Lessons from Josiah
A few weeks ago we looked at the very unusual story of a man known only as “the man of God from Judah” who prophesies about the coming of a King by the name of Josiah some 322 yrs before it happened and in the process we see some quite astonishing miracles. Let’s remind ourselves of it..
1 Kings 13:1-10 (NIV) By the word of the Lord a man of God came from Judah to Bethel, as Jeroboam was standing by the altar to make an offering. 2 By the word of the Lord he cried out against the altar: “Altar, altar! This is what the Lord says: ‘A son named Josiah will be born to the house of David. On you he will sacrifice the priests of the high places who make offerings here, and human bones will be burned on you.’” 3 That same day the man of God gave a sign: “This is the sign the Lord has declared: The altar will be split apart and the ashes on it will be poured out.”
4 When King Jeroboam heard what the man of God cried out against the altar at Bethel, he stretched out his hand from the altar and said, “Seize him!” But the hand he stretched out toward the man shriveled up, so that he could not pull it back. 5 Also, the altar was split apart and its ashes poured out according to the sign given by the man of God by the word of the Lord.
6 Then the king said to the man of God, “Intercede with the Lord your God and pray for me that my hand may be restored.” So the man of God interceded with the Lord, and the king’s hand was restored and became as it was before.
Subsequently you may recall a second prophet lies to the Man of God and deceives him, and on his way home the Man of God is killed by a lion. The lion does not touch the donkey! And in vs 22
27 The prophet said to his sons, “Saddle the donkey for me,” and they did so. 28 Then he went out and found the body lying on the road, with the donkey and the lion standing beside it. The lion had neither eaten the body nor mauled the donkey.
So here we have a very significant man from Judah who prophesies about a coming King Josiah. Let’s now jump about 300 years ahead. We have two Kingdoms the Northern Kingdom (Israel) and the Southern Kingdom (Judah).
In the Northern Kingdom it is the time of Jonah, Amos, Hosea, and Isaiah. They all warn Israel, urging Israel to turn to God. These prophets and what they say is rejected by Israel, and Israel falls in 722BC. The Assyrians destroy the Northern Kingdom (Israel), and scatter and exile the 10 tribes of Israel, forever to be called the 10 lost tribes of Israel never to get back together again! Israel becomes Samaria. By the way the Samaritans come from Samaria and even 700 years later in the time of Jesus many Samaritans still believe in Jehovah God, which puts a different perspective of the Story of the Good Samaritan.
Seven years after the Northern Kingdom falls Hezekiah becomes King (715BC) of Judah the Southern Kingdom. Hezekiah was Josiah’s great grandfather. Hezekiah was a good man and as the bible says “He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord” But his son Manasseh (Josiah’s grandfather ) and his son Amon (Josiah’s father) were evil personified.
Just look at this
2 Chronicles 33:2-6 (NIV)2 He [Manasseh] did evil in the eyes of the Lord, following the detestable practices of the nations the Lord had driven out before the Israelites. 3 He rebuilt the high places his father Hezekiah had demolished; he also erected altars to the Baals and made Asherah poles. He bowed down to all the starry hosts and worshiped them. 4 He built altars in the temple of the Lord, of which the Lord had said, “My Name will remain in Jerusalem forever.” 5 In both courts of the temple of the Lord, he built altars to all the starry hosts. 6 He sacrificed his children in the fire in the Valley of Ben Hinnom, practiced divination and witchcraft, sought omens, and consulted mediums and spiritists. He did much evil in the eyes of the Lord, arousing his anger.
Josiah survived by the grace and direction of God!
Amon was as bad as his father and he was assassinated after reigning for just two years So Josiah at the age of 8 loses his father and becomes King
Before we get into Josiah there are two points I would like to draw your attention to:
We often see the Old Testament, God as God of judgement and wrath, but in the story of Mannaseh we see a God of amazing grace! We have seen how utterly evil this man was, But then at the end of Mannaseh’s reign, the Lord brings him crashing down and taken captives by the Assyrians before he humbles himself before God
2 Chronicles 33:10-13 (NIV)10 The Lord spoke to Manasseh and his people, but they paid no attention. 11 So the Lord brought against them the army commanders of the king of Assyria, who took Manasseh prisoner, put a hook in his nose, bound him with bronze shackles and took him to Babylon. 12 In his distress he sought the favour of the Lord his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his ancestors. 13 And when he prayed to him, the Lord was moved by his entreaty [earnest appeal or reqest] and listened to his plea; so he brought him back to Jerusalem and to his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord is God.
No matter how evil we are or how late in our lives, the grace of God is there for those that would turn and humble themselves before God and Mannaseh is as clear an example as you can get!
Josiah had been raised in an environment which was truly evil. His father Amon was particularly evil, yet he pulled Judah back onto a path of righteousness. And while we may have scars and unspeakable hurts from our upbringing, none of that stops us from doing what is right before God. We cannot blame parents, colonial empires, government’s for not doing what is right before God. Josiah took action to do the right thing in spite of his environment that he was brought up in.
