Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign; and he reigned thirty and one years in Jerusalem.
And he did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord, and walked in the ways of David his father, and turned not aside to the right hand or to the left.
And in the eighth year of his reign, while he was yet young, he began to seek after the God of David his father; and in the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem from the high places, and the Asherim, and the graven images, and the molten images.
Now in the eighteenth year of his reign, when he had purged the land, and the house, he sent Shaphan the son of Azaliah, and Maaseiah the governor of the city, and Joah the son of Joahaz the recorder, to repair the house of the Lord his God.
And when they brought out the money that was brought into the house of the Lord, Hilkiah the priest found the book of the law of the Lord given by Moses.
And she said unto them, Thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel: Tell ye the man that sent you unto Me,
Thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will bring evil upon this place, and upon the inhabitants thereof, even all the curses that are written in the book which they have read before the king of Judah.
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 is My wrath poured out upon this place, and it shall not be quenched.
But unto the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of the Lord, thus shall ye say to him: Thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel, As touching the words which thou hast heard,
because thy heart was tender, and thou didst humble thyself before God, when thou heardest His words against this place, and against the inhabitants thereof, and hast humbled thyself before Me, and hast rent thy garments, and wept before Me; I also have heard thee, saith the Lord.
Behold, I will gather thee to thy fathers, and thou shalt be gathered to thy grave in peace, neither shall thine eyes see all the evil that I will bring upon this place, and upon the inhabitants thereof.
We have been considering together some of the kings of the nation of Judah—some who were raised up by God as the right leadership to His own people. Under their leadership, the nation was revived and recovered.
The one we would like to share this evening is King Josiah. Last night I mentioned that, according to Jewish account, there were three kings whom they considered not to have committed any transgression before God. In other words, they considered these three kings the best of all the kings.
Of course, one was David, no doubt. The second was Hezekiah, and the third was Josiah.
When Josiah came to the throne, he was only eight years old—just a child.
We must remember that under Hezekiah there was a great recovery. But that great recovery was completely wiped out by his wicked son, Manasseh. All that God had done through King Hezekiah was completely destroyed by Manasseh.
Manasseh was so wicked that, because of his wickedness, God was determined to destroy the nation of Judah.
He was taken into captivity. But when he was in captivity, as we find in 2 Chronicles 33, he humbled himself before God.
Wherefore the Lord brought upon them the captains of the host of the king of Assyria, who took Manasseh in chains, and bound him with fetters, and carried him to Babylon.
Manasseh was taken captive to Babylon. But when he was in Babylon, in his affliction, he besought the Lord his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers, and prayed unto Him.
When he was in real trouble, he finally humbled himself, and God heard him. He was brought back to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord, He was God.
So, in his long reign—he reigned as king for fifty-five years—he literally destroyed all that God had done through his father Hezekiah. But at the very end, he did turn to God. He did restore the altar; but even so, the people still worshiped in the high places.
After he died, his son Amon succeeded him. Amon was a wicked king, and he was king for two years, until finally his own people killed him.
Then they put the grandson, Josiah, on the throne. So when Josiah came to the throne, he was only eight years old—just a young boy, a child.
The very name Josiah means, “The Lord supports,” or “The Lord sustains.” The very name of God was in his name.
Evidently, probably he was born after his grandfather Manasseh returned to the Lord. That might be the reason why, in the naming of the grandson, the name of the Lord was there.
Josiah represents the principle of grace. So far as this little boy was concerned, of course, there was nothing to him. What can you expect of a child?
Especially such a young boy sitting on the throne—what could he do to resist all the evils that had accumulated through the years? Could he do anything to undermine the evils of the past and lead a nation in a new way? You can hardly expect a child to do such a work.
But that was the very thing that Josiah did. So there is only one explanation. The explanation was that, towards the very end of that nation, God was still most reluctant to destroy them.
How God was faithful to His promise. In spite of the fact that He had determined that the nation had to go, how reluctant He was. Towards the very end of that history, God gave them one of the best kings they ever had. That is grace.
