“Now before him there was no king like him, who turned to the LORD with all his heart, with all his soul, and with all his might, according to all the Law of Moses; nor after him did any arise like him.” 2 Kings 23.25 NKJV
Josiah ascended to the throne of Judah when he was eight. About that time, under Josiah’s orders to gather the necessary funds to restore the temple, Hilkiah the high priest “found the Book of the Law in the house of the LORD” (2 Kings 22.8). As the priests had been scrounging the temple for every collection box in the effort to gather what had already been collected, the high priest found a book.
Of even more consequence, he read it.
Then Shaphan the scribe was given the book, and he too read it. Then he read it before the young king.
The king tore his clothes in grief.
Understanding dawned in revelation. The king knew for certain that his people had stored up wrath for themselves and that something drastic had to be done. Ignorance is certainly not bliss when it comes to the righteousness that is defined under the law. A sacrifice was even required for the sin committed unintentionally, in ignorance (see Leviticus 5).
Huldah, a woman of God and prophetess, was consulted. She got a word from the LORD that calamity would surely come to pass, only that because Josiah humbled himself before God and grieved with a tender heart toward the King of kings, the disasters the people had sown for themselves would not happen on his watch.
Together, and under the direction of the young king, the nation’s worship was then radically reformed, and the most comprehensive revival under the old covenant was given birth. Blasphemous altars to demonic principalities were torn down, burned, ground to fine dust, and scattered into the brook Kidron, the same brook across which David passed as he fled from his son Absalom, the same brook across which Jesus passed into Gethsemane the night He was betrayed in travail for our immortal souls.
King Josiah restored worship in the house of God for his people. His actions reformed a whole nation. What did it take?
First, revelation. It was not a chance thing that the Book of the Law happened to be found by the high priest. It was not a chance thing that he dared to read it, nor was it happenstance that the royal scribe also read it and then read it before the king, the one who had the authority to do anything about what the priest and the scribe had learned.
It took a boy on a throne with a tender heart toward God. It took a woman of God, through whom God often spoke, who had a reputation for speaking the word of the LORD to His people. It took a priest, it took a lowly scribe, and it took radical national obedience not just to the young king’s unprecedented orders to utterly defile every blasphemous place of idol worship in the nation, but to God Himself, who reveals Himself to those who seek Him diligently.
It is amazing what God can do with a handful of humble, obedient people.
Comments