2 Kings 23:25 (NIV)25 Neither before nor after Josiah was there a king like him who turned to the Lord as he did—with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his strength, in accordance with all the Law of Moses.
Lets have a look at the legacy of Josiah
2 Chronicles 34:1-7 34 Josiah was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem thirty-one years. 2 He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord and followed the ways of his father David, not turning aside to the right or to the left.
3 In the eighth year of his reign, while he was still young, he began to seek the God of his father David. In his twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem of high places, Asherah poles and idols. 4 Under his direction the altars of the Baals were torn down; he cut to pieces the incense altars that were above them, and smashed the Asherah poles and the idols. These he broke to pieces and scattered over the graves of those who had sacrificed to them. 5 He burned the bones of the priests on their altars, and so he purged Judah and Jerusalem. 6 In the towns of Manasseh, Ephraim and Simeon, as far as Naphtali, and in the ruins around them, 7 he tore down the altars and the Asherah poles and crushed the idols to powder and cut to pieces all the incense altars throughout Israel. Then he went back to Jerusalem.
We know what God thinks about idols!
Colossians 3:5 links idolatry with covetousness; when we want something so much that we covet it, the thing has become an idol to us. When we desire something so much that it takes priority over God, when it pulls us away from God, when we spend an inordinate time dwelling on it and when we seek it rather than God, it has become our idol! When we seek these things and our actions are controlled by them at the expense of God, we have become idol worshippers. Today these include sports stars, celebrities, money, body image, power, pride and self and physical gratification. What about entertainment? They tear us away from God. We are governed by them. We need to “burn” them down! And “repair” the temple.
Not surprisingly once that which is detestable is removed, the word of God is revealed. (There is a lesson in that for us too!)
2 Chronicles 34:14-25 (NIV)The Book of the Law Found
14 While they were bringing out the money that had been taken into the temple of the Lord, Hilkiah the priest found the Book of the Law of the Lord that had been given through Moses. 15 Hilkiah said to Shaphan the secretary, “I have found the Book of the Law in the temple of the Lord.” He gave it to Shaphan.
16 Then Shaphan took the book to the king and reported to him: ……..
19 When the king heard the words of the Law, he tore his robes. 20 He gave these orders to Hilkiah, Ahikam son of Shaphan, Abdon son of Micah,[a] Shaphan the secretary and Asaiah the king’s attendant: 21 “Go and inquire of the Lord for me and for the remnant in Israel and Judah about what is written in this book that has been found. Great is the Lord’s anger that is poured out on us because those who have gone before us have not kept the word of the Lord; they have not acted in accordance with all that is written in this book.”
22 Hilkiah and those the king had sent with him[b] went to speak to the prophet Huldah, who was the wife of Shallum son of Tokhath,[c] the son of Hasrah,[d] keeper of the wardrobe. She lived in Jerusalem, in the New Quarter.
23 She said to them, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: Tell the man who sent you to me, 24 ‘This is what the Lord says: I am going to bring disaster on this place and its people—all the curses written in the book that has been read in the presence of the king of Judah. 25 Because they have forsaken me and burned incense to other gods and aroused my anger by all that their hands have made,[e] my anger will be poured out on this place and will not be quenched.’ 26 Tell the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of the Lord, ‘This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says concerning the words you heard: 27 Because your heart was responsive and you humbled yourself before God when you heard what he spoke against this place and its people, and because you humbled yourself before me and tore your robes and wept in my presence, I have heard you, declares the Lord.
2 Chronicles 34:29-31 (NIV)29 Then the king called together all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem. 30 He went up to the temple of the Lord with the people of Judah, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the priests and the Levites—all the people from the least to the greatest. He read in their hearing all the words of the Book of the Covenant, which had been found in the temple of the Lord. 31 The king stood by his pillar and renewed the covenant in the presence of the Lord—to follow the Lord and keep his commands, statutes and decrees with all his heart and all his soul, and to obey the words of the covenant written in this book.
Some really interesting points here:
Within 1-2 generations of not having the Word of God, the nation had fallen from a high point in God’s favour with Hezekiah, to a lowest of low levels of depravity, human sacrifice and idol worship. The word of God is precious, it changes nations, it changes everything. To this day we have those that mock it, that despise it but they are the children of darkness stumbling their way into despair. How much do we value the word of God? If we lose it we lose our nation.
Its so strange that Hilkiah the high priest did not seem to know about the “Book of the Law”? Then he gives it to Shapan the secretary to give to the King? Then he, the high priest, goes with some of the other king’s messengers to Huldah a prophetess “to enquire of the Lord… what is written in this book”??
