Josiah Renews the Covenant

15 And 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.

25 Because 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.

26 And as for the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of the Lord, so shall ye say unto him, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel concerning the words which thou hast heard;

27 Because thine heart was tender, and thou didst humble thyself before God, when thou heardest his words against this place, and against the inhabitants thereof, and humbledst thyself before me, and didst rend thy clothes, and weep before me; I have even heard thee also, saith the Lord.

31 And 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.

32 And he caused all that 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.

33 And Josiah took away all the abominations out of all the countries that pertained to the children of Israel, and made all that 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.

Golden Text: 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.—2 Chronicles 34:31.

When I became a Christian at age 14, I knew I had entered into a covenant relationship with God through Jesus Christ. I believed that relationship was sustained by the power of God’s Spirit abiding in my life, though I had no means of biblically analyzing the relationship at such a young age.

At age 18 I found myself working at a service station in East Point, Georgia, in 1961. The Civil Rights movement was gaining momentum in the Deep South, and Southern whites who were in businesses that served the public were on edge, fearful of an all-out rebellion. The owner of the service station, the father of a good friend of mine, had given me a job as a gesture of kindness. He was essentially a decent man. But like many Southerners, he held a racial prejudice that considered whites to be superior.

After I had worked for almost three months, my boss trusted me with running the station whenever he went to the bank to deposit money. On one occasion, he said to me as he was leaving, “Don’t let any blacks use the whites-only restroom.” African-Americans only were allowed to use the same restroom the workers used, which also remained dirty most of the time!

Almost as soon as he left, a large Cadillac pulled into the station. A young black family emerged, and the father asked me to “fill it up with high test.” In the process, the mother gathered her two young children to take them to the restroom.

Without thinking or searching my conscience, I parroted my boss’s warning and told them they couldn’t use the whites-only restroom. Immediately I knew I had made a serious mistake. The father ordered me to stop filling the tank with gas. He paid me for the gas I had put in to that point, and then the parents rushed their children into the car and sped off.

Why did I have to be so morally weak? I had sinned against God as well as against that family. I fell on my knees underneath the canopy of the station and prayed out loud to God, “O God, forgive me! Take this vile prejudice from my heart forever and never let me be a part of this sinful system again. Give me opportunities to make it up to this family that I have greatly harmed. I beg You, in Jesus’ name.”

From that day on I dropped the racial prejudice that had been instilled in my life by my parents and my culture from the time I was a child. God tested me on many occasions, giving me many opportunities to help African-Americans who faced formidable roadblocks as they sought an education through a Bible college or a place of service among the churches.

Only after many years of faithful service and direct obedience to God’s will in this area of my life could I feel that I had mended a broken relationship with God. Some people seem to require a stunning confrontation with the reality of sin to be obedient fully to the will of God as revealed in His Word. I think that is what happened to King Josiah.

Second Chronicles 34 is the story of the reforms of godly King Josiah. Josiah ruled the southern kingdom of Judah from about 640 to 609 bc. Josiah’s two predecessors, namely Manasseh and Amon, were evil. Their evil permeated Judah for nearly 60 years. This meant that Josiah had a lot of work to do to turn things around spiritually for his nation.

Second Chronicles 34 offers us interesting parallels to 2 Kings 22 and 23. It is important to study both accounts for the fullest picture. Some information that the author of Chronicles gives us is unique, not being mentioned in 2 Kings 22 and 23. One such piece of information is that in the eighth year of Josiah’s reign (about 632 bc) he began to seek after “the God of David his father” (2 Chronicles 34:3a). Perhaps the preaching of Zephaniah of the time had some influence upon the young Josiah (age 16). The ministry of the prophet Jeremiah, which began about 626 bc (see Jeremiah 1:2), may have had some influence as well. Another piece of information in 2 Chronicles but not 2 Kings is that Josiah began to purge the land of idolatry when he was 20 years old (2 Chronicles 34:3b).

