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2 Kings Chapter
Twenty-three
2 Kings 23
Chapter Contents
Josiah reads the law, and renews the covenant. (1-3) He
destroys idolatry. (4-14) The reformation extended to Israel, A passover kept.
(15-24) Josiah slain by Pharaoh-nechoh. (25-30) Wicked reigns of Jehoahaz and
Jehoiakim. (31-37)
Commentary on 2 Kings 23:1-3
(Read 2 Kings 23:1-3)
Josiah had received a message from God, that there was no
preventing the ruin of Jerusalem, but that he should only deliver his own soul;
yet he does his duty, and leaves the event to God. He engaged the people in the
most solemn manner to abolish idolatry, and to serve God in righteousness and
true holiness. Though most were formal or hypocritical herein, yet much outward
wickedness would be prevented, and they were accountable to God for their own
conduct.
Commentary on 2 Kings 23:4-14
(Read 2 Kings 23:4-14)
What abundance of wickedness in Judah and Jerusalem! One
would not have believed it possible, that in Judah, where God was known, in
Israel, where his name was great, in Salem, in Zion, where his dwelling-place
was, such abominations should be found. Josiah had reigned eighteen years, and
had himself set the people a good example, and kept up religion according to
the Divine law; yet, when he came to search for idolatry, the depth and extent
were very great. Both common history, and the records of God's word, teach,
that all the real godliness or goodness ever found on earth, is derived from
the new-creating Spirit of Jesus Christ.
Commentary on 2 Kings 23:15-24
(Read 2 Kings 23:15-24)
Josiah's zeal extended to the cities of Israel within his
reach. He carefully preserved the sepulchre of that man of God, who came from
Judah to foretell the throwing down of Jeroboam's altar. When they had cleared
the country of the old leaven of idolatry, then they applied themselves to the
keeping of the feast. There was not holden such a passover in any of the
foregoing reigns. The revival of a long-neglected ordinance, filled them with
holy joy; and God recompensed their zeal in destroying idolatry with uncommon
tokens of his presence and favour. We have reason to think that during the
remainder of Josiah's reign, religion flourished.
Commentary on 2 Kings 23:25-30
(Read 2 Kings 23:25-30)
Upon reading these verses, we must say, Lord, though thy
righteousness be as the great mountains, evident, plainly to be seen, and past
dispute; yet thy judgments are a great deep, unfathomable, and past finding
out. The reforming king is cut off in the midst of his usefulness, in mercy to
him, that he might not see the evil coming upon his kingdom: but in wrath to
his people, for his death was an inlet to their desolations.
Commentary on 2 Kings 23:31-37
(Read 2 Kings 23:31-37)
After Josiah was laid in his grave, one trouble came on
another, till, in twenty-two years, Jerusalem was destroyed. The wicked
perished in great numbers, the remnant were purified, and Josiah's reformation
had raised up some to join the few who were the precious seed of their future
church and nation. A little time, and slender abilities, often suffice to undo
the good which pious men have, for a course of years, been labouring to effect.
But, blessed be God, the good work which he begins by his regenerating Spirit,
cannot be done away, but withstands all changes and temptations.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on 2 Kings》
2 Kings 23
Verse 2
[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.
Prophets —
Either Jeremiah, Zephaniah, Urijah: or, the sons of the prophets. It seems he
read it himself. Josiah did not think it beneath him, to be a reader, any more
than Solomon did to be a preacher, and David to be even a door keeper in the
house of God. All people are concerned to know the scripture, and all in
authority, to spread the knowledge of it.
Verse 3
[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.
Stood —
They declared their consent to it, and their concurrence with the king in that
act, which possibly they did by standing up, as the king himself stood when he
took it. It is of good use, with all possible solemnity, to oblige ourselves to
our duty. And he that bears an honest heart, does not startle at assurances.
Verse 4
[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.
Second order —
Either those two who were next in degree to the high-priest, and in case of
sickness were to manage his work: or the heads of the twenty four courses which
David had appointed.
The grove —
The image of the grove: it being most frequent to call images by the names of
the persons or things which they represent.
The fields —
Adjoining to the brook of Kidron.
To Beth-el — To
shew his abhorrence of them, and that he would not give the ashes of them a
place in his kingdom: and to pollute and disgrace that place which had been the
chief seat and throne of idolatry.
Verse 5
[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.
Priests —
Heb. the Chemarim; the highest rank of priests, employed in the highest work,
which was to burn incense.
Verse 6
[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.