Even though Josiah was not able to deliver that nation from destruction, he was not able to deliver the nation out of judgment. Yet you find that he did postpone God’s judgment over that nation.
During the days of his movement, many people must have been brought back to the Lord.
Now, brothers and sisters, I feel, in a very broad sense, judgment is determined upon this earth. The world is not getting better; the world is getting worse. God’s judgment is determined upon the land.
But even so, we can still see the grace, the mercy, and the compassion of God. So far as the evil of this world is concerned, it should have been long consumed. Sometimes we wonder, how long? How long is the longsuffering of God?
Yet you find that, when the world is approaching its very end, the Spirit of God is moving all over this world. He is raising up some people whose hearts are turned toward Him.
These people will not be able to turn God’s judgment away from the world, but at least they postpone God’s judgment. During the days of the postponement of God’s judgment, God is able to gather to Himself a people prepared for His return.
So, brothers and sisters, we are actually living in borrowed time. It is because of the longsuffering and mercy of God that the world still continues. But it will not be long.
This is a period when God is gathering a people like Josiah and those with him—a people prepared for His return. They cannot turn judgment, but at least, in one sense, they postpone it.
So I feel that when we study the life of Josiah, we really can see the grace of God at every turn. Here was a child, helpless and humanly speaking unable to turn the tide. Yet you find that he was raised by God to stand against the tide and delay the flood of destruction.
He was eight years old when he came to the throne. But being a child, it seems as if during the first years of his reign nothing was done and nothing was said. Yet you find this heart, this young heart, was toward the Lord.
So when he was in the eighth year of his reign, when he was fifteen—a teenager—while he was yet young, he began to seek after the God of David his father.
Now, brothers and sisters, here you find two things. Truth always has two sides. On the one side, you find the grace of God, which is sovereign. The grace of God is not conditioned upon anything. The grace of God is sovereign.
The sovereign grace of God came upon this child. Yet, on the other hand, you find that when he was fifteen, he began to seek the God of his father David. That is the other side.
When grace comes upon us, it is sovereign. It does not depend on who we are, what we are, what we have done, or what we have not done. It has nothing to do with us. It is the sovereign grace of God.
But after the grace of God has come upon us, we do have a responsibility. The responsibility is: how do we respond to God’s grace? Do we respond to God’s grace by seeking Him, or do we respond negatively?
In other words, do we just waste the grace of God? That is possible. So there is a human responsibility involved.
With this young boy, when the grace of God came upon him, you find that, young though he was, he sought the God of David his father. He sought the Lord.
I think this is the response that we ought to make to God’s grace.
You find that he sought after the God of David his father. Who is the God of David?
The God of David is more than just God. The God whom David served was the God of David—the God David knew in living experience.
Not just the Creator, not just the Redeemer, but God was everything to David. If you read the psalms that he wrote, you will find how, in many different ways, he described the God whom he loved and whom he served.
Sometimes you may think it is poetical. But, you know, it was not just being poetical. To David, everything that he said about God was real. It was living experience to him.
He addressed God as his rock. He addressed God as his fortress. He addressed God as his high tower. He addressed God as his shield. He addressed God as his refuge. He addressed God as his peace. He addressed God as his joy and as his glory.
In other words, in the long experience of David, he came to know God as everything to him. God was truly all in all to David, and that is knowing God in fullness.
That is what you find in Ephesians 1: Paul’s prayer, that we may be given the spirit of wisdom and revelation unto the full knowledge of God.
Not just some knowledge of God. You know, some people, when they seek God, are content and satisfied with some knowledge of God.
Just recently, in conversation with another lover of God, a servant of the Lord, a question was raised. The sister asked me, “Why is it that many of God’s people seem to love the Lord, and yet in their seeking after God they seem to come to a point and stop?”