Before today’s lesson text opens, those accounts tell us that we are in the eighteenth year of King Josiah’s reign (2 Kings 22:1, 3; 23:23; 2 Chronicles 34:1, 8), with the king at age 26. At that time he undertook to repair the temple, since it had not been attended to during the reigns of previous kings. Throughout the story one can perceive the author’s emphasis on the Levites’ part in the repairs (2 Chronicles 34:9, 12, 13, 30; absent from 2 Kings).

After Josiah began his reform in Jerusalem and Judah, he moved into the northern territory. Then, “he returned to Jerusalem” (2 Chronicles 34:6, 7). That holy city is the setting for today’s lesson.

Josiah sought to repair the temple in his eighteenth year as king, as noted above. In the process of paying money to the workers and their overseers, “Hilkiah the priest found a book of the law of the Lord given by Moses” (v. 14).

15. And 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.

We may be amazed to read that Hilkiah, a priest, has found the book of the law in the temple. Isn’t that where it’s supposed to be? And how can such an important thing ever get “lost”?

The answers lie in the neglect of decade after decade by evil Kings Manasseh and Amon. Whatever godly priests continued to exist during their evil reigns probably were inclined to hide such a precious document from destructive hands. As most of us know to our embarrassment, we can be so good at hiding something for “safekeeping” that we end up forgetting where we hid it!

Another issue also presents itself: Exactly which book is this? Many scholars think that it is probably the book of Deuteronomy. There are several facts to support this conclusion. First, the phrase “the book of the covenant” in 2 Chronicles 34:30 can fit the entirety of the book of Deuteronomy since it is in the form of a covenant renewal treaty. (We also recognize, however, that the phrase “the book of the covenant” is used in Exodus 24:7, most likely to describe the material included in Exodus 20–23.)

Second, the emphasis in Deuteronomy 12 on worship in one place is consistent with Josiah’s reform methods. Third, the purging of the land of pagan cultic places is found also in Deuteronomy 12. This could make a big impression on Josiah, since that is exactly what he is doing even before the book of the law is found.

Fourth, the reference to “curses” in 2 Chronicles 34:24 could point to the extended curses spelled out in Deuteronomy 27:9–26; 28:15–68. Fifth, the celebration of the Passover in 2 Chronicles 35 is similar to the commands of Deuteronomy 16:1–8.

A final argument that Deuteronomy is the book that is found is its emphasis that keeping the land depends on obedience to the covenant. Reading Deuteronomy 29 alone would be enough to cause Josiah to rend his clothes in anguish in this regard (compare 2 Chronicles 34:19, below).

Shaphan is part of the group given responsibility to repair the temple (2 Chronicles 34:8). As a scribe, Shaphan naturally has a keen interest in this book. So Hilkiah the priest delivers the book to him in order to get it to King Josiah as quickly as possible. We may speculate that Shaphan reads the entire book of Deuteronomy to the king.

To rend or tear one’s clothes is to communicate remorse, humility, and repentance (see Isaiah 36:22; 37:1). [See question #1, page 272.] King Josiah already has been busy ridding the land of the trappings of idolatry. The anguish that Josiah now demonstrates shows that his heart truly matches those actions. He instinctively knows that outward reform in terms of smashed pagan idols will not necessarily mean inward reform or true repentance on the people’s part. [See question #2, page 272.]

We may note here in passing that Josiah’s reaction is in marked contrast to the later reaction of King Jehoiakim (Josiah’s son). Evil Jehoiakim will exhibit a brazen contempt for the Lord’s message that comes through Jeremiah by cutting up the prophet’s scroll, casting it into the fire, and refusing to tear his robes (Jeremiah 36:22–24).

Everett and Pauline Carl got married the first time in 1936. They eloped to Arizona where it was legal for 17-year-olds to get married. But after 12 years of marriage and three daughters, Everett and Pauline allowed financial problems to sink their marriage, so they divorced. Each married someone else. Years later, both their spouses died.

