CHAPTER 34

(641 B.C.)

JOSIAH REIGNS OVER JUDAH

¹Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned in Jerusalem one and thirty years (Josiah will be one of the most Godly; and yet, Judahs sun is beginning to set).

²And he did that which was right in the sight of the LORD, and walked in the ways of David his father, and declined neither to the right hand, nor to the left (what a beautiful statement!).

JOSIAHS REFORMS

³For in the eighth year of his reign, while he was yet young (16 years old), he began to seek after the God of David his father (in other words, he was converted at 16): and in the twelfth year (when he was 20 years old) he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem from the high places, and the groves, and the carved images, and the molten images (the Holy Spirit, no doubt, dealt with him greatly and inspired him to carry forth this great work).

⁴And they broke down the altars of Baalim in his presence (meaning that he personally saw to their destruction); and the images, that were on high above them, he cut down; and the groves, and the carved images, and the molten images, he broke in pieces, and made dust of them, and strowed it upon the graves of them who had sacrificed unto them.

⁵And he burnt the bones of the Priests upon their altars, and cleansed Judah and Jerusalem. (This is speaking of the ungodly priests who had burned incense on the altar at Bethel nearly 350 years before. A Prophet, at that time, came out of Judah and cried against the Altar. He prophesied at that time that a child shall be born unto the house of David, Josiah by name. In other words, the Holy Spirit through him called Josiahs name 320 years before Josiah was born [I Ki. 13:2]).

⁶And so did he in the cities of Manasseh, and Ephraim, and Simeon, even unto Naphtali, with their mattocks round about (he extended this effort even into what had been the northern kingdom).

⁷And when he had broken down the altars and the groves, and had beaten the graven images into powder, and cut down all the idols throughout all the land of Israel, he returned to Jerusalem (which once again states that he attended to this task personally).

JOSIAH REPAIRS THE TEMPLE

⁸Now in the eighteenth year of his reign (when he was 26 years old), when he had purged the land, and the House (the Temple), he sent Shaphan the son of Azaliah, and Maaseiah the governor of the city, and Joah the son of Joahaz the recorder, to repair the House of the LORD his God (this was five or six years after Jeremiah began to prophesy [Jer. 2:2]; the great Prophet was, therefore, present at the time of these reformations and the great Passover Feast of these Chapters).

⁹And when they came to Hilkiah the High Priest, they delivered the money that was brought into the House of God, which the Levites that kept the doors had gathered of the hand of Manasseh and Ephraim, and of all the remnant of Israel, and of all Judah and Benjamin; and they returned to Jerusalem (the Levites had come back from the area occupied by the Tribes of Manasseh and Ephraim).

¹⁰And they put it in the hand of the workmen who had the oversight of the House of the LORD, and they gave it to the workmen who wrought in the House of the LORD, to repair and amend the house:

¹¹Even to the artificers and builders gave they it, to buy hewn stone, and timber for couplings, and to floor the houses which the kings of Judah had destroyed (there had been much negligence of the Temple, and even outright destruction).

¹²And the men did the work faithfully: and the overseers of them were Jahath and Obadiah, the Levites, of the sons of Merari; and Zechariah and Meshullam, of the sons of the Kohathites, to set it forward; and other of the Levites, all who could skill of instruments of music (it seems from this that the Levites played instruments and sang praises unto the Lord while the work on the Temple was being done).

¹³Also they were over the bearers of burdens, and were overseers of all who wrought the work in any manner of service: and of the Levites there were scribes, and officers, and porters (the Levites had the general oversight of all the work, and thereby filled the offices mentioned here).

THE BOOK OF THE LAW DISCOVERED

¹⁴And when they brought out the money that was brought into the House of the LORD, Hilkiah the Priest found a Book of the Law of the LORD given by Moses (this was no doubt the original Book of the Pentateuch the one actually personally written by Moses [II Ki. 22:8]; the Hebrew should have been translated literally: The actual engraving of the Law of the Ever-Living in the hand of Moses; the Scrolls were nearly 850 years old; they had been hidden in the Temple, and were found somewhat by accident by Hilkiah the High Priest).

¹⁵And Hilkiah answered and said to Shaphan the scribe, I have found the Book of the Law in the House of the LORD. And Hilkiah delivered the book to Shaphan.

¹⁶And Shaphan carried the Book to the king, and brought the king word back again, saying, All that was committed to your servants, they do it.

