The reign of Manasseh especially was filled with evil. According to Jewish tradition, Manasseh had cut Prophet Isaiah into two for proclaiming the warnings of God against his sinful deeds. Owing to many such evil acts, God allowed Manasseh to be carried as a prisoner by Assyrians (2 Chronicles 33:11). Manasseh lived a repented life at the end of his days (2 Chronicles 33:12-16). But, his successor Ammon, led Judah again into evil ways. Even his name is doubted by some scholars to be a tribute to the Egyptian Sun God Ammon-Re. In such a scenario, Ammon gets killed after ruling for just two years. After punishing the murderers of Ammon, the people of Judah make his son Josiah as the new King (2 Kings 21:24).
(2) Due to the untimely death of Ammon, his son Josiah was just eight years old when he ascended the throne (2 Kings 22:1). Take a moment to think about the situation! Judah was immersed in evil ways and an eight year old boy was the king. Even the remaining faithful people in Judah must have wondered with frustration what difference an eight year old boy could make. They knew from prophetic utterings that their nation was about to be destroyed soon because the sins of the people of Judah during the time of Manasseh had exceeded the sins of the people who lived in Canaan before the Israelites arrived (2 Kings 21:9). Hence, God had decided firmly to destroy Judah. Since these faithful people must have known this decision of God, they must not have had any high hopes for Josiah. Maybe some of them could have wondered whether he was the righteous Josiah prophesied by a prophet of Jeroboam’s time (1 Kings 13:1-3). Even then, they must have thought with resignation that, no matter what, Judah would be destroyed. In the first eight years of Josiah’s rule, there were not many changes. Truly, an eight year old King would still be learning the tricks of his trade. He would not have been well versed with the game of the nobles, and hence in those first eight years, it must have been the powerful people of his court who called the shots. Since, these must have been the same evil men who advised Ammon, Judah was further led to sin in these eight years and many must have concluded that even the reign of Josiah would be an evil one. Oh! How wrong they were!
(3) 633 B.C. – Josiah was sixteen years of age. The Bible says that from that age he began to seek God (2 Chronicles 34:3). Sixteen is still a very young age. Maybe, Josiah read the advice of his ancestor Solomon to seek God from a young age (Ecclesiastes 12:1). Moreover, it is believed that Prophet Zephaniah prophesied during the first part of Josiah’s reign (Zephaniah 1:1 & See Grace – Blossom13:March09,paragraph02). Maybe his words of prophecy were also a reason for the change of heart in Josiah. Moreover, even Prophet Nahum could have been prophesying in the same period. Even though Nahum’s prophecy was primarily about Nineveh, Josiah could have been inspired by his words as well. Prophet Habakkuk also could have lived around this period (See Grace – Blossom05:July06,paragraph04). Even his words could also have been a reason for the change in Josiah. Though Josiah started to seek God from this year, he was not able to bring any grand changes in Judah at this time, but he continued to slowly grow in the Lord.
(4) 629 B.C. – Josiah was now 20 years old. He had been growing in his knowledge about God for the last four years. But till now he had not taken any sweeping steps to reform the sinful state of Judah. He was seeking God only in his personal life. Maybe, he was consolidating power in his Court. From 629 A.D. however, he began to reform his sinful country (2 Chronicles 34:3,4). He demolished many sacrificial altars and temples built for pagan gods in Judah and killed heathen priests who were misleading people (2 Chronicles 34:5). A year after the beginning of Josiah’s reforms, i.e. in 628 B.C., Prophet Jeremiah began his prophetic ministry (Jeremiah 1:2). Josiah continued his sweeping reform of Judah (2 Chronicles 34:6). The words of Jeremiah which condemned the sinful ways of the people of Judah must have made Josiah more zealous in his reforms. Bible says that Josiah cleansed the whole of Judah. The glory of Josiah did not stop at that.
(5) 623 B.C. – Josiah was now twenty six years old. It had been six years since the beginning of his reforms and he had been walking with God for the past ten years. In 623 B.C., which was the 18th year of his reign, he commissioned a comprehensive repair work of the Jerusalem temple (2 Chronicles 34:8). Such was the indifference of the people of Judah that they had let the Jerusalem temple go into repair (2 Chronicles 34:11). Under the watchful eyes of Josiah, the Jerusalem temple was restored to a good shape (2 Chronicles 34:9-13). Even when we restore our old house by doing a thorough cleaning, we sometimes discover long lost items. In the same way, during their restoration work of the Jerusalem temple, they also discovered a book. It was the Book of Law given to Moses by God (2 Chronicles 34:14). We know that the Law was the book of governing principles given to the Jewish people by God. Moses had warned them that it was very important for them to follow the Law. It is surprising and sad to find out that they had lost such an important book. Some might even wonder how such a thing could happen. In those times, only very few written copies of the Law must have existed. Law was passed down mostly in an oral manner. Hence, it was quite possible for them to forget the Law. A faithful few must not have forgotten the Law and would have adhered to it. But a majority of the people, especially the royal family and the priests had forgotten the Law. King Hezekiah knew the Law, and hence this sorry state must have occurred during the long evil reign of Manasseh. Therefore, the people of Judah had been following pagan practices in their temple and everywhere. Since Josiah started his cleansing much before he found this book, it is clear that he knew at least some precepts of the Law. Even then, when he listened to a whole reading of the Law, he was saddened by the extent of their transgressions and tore his own clothes as a sign of humbling before God (2 Chronicles 34:19). He figured out that because of their continued transgressions, God’s wrath must have come upon them and sent his officers to enquire about it from the prophets (2 Chronicles 34:20,21). From this, it can be inferred that it was probably those portions of the Law which spell out the punishments of God if one transgressed it, which got lost. It might be the case that Manasseh banned those portions of the Law in order to prevent the people from knowing the punishments his evil ways could bring on Judah. As time went by, people could have forgotten them completely. The officers sent by Josiah met Prophetess Huldah and enquired about the fate of Judah (2 Chronicles 34:22). She said to them that Judah would not escape from the coming punishments of God, owing to their transgressions, but since Josiah humbled himself before God, he would be taken away in peace before that punishment fell on Judah (2 Chronicles 34:23-28). On hearing this, Josiah did not lose heart, instead he gathered the people of Judah and renewed God’s covenant with them (2 Chronicles 34:29-31). Not only that, he followed God all his days and took steps to ensure that the whole nation of Judah walked in the path of God (2 Chronicles 34:32,33). He also organised a grand Passover observation in 623 B.C. (2 Chronicles 35:1-17). It was so grand that the Bible says that no such observation was done in Judah since the days of Prophet Samuel (2 Chronicles 35:18,19). The days of Prophet Samuel was before the institution of monarchy among the Israelites i.e. around 1000 B.C. This means that no other Israelite King had organised a grander or more perfect Passover Observation than the one organised by Josiah in 623 B.C. Moreover, it is claimed by some scholars that this was also the last observed Jubilee year by the Jewish people. Before the next Jubilee year, Judah had been destroyed by Babylon.