The people — Of
that people, those idolatrous people, as it is explained, 2 Chronicles 34:4.
Verse 7
[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.
Sodomites —
Sodomy was a part of idol-worship, being done to the honour of some of their
idols, and by the appointment of those impure and diabolical spirits, which
were worshipped in their idols.
Hangings —
Or, curtains, either to draw before the idols which were worshipped in the grove,
to preserve them from defilement, or to gain more reverence for them: Or,
garments for the service of the grove, for the idols or the priests belonging
to them. Heb. houses, that is, either little chappels made of woven work, like
those which were made of silver, Acts 19:24, within which there were some
representations of their grove-idols: or rather, tents made of those curtains
for the use above-mentioned.
Verse 8
[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.
Priests —
Belonging to the high-places following, whether such as worshipped idols; or
such as worshipped God in those forbidden places.
Defiled — By
burning dead mens bones upon them, or by putting them to some other unclean
use.
From Geba —
The northern border of the kingdom of Judah.
Beer-sheba —
The southern border, from one end to the other.
Gates —
Which were erected by the gates of the city here mentioned, to the honour of
their tutelary gods, whom after the manner of the heathen they owned for the
protectors of their city and habitations.
The governor —
This circumstance is noted to shew Josiah's great zeal and impartiality, in
rooting out all monuments of idolatry, without any respects unto those great
persons who were concerned in them.
Verse 9
[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.
The priest —
Who worshipped the true God there.
In Jerusalem —
Were not suffered to come thither to the exercise of their priestly function;
as a just punishment for the corruption of God's worship, and the transgression
of so plain and positive a law of God, Deuteronomy 12:11, which was much worse in them
who had more knowledge to discern the will of God, and more obligations to
observe it.
Did eat — Of
the meal-offerings, allotted to the priests, wherein there was to be no leaven,
Leviticus 2:4,5,10,11, and consequently of other
provisions belonging to the priests, which are contained under this one kind.
Thus their spiritual blemish puts them into the very same state which corporal
blemishes brought them, Leviticus 21:17, etc. And thus he mitigates
their punishment: he shuts them out from spiritual services, but allows them
necessary provisions.
Verse 10
[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.
Topheth —
Very near Jerusalem, where was the image of Molech, to whom some sacrificed
their children, burning them in the fire, others dedicated them, making them
pass between two fires. It is supposed to be called Topheth, from toph, a drum;
because they beat drums at the burning of the children, that their shrieks
might not be heard.
Verse 11
[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.
Horses —
Such the eastern nations used to consecrate to the sun, to signify the
swiftness of his motion.
The sun —
Either, to be sacrificed to the sun: or, to draw those chariots in which the
kings, or some other in their stead, went forth every morning to worship the
rising sun: for both these were the customs of the Armenians and Persians, as
Xenophon testifies.
Entering in — By
the gate of the outward court of the temple.
Chamberlain —
Or, officer, to whom the care of these horses were committed.
Suburbs — Of
the temple: in certain outward buildings belonging to the temple.
Chariots —
Which were made for the worship of the sun.
Verse 12
[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.
The top —
Upon the roof of the king's house. They were so mad upon their idols, that they
were not content with all their publick high places and altars, but made others
upon their house-tops, for the worship of the heavenly bodies.
Cast — To
shew his detestation of them: and to abolish the very remembrance of them.
Verse 13
[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.
Corruption —
The mount of olives, called the mount of corruption, for the gross idolatry
there practiced.
Which —
Not the same individual altars; which doubtless either Solomon upon his
repentance, or some other of Josiah's predecessors had taken away, but other
altars built by Manasseh or Amon, which because erected by Solomon's example,
and for the same use, and in the same place, are called by his name: this brand
is left by the Holy Ghost upon his name and memory, as a just punishment of
that abominable practice, and a mean to deter others from the like.
Abomination —
The idol, so called, because it was abominable, and made them abominable to
God.
Verse 14
[14] And
he brake in pieces the images, and cut down the groves, and filled their places
with the bones of men.
Men — Of
the idolatrous priests, which he caused to be taken out of their graves, verse 18. As he carried the ashes of the images to the
graves, to mingle them with dead mens bones, so he carried dead mens bones to
the places where the images had been, that both ways idolatry might be rendered
loathsome. Dead men and dead gods were indeed much alike, and fittest to go
together.
Verse 15
[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.