One has to wonder about the courage of Hilkiahs convictions. He is the high priest but does not know about the Book of the law, he gives it to someone else to take it to the King, then he goes to someone else to enquire about what was written in this book? Maybe it was fear, maybe fear of rejection, but his inattentiveness to the word of God had cost Judah dearly. This may have happened a long time ago but the lessons apply to us today. As far as we know, and looking at Hilkiahs actions and the high priests actions (or lack of) during the times of Mannaseh, Ammon and Josiah, you can see they all lost sight of the word of God (literally), were too afraid or unable to speak out and as a result the consequences were dire.
Does this not suggest that we as a church when we see a nation, a government, peoples going against what God has commanded we have a duty to speak out and have the courage of our convictions? Good on Margaret Court, Israel Folau! Chronicles shows what happens to a nation when believers don’t have the courage of their convictions.
But now lets turn to see what becomes of Josiah:
2 Chronicles 35:20-24 (NIV) 20 After all this, when Josiah had set the temple in order, Necho king of Egypt went up to fight at Carchemish on the Euphrates, and Josiah marched out to meet him in battle. 21 But Necho sent messengers to him, saying, “What quarrel is there, king of Judah, between you and me? It is not you I am attacking at this time, but the house with which I am at war. God has told me to hurry; so stop opposing God, who is with me, or he will destroy you.”22 Josiah, however, would not turn away from him, but disguised himself to engage him in battle. He would not listen to what Necho had said at God’s command but went to fight him on the plain of Megiddo.23 Archers shot King Josiah, and he told his officers, “Take me away; I am badly wounded.” 24 So they took him out of his chariot, put him in his other chariot and brought him to Jerusalem, where he died. He was buried in the tombs of his ancestors, and all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for him.
And within a few years Judah fell to the Babylonians and the new Babylonian empire that took over from The Assyrians
There two points I would like to pick up on.
Is’nt it interesting how God can speak to us , He can cause a donkey to speak (Balaam), through a burning bush, through “non-Christians” as in this case. Unless we are sensitive to the Holy Spirit and God’s direction we can too can follow a path that should not be followed. Josiah rejected the guidance. Did Josiah ask for advice from the prophets at the time? I think looking at Josiah’s commitment to God he probably did? But look at this …..Jeremiah was also a prophet at this time this is what he writes
Jeremiah 5:30-31 (NIV)30 “A horrible and shocking thing has happened in the land:1 The prophets prophesy lies, the priests rule by their own authority, and my people love it this way. But what will you do in the end?
Lying prophets in Judah! Deceiving prophets in Judah at this time were clearly of no benefit to Josiah. Does this not remind you of the Man of Judah we spoke about a few minutes ago who was lied to by a prophet and He died, killed by a lion?
We have so many parallels here to that story in 1 Kings 13
We have the lying prophet and disobedience causing the death of the Man of Judah in 1 Kings 13 and similarly in the time of Manasseh, Amon and Josiah , we have lying prophet’s and disobedience, leading to the destruction of Josiah and Judah.
We have the donkey which escapes unharmed while standing next to the Lion in 1 Kings. The donkey represents the people of Babylon and also Canaan.
Genesis 16:11-12 (NIV)11 The angel of the Lord also said to her:[Hagar]“You are now pregnant and you will give birth to a son. You shall name him Ishmael, for the Lord has heard of your misery.12 He will be a wild donkey of a man; his hand will be against everyone and everyone’s hand against him, and he will live in hostility toward[b] all his brothers.”
The Babylonians came from Ishmael sons particularly Ishmael’s eldest son Nabajoth and also
Nimrod (and thus Canaan who was cursed by Noah) For me the donkey symbology seems clear.
The Lion of Judah is watching (Jesus), Babylon the donkey is left unharmed, Judah is destroyed all because, they did not listed to God. Jeremiah a prophet in Josiah time writes about Judah
Jeremiah 5:6 (NIV)
6 Therefore a lion from the forest will attack them,…….for their rebellion is great and their backslidings many.
So in closing lets summarise
In this story in Chronicles we see
the amazing grace of God (Manasseh),
we see the might of God He directs nations- hundreds of years in advance!. He knows the future of Nations, do you not think our future is in His hands!
We see the value and the power of the word of God and what happens when we neglect it- Nations fall.
We see what happens when we don’t have the courage of our convictions to stand up against what is evil
I pray that God may open up our eyes and fill us with His Holy Spirit that we may know what a treasure the word of God is and that we would have the courage of our convictions to stand and keep on standing for what is right in the eyes of our Father.
Nabajoth is specifically mentioned by the Jewish historian Josephus, who identified the Nabataeans of his time with Ishmael's eldest son. He claimed that the Nabataeans lived through the whole country extending from the Euphrates to the Red Sea, and referred to this area as 'Nabatene,' or the area that the Nabataeans ranged in. Josephus goes on to say that it was the Nabataeans who conferred their names on the Arabian nations. (Jewish Antiquities I.22,1) Josephus lived and wrote during the time that the Nabataeans were in existence, and supposedly, he obtained his information directly from the Nabataeans themselves.