The daughters then planned a family cruise and invited their widowed parents. Everett and Pauline accepted the invitation, and aboard ship the old spark of romance was rekindled. Just after the cruise ended, the couple remarried, having divorced 56 years earlier.

The story of God’s people is somewhat parallel to that of the Carls. The Bible often uses the marriage analogy to describe the relationship between God and Israel. However, God divorced northern Israel after she let her fascination with other gods lead her astray (Jeremiah 3:8). God eventually turned away from southern Judah for the same reason (Ezekiel 23:18). But as Josiah was repairing the neglected temple, the lost book of the Law was found, and the relationship with God was rekindled, at least temporarily.

“The Book” still tells us of God’s continuing love. Though we might wander, the relationship can be rekindled if we will return to God. May the church continue to present herself as the bride of Christ in all her purity! —C. R. B.

Josiah’s anguish moves him to action: he sends Hilkiah and a delegation to inquire of Huldah the prophetess, who lives in Jerusalem (vv. 20–22, not in today’s text). Her response is not reassuring: the curses of the book will indeed fall upon the people and the land (v. 24, not in today’s text). The reason why is given next.

25. Because 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.

The people are violating the key prohibition in Deuteronomy: they are following other gods (see particularly Deuteronomy 13). This mind-set has become ingrained in the people over a period of nearly 60 years since evil King Manasseh (Josiah’s grandfather) began to reign (2 Chronicles 33:1–9). Burning incense as an act of worship is reserved for the one true God (Exodus 30:1–10; 40:26, 27; Luke 1:9). The prophet Jeremiah, whose ministry overlaps the reign of King Josiah, also speaks out on this issue (Jeremiah 1:16; 7:9; 11:13; etc.).

Hundreds of years before, God promised to pour out His wrath should His people follow fictitious gods (Deuteronomy 5:7–9; 6:14, 15; 8:19, 20; 31:16–21). God’s wrath, which will result in the destruction of Jerusalem, is 36 years away, given the time frame of the verse before us. [See question #3, page 272.]

26, 27. And as for the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of the Lord, so shall ye say unto him, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel concerning the words which thou hast heard; Because thine heart was tender, and thou didst humble thyself before God, when thou heardest his words against this place, and against the inhabitants thereof, and humbledst thyself before me, and didst rend thy clothes, and weep before me; I have even heard thee also, saith the Lord.

The wrath of God that is coming upon the land is certain (see 2 Kings 21:10–15; no parallel in 2 Chronicles). But now the prophetess Huldah speaks personally of Josiah, the king of Judah, in light of that certainty. Because Josiah is sensitive (tender) to God’s Word, God has heard. The Lord notices godly humility yet today (James 4:6; 1 Peter 5:5, 6).

In verse 28 (not in today’s text) Huldah prophesies that Josiah will go to the grave “in peace” and that his eyes will not see any of the evil coming upon the land and the people. This prophecy may give Josiah a bit of false hope, for he may interpret it to mean that he will live a full life and that disaster is not near. Little does he realize that he will live only another 13 years.

Josiah will die in 609 bc because of a questionable decision to engage the Egyptians in battle (see 2 Chronicles 35:20–25). He goes to his grave “in peace” in the sense that Judah is still a viable nation at the time. Truly Josiah’s eyes will not see the destruction of the land because he will die early. What irony the prophetess speaks! Josiah reigns for 31 years (640–609 bc), but lives only 39 years (being born about 648 bc).

The elders represent all the leadership of Judah and Jerusalem. Verse 30 (not in today’s text) sketches this gathering further as including “all the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and the priests, and the Levites, and all the people, great and small.”

The parallel account in 2 Kings 23:2 mentions prophets instead of Levites, so both groups are included. Both the authors of Kings and Chronicles want to emphasize that all the leadership is there with a huge crowd of people, which includes both “small and great.”

31. And 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.

The place where Josiah stands is beside a pillar (see the parallel in 2 Kings 23:3). In Hebrew the word for place (here) and the word for pillar (used in 2 Kings 23:3) have the same consonants but different vowels.

