AUGUST 2

Effect of Jeremiah's Preaching

It is obvious that Jeremiah is maturing both as a young man and as a prophet of God. He has been in the crucible of conflict and has emerged victorious. There will be more opposition and more personal sacrifice, but Jeremiah now has the fortitude to endure. Jeremiah will next be heard from after the reign of Josiah has ended. For now, however, the scene changes to a nation on the brink of a thorough, if brief, spiritual revival. Perhaps Jeremiah's preaching has been more effective than he realizes. (When one plants the seed, he never knows when it will bear fruit.)

 

TEMPLE IS REPAIRED. 2 Kgs. 22:3-7  2 Chron. 34:8-13

In the eighteenth year of Josiah's reign, to purity the land and the temple, he sent Shaphan son of Azaliah and Maaseiah the ruler of the city, with Joah son of Joahaz, the recorder, to repair the temple of the lord his God. k"Go up to Hilkiah the high priest and have him get ready the money that has been brought into the temple of the lord, which the doorkeepers have collected from (he people. Have them entrust it to the men appointed to supervise the work on the temple. And have these men pay the workers who repair the temple of the lord— the carpenters, the builders and the masons. Also have them purchase tim­ber and dressed stone to repair the temple. But tliey need not account for the money entrusted to them, because they are acting faithfully.  They went to Hilkiah the high priest and gave him the money that had been brought into the temple of God, which the Levites who were the door­keepers had collected from the people of Manasseh, Ephraim and the entire remnant of Israel and from all the people of Judah and Benjamin and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. Then they entrusted it to the men appointed to supervise the work on the lord's temple. These men paid the workers who repaired and restored the temple. They also gave money to the carpenters and builders to purchase dressed stone, and timber for joists and beams for the buildings that the kings of Judah had allowed to fall into ruin.

 

The men did (he work faithfully. Over them to direct them were Jahath and Obadiah, Levites descended from Merari, and Zechariah and Meshullam, descended from Kohath. The Levites—all who were skilled in playing musical instruments—had charge of the laborers and supervised all the workers from job to job. Some of the Levites were secretaries, scribes and doorkeepers.

 

BOOK OF THE LAW FOUND. 2 Kgs. 22:8  2 Chron. 34:14,15

while they were bringing out the money that had been taken into the temple of the lord, Hilkiah the priest found the Book of the Law of the lord that had been given through Moses. Hilkiah said to Shaphan the secretary, "I have found the Book of the Law in the temple of the lord." KsHe gave it to Shaphan, who read it.

 

LAW READ TO JOSIAH. 2 Chron. 34:16-18 [2 Kgs. 22:9,10]

Then Shaphan took the book to the king and reported to him: "Your officials are doing everything that has been com­mitted to them. They have paid out the money that was in the temple of the lord and have entrusted it to the supervisors and workers." Then Shaphan the secretary informed the king, "Hilkiah the priest has given me a book." And Shaphan read from it in the presence of the king.

 

JOSIAH SEES SIGNIFICANCE. 2 Chron. 34:19-21 [2 Kgs. 22:11-13]

When the king heard the words of the Law, he tore his robes. He gave these orders to Hilkiah, Ahikam son of Shaphan, Abdon son of Micah, Shaphan the secretary and Asaiah the king's attendant: "Go and inquire of the lord for me and for the remnant in Israel and Judah about what is written in this book that has been found. Great is the lord's anger that is poured out on us because our fathers have not kept the word of the lord; they have not acted in accordance with all that is written in this book."

 

HULDAH THE PROPHETESS. 2 Chron. 34:22-28 [2 Kgs. 22:14-20]

Hilkiah and those the king had sent with himr went to speak to the prophetess Huldah, who was the wife of Shallum son of Tokhath,8 the son of Hasrah keeper of the wardrobe. She lived in Jerusalem, in the Second District.

