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"Then the servants of Amon conspired against him and killed the king in his palace"
"But the people of the land struck down all who had conspired against King Amon, and they made his son Josiah king in his place" (2 Kings 21:23 & 24)
Hum... Where have we heard this story before...
Hum... Where have we heard this story before...
I wonder where Amalickiah got the idea from?
Josiah was only 8 yrs old when his father was assassinated by the same "priests" who made Josiah "king", and placed him "under their protection".
12 years later King Josiah starts his "reforms" (2 Chronicles 34:1-3) which the Bible extols as virtuous/holy/praise worthy => BUT "the word of the Lord came [to Jeremiah] in the days of Josiah the son of Amon king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign." (Jeremiah 1:1-2) => NOT a good sign.
Only one year into Josiah's great reform, God sends Jeremiah to tell the people
"Hath a nation changed their gods, which are yet no gods? but my people have changed their glory for that which doth not profit."
"my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water"
"Hast thou not procured this unto thyself, in that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God"
Jehovah (YWH), and his prophet, are clearly NOT a supporters of these Deuteronomistic reforms (see Jeremiah chapters 2-3-4)
If we look at the timeline for the last few kings of Judah, before the Babalonian captivity...
609 BC - Josiah dies
609 BC - Jehoahaz (3 months)
609 - 597 BC - Jehoiakim (~11 yrs)
598 BC - Jehoiachin (3 months)
597 BC - Zedekiah (aka Mattaniah)
...there are FIVE kings in just 12 years!
There are enough scriptures to support the hypothesis that after King came of age, Lehi ran afoul of his Deuteronomistic "reforms", much like Jeremiah had.
By hebrew law, Lehi MUST have been at least 30 yrs old (duh... has 4 teenage kids) and married in order to preach, which he does (1 Nephi 1:18)...
So, he has lived at least 18 yrs under King Josiah (28 yrs if he was 40 yrs old) and all 31 yrs of Josiah's reign, if Lehi was more than 43 years old when Zedekiah took the throne.
Nephi tells us that the scholar's timeline is a couple of years off, (see 1 Nephi 10:4) but also says that Lehi leaves;
"...in the commencement of the first year of the reign of Zedekiah, king of Judah,"
- 1 Nephi 1:4
It was Lehi's anti-Deuteronomistic preaching, that made the Lord warn Lehi to take his family into the wilderness, because "this people seek to take away thy life."
Which makes sense, because under Josiah's reforms Lehi was guilty of death for preaching doctrine that ran directly agains Deuteronomistic theology:
No man can seen God (Deut 4:12 & 15)
No Messiah - Law of Moses only "saves"
The law of Moses is the complete / no further revelation is needed
Centralization of worship of YHWH / sacrifice ONLY in Jerusalem
The scribes (Sanhedrin) are the guardians of the law
The destruction of the Kingdom of Israel by the Assyrians (721 BC) was proof of Yahweh's punishment for Israel forgetting these basic laws
So, when Lehi told "the Jews" that:
he had seen VISIONS
had SEEN GOD
he could PROPHESY the future of Jerusalem
He had violated the first three tenents of Deuteronomistic theology, and under the law-of-moses... must be stoned, so of course they tried to kill him (1 Nephi 1:18-20)
This has some theological problems... but, is a pretty good over view of Deuteronomistic reforms in the first part - CKS
And why Laman & Lemual, after seeing him
Speak of The Messiah (1 Nephi 1:19)
Offer sacrifice, outside Jerusalem (1 Nephi 2:7)
Lamen & Lemuel "did murmur... because he was a VISIONARY man" & thought it BEST to kill Lehi (1 Nephi 17:44)
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