His mother was
Hephzibah, Hezekiah’s wife.
Her name means “I delighted in her”, but it may
have been a prophetic rather than a birth name.
It is referred to
prophetically by Isaiah (54:1,6) as a symbolic name for a restored Zion.
It replaced negative ideas that hung over
Jerusalem prior to Hezekiah.
Thus Isaiah said, “You will no longer be called
desolate” (Shemamah, probably her birth name).
To that he added, “you
will be called “Beulah” (married)” for God delighted in Jerusalem under
Hezekiah.
Sadly, his son,
despite an exemplary father and mother, rebelled and turned against God and
their traditions. He had enough time to do a lot more damage than Ahaz ever
did, during his long reign (55 years, the longest of any Judean king).
He blatantly
introduced the rituals of Molech and sacrificed his own son on that altar and
he also brought the dark Satanic rites and symbols that Ahaz had dabbled in. Graven images were brought into the temple to desecrate God’s glory.
He rebelled openly
against the God of his fathers and killed off anyone who opposed him. It was
too much. The prophets spoke loud and strong against him.
Using Ahab and Samaria
as his benchmark, God portrayed the scale of Manasseh’s sin and rebellion and
made it clear that judgment would be sure.
The promise was that
he would “wipe Judah away”. It was such a tragic, terrible reversal of a great
father’s noble legacy, but it reflects the errant ways of the people who so
quickly followed his leading. God was right to judge the culture, not just the
man.
When he died he was
buried in his own back yard without any dignity. His son Amon continued the
dark tradition of his father for another two years, before he was assassinated.
His death allowed once
last, brief renewal but it could not alter the course of judgment. It only
delayed the inevitable, through Josiah.
The last great king: Josiah (2 Kings 22 & 2
Chronicles 34)
He ascended the throne
at 8. What an indictment of older, wiser leaders. A child had to show them a
better way. He only reigned for 31 years, so at 38 he died an untimely death.
He was a great man. He
was also very courageous and loved God. What is it that makes some love truth,
righteousness and God in the face of an otherwise contrary culture?
Never think you can be
born to faith. After all, his father and grandfather were the worst possible
examples a child of 8 could ever hope for. Maybe his youth spared him of their
influences.
Your parents may be a
great influence, but ultimately your faith is a choice you make, to fly against
the wind or cut across the grain of life. Notwithstanding doctrinal statements
on faith, faith is personal character and integrity.
Josiah is not
mentioned in non-biblical manuscripts, so he is defined more by what he did
than by who he was. Science applies that principle to derive cause from
observed effects, as in discerning the wave-particle properties of light from
observed dynamics.
What a great thing to
be memorialized in your works and not in your personal life. He was a great
reformer. It was called the Deuteroromic reform.
It was triggered by a
discovery of the books of the law, when he ordered Hilkiah the priest to clean, repair
and restore the temple using cumulative tax funds.
It literally rent
Josiah. He tore his clothes as Shaphan the scribe read it. A great repentance
touched his soul.
He asked the priests
to inquire of God who confirmed the coming desolation of Judea but promised the
tender heart of Josiah that it would not occur in his days.
Josiah on his moral rampage (2 Kings 22 & 2
Chronicles 34-35)
He had the laws read
before the congregation and then covenanted with God to put it all right: and my
he did. He left no stone un-turned.
He uprooted so much,
but it is what he found that fascinates. He found groves in the temple, priests
offering offenses on the altar of Israel, further altars on the walls of the city
and the sepulchers of Ahab, and dark incantations on the walls.
If ever the 'writing on the
wall' was ever apposite, it was then. The people had nailed their colors to the mast
and absolutely turned away from God.
They even had horses
dedicated to the eponymous sun god Ashur, of Assyria and, as is often the case, the place was filled with
Sodomites which he also removed.
He uprooted everything
and reduced to powder both the bones of men and the stone altars they had built.
He was utterly ruthless in his actions.
Nonetheless, one has
to ask how soon the people would just revert to it all again. One bad king
would be enough for the rot to creep in all over again (and it was so with his two sons).
Verse 25 confirms that there
was no other king like him, but sadly vs 26 confirms that God was done.
In his 18th
year he reinstituted the Passover as Hezekeiah had done. Then when everything
that could be done had been done, he fell in his 31st year.
Pharaonecoh came
against Assyria and Josiah went to help, but although the Egyptian king told
him to back off, Josiah disguised himself and then fell to Pharaoh. His motives were right. The Assyrians were
evil and he wanted them dealt with, but it wasn’t his fight.
Then the eldest of his
four sons, Jehoahaz assumed the throne, but he only reigned 3 months.
Pharaohnecoh saw that he was a useless king and replaced him with Josiah’s next
son, Eliakim whom he renamed as Johoakim - but he was not much better.
He just taxed the
people to death to pay tribute to Pharaoh.
Judah was reaching an
end game. It would not last much longer. What a tragedy. But there is no doubt
about the voracious tide of unrelenting evil that came against David’s house.
Like ants, it seeped through the walls and floors and consumed the land.
God was right to steer
his people far from the evil of the Canaanites and to
utterly destroy them whenever he could. They were a deplorable influence on
humanity and civilization.
(c) Peter Missing @ bethelstone.com