She said to them, "This is what the lord, the God of Israel, says: Tell the man who sent you to me, 'This is what the lord says: I am going to bring disaster on this place and its people—all the curses written in the book that has been read in the presence of the king of Judah. Because they have forsaken me and burned incense to other gods and provoked me to anger by all that their hands have made," my anger will be poured out on this place and will not be quenched.' Tell the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of the lord,

 

'This is what the lord, the God of Israel, says con­cerning the words you heard: Because your heart was responsive and you humbled yourself before God when you heard what he spoke against this place and its people, and because you humbled yourself before me and tore your robes and wept in my presence, I have heard you, declares the lord. Now I will gather you to your fathers, and you will be buried in peace. Your eyes will not see all the disaster I am going to bring on this place and on those who live here.'"

So they took her answer back to the king.

 

LAW READ TO THE PEOPLE. 2 Chron. 34:29,30 [2 Kgs. 23:1,2 ]     

Then the king called together all the el­ders of Judah and Jerusalem. He went up to the temple of the lord with the men of Judah, the people of Jerusalem, the priests and the Levites—all the people from the least to the greatest. He read in their hearing all the words of the Book of the Covenant, which had been found in the temple of the lord.

 

COVENANT RENEWED. 2 Chron. 34:31,32 [2 Kgs. 23:3 ]     

 The king stood by his pillar and renewed the covenant in the presence of the lord — to follow the lord and keep his commands, regulations and decrees with all his heart and all his soul, and to obey the words of the covenant written in this book.

Then he had everyone in Jerusalem and Benjamin pledge themselves to it; the people of Jerusalem did this in accordance with the covenant of God, the God of their fathers.

 

JOSIAH'S SWEEPING REFORMS. 2 Kgs. 23:4-14,24    [ 2 Chron. 34:33]

 Kg the king ordered Hilkiah the high priest, the priests next in rank and the doorkeepers to remove from the temple of the lord all the articles made for Baal and Asherah and all the starry hosts. He burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of the Kidron Valley and took the ashes to Bethel. He did away with the pagan priests appointed by the kings of Judah to burn incense on the high places of the towns of Judah and on those around Jerusalem — those who burned incense to Baal, to the sun and moon, to the constellations and to all the starry hosts. He took the Asherah pole from the temple of the lord to the Kidron Valley outside Jerusalem and burned it there. He ground it to powder and scattered the dust over the graves of the common people. He also tore down the quarters of the male shrine prostitutes, which were in the temple of the lord and where women did weaving for Asherah.

 

Josiah brought all the priests from the towns of Judah and desecrated the high places, from Geba to Beersheba, where the priests had burned incense. He broke down the shrines" at the gates — at the entrance to the Gate of Joshua, the city governor, which is on the left of the city gate. Although the priests of the high places did not serve at the altar of the lord in Jerusalem, they ate unleavened bread with their fellow priests.

He desecrated Topheth, which was in the Valley of Ben Hinnom, so no one could use it to sacrifice his son or daughter in1" the fire to Molech. He removed from the entrance to the temple of the lord the horses that the kings of Judah had dedicated to the sun. They were in the court near the room of an official named Nathan-Melech. Josiah then burned the chariots dedicated to the sun.

 

He pulled down the altars the kings of Judah had erected on the roof near the upper room of Ahaz, and the altars Manasseh had built in the two courts of the temple of the lord. He removed them from there, smashed them to pieces and threw the rubble into the Kidron Valley. The king also desecrated the high places that were east of Jerusalem on the south of the Hill of Corruption — the ones Solomon king of Israel had built for Ashtoreth the vile goddess of the Sidonians, for Chemosh the vile god of Moab, and for Molech the detestable god of the people of Ammon. Josiah smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah poles and covered the sites with human bones.

 

Furthermore, Josiah got rid of the mediums and spiritists, the household gods, the idols and all the other detestable things seen in Judah and Jerusalem. This he did to fulfill the requirements of the law written in the book that Hilkiah the priest had discovered in the temple of the lord. ch Josiah removed all the detestable idols from all the territory belonging to the Israelites, and he had all who were present in Israel serve the lord

their God. As long as he lived, they did not fail to follow the lord, the God of their fathers.

 

REFORMS EXTEND TO SAMARIA. 2Kgs.23:15-20

Even the altar at Bethel, the high place made by Jeroboam son of Nebat, who had caused Israel to sin—even that altar and high place he demolished. He burned the high place and ground it to powder, and burned the Asherah pole also. Then Josiah looked around, and when he saw the tombs that were there on the hillside, he had the bones removed from them and burned on the altar to defile it, in accordance with the word of the lord proclaimed by the man of God who foretold these things.

