How important is hearing and following the scriptures? Can a righteous king save an unrighteous nation? Will our nations eventually be punished for their collective sins? Let’s look at 2 Kings 23.
How did hearing the Holy Scriptures change a king and his nation?
Then the king summoned all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem. And the king went up to the Temple of the Lord with all the people of Judah and Jerusalem, along with the priests and the prophets—all the people from the least to the greatest. There the king read to them the entire Book of the Covenant that had been found in the Lord’s Temple. The king took his place of authority beside the pillar and renewed the covenant in the Lord’s presence. He pledged to obey the Lord by keeping all his commands, laws, and decrees with all his heart and soul. In this way, he confirmed all the terms of the covenant that were written in the scroll, and all the people pledged themselves to the covenant. (2 Kings 23:1-3 NLT)
What did Josiah do with the pagan shrines, pagan priests and temple prostitutes?
The king commanded Hilkiah the high priest, and the priests of the second order, and the keepers of the threshold, to bring out of Yahweh’s temple all the vessels that were made for Baal, for the Asherah, and for all the army of the sky; and he burned them outside of Jerusalem in the fields of the Kidron, and carried their ashes to Bethel. He got rid of the idolatrous priests whom the kings of Judah had ordained to burn incense in the high places in the cities of Judah and in the places around Jerusalem; those also who burned incense to Baal, to the sun, to the moon, to the planets, and to all the army of the sky. He brought out the Asherah from Yahweh’s house, outside of Jerusalem, to the brook Kidron, and burned it at the brook Kidron, and beat it to dust, and cast its dust on the graves of the common people. He broke down the houses of the male shrine prostitutes that were in Yahweh’s house, where the women wove hangings for the Asherah. (2 Kings 23:4-7 WEB)
What did Josiah do with the pagan priests and their shrines?
Then Josiah brought all the priests out of Judah’s cities. From Geba to Beer-sheba, he defiled the shrines where the priests had been burning incense. He also tore down the shrines at the gates at the entrance to the gate of Joshua the city’s governor, which were on the left as one entered the city gate. Although the priests of these shrines didn’t go up on the Lord’s altar in Jerusalem, they did eat unleavened bread with their fellow priests. (2 Kings 23:8-9 CEB)
How did Josiah tackle the problem of child sacrifice in the valley by Jerusalem?
Josiah sent some men to Hinnom Valley just outside Jerusalem with orders to make the altar there unfit for worship. That way, people could no longer use it for sacrificing their children to the god Molech. He also got rid of the horses that the kings of Judah used in their ceremonies to worship the sun, and he destroyed the chariots along with them. The horses had been kept near the entrance to the Lord's temple, in a courtyard close to where an official named Nathan-Melech lived. (2 Kings 23:10-11 CEV)
What did Josiah do with the altars, high places and totem poles for Ashtoreth?
And the altars on the roof of the upper chamber of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and the altars that Manasseh had made in the two courts of the house of the Lord, he pulled down and broke in pieces and cast the dust of them into the brook Kidron. And the king defiled the high places that were east of Jerusalem, to the south of the mount of corruption, which Solomon the king of Israel had built for Ashtoreth the abomination of the Sidonians, and for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and for Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites. And he broke in pieces the pillars and cut down the Asherim and filled their places with the bones of men. (2 Kings 23:12-14 ESV)
What did Josiah do about the altar that evil king Jeroboam had set up? Did he slaughter the pagan priests fulfilling an old prophecy?
He even tore down the altar at Bethel and the high place that Jeroboam son of Nebat, who caused Israel to sin, had made. Then he burned the high place, crushed it to dust, and burned the Asherah. As Josiah turned, he saw the tombs there on the mountain. He sent someone to take the bones out of the tombs, and he burned them on the altar. He defiled it according to the word of the Lord proclaimed by the man of God who proclaimed these things. Then he said, “What is this monument I see?” The men of the city told him, “It is the tomb of the man of God who came from Judah and proclaimed these things that you have done to the altar at Bethel.” So he said, “Let him rest. Don’t let anyone disturb his bones.” So they left his bones undisturbed with the bones of the prophet who came from Samaria. Josiah also removed 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. Josiah did the same things to them that he had done at Bethel. He slaughtered on the altars all the priests of the high places who were there, and he burned human bones on the altars. Then he returned to Jerusalem. (2 Kings 23:15-20 HCSB)
Did this fulfill an over 300 year old prophecy, that even named Josiah?
