be right, maybe there’s a page missing here or
something—nope. That’s the end of Josiah’s story. [31] Unexpectedly killed in battle by a stray arrow—2 Chronicles
says Josiah went into battle in disguise, the archers didn’t even know they
were shooting at the king.
It’s not right. It can’t be right. Josiah was the
good guy, Josiah was the reformer, he was the last and only hope of Judah. He
got the nation right with God, he did everything he was supposed to do. [32] Jeremiah
also uttered a lament for Josiah, and all the singing men and singing women
have spoken of Josiah in their laments to this day. Sometimes, the story doesn’t
end the way we want it to.
What can we learn from this story, that starts off
so great and ends so wrong? First, I
think we ought to acknowledge how tough the end of this story is to swallow. In
fact, it is the story of King Josiah that blew the doors off a theological
model that had dominated Israelite thinking since the time of Moses. [33] Deuteronomy laid it out clearly:
Follow God and do his will and you will prosper. Disobey God and you will be
cursed. But this story turns that
upside-down. [34] Manasseh, the most
wicked king of all, reigned for 55 prosperous, peaceful years and died in his
sleep. [35] Josiah, better than
anyone before him or after him, reigned in a time of political turmoil and died
violently in battle against his enemies.
Sometimes in this world bad things happen to good people. Stray arrows
happen to the best of kings. When that does happen, sometimes there are no
great answers.
The second thing I learned from this story only came
to me this past week. In the story,
Pharaoh Neco tries to turn Josiah away from battle. [36] And
he does it by invoking the name of God. “Cease opposing God, who is with me, so
that he will not destroy you.” This also
turned Israelite thinking on its head. We know who the good guy is in this
story. We’ve already been told—it’s Josiah. Josiah seeks God from a young age,
Josiah restores the temple and renews the covenant, God is with Josiah. But
here, a foreign king delivers a message that he claims is from God. Neco claims
that God is with him, and God will destroy Josiah if he stands in the way.
Christians take the language of election and apply
it to ourselves. We are now God’s people because we believe in Jesus. More than
that, we as Seventh-day Adventists sometimes say that we are a remnant,
especially set apart during the last days of Earth’s history. Entrusted with a
message to deliver to people during these times. And it is all too easy to think that we have
the words of God, we are chosen by God…and we don’t have to listen to anyone
else. Leaders of this church have said
that we should not read books by non-Adventists. That we should only have
Adventist speakers at our conferences and retreats. Yes, it is
very important to stand firm in our faith, to resist the call of the world
pulling us away from God. During these troubled times we must know what we
believe, and our church has an important message to give to people. But if we
ever think that we have nothing to learn from others, that “having the truth”
means we don’t have to listen to others…I think of Josiah, confident in his
righteousness, watching as an Egyptian messenger rides up the Valley of
Jezreel. God has commanded me to hurry.
God is with me, stop opposing him, I don’t want a fight. You do not have to die
today. How does the story end if Josiah puts aside his righteousness and “chosenness”
for a moment and listens to the word of God being spoken by this Egyptian? We know how his story ended—how might our story
end? That’s to be determined.
Finally, I want to close with a final point, a last
message. [37] A little more than 20
years after the battle of Megiddo that claimed the life of Josiah, the Babylonians
took Jerusalem and the line of kings descended from David ended. But even in this tragedy there is hope. From
the ashes of David’s line came one who was not a King but a Savior. [38] One
who came not just for the one nation chosen by God but for the lives of
everyone who believed in Him, that they should not perish but have everlasting
life. Josiah’s name is listed in the
genealogy of Jesus in Matthew 1. Although Josiah died unexpectedly and his
nation fell soon after his death, God’s promise was still working in the world,
in the descendents of Josiah. Hope crept along silently, slowly, until it
coalesced and burst forth when Josiah’s great great great great great great
great great great great great great grandson was born in Bethlehem of Judea.
In the story of Josiah, we see death leading to hope
and new life. In the story of Jesus, that same theme is repeated. [39] Jesus dies but is raised to life
in glory. And what of us, now? We live
in troubled and troubling times. The
world is dangerous and changing fast, nothing seems certain or secure. The
church in America appears to be losing ground or even dying. Fewer and fewer
people go to church or consider the church’s influence on society to be
positive. But out of death comes renewal
and new life. In Jesus, we have the promise of the Holy Spirit to teach us and
guide us. God is still speaking to us, through voices both inside and outside
of the church. [40] “When the Spirit
of Truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on
his own, [41] but will speak
whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He
will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you.”
This Sabbath, I hope that we all can claim the
promises of God that bring hope in the midst of danger, confusion, and sorrow. The
Holy Spirit is still working, still speaking, if we have the ears and
willingness to listen. [42] Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the
one and only author and finisher of our faith. He is our righteousness, he is
our peace, he is our hope, and he is our victory.
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