The king asked, "What is that tombstone I see?"

The men of the city said, "It marks the tomb of the man of God who came from Judah and pronounced against the altar of Bethel the very things you have done to it."

 

"Leave it alone," he said. "Don't let anyone disturb his bones." So they spared his bones and those of the prophet who had come from Samaria.

Just as he had done at Bethel, Josiah removed and defiled all the shrines at the high places that the kings of Israel had built in the towns of Samaria that had provoked the lord to anger. Josiah slaughtered all the priests of those high places on the altars and burned human bones on them. Then he went back to Jerusalem.

 

GREAT PASSOVER CELEBRATION. 2 Chron. 35:1-19  [2Kgs. 23:21-23 ]  

Josiah celebrated the Passover to the lord in Jerusalem, and the Passover lamb was slaughtered on the fourteenth day of the first month. He appointed the priests to their duties and encouraged them in the service of tine lord's temple. He said to the Levites, who instructed all Israel and who had been consecrated to the lord: "Put the sacred ark in the temple that Solomon son of David king of Israel built. It is not to be carried about on your shoulders. Now serve the lord your God and his people Israel. Prepare yourselves by families in your divisions, according to the directions written by David king of Israel and by his son Solomon.

 

"Stand in the holy place with a group of Levites for each subdivision of the families of your fellow countrymen, the lay people. Slaughter the Passover lambs, consecrate yourselves and prepare the lambs for your fel­low countrymen, doing what the lord commanded through Moses."

Josiah provided for all the lay people who were there a total of thirty thousand sheep and goats for the Passover offerings, and also three thou­sand cattle—all from the king's own possessions.

His officials also contributed voluntarily to the people and the priests and Levites. Hilkiah, Zechariah and Jehiel, the administrators of God's temple, gave the priests twenty-six hundred Passover offerings and three hundred cattle. Also Conaniah along with Shemaiah and Nethanel, his brothers, and Hashabiah, Jeiel and Jozabad, the leaders of the Levites, pro­vided five thousand Passover offerings and five hundred head of cattle for the Levites.

 

The service was arranged and the priests stood in their places with the Levites in their divisions as the king had ordered. The Passover lambs were slaughtered, and the priests sprinkled the blood handed to them, while the Levites skinned the animals. They set aside the burnt offerings to give them to the subdivisions of the families of the people to offer to the lord, as is written in the Book of Moses. They did the same with the cattle.

They roasted the Passover animals over the fire as prescribed, and boiled the holy offerings in pots, caldrons and pans and served them quickly to all the people. After this, they made preparations for themselves and for the priests, because the priests, the descendants of Aaron, were sacrificing the burnt offerings and the fat portions until nightfall. So the Levites made preparations for themselves and for the Aaronic priests.

 

The musicians, the descendants of Asaph, were in the places prescribed by David, Asaph, Heman and Jeduthun the king's seer. The gatekeepers at each gate did not need to leave their posts, because their fellow Levites  made the preparations for them.

 

So at that time the entire service of the lord was carried out for the cerebration of the Passover and the offering of burnt offerings on the altar of the lord, as King Josiah had ordered. The Israelites who were present cel­ebrated the Passover at that time and observed the Feast of Unleavened Bread for seven days. The Passover had not been observed like this in Israel since the days of the prophet Samuel; and none of the kings of Israel had ever celebrated such a Passover as did Josiah, with the priests, the Levites and all Judah and Israel who were there with the people of Jerusalem. This Passover was celebrated in the eighteenth year of Josiah's reign.

 

RECORDS OF JOSIAH'S REIGN.  2 Chron. 35:26,27  [2Kgs. 23:28 ]  

  The other events of Josiah's reign and   his acts of devotion, according to what is written in the Law of the lord all the events, from beginning to end, are written in the book of the kings  of Israel and Judah.

 

Josiah's reign is truly a high point in the history of Judah, but it will not be enough to atone for three centuries of sinning on the part of Israel. The appar­ent lesson is that sin sometimes sets in motion certain consequences which even subsequent good intentions cannot forestall.