Beth-el —
Probably this city was now under the kingdom of Judah, to which it was added by
Abijah long since. And it is probable, since the ten tribes were carried away,
many cities had put themselves under the protection of Judah. The golden calf,
it seems, was gone; but Josiah would leave no remains of that idolatry.
Verse 16
[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.
Himself —
Josiah's care and zeal was so great, that he would not trust his officers with
these things, but would see them done with his own eyes.
These words —
Three hundred years before it was done.
Verse 20
[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.
The priests — By
this relation it appears, that after the departure of the king of Assyria,
divers of the Israelites who had retired to other parts, and kept themselves
out of the conqueror's hands, returned together with their priests to their own
land, and to their old trade, worshipping idols; to whom, peradventure, they
ascribed this their deliverance from that judgment which Jehovah had brought
upon them.
And burnt —
According to that famous prophecy, 1 Kings 13:1,2.
Verse 22
[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;
Such a passover —
Celebrated with such solemn care, and great preparation, and numerous
sacrifices, and universal joy of all good men; which was much the greater,
because of their remembrance of the former wicked and miserable times under
Manasseh, and Amon; and the good hopes they now had of the happy establishment
of their nation, and the true religion; and of the prevention of God's
judgments denounced against them.
Judges —
Or, from the days of Samuel, the last of the judges; as it is expressed 2 Chronicles 35:18. None of the kings had taken
such care to prepare themselves, the priests, and people, and accurately to
observe all the rites, and diligently to purge out all uncleanness, and to
renew their covenant with God. And undoubtedly God was pleased to recompense
their zeal in destroying idolatry with uncommon tokens of his presence and
favour. All this concurred to make it such a passover as had not been, even in
the days of Hezekiah.
Verse 24
[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.
Images, … —
Three words noting the same thing, to shew, That all the instruments and
monuments of idolatry were destroyed, as God had commanded.
Spied —
All that were discovered; not only such as were in the place of worship, but
such as their priests or zealots had removed, and endeavoured to hide.
Verse 25
[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.
No king —
For his diligent study in God's law, and his exact care, and unwearied
industry, and fervent zeal, in rooting out idolators, and all kinds and
appearances of idolatry, not only in Judah, but in Israel also; and in the
establishment of the true religion in all his dominions, and in the conforming
of his own life, and his peoples too, (as far as he could) to the holy law of
God: though Hezekiah might excel him in some particulars.
Verse 26
[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.
Notwithstanding —
Because though the king was most hearty in his repentance and acceptable to
God, and therefore the judgment was delayed for his time; yet the people were
in general corrupt, and secretly averse from Josiah's pious reformation, as
appears from the complaints of the prophets, especially Jeremiah and Zephaniah,
against them: and by the following history, wherein we see, that as soon as
ever Josiah was gone, his children, and the princes, and the people, suddenly
and greedily returned to their former abominations.
Because —
The sins of Manasseh, and for the men of his generation; who concurred with him
in his idolatrous and cruel practices, are justly punished in this generation:
because of God's sovereign right of punishing sinners when he sees fit: because
of that publick declaration of God, that he would visit the iniquity of the
fathers upon the children: and principally, because these men had never
sincerely repented of their own, nor of their fathers sins.
Verse 27
[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.
I said —
Upon the conditions in sundry places expressed, which they broke, and therefore
God justly made them to know his breach of promise.
Verse 29
[29] In
his days Pharaohnechoh 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.
The king, … —
The king of Babylon, who having formerly rebelled against the Assyrian had now
conquered him; as appears by the course of the sacred, and the concurrence of
the prophane history; and therefore is here and elsewhere called the Assyrian,
and the king of Assyria, because now he was the head of that empire.
Euphrates —
Against Carchemish by Euphrates, as it is expressed, 2 Chronicles 35:20, which the Assyrian had taken
from Pharaoh's confederates, who therefore sends forces against the Assyrian,
that he might both help them, and secure himself.
Josiah went —
Either to defend his own country from Pharaoh's incursions; or to assist the
king of Babylon, with whom he seems to have been in league.
Slew —
Gave him his death wound there; though he died not 'till he came to Jerusalem.
Seen him —
When he fought with him, or in the first onset. It does not appear, that Josiah
had any clear call to engage in this war; possibly he received his death wound,
as a punishment of his rashness.
Verse 30
[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.
Dead —
Mortally wounded.
Jehoahaz —
Who was younger than Jehoiakim, yet preferred by the people before the elder
brother; either because Jehoiakim refused the kingdom for fear of Pharaoh, whom
he knew he should hereby provoke. Or because Jehoahaz was the more stout and
warlike prince; whence he is called a lion, Ezekiel 19:3.