“You would think that with their love toward the Lord, certainly there would be no limit. Yet somehow, you find they seek the Lord, and at a certain point they seem to be content. They do not want to know more. They do not want to go beyond that. It seems as if they feel, ‘Well, this is enough.’”
Now, how do you answer such a question? Only God knows. Yet you do find that among God’s people there are people who seek God, but not in His fullness.
Yet there are others who never seem to be contented in their seeking after God. There is always that holy restlessness, that holy discontentment.
No matter how much God has been revealed to them, they are still seeking and stretching forth. To them, God has no limit. God is infinite, and because God is infinite, the knowledge of God has no limit.
They are always stretching forth and stretching forth. You do find that to these believers, God becomes more and more to them. God is everything and all to them.
Josiah was a teenager, yet his seeking after God was of such intensity that he was not satisfied just knowing God. He wanted to know the God of David his father. In other words, he wanted to know God as David knew Him.
Because of his heart toward God, you find there was no king either before him or after him like him. If you read 2 Kings, you find the comment of the Holy Spirit: there was no king before him, nor anyone after him, who walked in the ways of God with all his heart, with all his soul, and with all his strength, according to the law of Moses.
He was unique. He was special. He really loved the Lord, served the Lord, and walked in the way of the Lord with all his heart, with all his soul, and with all his strength. He did not turn to the right or to the left, but did what was right in the sight of the Lord.
What a teenager—especially a young man in that position. He was king over Judah, yet you find there was such a passion for God and such a love for God. Most unusual.
I think this should really encourage us. Sometimes we think, “What can a young teenager do?” We do not expect much of them. If we see a teenager who seems to have a little heart for the Lord, we are more than happy. We think that is most unusual.
But how little we believe God. God can work in a teenager in such a way as you find in Josiah.
In the twelfth year of his reign, when he was around nineteen or twenty years old, he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem from the high places and to cleanse the land from all idols. He began to take action.
You see, first he received grace. Then grace began to work in him, and he responded by seeking the Lord with all his heart. When he was ready within, then you find the spiritual energy began to express itself without.
As a young man of nineteen or twenty years old, he led the nation. He purged the land of all the idols. If you read 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles, you find such spiritual energy demonstrated.
You can read the things that he did—how he removed the images, how he destroyed all the pillars, all the high places, all the altars, and everything that his ancestors had built up.
Even the mount of Solomon was cleansed. Solomon had a mount where he put all these idols and everything. Josiah did a most thorough work.
This extended even beyond the nation of Judah to all the land of Israel. As we mentioned last night, the northern kingdom of Israel had already been destroyed by the king of Assyria. Yet there were still people left there—probably the poorest were still left in the land. There was a vacuum there.
Here you find Josiah had such spiritual energy that the purging of the land was not limited to his own realm, but extended to all Israel.
You know, it is very interesting. Over three hundred years before, at the beginning of the division of the nation into the northern and southern kingdoms, you find in 1 Kings 13 the first king of the northern kingdom, Jeroboam.
After he took ten tribes away from Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, and established the nation of Israel with Samaria as the capital, he noticed that people still went to Jerusalem to worship God.
He was afraid of that. Therefore, you remember how he made two golden calves. He put one in Bethel and the other in Dan. He told the people, “You do not need to go to Jerusalem to worship God. God is here—right here in Bethel, right here in Dan.”
He set up feasts and festivals, and he set up priests who were not Levites.
One day, when he was sacrificing at the altar in Bethel to the golden calf, something happened. God sent a man of God, a prophet, from Judah to Bethel.
And, behold, there came a man of God out of Judah by the word of the Lord unto Bethel; and Jeroboam was standing by the altar to burn incense.
And he cried against the altar by the word of the Lord, and said, O altar, altar, thus saith the Lord: Behold, a son shall be born unto the house of David, Josiah by name; and upon thee shall he sacrifice the priests of the high places that burn incense upon thee, and men’s bones shall they burn upon thee.
And he gave a sign the same day, saying, This is the sign which the Lord hath spoken: Behold, the altar shall be rent, and the ashes that are upon it shall be poured out.
