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2KINGS
CHAPTER 23

1 And the king sent, and they gathered unto him all the elders of Judah and of Jerusalem. 2 And the king went up into the house of the LORD, and all the men of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem with him, and the priests, and the prophets, and all the people, both small and great: and he read in their ears all the words of the book of the covenant which was found in the house of the LORD.

Josiah called all the priests, all the prophets, and all the elders of the people to the temple of God. He had something important to relay to them.
When they were all assembled, the Bible records that the king himself read the book of the law to the people!
What a JOY it must be to have a political leader who actually instructs people from the WORD of God!

3 And the king stood by a pillar, and made a covenant before the LORD, to walk after the LORD, and to keep his commandments and his testimonies and his statutes with all their heart and all their soul, to perform the words of this covenant that were written in this book. And all the people stood to the covenant.

Josiah also made a "vow" before God and all the people. He would stand by God's Word and determine to follow it TOTALLY! WHAT a KING!
Josiah took the initiative, inspired the elders, priests and prophets, and they all made the same vow! WHAT a LEADER!

4 And the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest, and the priests of the second order, and the keepers of the door, to bring forth out of the temple of the LORD all the vessels that were made for Baal, and for the grove, and for all the host of heaven: and he burned them without Jerusalem in the fields of Kidron, and carried the ashes of them unto Bethel. 5 And he put down 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 round about Jerusalem; them also that burned incense unto Baal, to the sun, and to the moon, and to the planets, and to all the host of heaven. 6 And he brought out the grove from the house of the LORD, without Jerusalem, unto the brook Kidron, and burned it at the brook Kidron, and stamped it small to powder, and cast the powder thereof upon the graves of the children of the people. 7 And he brake down the houses of the sodomites, that were by the house of the LORD, where the women wove hangings for the grove. 8 And he brought all the priests out of the cities of Judah, and defiled the high places where the priests had burned incense, from Geba to Beersheba, and brake down the high places of the gates that were in the entering in of the gate of Joshua the governor of the city, which were on a man's left hand at the gate of the city. 9 Nevertheless the priests of the high places came not up to the altar of the LORD in Jerusalem, but they did eat of the unleavened bread among their brethren.

Josiah began physical reformation in keeping with spiritual renewal. Friends, when God really gets a hold on people's hearts, they will SHOW their relatioinship with Him.
He commanded all idols placed in God's house destroyed (verse 4).
He disenfranchised the corrupt priests who burnt incense to idols (verse 5).
He took that wooden idol out of God's house and burned it (verse 6).
He tore down the sodomites' dwelling places (they were adjacent to the temple) (verse 7)!
OH!! IF we had such a leader in AMERICA!!
He kicked out all the corrupt priests in cities all over Judah because they had burned incense to false gods (verse 8).
In mercy, Josiah allowed those priests to partake of the "unleavened bread" of the sacrifices. This would sustain them, even though they were unworthy of it.

10 And he defiled Topheth, which is in the valley of the children of Hinnom, that no man might make his son or his daughter to pass through the fire to Molech.

Manasseh had USED Tophet (a shrine to Molech), but Josiah DEFILED it! He fixed it so that "no man" might ever again offer his child to that useless god!

11 And he took away the horses that the kings of Judah had given to the sun, at the entering in of the house of the LORD, by the chamber of Nathanmelech the chamberlain, which was in the suburbs, and burned the chariots of the sun with fire. 12 And the altars that were on the top of the upper chamber of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and the altars which Manasseh had made in the two courts of the house of the LORD, did the king beat down, and brake them down from thence, and cast the dust of them into the brook Kidron. 13 And the high places that were before Jerusalem, which were on the right hand of the mount of corruption, which Solomon the king of Israel had builded for Ashtoreth the abomination of the Zidonians, and for Chemosh the abomination of the Moabites, and for Milcom the abomination of the children of Ammon, did the king defile. 14 And he brake in pieces the images, and cut down the groves, and filled their places with the bones of men. 15 Moreover the altar that was at Bethel, and the high place which Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin, had made, both that altar and the high place he brake down, and burned the high place, and stamped it small to powder, and burned the grove. 16 And as Josiah turned himself, he spied the sepulchres that were there in the mount, and sent, and took the bones out of the sepulchres, and burned them upon the altar, and polluted it, according to the word of the LORD which the man of God proclaimed, who proclaimed these words. 17 Then he said, What title is that that I see? And the men of the city told him, It is the sepulchre of the man of God, which came from Judah, and proclaimed these things that thou hast done against the altar of Bethel. 18 And he said, Let him alone; let no man move his bones. So they let his bones alone, with the bones of the prophet that came out of Samaria. 19 And all the houses also of the high places that were in the cities of Samaria, which the kings of Israel had made to provoke the LORD to anger, Josiah took away, and did to them according to all the acts that he had done in Bethel. 20 And he slew all the priests of the high places that were there upon the altars, and burned men's bones upon them, and returned to Jerusalem.

Josiah went around the whole country tearing down idols and groves to false gods and defiling them so they would not be used again. WHAT a KING!
He even went to Bethel where Jeroboam had set up the altar to the golden calf and destroyed that.
A practice that he developed was to take evil men's bones and scatter them upon a place where an idol had been set up. In the midst of this practice he came upon the grave of the prophet who had foretold that Josiah would do these things. And Josiah made sure that mans' bones were undefiled.
Verse 20 tells us he killed the priests of the idols and burned men's bones upon them.
These things showed Josiah's disgust at idol-worship. I believe firmly that God's Holy Spirit gives Christians an AVERSION to idol-worship!