Verse 32
[32] And
he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his
fathers had done.
His fathers —
His grand-parents, Manasseh, and Amon. He restored that idolatry which his
father had destroyed. Jerusalem saw not a good day, after Josiah was laid in
his grave; but one trouble came after another, 'till within two and twenty
years it was destroyed.
Verse 33
[33] And
Pharaohnechoh 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.
In bands —
Either, because he presumed to take the kingdom without his consent: or because
he renewed the war against Pharaoh.
Verse 34
[34] And
Pharaohnechoh 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.
Jehoiakim —
The giving of names was accounted an act of dominion; which therefore parents
did to their children, and conquerors to their vassals or tributaries.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on 2 Kings》
ALLS
OF SEPARATION.
We have the
life of good king Josiah summed up under seven “ alls.”
Ⅰ. The “ all ” of separation. “ All the abominations……did
Josiah put away” (2
Kings 23:24).
Ⅱ. The “
all ” of affection. “ Turned to the Lord with all his heart ” (2 Kings 23:25).
Ⅲ. The “
all ” of soul or life. “Turned to the Lord with all his soul” (2 Kings 23:25).
Ⅳ. The “
all ” of strength. “All his might ” ( 2
King 23:25).
Ⅴ. The
“all” of fidelity. “ According to all the law of Moses” (2 Kings 23:25).
Ⅵ. The
“all” of perseverance. “ All his days they departed not form following the Lord
” (2 Chronicles 34:33).
Ⅶ. The
“all” of influence. “ The king commanded all the people, saying, Keep the
Passover unto the Lord” ( 2 Kings 23:21).
──
F.E. Marsh《Five Hundred Bible Readings》
23 Chapter 23
Verses 1-25
Verses 1-37
Verses 1-28
And the King sent, and they gathered unto him all the elders of
Judah and of Jerusalem.
Good aims and bad methods
The verses I have selected record and illustrate good alms and bad
methods.
I. Good aims.
Josiah’s aims, as here presented, Were confessedly high, noble, and good.
1. To reduce his people to a loyal obedience to heaven.
2. Generated within him by the discovery of the Divine will.
II. Bad methods.
How did Josiah now seek to realise his purpose, to sweep idolatry from the face
of his country? Not by argument, suasion, and moral influence, but by brute
force and violence (2 Kings 23:4-28). I offer two
remarks concerning his method.
1. It was unphilosophic. Morals evil cannot be put down by force;
coercion cannot travel to a man’s soul.
2. It was mischievous. The evil was not extinguished; it burnt with
fiercer flame. Persecution has always propagated the errors it has sought to
crush. “He that taketh the Sword shall perish by the sword.” (David Thomas,
D. D.)
A revival of religion
A young and active king now sits on Judah’s throne. Our text finds
him at the age of six-and-twenty, in the midst of reforms which might have
appalled many a man of twice his age. The earlier years of his reign he has
occupied in many and various reforms, Now we find him in the midst of a revival
of religion, the like of which the world has but seldom seen. The king, the
court, the elders, the rulers, and the people all felt its power. Beginning at
the house of God, it thrilled through all classes, and changed the whole
religious life and thought of the land. And it is this revival of religion that
I desire now to consider.
I. This revival
began at the house of God. And surely that was the best place. In God’s house,
in God’s presence, we are to assemble and look for Him. It is there we may
expect the Shekinah fire, no longer visible over the ark between the cherubim,
but felt in force and power in human hearts. It is there we must seek for
renewed vigour and Divine influence. It is there we must look for the Lord Himself,
and pray Him to strengthen and quicken us. It is there we must come for the
deepening of our faith in the Eternal, enlarging of our courage and zeal, and
the expansion of cur Christian hope. It is there all revival must begin. If,
then, we are to have a revival, it must begin at God’s house. Votes of the
House of Commons cannot do it, Acts of Parliament will never make men
religious. Decrees of State will not fill empty churches with men and women
full of the Holy Ghost and fire. All this has been tried. Some two or three
hundred years ago soldiers were stationed at the doors of the parish churches,
not so much to see who attended as to note who was absent. Fine, imprisonment,
exile and worse, fell to the lot of those who did not fill their places. These things
did not succeed. They never can. Fine, sword, fire, and persecution failed, and
always will. They are the instruments of a past and barbarous age. But if we
are to have a revival in which the people shall flock to God’s house, God’s
house itself must be revived. There must be live men in the Church, if it is to
save men alive. A cold Church but seldom warms cold hearts.
