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Scripture: 2Kings 22 and 2 Chronicles 34
Background:
The Hebrew people had arrived in the Promised Land with the law
in their possession. Their priests were offering sacrifices and
they were observing the various Holy Days. But the Hebrews saw
the people around them and wanted a king to rule over them. God
gave them their first King...Saul. We know the history of Saul
and David. God rejected Saul because of his disobedience. Saul
figured he could keep what God said he should destroy, then when
he was challenged by Samuel, Saul claimed they only kept the best
things so they could sacrifice them to God. 1Samuel 15.
After Saul, David was king and God declared this would be the
line from which the Messiah would come. The monarchy passed from
David to his son Solomon who asked God for wisdom. After the
death of Solomon his son Rehoboam began his reign by driving a
wedge of contention between the southern kingdom of Judah and the
northern 10 tribe of the kingdom of Israel.
King after king the conflict continued. Some kings trying to
serve the Lord and others trying to pacify everyone by allowing
any kind of worship or sacrifice. Fifteen kings and 323 years
after the end of Rehoboam’s reign Josiah was anointed king.
Josiah’s grandfather King Manasseh was so wicked the God
declared him to be worse than the Amalekites that he had
commanded Saul to destroy. Because the Hebrew children had
forsaken God’s law, God said He would wipe them like a dish
and turn them upside down. When Manasseh died his son Amon became
king. He had learned many things from his father but not to avoid
his mistakes. After only 2 years of his wicked leadership Amon’s
servants killed him and all of his political followers. Now we
pick up the history of the monarchy with 8 year old Josiah.
2KINGS Chapter 22:1-20
1 Josiah [was] eight years old when he began to reign, and he
reigned thirty and one years in Jerusalem. And his mother's name
[was] Jedidah, the daughter of Adaiah of Boscath.
2 And he did [that which was] right in the sight of the LORD, and
walked in all the way of David his father, and turned not aside
to the right hand or to the left.
3 And it came to pass 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 sum the silver
which is brought into the house of the LORD, which the keepers of
the door have gathered of the people:
5 And let them deliver it into the hand of the doers of the work,
that have the oversight of the house of the LORD: and let them
give it to the doers of the work which [is] in the house of the
LORD, to repair the breaches of the house,
6 Unto carpenters, and builders, and masons, and to buy timber
and hewn stone to repair the house.
7 Howbeit there was no reckoning made with them of the money that
was delivered into their hand, because they dealt faithfully.
8 And Hilkiah the high priest said unto 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, and brought the king
word again, and said, Thy servants have gathered the money that
was found in the house, and have delivered it into the hand of
them that do the work, that have the oversight of the house of
the LORD.
10 And Shaphan the scribe shewed the king, saying, Hilkiah the
priest hath delivered me a book. And Shaphan read it before the
king.
11 And it came to pass, when the king had heard the words of the
book of the law, that he rent his clothes.
12 And the king commanded Hilkiah the priest, and Ahikam the son
of Shaphan, and Achbor the son of Michaiah, and Shaphan the
scribe, and Asahiah a servant of the king's, saying,
13 Go ye, enquire of the LORD for me, and for the people, and for
all Judah, concerning the words of this book that is found: for
great [is] the wrath of the LORD that is kindled against us,
because our fathers have not hearkened unto the words of this
book, to do according unto all that which is written concerning
us.
14 So Hilkiah the priest, and Ahikam, and Achbor, and Shaphan,
and Asahiah, went unto Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum
the son of Tikvah, the son of Harhas, keeper of the wardrobe;
(now she dwelt in Jerusalem in the college;) and they communed
with her.
15 And she said unto them, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel,
Tell the man that sent you to me,
16 Thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will bring evil upon this
place, and upon the inhabitants thereof, [even] all the words of
the book which the king of Judah hath read:
17 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 kindled against
this place, and shall not be quenched.
18 But to the king of Judah which sent you to enquire of the
LORD, thus shall ye say to him, Thus saith the LORD God of
Israel, [As touching] the words which thou hast heard;
19 Because thine heart was tender, and thou hast humbled thyself
before the LORD, when thou heardest what I spake against this
place, and against the inhabitants thereof, that they should
become a desolation and a curse, and hast rent thy clothes, and
wept before me; I also have heard [thee], saith the LORD.
20 Behold therefore, I will gather thee unto thy fathers, and thou shalt be
gathered into thy grave in peace; and thine eyes shall not see all the evil
which I will bring upon this place. And they brought the king word again.
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