21 And the king commanded all the people, saying, Keep the passover unto the LORD your God, as it is written in the book of this covenant. 22 Surely there was not holden such a passover from the days of the judges that judged Israel, nor in all the days of the kings of Israel, nor of the kings of Judah; 23 But in the eighteenth year of king Josiah, wherein this passover was holden to the LORD in Jerusalem.

Josiah held a great Passover feast to commemorate God taking Israel out of the slavery and idolatry into a place of advancement and holy worship.
It was a great feast (verse 22). And the REASON it was observed so fully was because Josiah COMMANDED it! (verse 21)

24 Moreover the workers with familiar spirits, and the wizards, and the images, and the idols, and all the abominations that were spied in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, did Josiah put away, that he might perform the words of the law which were written in the book that Hilkiah the priest found in the house of the LORD. 25 And like unto him was there no king before him, that turned to the LORD with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his might, according to all the law of Moses; neither after him arose there any like him.

Josiah kicked out of the country all the palm-readres, writers of horoscopes, and self-proclaimes wizards and witches who dealt with "familiar spirits" (evil ones).
He was truly a cking on mission for God (verse 25). He was CONSTANTLY at war with evil in the land. NEVER in the history of Judah had there been such a king like this!
He led the nation in spiritual renewal and reformation. He used the authority of his office to remind people that God ought to be the center of our lives. When he put people in authority under him, he appointed ONLY godly people.
One of these days, friends, we're gonna have ANOTHER KING like that! It'll be JESUS!!

26 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. 27 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.

BUT - God's anger was not totally put away by the renewal and the reform. He still intended to defrock this ordained nation because of their sinfulness.
They would not repent totally from their evil way, and God would not allow it to continue.

28 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? 29 In his days Pharaoh-nechoh king of Egypt went up against the king of Assyria to the river Euphrates: and king Josiah went against him; and he slew him at Megiddo, when he had seen him. 30 And his servants carried him in a chariot dead from Megiddo, and brought him to Jerusalem, and buried him in his own sepulchre. And the people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of Josiah, and anointed him, and made him king in his father's stead.

THESE VERSES ARE VERY INTERESTING!
Remember what God said about Josiah dying in "peace" in Chapter 22:20?
But Josiah died in BATTLE! Is that a peaceful end?
History tells us that the king of Egypt was on his way to do battle with the king of Assyria. That nation had Babylon under its thumb at that time. Later, Babylon would gain the power over Assyria and would invade Judah. Jeremiah had prophesied of this. Perhaps Josiah KNEW it!
And perhaps he did NOT know it. But either way, Josiah saw that Egypt could perhaps win the war against Assyria. In so doing, Egypt would have Judah encompassed by huge armies.
Josiah saw no other way but to stop the war between Egypt and Assyria if he could. So he engaged Egypt in war, and he was killed in the very first skirmish.
Josiah was a king determined to fight against evil in his land with "all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his might" (verse 25).
I believe he went to his death fighting that battle. Perhaps he stepped out of bounds, and God allowed him to be killed. The nation of Judah would soon turn again to idolatrous ways, and Josiah was not going to change that direction. God KNEW that!
So God did not let Josiah SEE the destruction and abasement He would bring on the nation of Judah! Josiah died in PEACE~!
Peace of conscience and peace of consciousness embattling evil.

31 Jehoahaz was twenty and three years old when he began to reign; and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Hamutal, the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah. 32 And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his fathers had done. 33 And Pharaoh-nechoh put him in bands at Riblah in the land of Hamath, that he might not reign in Jerusalem; and put the land to a tribute of an hundred talents of silver, and a talent of gold. 34 And Pharaoh-nechoh made Eliakim the son of Josiah king in the room of Josiah his father, and turned his name to Jehoiakim, and took Jehoahaz away: and he came to Egypt, and died there.

About the only thing good said here of Jehoahaz is that he was carried away by the king of Egypt. Perhaps it was because he had such a rebellious spirit. He was actully the YOUNGER brother, and probably displayed a more authoritative manner. The king of Egypt knew Jehoahaz would never totally submit. He was so rebellious that he refused to follow his father Josiah in a godly rule.

35 And Jehoiakim gave the silver and the gold to Pharaoh; but he taxed the land to give the money according to the commandment of Pharaoh: he exacted the silver and the gold of the people of the land, of every one according to his taxation, to give it unto Pharaoh-nechoh. 36 Jehoiakim was twenty and five years old when he began to reign; and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Zebudah, the daughter of Pedaiah of Rumah. 37 And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his fathers had done.

Eliakim was Jehoahaz's elder brother. The king of Egypt changed his name to Jehoiakim, and gave him the kingdom. Pharoah-necho placed a great tax on the nation, and Jehoiakim passed it on to the people. Atrocity upon atrocity!
Judah never regained any semblance of power or prestige, and was eventually carried away just as God had said.

The corruption of the pleasure-seeking of the people would soon be complete.
Three more kings would reign about 20 years and Jerusalem (and Judah with it) would fall. The kingdom would be no more.

Friends, when a nation seeks to please itself rather than God, that nation is destined for destruction.

Let us be the called out nation of JOSIAH'S and institute spiritual renewal and reformation!

Please continue in Bible Study with us.