II. In this revival
men came back to the word of God. The long-lost book was found. The Word of the
Lord hid, slighted, neglected, lost, was discovered and brought to the young
king. What a discovery Hilkiah made when he found the Bible! What a treasure he
dug up! What a mine of precious ore! What a valuable find! The young king was
quick to see its importance, value, and worth. It was read; its warnings
heeded, its promises
believed. And it was read to all the people. What an effect that book produced.
Even so. I have no faith in any revival without the Word of God. Read the
history of the great revivals in the Church, and you will find the Word of God
in it all. Beginning with the Bereans right down to our day you will find it
so. John Wycliffe was a great power in his day. He is rightly called the
Morning Star of the Reformation. He Sent his Lollard preachers through the lend
to tell the story of God’s love. As he translated the Bible into the language
of the people, his preachers went and read it and preached it to common folk.
Read the history of the Reformation, and what will you find there? Martin
Luther is its hero. That marvellous man, like his Lord and Master, was a son of
the people, and began life in a poor and comfortless home. Reared in the faith
and practice of the Romish Church, he came to know it well, and early saw its
weakness. What was it made him take his reforming action? Have we not read that
he found a copy of the Scriptures--the neglected, deserted, forsaken Bible? He
read it. It did its work.
It was the Bible made him the great reformer. It was the Bible which the
reformers accepted as a sufficient rule of faith and life. We, too, need to pay
more attention to the living Word of God. We are apt to look for and depend
upon the word of man. If that is not eloquent, if that is not such as to tickle
our fancy, we often return from God’s house displeased, dissatisfied, and
unblessed. What a mistake! Let us look for the God-sent message; let us hearken
for the voice of the living God; let us hear what He has to say to us.
III. A revived
Church will make itself felt in the world. This assembling at the house of God,
and the solemn and reverent reading of the Bible, made a deep impression upon
the people. The king dedicated himself to God. And surely that is the right
thing for a king to do. The king should lead in all good things. All the people
felt the influence, and there was a national movement. Public life was
affected, the power of God was felt, men pat away their idols, and came back to
the faith of their fathers. The Church, the Temple, religion became a greater
force in the national life. (C. Leach, D. D.)
Verse 2
And the King went up into the house of the Lord.
Spiritual idolatry
Why should there be such a gathering as this? why should all the
mighty, all the good, and all the wise, all the great with all the small, make
such a point of going into the house of the Lord on this occasion? Why should
they make such a public display about an ordinary duty, such as assembling in
the house of the Lord? For two reasons.
1. Because that duty had become an extraordinary one, through the
long neglect of it.
2. And the other reason was, because they were desirous to hear the
Word of the Lord. These were indeed two good reasons for this solemn assembly
of all the people in the Lord’s house. But what a terrible lesson does it read
to us! We read of a wonderful deliverance of His people by Almighty God out of
the hands of their enemies, when to the eye of man their situation was utterly
hopeless. We should expect that this would have awakened them, especially as
God had performed it on their turning back, under the pious Hezekiah, from
their false gods to the true and living God; yet here, in the third generation
from that time, we find the altars and temples of the false gods up again, and
the Word of God lost, not only out of the hearts, but of the very sight and ears of the people.
Once again, however, and, alas! for the last, time, both the temple and that
Word were restored under the care of the pious Josiah; and the people of God
once again, and for the last time, showed themselves as the people of God. Such
is the example before us; the example of a people, too, in whose place we are
standing, being grafted in as a wild olive, in place of the branches which had
been broken off because of unbelief. And their example is our example, as we
have been told by St. Paul. Let us review, then, some of the plainest
applications of this example.
Verse 11
And Josiah took away the horses that the Kings of Judah had given
to the sun.
The imagination in sin
Josiah sought to purify Israel from the idolatry that had been
established by his predecessors, and in the course of this reformation occurs
the incident recorded in the text. He “took away the horses that the Kings of
Judah had given to the sun . . . and burned the chariots of the sun with fire.”
You ask, What has this to do with the modern world and with modern men? This I
wish to show. For it seems to me that there is in the text a twofold lesson
which all generations ought to lay to heart. We are taught here--
I. The
pretentiousness of sin. “The horses of the sun . . . the chariots of the sun.”