¹⁷And they have gathered together the money that was found in the House of the LORD, and have delivered it into the hand of the overseers, and to the hand of the workmen.

¹⁸Then Shaphan the scribe told the king, saying, Hilkiah the Priest has given me a Book. And Shaphan read it before the king (or read a portion of it).

¹⁹And it came to pass, when the king had heard the words of the Law, that he rent his clothes. (The king rent his clothes in grief, because the practice of the nation had diverged so terribly from the ever-to-be-venerated Law. Learning from it how defective his reformation was, he proceeded with a thorough one.

A cleansing of the heart and life under the searchlight of the Word of God differs vastly from a reformation initiated by the feeble light of conscience or by tradition.)

²⁰And the king commanded Hilkiah, and Ahikam the son of Shaphan, and Abdon the son of Micah, and Shaphan the Scribe, and Asaiah a servant of the kings, saying,

²¹Go, enquire of the LORD for me, and for them who are left in Israel and in Judah, concerning the Words of the Book that is found: for great is the wrath of the LORD that is poured out upon us, because our fathers have not kept the Word of the LORD, to do after all that is written in this Book (the words of the Book convicted Josiah).

²²And Hilkiah, and they whom the king had appointed, went to Huldah the Prophetess, the wife of Shallum the son of Tikvath, the son of Hasrah, keeper of the wardrobe; (now she dwelt in Jerusalem in the college [a certain part of the city; has no relationship to academics]:) and they spoke to her to that effect (even though Jeremiah was serving in the office of the Prophet at that time, the Holy Spirit had the High Priest go to a woman, Huldah the Prophetess; in Christ, there is neither male nor female, and we speak of preference [Gal. 3:28]).

²³And she answered them Thus says the LORD God of Israel, Tell you the man who sent you to me,

²⁴Thus says the LORD, Behold, I will bring evil upon this place, and upon the inhabitants thereof, even all the curses that are written in the Book which they have read before the king of Judah (Deut., Chpt. 28):

²⁵Because they have forsaken Me, and have burned incense unto other gods, that they might provoke Me to anger with all the works of their hands; therefore My wrath shall be poured out upon this place, and shall not be quenched (this Judgment would come in a few years).

²⁶And as for the king of Judah (Josiah), who sent you to enquire of the LORD, so shall you say unto him, Thus says the LORD God of Israel concerning the words which you have heard;

²⁷Because your heart was tender, and you did humble yourself before God, when you heard His Words against this place, and against the inhabitants thereof, and humbled yourself before Me, and did rend your clothes, and weep before Me; I have even heard you also, says the LORD.

²⁸Behold, I will gather you to your fathers, and you shall be gathered to your grave in peace, neither shall your eyes see all the evil that I will bring upon this place, and upon the inhabitants of the same. So they brought the king word again. (It seems from the pronouncement by the Lord against Judah that Josiahs reforms merely delayed the coming judgment. It did not halt it. In effect, the Lord told the monarch that it would not come in his lifetime. His death would be in peace, as it regards these judgments.)

THE LAW READ AND THE COVENANT RENEWED

²⁹Then the king sent and gathered together all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem.

³⁰And the king went up into the House of the LORD, and all the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and the Priests, and the Levites, and all the people, great and small (they gathered in the Court in front of the Temple): and he read in their ears all the Words of the Book of the Covenant that was found in the House of the LORD (the Priests did read [Deut. 31:9]).

³¹And the king stood in his place, 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 his heart, and with all his soul, to perform the Words of the Covenant which are written in this Book.

³²And he caused all who were present in Jerusalem and Benjamin to stand to it. And the inhabitants of Jerusalem did according to the Covenant of God, the God of their fathers.

³³And Josiah took away all the abominations out of all the countries that pertained to the Children of Israel, and made all who were present in Israel to serve, even to serve the LORD their God. And all his days they departed not from following the LORD, the God of their fathers (every true revival is always, and without exception, based on the Word of God; the Bible is the only revealed Truth in the world and, in fact, ever has been; there is not a spiritual problem that is not addressed in the Word; there is not a difficulty for which it does not have a solution; there is not a question that it cannot answer; there is not a life that the God of its pages cannot change; there is not a broken heart that its Words cannot mend; there is not a darkness that its Light cannot dispel; not a sin that the Blood of its pages cannot wash away [Ps. 119:105]).