Josiah(josias)
“Healed by Jehovah or Jehovah supports him”
Summary
The sixteenth king of Judah and one of its most righteous rulers, who at age eight succeeded his wicked father Amon and conducted sweeping religious reforms after discovering the Book of the Law in the Temple.
☩Accession and Early Reign
Josiah was born to King Amon and Jedidah, daughter of Adaiah of Bozkath, and became king in 640 BC at the age of eight following his father's assassination. His reign of thirty-one years made him one of Judah's longer-reigning monarchs. Unlike his immediate predecessors Manasseh and Amon, who led Judah into deep idolatry, Josiah 'did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, and walked in all the ways of David his father, and turned not aside to the right hand or to the left.' According to Chronicles, by the age of sixteen (his eighth regnal year) he began to seek the God of David, and by twenty (his twelfth year) he commenced the systematic purging of idolatry from Judah. The prophets Isaiah, Zephaniah, and Jeremiah ministered during his reign.
☩Destruction of Idolatry
Josiah's detestation of idolatry exceeded that of any king since David, leading him to personally supervise the destruction of pagan worship throughout the land. He broke down altars and images of Baal, Asherah poles, sun chariots, and all outward relics of idolatry. His zeal extended beyond Judah into the former northern kingdom's territory—Manasseh, Ephraim, Simeon, even unto Naphtali—which lay comparatively desolate under Assyrian control. Most remarkably, he fulfilled a prophecy given 345 years earlier to Jeroboam I, in which a prophet had named Josiah specifically as the one who would burn the bones of idolatrous priests upon the altar at Bethel. He ransacked the sepulchres of these priests and consumed their bones upon the idol altars, expressing an absolute hatred of false worship that no previous king had demonstrated.
☩Discovery of the Law
In his eighteenth year, when Josiah was twenty-six, he commissioned repairs to the Temple of the Lord. During this restoration, the high priest Hilkiah discovered 'the book of the law of the Lord given by Moses'—likely identical with our Book of Deuteronomy. When the book was read to Josiah, he tore his robes in consternation upon hearing the commandments that had been neglected and the curses pronounced against disobedience. He immediately sent to the prophetess Huldah for counsel. She confirmed that the threatened judgments would indeed fall upon Judah for their idolatry, but because Josiah's heart was tender and he had humbled himself before God, he would be gathered to his grave in peace before the calamity came. This discovery became the catalyst for the most thorough religious reform in Judah's history.
☩Covenant Renewal and Passover
Responding to the discovered Law, Josiah assembled all the people at the Temple and personally read to them from the book of the covenant. He then led them in a solemn renewal of the covenant, pledging to walk after the Lord and keep His commandments with all their heart and soul. Following this covenant renewal, Josiah celebrated the Passover with careful attention to every direction in the Law, on a scale of unprecedented magnificence. The testimony of Scripture is remarkable: 'There was no Passover like to that kept in Israel from the days of Samuel the prophet; neither did all the kings of Israel keep such a Passover as Josiah kept.' The ark was restored to its place in the Temple, and all Judah kept the feast together.
☩Death at Megiddo
In 609 BC, Pharaoh Necho II of Egypt marched his army northward toward Carchemish on the Euphrates to assist Assyria against the rising Babylonian power. Though Necho declared he had no quarrel with Josiah and even warned him that God had commanded his expedition, Josiah insisted on opposing the Egyptian passage through his territory. At the valley of Megiddo (Esdraelon), the great battlefield of Palestine, the armies clashed. Josiah disguised himself but was mortally wounded by Egyptian archers and died before reaching Jerusalem. He was buried with extraordinary honors, and Jeremiah composed a lamentation for him that became an ordinance in Israel, sung annually at Hadadrimmon. His death removed the last godly restraint from Judah, and within twenty-three years the nation fell to Babylon.
Related Verses55 mentions
See Also
References
- 1.John McClintock and James Strong, "Josiah," in Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature, vol. IV (Harper & Brothers, 1867–1887).
- 2.James Orr (ed.), "Josiah," in International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, vol. III (Howard-Severance Company, 1915).
- 3.George Morrish, "Josiah," in Morrish's Concise Bible Dictionary (George Morrish, 1898).
- 4.Andrew Robert Fausset, "Josiah," in The Englishman's Critical and Expository Bible Cyclopædia (Hodder & Stoughton, 1878).