Remember, this was over three hundred years before Josiah. It was foretold that he would purge the land not only in Judah but even in the northern kingdom.
The way he did it was that he desecrated all the altars. He not only destroyed the altars; he burned the bones of the priests of these idols upon the altars. This literally happened.
If you read the description in 2 Kings, you find that it happened literally. You know about this man of God: he did not listen to God’s word, and he was deceived by an old prophet. He came back, and then he was killed by a lion.
He was buried there in Bethel. This old prophet asked his sons to bury him beside this prophet, because when all the bones were dug up, Josiah looked and saw the grave. He said, “What is that?” They told him, “That is the grave of that prophet.” So Josiah said, “Do not touch it.” Thus the old prophet’s bones were not touched either.
Anyway, you find there was such spiritual energy in that young man. He was able to purge the whole land and made all Israel worship God. There was such strength.
You know, in the family of God there are children, there are young men and young people, and there are fathers.
In 1 John 2, you find that the children know the Father. That is the beginning. When we are born again, the Holy Spirit bears witness with our spirit and cries, “Abba, Father.” We know our Father.
But the young men are characterized by strength—by spiritual strength and spiritual energy. “Young men, ye are strong, and the word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the evil one.”
Young men should demonstrate the spiritual energy and strength of the Lord—not natural zeal, but spiritual strength to overcome the world.
In the Scriptures, you find God raised up many young people. Sometimes we think, “Well, spiritual maturity really takes time. You cannot have instant spirituality. You can have instant coffee, but not instant spirituality.”
It takes time. On the one hand, that is true. But on the other hand, you do find in the Scripture that God uses many young people.
Joseph, Joshua, David, Samuel, Daniel, and Jeremiah—they were all young when God called them.
In the New Testament: John, Timothy, and Mark. They also were young people. God did use young people.
If a person is apprehended by the Lord when he is young, he is delivered from many sins and sorrows. There is more time, as it were, for God to mature and use him.
So young people should not draw back. Of course, there is something we need to be careful about, especially with young people: there is natural zeal and natural energy that know almost no balance. This is something that needs to be dealt with.
But on the other hand, if we know the Lord when we are young, there will be spiritual energy and strength demonstrated. You find this happened with Josiah.
When he had been on the throne for eighteen years, he was twenty-five years old. By that time he had done such a thorough work in purging the land and repairing the house of God that they discovered the book of the law in the temple.
Now think of it. According to the law, when a new king came to the throne, a copy of the law was to be given to that king, and he was to meditate upon it day and night that he might do the right thing.
But evidently, after the reign of Manasseh, the whole thing was completely undone. There was not even the book of the law.
When Josiah began to purge the land, it was more out of his communion with God. As he communed with God, as he loved God, and as he was inspired by God, he did all these things without the proper guidance of the book.
But now, in repairing the house, when the house was repaired, they discovered the book of the law. This book was brought to Josiah.
Most likely, it was Deuteronomy. The effect of reading that book would lead you to deduce that it must have been Deuteronomy that they read. When the words were read, Josiah rent his garments.
In Deuteronomy, God said that if they forsook Him and worshiped idols, He would send the nation into captivity, scatter them all over the world, and all these curses would come upon them. All this had happened.
So when Josiah read it, he rent his garments before the Lord. Then he sent people to seek Huldah the prophetess, to inquire of the Lord.
You know, dear brothers and sisters, the prophet Jeremiah began to prophesy in the thirteenth year of King Josiah.
He began to purge the land in the twelfth year of his reign, and Jeremiah started to prophesy in the thirteenth year. Evidently Josiah and Jeremiah were both young people.
Josiah was only fifteen when he began to seek the Lord, and Jeremiah started to prophesy while he was still a boy. He said, “Lord, what can I do? I am just a child.” He was young.
So these two young men, their hearts must have been very closely intertwined. They worked together, as it were: Josiah on the throne, and Jeremiah as a prophet of the Lord, for this work of recovery.