(6) 610 B.C. – The grand reforming reign of Josiah came to an abrupt end with his unexpected death in 610 B.C. in battle. He marched against Necho, king of Egypt against the wishes of God (2 Chronicles 35:20-22). Maybe, since the message from God came through Necho himself, Josiah could have doubted it (2 Chronicles 35:22). Hence, he met the Egyptian Pharaoh’s forces at Megiddo, and was killed there by archers (2 Chronicles 35:23,24). He was just 39 years old when he died. After his death, Judah sunk into sinful ways once again and in 23 years was destroyed by Babylon. As foretold by Prophetess Huldah, Josiah had died in peace without seeing the eventual destruction of the nation of Judah. Josiah is certainly a forgotten hero of faith in the Old Testament. It was only because he had lived the right faith till his death; Prophet Jeremiah sung lamentations about him (2 Chronicles 35:25). The reason we call him a forgotten hero is because if asked who the best Israelite King was, not many would say Josiah. But the Bible says the following about Josiah – ‘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.’ (2 Kings 23:25). Truly, even though many god-fearing Kings before his time had also tried to cleanse Judah, none of them had attempted a sweeping cleansing like Josiah. For example, Solomon, during his evil days in the end, had built many high places for pagan deities (1 Kings 11:7). Even though many god-fearing Kings had come after Solomon, these high places built by Solomon remained intact till the time of Josiah. This makes it clear that no other King had cleansed Judah fully. It was only Josiah who removed those high places (2 Kings 23:13,14). In the same way, King Jeroboam who had come after Solomon had built pagan sacrificial altars at Bethel, and it was prophesied at that time itself by a prophet that a future king named Josiah would destroy them and burn the bones of the pagan priests there (1 Kings 13:1-3). While fulfilling that prophecy, Josiah identified the tomb of the prophet who prophesied that and left that tomb alone (2 Kings 23:17,18). It is remarkable that people had clearly marked this tomb of that prophet who had died nearly 300 years before, and it indicates that at least some were expecting the long prophesised Josiah. Their expectations did not go in vain. If you read the biblical record of his reign in full, then you will understand how sweeping and unprecedented his reforms and cleansing they were (See 2 Kings 22,23 & 2 Chronicles 34,35 chapters).
(7) Though Josiah was unable to stop the eventual destruction of Judah, his reign was filled with peace and righteousness. His life is a magnificent example for us. Despite being very young, he depended only on God and reformed an entire nation. His courage, steadfastness and godliness must inspire us. The most striking aspect about Josiah was that he was not ready to compromise even an inch. Many kings before him like Hezekiah had walked with God but none of them had the courage or vision to reform Judah to the extent of Josiah. We too have to follow Josiah’s footsteps and not compromise over anything in our spiritual race if we are to become God’s elect. In the same way, Josiah did not hesitate to destroy even those high places that were built by Solomon. The Kings before him did not have the courage to destroy the pagan places built by the great famed Solomon, builder of the Jerusalem temple and Son of David. But, Josiah feared only God and his precepts. Hence, even we are to be like that and stand up to trials, no matter how daunting they are. Moreover, Josiah knew that Judah would be eventually destroyed, but that did not prevent him from reforming it. We also know that this second world will be eventually destroyed, but that knowledge must not stop us or make us lethargic in proclaiming the gospel. We should be zealous and firm like Josiah in serving God by doing his Gospel work. If we live like that, just as Josiah was taken by God before the destruction of Judah, we will also be taken by Him before the destruction of this second world. The glorious reign of Josiah ended with his death at Megiddo. It is at that same place the reign of Christ is set to begin. Truly, it is with the victory at Megiddo in the final battle of Armageddon that the 1000 year reign of Christ will begin. That too will be a period of cleansing like that of the reign of Josiah. The whole world will be cleansed and justice will become the foundation of that world. We, who are waiting for that world, will do well to learn useful lessons from the forgotten reign of Josiah. Let us make right the shortcomings of our spiritual life in the past year and seek to serve God more in the coming year. Let all praise be to God! Amen.