To make a covenant may involve sacrificing an animal, although this is not explicitly stated. Perhaps animal sacrifices are not needed for this ceremony. In any case, the king shows his leadership qualities by setting a public example. Further, Josiah will see to it that many animals are sacrificed during his renewal of the Passover celebration, also in this same year (2 Chronicles 35:1–9). Other covenant renewal ceremonies can be found in Joshua 8:30–35; 24; 1 Samuel 12; and Nehemiah 8–10.

32. And he caused all that 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.

It is not just Josiah who renews a commitment to the covenant while the others remain spectators. No, Josiah causes the people to recommit themselves as well. [See question #4, page 272.]

The mention of Benjamin adds a bit of color to the narrative that is not found in the parallel of 2 Kings 23:3. Benjamin has always been considered to be a part of Judah as opposed to the northern kingdom of Israel (in exile by his time). Thus Benjamin belongs to the southern tribes (compare 2 Chronicles 25:5; 34:9; Ezra 1:5; 4:1; 10:9).

Americans are flag-wavers. After the 9/11 terrorist attacks, people who hadn’t flown an American flag in years hoisted the Stars and Stripes in pride and defiance. Flags flew on poles and radio antennae; they were pasted in windows and painted on the roofs of buildings.

Patriotic symbols were seen everywhere. Much was made in the media about a “rebirth of patriotism.” Yet Americans also can be fickle. It wasn’t too long before many of the flags came down and people went back to life as usual.

One U.S. senator said that patriotism should be a love of ideals—the values that inspire the nation. A love of godly ideals was what inspired Josiah to lead his people in renewing their pledge of allegiance to God and His covenant. For centuries the people of God had vacillated between serving God and serving idols. The captivity of northern Israel in 722 bc and the Assyrian invasion of 701 bc probably were something like “9/11 experiences” for Judah: first came alarm, then resolve, and then it was back to business as usual.

The text in front of us shows the people once again pledging their allegiance to God. Yet again it wouldn’t last. Their attention would again drift elsewhere. Times change, but human nature doesn’t seem to! —C. R. B.

33. And Josiah took away all the abominations out of all the countries that pertained to the children of Israel, and made all that 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.

This is a summary statement by the author of Chronicles of all that Josiah does to bring reform to the people of God. [See question #5, page 272.] It also functions as what is called an inclusio since it comes full circle where the story of Josiah began: “And [Josiah] 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” (2 Chronicles 34:2).

This speaks highly for a young king who follows two of the most wicked kings ever to rule the southern kingdom of Judah. Unfortunately, Josiah will not live very long. His reforms and renewal will turn out to be “too little, too late,” as subsequent events show.

I have taught for over 30 years, in two Bible colleges. My emphasis in all my Bible classes has been teach the people! How will they ever know the Lord without a mature and full knowledge of His Word?

There is a desperate need in our churches for renewal. We can change worship styles or add programs to help our churches grow, but what we absolutely need is greater biblical literacy.

Only a recommitment to God’s Word as divine revelation can avert a coming disaster. Submission to the Word’s authority in terms of obedience is vital. Churches are in danger of losing their heritage, identity, and roots. We have whole generations that know little of the Bible, and what little they know is often misinterpreted. A fresh discovery of the Word of God can mend broken relationships with God as well as with others. It is possible to become (again) “a people of the Book”!

One person can make a difference in the life of a congregation by encouraging a recommitment to Bible study. This will take time and effort, but mature study over a long period of time will make all the difference. Let us seek to restore our covenant relationship with God through a renewed effort to understand God’s Word.

Our Father, you have revealed to us Your will through holy Scripture and through Your Son, the incarnate Word. Forgive us for breaking covenant with You. Today we renew our covenant with You. Help us to walk in Your ways with all our heart, soul, and strength. May Your Word bring renewal to our lives so that our relationship with You will be restored. In Jesus’ name, amen.