It is strange that Josiah did not send for Jeremiah. He sent people to seek the prophetess Huldah.
Not only that, Zephaniah prophesied at the same time. There was another prophet, Zephaniah, who prophesied about the same time. Yet Josiah did not send messengers to Zephaniah to ask of the Lord. Instead, he sent people to a prophetess, Huldah.
Now, is that not strange? I do not pretend that I know why. Why was it that Josiah did not turn to Jeremiah, who was so close to him? Jeremiah was a great prophet. Yet he did not do that, nor did he turn to Zephaniah. He sent messengers to Huldah. Why?
Well, I think this was a most unusual time. God used a child to lead the nation, and God spoke through a prophetess instead of a prophet.
Maybe the Lord led Josiah in that way; I do not know. But at least you find that Josiah was open to the Lord. Whatever channel God might use, Josiah was open to it.
Huldah told him that the judgment could not be averted. The judgment of the Lord was settled; there was no way of averting it.
But because the heart of Josiah was tender, and because he trembled at God’s word, God promised that it would not happen in his lifetime. In other words, it was postponed.
Now notice one thing. Hezekiah, when God told him to prepare to go and to set his house in order, went before God. He did not want to go. He wanted to live on and enjoy the blessing with which God had blessed him.
In other words, you find that Hezekiah did not yield under the will of God. Instead, he tried to present all the good things he had done for God as his merits—that he deserved to live longer.
But here you find Josiah. When the word of God was read, he could have done the same thing. He could have gone to God and said, “Now, Lord, in spite of all You have said, look at what I have done for You. Certainly, You should consider that.”
But no. He did not think highly of himself. Instead, he humbled himself before the Lord. He bowed under the mighty hand of God.
Dear brothers and sisters, this is something for us to consider. How important it is that we learn to bow under the mighty hand of God. If we humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God, in due time He will exalt us.
Now you find Josiah had not only the inward leading from the Lord, but he also had the word of God in his hand. With these two things combined, you find that he doubled, as it were, his effort in seeking God.
He called the whole nation to come for a Passover. It was something that had not been done for a long time.
During the days of Hezekiah, they had a Passover, but it was not done exactly according to the law, because they did not keep it in the first month; they kept it in the second month.
But here you find Josiah, with the word of God guiding him, was able to do everything just right. Everything returned to the original design of God. That was a mighty recovery.
Here, brothers and sisters, whenever there is a recovery of such a degree, you find there is always a combination of these two things: the leading of the Spirit and the guidance of the Word.
Some people emphasize inward leading so much that they neglect the word of God. Other people are so literal, as it were, in the letter of the Word that they fail to know the leading of the Spirit with it.
When you find an imbalance here, you will not be able to get into the fullness of God’s way.
But here you find Josiah had an inward leading, and he had the law of God in his hand. He was able to keep the Passover in the way that was perfect before God. It was perfect.
So the recovery was a great recovery for the whole nation.
He was on the throne for thirty-one years. Then the king of Egypt came up.
Necho, the king of Egypt, came up to fight against the king of Assyria. The nation of Judah was so situated that it became the battlefield between the north and the south.
You had the Egyptian Empire in the south and the Assyrian Empire in the north. Any conflict between these two great empires meant that Israel, or Judah, became the passageway back and forth over their land.
That year, Necho king of Egypt went north to fight against the king of Assyria, and Josiah ran out against him.
It is almost unbelievable that, in this instance, Josiah did not inquire of the Lord. There is no mention that he inquired of the Lord.
When he saw the king of Egypt coming up, actually the king of Egypt was not against him; he was just passing by. Yet somehow Josiah became frightened. Somehow, he became presumptuous.
Probably after God had blessed him in such a way, he began to feel secure, and he felt strong. So instead of inquiring of the Lord, he just ran forward to fight against the king of Egypt.