Very large and magnificent indeed! There is wonderful exaggeration about all
idolatry. The idol without eyes was known as the God of light; without breath,
it was worshipped as the God of life; it could not stand unless it were nailed
down or shored up, but it was proclaimed the Thunderer, or distinguished by
some other august title. “We know that an idol is nothing in the world,” but
these nothings have received the highest names and titles, and through the
superstition of their worshippers have been invested with the grandest
attributes. And as it was with the gods of the Pantheon, so it is with the
rabble of the vices; they are full of pretentiousness, they steal supreme
names, they make impossible promises. The world of iniquity is a world of
dazzling colours, false magnitudes, lurid lights.
1. How brilliant is the world of diseased imagination when compared
with the world of sober reality in which God has placed us to work out our
life! To-day we are all readers. What are we reading? History, science,
philosophy, theology? Are we bent on finding out the great meanings of sober
life and real life? You know better. The main part of our leisure hours is
taken up with tales of mystery and imagination. It is not well to live long
with unthinkable people and impossible situations in an ideal and fantastic
universe; it puts our eye out for the actual world in which our serious
business lies. Multitudes who would not for a moment in actual life touch the
vices gilded by literary art will spend their leisure hours in contemplating
these lawless things projected into visionary realms. And what is the secret of
this ambiguous conduct? The fact is; actual life seems narrow and prosaic, dull
and dreary, and so we steal away in me solar phaeton. How dim and insipid is
the world of sober virtue off the side of lawlessness, excused by Sophistry and
glorified by imagination! In fiction me grey world becomes kaleidoscopic, and
the evil world is etherealised into coloured vapours whose fantastic movements
stir our curiosity and wonder. So, despising the modest vehicles which God
appoints for the pilgrimage of human life, we seat ourselves in the flaming car
of imagination, and, drawn by fiery steeds of passion, with Zola for a
charioteer, make the dizzy, intoxicating, yet terribly dangerous circuit of the
sun.
2. Again, the same truth comes out as we compare the victories of war
with the victories of peace. War is sometimes inevitable, things being as they
are. The scientist holds that in nature a lesser evil is permitted to prevent a
greater. Just war is a lesser evil to prevent a greater. There is something
better than life, and that is right, equality, liberty; and war is the
desperate resort of men crushed by tyranny. Still, war is an evil, a terrible
evil. We must never fail to remember that; we must ever pray and work for the
golden year when men shall learn war no more. And yet what a glamour there is
about the red spectre! The poet may well write of “the pride, pomp, and
circumstance of glorious war.” But no crowd turns out in the morning to greet
the colliers going to their work, or in the evening to cheer the factory hands
returning from the mill. There is no glittering romance about industry, no poetry about the toil
which creates the wealth of nations. Industry is yoked to a coster’s barrow,
whilst the powder-cart is the dazzling chariot of the sun.
3. We find another illustration of our point if we compare the career
of unlawful speculation with the life of honest gain. How large, glowing,
bewitching, is the former compared with the level course of the latter! Look at
the titanic speculator. In a few years he emerges out of obscurity into
national notoriety. It is all outside the legitimate, but it is dramatic, full
of sensation and surprise. Squalid huckstering is transfigured into romance.
How different the course of the little shopkeeper, with his “small profits and
quick returns!” No song or story this time; no scent of poetry about the
ledger, unless it sometimes reminds the shopkeeper of “Paradise Lost.” The
daring adventurer shoots towards the golden goal in an electric car, whilst the
humble trader is a wayfaring man.
4. And, finally, the same truth is evident when we compare the course
of sensual pleasure with the simple pleasantness of a blameless life. How
violent are the delights of sensualism! How tame the entertainments of the fireside!
They are ridiculous compared with the fiery delights of the dram-shop. So it is
throughout. The illegitimate and destructive, the things seriously wanting in
reason and godliness, appeal most to the imagination; they have a glory and
garishness which bewitch and lure into false ways.
II. The
preposterousness of sin. “And Josiah burned the chariots of the sun with fire.”