And he cried against the altar by the word of Yahweh, and said, “O altar, altar, thus says Yahweh, ‘Behold, a son shall be born to the house of David, Josiah is his name; and on you he shall sacrifice the priests of the high places who burn incense on you, and human bones shall be burned on you.’” (1 Kings 13:2 LSB)
Had there ever been a king like Josiah, in Israel’s entire history? Does this seem to imply that he was even more righteous than David and Hezekiah?
After this, the king commanded all of the people, “Celebrate the Passover to the Lord your God, just as it’s prescribed in this Book of the Covenant.” From the days of the judges who ruled in Israel, no Passover had been celebrated like this, not even in all the reigns of the kings of Israel and the kings of Judah. In the eighteenth year of the reign of King Josiah, this Passover was observed in Jerusalem to honor the Lord. Furthermore, Josiah removed the mediums, the necromancers, the household gods, the idols, and every despicable thing that could be seen in the territory of Judah and in Jerusalem, so that he might confirm the words of the Law that had been written in the book that Hilkiah the priest had discovered in the Lord’s Temple. There had been no king like him before him, who turned to the Lord with all his heart, with all his soul, and with all his strength, in obeying everything in the Law of Moses. No king arose like Josiah after him. (2 Kings 23:21-25 ISV)
Was having a righteous king enough to turn away God’s anger if the people were still at fault?
Notwithstanding the Lord turned not from the fierceness of his great wrath, wherewith his anger was kindled against Judah, because of all the provocations that Manasseh had provoked him withal. And the Lord said, I will remove Judah also out of 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. (2 Kings 23:26-27 KJV)
Did Josiah possibly ignore a warning from God not to meet with Pharaoh? Who became king in his place?
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 Neco king of Egypt went up to the king of Assyria to the river Euphrates. And King Josiah went to meet him, and when Pharaoh Neco saw him he put him to death at Megiddo. And his servants drove his body in a chariot from Megiddo and brought him to Jerusalem and buried him in his own tomb. Then the people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of Josiah and anointed him and made him king in place of his father. (2 Kings 23:28-30 LSB)
How long was Jehoahaz 17th king over Judah? Was he a good or bad king?
Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he became king, and he reigned for three months in Jerusalem; and his mother’s name was Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah. He did evil in the sight of the Lord, in accordance with all that his forefathers had done. And Pharaoh Neco imprisoned him at Riblah in the land of Hamath, so that he would not reign in Jerusalem; and he imposed on the land a fine of a hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold. (2 Kings 23:31-33 NASB)
Who became the 18th king of Judah and who appointed him? Was he a good or bad king?
Pharaoh Necho made Eliakim son of Josiah king in place of his father Josiah and changed Eliakim’s name to Jehoiakim. But he took Jehoahaz and carried him off to Egypt, and there he died. Jehoiakim paid Pharaoh Necho the silver and gold he demanded. In order to do so, he taxed the land and exacted the silver and gold from the people of the land according to their assessments. Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem eleven years. His mother’s name was Zebidah daughter of Pedaiah; she was from Rumah. And he did evil in the eyes of the Lord, just as his predecessors had done. (2 Kings 23:34-37 NIV)
When tempted by hunger, what did Jesus say about the word of God?
But Jesus told him, “No! The Scriptures say, ‘People do not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” (Matthew 4:4 NLT)
How important is hearing and following the scriptures? Can a righteous king save an unrighteous nation? Will our nations eventually be punished for their collective sins? You decide!