Humanly speaking, that was impossible, because Egypt was a great empire. But probably he became presumptuous. He presumed that God was with him, and he presumed that certainly God would deliver him from the hand of Necho, the king of Egypt.
Even after the king of Egypt warned him, Josiah did not listen. God used the king of Egypt to warn Josiah not to do it, yet Josiah did not listen to the warning.
He had been so open to God speaking through whatever channel it might be, and now you find that he was not ready to listen to what Necho said. Necho said, “God told me. God commanded me to say that to you.” But Josiah would not listen.
Yet there must have been some fear within him. He knew something was not quite right, because he disguised himself.
He disguised himself. In other words, there must have been something within him. He must have known something within himself, yet he became so presumptuous that he went out, and he was killed.
Now, in one sense, dear brothers and sisters, I think probably he committed the sin of presumption.
You remember Psalm 19, the prayer of the psalmist:
Who can discern his errors?
Clear Thou me from hidden faults.
Keep back Thy servant also from presumptuous sins;
Let them not have dominion over me:
Then shall I be upright,
And I shall be clear from great transgression.
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart
Be acceptable in Thy sight,
O Lord, my rock, and my redeemer.
You know, there is a sin which is called presumption. In other words, you just presume. You do not really seek the Lord. You do not really know what the Lord’s will is, but you presume that it must be so, that it should be so. Yet God is not in it.
We need to ask the Lord to keep us back from presumptuousness. Nothing is to be presumed or taken for granted. How we need to humble ourselves before the Lord in everything, and not to be presumptuous in any way.
Then we will be delivered from great transgression. Probably that is what Josiah did. Towards the very end, you find that probably he committed the sin of presumption. He took it for granted.
But God overruled this matter. God used the opportunity—perhaps not His direct will—but God used it to take His servant away, so that he would not see what would happen to the nation.
In other words, God kept His promise. God kept His word.
Now, dear brothers and sisters, of course this is something beyond our understanding. We are not in any position to say whether this was the time that Josiah should go, or whether, because of his being presumptuous, he went earlier than he should. We do not know. We can only say that God overruled and made it good.
So here, I think the one thing we need to be careful about before the Lord is this: especially when we know the presence of the Lord, especially when we know the blessing of the Lord, this is the time we need to ask the Lord to keep us from being presumptuous.
Then God’s time will not be cut short in any way.
But thank God, our situation is different from Josiah’s. With Josiah, he was not able to turn away the wrath of God or the judgment. He was able to postpone it, and God took him away by death so that he might not see the things that would happen to the nation.
Now, in our case, it is different. We are not to be taken away by death, but our hope is that we may be raptured alive.
We know judgment is coming to this world. That will not change. It may be postponed, but it will not change.
If the Lord should come soon, what is our blessed hope? Our blessed hope is that He may take us away, that we may not see the judgment—not by death, but by rapture.
This is what you find promised to the church in Philadelphia. To the church in Philadelphia, to those who overcome, the promise of the Lord is:
Because thou didst keep the word of My patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of trial, that hour which is to come upon the whole world, to try them that dwell upon the earth.
Of course, that means the great tribulation. When judgment really falls upon this earth, our Lord does promise that there will be people who escape it. They will not see the judgment because they are taken. They are taken to the throne.
So, dear brothers and sisters, let us take this as our blessed hope.
Our Heavenly Father, we do pray that in these last of the last days, our hearts may be toward Thee as Thy servant Josiah’s heart was.
That we might walk in Thy ways and seek Thee with all our hearts, all our souls, and all our strength; that we may do right in Thy sight; that we may not turn to the right or to the left.
O, that we may do something to bring in recovery to the land, to Thy people, and to worship.
O Lord, we pray that we may never commit the sin of presumption, but that we may always walk softly before Thee throughout our lives.
O Lord, our hope is that Thou wilt take us to Thyself even before judgment falls upon this earth. Thou hast promised it, and, Lord, we pray that by Thy grace it will come to us.
And it is all to Thy praise and glory. We ask in Thy precious name. Amen.