Throughout the whole of the reformation that he effected Josiah manifested his
deep contempt of the idolatry that had wrought such mischief in Israel. With
cutting irony he abolished first one evil thing and then another. “He burned
the chariots of the sun with fire.” To cremate the chariots of the sun was the
grimmest humour. The sun is said to be fifteen times hotter than the hottest
thing upon the earth, so that if an incombustible car is wanted anywhere it is
required for the insufferable solar majesty; and to cremate the car set apart
for the fiery god was to convict it of fraud and to doom it to infinite
contempt. To make a bonfire of the chariots of the sun was as ridiculous as if
Noah’s ark had suffered shipwreck in a fish-pond. All Israel smiled scornfully
as the pretentious things blazed in the flame and darkened into the ashes. Here
is the truth that I wish to enforce--namely, that, despite all paint and
spangles, all its exaggerations and splendours, sin is a miserable sham utterly
unworthy of rational men. Wickedness is a screaming farce, as it is also the
supreme tragedy. Notwithstanding its theatrical rhetoric, it is a hollow lie
doomed to detection and contempt. Have nothing to do with things that cannot
bear the test of thought. Thought strips away the cunning disguises of sin; it
is the searchlight that makes clear the fact. In the hour of reflection our
reason gives the lie to passion; our instincts rebuke our fancies; our
conscience scorns the sophistries of imagination. Have nothing to do with that
which will not bear the test of experience. Recall the principles and teachings
which have been tried and attested by many generations. The devil has an
arithmetic of his own which shows how large and splendid are the wages of
unrighteousness; but in actual life his specious arithmetic works into
bankruptcy and beggary of every kind. Fancy figures out the couriers and chariots
of the sun as the dazzling and delightful equipages of the wicked, but a ray of
daylight reduces them to the monstrous forms of the policeman’s stretcher, the
workhouse omnibus, the prison van, the scaffold, the hearse that bears to the
grave ere men have lived out half their days. Have nothing to do with that
which will not bear the test of time. Things that are seductive in certain
hours and moods of temptation look mean and deadly enough if you wait awhile.
Time tries all things and detects the plausibleness which might deceive the
elect. There is an illuminating power in time, and it shows up sin as vain,
absurd, and contemptible. We wonder that we could ever thus have prayed the
fool. Christ alone can strengthen us to live such a life. He knows what “the
chariots of the sun” mean--He was tempted by the vision of the kingdoms and the
glory of them. He saw and felt the power of the realm of illusion. The
arch-sorcerer worked all his spells on the Son of Man--He refused “the chariot
of the sun,” and followed the call of duty, the path of the Passion. In the
strength of the Master take up your cross and follow Him, and you shall find
the realities of power, greatness, and everlasting joy. (W. L. Watkinson.)
Verse 22
Surely there was not holden such a Passover.
Sincerity of repentance
There is something very striking and melancholy in these words.
The children of Israel celebrated their last Passover, all being together, and
in such a manner as had not been known since the earlier and better days of
their possession of the promised land. It was, in fact, the last repentance of
God’s people, and a lively repentance it seems to have been, to judge from
outward tokens. But, alas! it did
not continue. Three times already before this, God’s people had publicly
repented, under the direction of pious princes, which were Jehoshaphat,
Jehoash, Hezekiah. But now the appointed punisher of their sins was openly
manifested to their sight in the terrible King of Babylon. And like the sick
man with death before his eyes, they made earnest protestations of repentance
and amendment if God would spare them, and sealed them with the celebration of
the Sacrament of the Paschal Supper. Here, then, is before us the example of a
fourth publicly professed repentance, and as ineffectual as the three that went
before. Should it not lead us to take very close and scrutinising views of
repentance, and to conclude that there must be something in it besides the
present feeling of shame and sorrow, however sharp and lively that may be?
There must be some abiding feeling in it, which shame and sorrow naturally are
not. For the very sense of them drives us to rid ourselves of them by all
means. What then can that be? What does God demand beyond the broken heart?
Nothing, if it be indeed broken in His name. But here lies the question. Which
does the man think most of, his own personal danger, or God’s damaged glory?
Which does he lament most, his own loss, or God’s rejected love? Has he
renounced the sinful selfishness of his nature? A man may keep this, and yet be
overwhelmed with shame and sorrow; he may retain this, and yet manifest the
most lively outward marks of repentance. So did Israel; and was led by it into
his sins again, and they led him to the final judgment which came upon his
head. Here is the cause of so many apparent repentances in the course of a
man’s life. Selfish sorrow, selfish shame have wrung his heart, and terrified
his conscience. But he has not gone beyond self. He has seen, indeed, the
miserable disorder which his sins have wrought in himself in body and in mind.
