In total Judah had 19 kings and one queen who ruled over her. Josiah was the 16th king. The fourteen kings and one Queen (Athaliah) who ruled before him were a mixed bag of good and bad ones. It must be said that there were more bad kings than there were good ones. Among the total of 19 kings and one queen, only eight of them were considered good. The last two before Josiah, namely Manasseh and Ammon were deplorable. Both were described to have sabotaged Judah’s national relationship with God. Second Kings 21 shows us how bad these two were. So bad were they that when they died, they were not buried in the city of David but only in a garden.
For a long time, the book of the law was
disregarded. This was evident by the fact that it was hidden
somewhere in the temple and only discovered by Hilkiah the priest during the
repair of the temple. Had Josiah not commissioned the repair, the book of the
law would be tucked somewhere unknown to the king or the
nation. This underscores their contempt for God. But then the book
was found and read to Josiah. Immediately he commissioned a council to inquire
of the LORD concerning the content of
the book. He was affected by what was read to him, especially how they as a
nation had lived with careless disregard for God’s instructions, evident by how
they treated the book of the law. In how they treated God and His laws, they
were an affront to Him and had kindled His wrath.
In 2 Kings 22:14-20, the board of commission that the king had
convened went about their inquiry. Verse 14 said that they consulted Huldah a
prophetess. Though at this point they could have consulted more prominent
prophets like Jeremiah, they did not. Instead, they consulted Huldah probably
because of her immediate availability. For she was said to be living in
Jerusalem and her husband was the keeper of the king's wardrobe. Verses
15-20 are the verdicts of Huldah.
Firstly, she highlighted the impending disaster God had installed
for the nation for their waywardness. Here precisely words in verses
16-17 were, “Thus says the Lord, “Behold, I will bring disaster upon this place
and upon its inhabitants, all the words of the book that the king of Judah has
read. Because they have
forsaken me and have made offerings to other gods, that they might provoke me
to anger with all the work of their hands, therefore my wrath will be
kindled against this place, and it will not be quenched.’” As a nation,
their incorrigible conducts were insufferable making the impending disaster
unavoidable.
Secondly, Huldah revealed that
God had seen the penitent heart of Josiah. God had seen his tenderness and
tears, and how he had humbled himself in contrition. He saw the moment he tore
his clothes and wept and had heard what he said to Him. So God made a promise
to Josiah that he would not experience the disaster during his reign. He would
die peacefully, and the disaster would only happen after he had gone to
his grave in peace. He would not live to experience the impending judgment. So
Josiah’s board of commission brought the words of Huldah to the king.
This passage affirms what Psalm
51:17 says, “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not
despise.” We must approach God with a tender and contrite heart. It will
make us keenly sensitive to Him. We become more pliable in His hand. It is true
that God will resist the proud but give grace to the
humble. Borrowing David’s words in Psalm 51:10., let us pray that
God will create in us a clean heart, and renew a right spirit within us.
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