Judah’s good king Josiah
22
📚Josiah 📖 was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Jedidah. She was the daughter of Adaiah of Boscath. 2 📚And he did what was right in the sight of the LORD, and walked in all the way of his father David 📖, and did not turn aside to the right or to the left 📖. The repair of the temple
3 📚And it came about in the eighteenth year of King Josiah, that the king sent Shaphan the son of Azaliah, the son of Meshullam, the scribe, to the house of the LORD, saying, 4 📚“Go up to Hilkiah the high priest, that he may count the money which has been brought into the house of the LORD, which the doorkeepers have collected from the people;
22:4 2 Kings 12:4, 9, 10. The repairs in the reign of Joash had been undertaken about 190 years before.⚜
5 📚and let them deliver it into the hands of the workers who have the oversight of the house of the LORD, and let them give it to those who are doing the work which is going on in the house of the LORD, repairing the damaged places in the house, 6 to the carpenters and builders and masons, and to buy timber and cut stone to repair the house. 7 📚However, no accounting needs to be made with them about the money that was delivered into their hands, because they have dealt faithfully”.
22:7 2 Kings 12:15. Having honest and faithful men is a great blessing in any work of God, but often it seems that such men are very hard to find.⚜
The book of the law of God found
8 📚And Hilkiah the high priest said to Shaphan the scribe, “I have found the book of the law 📖 in the house of the LORD”. And Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan, and he read it. 9 📚And Shaphan the scribe came to the king, bringing word back to the king, and said, “Your servants have collected the money that was found in the house, and have delivered it into the hands of the workers who have the oversight of the house of the LORD”. 10 📚And Shaphan the scribe told the king, saying, “Hilkiah the priest has delivered a book to me”. And Shaphan read it in the king’s presence.
11 📚And it came about that when the king heard the words of the book of the law, he tore 📖 his clothes. 12 📚And the king gave an order to Hilkiah the priest and Ahikam 📖, the son of Shaphan, and Achbor, the son of Michaiah, and Shaphan the scribe, and Asaiah, a servant of the king, saying, 13 📚“Go, inquire of the LORD for me and for the people and for all Judah, concerning the words of this book that has been found; for great is the wrath of the LORD that burns against us, because our fathers did not listen to the words of this book, to do according to all that which is written concerning us”.
22:11-13 The contents of the book of the law seem to have been new to Josiah. This is an indication of the degraded state into which the nation had sunk and how God’s law was disregarded during the long reign of Manasseh. Josiah, reading the book, is appalled at the extent of their disobedience. One reason many in Christian circles are not disturbed at their own condition and the condition of the people is ignorance of the Word of God, a lack of spiritual understanding of it. Compare Rom 7:7. When we are enlightened to understand God’s Word, and when we take it seriously, we will see at once how far short of its standards we come.⚜
14 📚So Hilkiah the priest and Ahikam and Achbor and Shaphan and Asaiah went to Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum, the son of Tikvah, the son of Harhas, keeper of the wardrobe (now she lived in Jerusalem in the second district), and they spoke with her.
22:14 Other women in the Bible who had the gift of prophecy were Miriam the sister of Moses (Ex 15:20), Deborah (Jud 4:4), Anna (Luke 2:36), and Philip’s daughters (Acts 21:9). Both the prophets Jeremiah and Zephaniah lived during the reign of Josiah. But for some undisclosed reason Hilkiah and the others did not go to either of them.⚜
15 📚And she said to them, “Thus says the LORD God of Israel: ‘Tell the man who sent you to me, 16 📚thus says the LORD: See, I will bring disaster on this place and on its inhabitants, according to all the words of the book which the king of Judah has read,
22:16 See the references given in v 13.⚜
17 📚because they have forsaken me, and have burned incense to other gods, provoking me to anger with all the works of their hands. Therefore my wrath will burn against this place, and will not be quenched.’ 18 📚But you shall say this to the king of Judah who sent you to inquire of the LORD: ‘Thus says the LORD God of Israel concerning the words which you have heard, 19 📚because your heart was tender, and you have humbled yourself before the LORD when you heard what I spoke against this place and against its inhabitants, that they would become a desolation and a curse, and you have torn your clothes and wept before me, I have also heard you, says the LORD.
22:19 A very important spiritual concept is here – 1 Kings 21:29; 2 Chron 7:14; 33:12-13; Ps 51:17; Isa 57:15; 66:2; Matt 18:2-3; Jam 4:6. If we want God to hear us we must humble ourselves and be responsive to His Word – John 15:7.⚜
20 📚Therefore, I will gather you to your ancestors, and you will be gathered to your grave in peace, and your eyes will not see all the disaster which I will bring on this place.’ ” And they brought back word to the king.