But has he looked out and up to see the miserable disorder which they have also
wrought in God’s work of love; how they have obscured the brightness of His
glory, how they have shaken the faith of His Church, as far as His sphere
extends; and who shall tell how far it extends? Here is the principle that is
so commonly wanting; here is that which Israel lacked, the heavenly spirit, and
not the earthly dregs only. When the heart has thus been lifted out of itself,
divested of its earthliness and carnality, and has risen into heaven to see the
majesty which it has affronted, the love which it has rejected, the glory which
it has blasphemed, and thence also looks down again upon the scenes of its sin
and mischief amongst God’s works and people, and sees them with a clear and
sharp eye, and lively and enlightened conscience, as becomes a look from
above--then, and not until then, a real repentance has taken place. Such
repentance will abide in its effects. In such the heart of the man is changed,
so that he has foregone his old appetites, and, therefore, is out of the way of
temptation from his old sins. Even though it should force itself upon his
sight, he will not allow it to gain his attention, but turn away from it with a
stern watchfulness against its ensnaring deceitfulness. He sees in it the art
of the enemy of the God whom he serves, of the Redeemer whom he loves, of the
Holy Spirit whose guidance he follows. And such repentance, therefore, is both
the first and the last. But Israel, we see, made at least four several
professions of repentance; and so have many done since. The more frequent they
have been, of course the less sincere they have been. And such repentances are
more a proof of the folly and selfishness of the man, than of any right and
spiritual feeling. They are but the sorrow for having come in for the penalty of
his sin at last. And, as soon as the infliction shall have been removed, he is ready to sin again.
And, indeed, after each successive fit, he is but the more ready, because he
wishes to drown the voice of conscience, which exclaims against his yielding
again to the old temptation; and it is drowned amid his shouts of enjoyment,
until the hour of penalty comes round again; then the note is that of
lamentation again. Why, what affronting of the majesty of God Almighty is here! So little can
the penitent himself depend upon a repentance which does not begin until God’s
judgment is at hand. How can a heart which he has taught to cheat him
continually, and which, at all events, has never been diligently schooled in
spiritual discernment; how shall this, at a moment, too, of such confusion, at
a time, too, when it is so deeply interested in coming to the more joyful
conclusion; how can it, with any certainty, distinguish the sorrow and fear
which arose from the love of self, now that he is in Such danger, from the love
of God, now that He is resorted to after long forgetfulness? Wilt it not be too
glad to mistake the fear for the love? Will not, indeed, the fear most
certainly be there? All this tells us, what a broken reed men lean upon who
trust in a last sickness to any feeling of repentance which they have not felt and
cherished in the time of their health. Then judgment was far off, and God was
sought therefore from love rather than from fear. Health is the time of
strength, for the spirit no less than for the body. Let health, then, be the
season of true repentance, and sickness will be the season of comfort, and the
hour of death the season of well-founded hope. (R. W. Evans, B. D.)
Verses 25-37
And like unto him there was no king before him.
Josiah’s reformation
This and the previous chapter show us the influence of a godly
sovereign. This prince at the age of twenty-six begins to repair the house of
God. This leads to the discovery of the long-lost book of the law. At once
Josiah obeys its teaching. He consults Huldah, and receives the Lord’s message.
Finding himself exempted from vengeance on account of his repentance, he
endeavours to lead his people to obtain the same exemption, and for this
purpose institutes a thorough national reformation. This, we read, consisted of
I. That personal
reformation springs from a knowledge of God’s word applied to the heart by
faith. It was this that influenced Josiah (Psalms 119:130). “The entrance of Thy
word giveth light” (Acts 17:11-12). “Therefore many
believed.”
II. That true
personal reformation consists of doing and undoing.
1. Undoing old associations, by--
2. Doing, by--
III. That personal
reformation has results:
1. Comfort and peace to those who carry it out. For thirty years
Josiah’s reign was a peaceful and happy one to himself. So soul-reformation
brings peace to the believer.
2. A blessing, though it may be only a temporary one, to those who,
even outwardly, take part in it.
The punishment pronounced upon the land was deferred (2 Kings 22:20) till after Josiah’s
death, and a believer brings blessings on those around him.
3. The fulfilment of God’s word (2 Kings 23:16 and Isaiah 5:11). The Christian rejoices in
the fulfilment of Matthew 11:28-30. But notice two
warnings:
1. No personal reformation can be effected without the guidance and
grace of the Holy Spirit (John 16:8, etc.; Zechariah 4:6).
2. Personal piety cannot stop national punishment (of. Zechariah 3:2). Josiah has a grand
epitaph written over him (verse 25) by the finger of God. May much be ours! (J.
W. Mills, M. A.)
Verse 29-30
Verses 31-33
Verse 36-37
──《The Biblical Illustrator》