The
Old Testament mentions about the exploits of King Josiah as one of the most prominent
when it pertains to restoration of the pure worship of God and destruction of
Baal and Asherah worship, but there are other interesting things in this story,
too. These things will be detailed in the following below:
2
Chronicles 34: 1, 3b
Josiah was eight years old when he began to
reign, and he reined in Jerusalem one and thirty years; and in the twelfth year
he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem from the high places, and the groves, and
the carved images, and the molten images.
2 Chronicles 34: 8, 14b-16a
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. Hilkiah the priest found a book of
the law of the Lord given by Moses. And Hilkiah answered
and said to Shaphan the scribe, I have found the book of the law in the house
of the Lord. And Hilkiah delivered the
book to Shaphan. And Shaphan carried the book to the king. . .
NOTE: The Book of the Law must have been lost for Hilkiah the
priest to have found it; or at least he came upon parts of the total number of
scrolls out of many others. It seems that the priests or more importantly the
Levites were more guilty than the people when it came to idol worship because
surely they would have been the ones who safeguarded the Law, as mentioned in Deuteronomy 31: 24-26 : It came about, when Moses finished writing the words of this law in
a book until they were complete, that Moses commanded the
Levites who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord,
saying, “Take this book of the law and
place it beside the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, that it
may remain there as a witness against you. Also Exodus 40: 20a says: He (Moses) took the
tablets of the covenant law and placed them in the ark. Just one more point on this: 2 Chronicles 35: 3 He (King Josiah) said to the Levites, who
instructed all Israel and who had been consecrated to the Lord: “Put the sacred ark
in the temple that Solomon son of David king of Israel built. It is not to be
carried about on your shoulders. Now serve the Lord your God and his people Israel.
So, what happened to the
Ten Commandments that were placed ‘inside’ the ark or the Book of the
Covenant (the other statutes and ordinances) that was placed beside it?
Your guess is as good as mine.
2 Chronicles 34: 18-22
Then Shaphan the scribe told the king, saying,
Hilkiah the priest hath given me a book. And Shaphan read it before the king. And it came to pass, when the king had heard the
words of the law, that he rent his clothes. And the king commanded Hilkiah, and Ahikam the son
of Shaphan, and Abdon the son of Micah, and Shaphan the scribe, and Asaiah a
servant of the king's, saying, Go, enquire
of the Lord for me, and for them that are
left in Israel and in Judah, concerning the words of the book that is found:
for great is the wrath of the Lord that is poured out upon us,
because our fathers have not kept the word of the Lord, to do after all that is written in this book.
2
Chronicles 34: 22a, 23-25
And Hilkiah, and they that the king had appointed,
went to Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum the son of Tikvath, the son
of Hasrah, keeper of the wardrobe; (now she dwelt in Jerusalem in the college :)
and they spoke to her to that effect. And she
answered them, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Tell ye the
man that sent you to 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 my wrath shall be poured out upon this place, and
shall not be quenched.
2 Chronicles 34: 29-30
Then the king sent and gathered together all the
elders of Judah and Jerusalem. And the
king went up into the house of the Lord, and all the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and
the priests, and the Levites, and all the people, great and small: and he read
in their ears all the words of the book of the covenant that was found
in the house of the Lord.
NOTE: One has to ask, “What were
these words in the covenant that had such dire warnings; I mean were they found
in the Ten Commandments or elsewhere?” I think Hikliah the priest came across
some fragments of the Deuteronomy scroll, as below:
Deuteronomy 26: 16-17
The Lord your God commands you this day to follow these
decrees and laws; carefully observe them with all your heart and with all your
soul.17 You have declared this day that the Lord is your God and that you will walk in obedience
to him, that you will keep his decrees, commands and laws—that you will listen
to him.
Deuteronomy 28: 15, 20, 58-59, 61
However, if you do not
obey the Lord your God and do not
carefully follow all his commands and decrees I am giving you today, all these curses will come on you and overtake you: The Lord will send on you curses, confusion and rebuke in everything you put
your hand to, until you are destroyed and come to sudden ruin because of the
evil you have done in forsaking him. If you do
not carefully follow all the words of this law, which are written in this book, and do not revere this glorious and awesome name—the Lord your God. The Lord will send fearful plagues on you and your
descendants, harsh and prolonged disasters, and severe and lingering illnesses.
The Lord will also bring on you every kind of sickness and disaster
not recorded in this Book of the Law, until you are destroyed.
Now let’s go back to:
Deuteronomy 5: 22a
These are the
commandments the Lord proclaimed in a loud
voice to your whole assembly there on the mountain from out of the fire, the
cloud and the deep darkness; and he (God) added nothing
more.
NOTE: This is interesting because Deuteronomy 29: 1 says: These are the terms of the covenant the Lord commanded Moses to make with the Israelites in Moab, in addition to the covenant he had made with them at Horeb.
A few more interesting
things during the reign of King Josiah:
2 Chronicles 35: 1, 12,
16, 18
Josiah celebrated the
Passover to the Lord in Jerusalem, and the Passover lamb was slaughtered on the
fourteenth day of the first month. They set aside the burnt offerings to give
them to the subdivisions of the families of the people to offer to the Lord, as it is written in
the Book of Moses. They did the same with the cattle. So at that time the
entire service of the Lord was carried out for the
celebration of the Passover and the offering of burnt offerings on the altar of
the Lord, as King Josiah had
ordered. The Passover had not been observed like this in Israel since the days
of the prophet Samuel; and none of the kings of Israel had ever celebrated
such a Passover as did Josiah, with the priests, the Levites and all Judah
and Israel who were there with the people of Jerusalem.
NOTE: That might not be exactly true because King Hezekiah seems
to have celebrated the Passover quite elaborately (Cp. 2 Chronicles 30: 1 thru 31:
21).
A final point is found
here:
2 Chronicles 31: 3 mentions “New Moons” observed by King Hezekiah as
one of appointed feasts written in the Law of Moses, but the earliest passage
mentioning it is found in Numbers 10:
1-10 where it associated with blowing of 2 silver trumpets that are to be
used when confronting an oppressive enemy. This is mentioned along with New
Moon festivals but no details about the observance are given. Later in Numbers 29: 1-6 (Cp. Leviticus 23:
23-25) a more elaborate set of instructions are given for the Feast of Trumpets
but nothing is said about a New Moon feast. According to “Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible”
New Moon feasts involved commencement of the autumnal year’s celebration of the
passing of the darkening of the moon, which was an ominous sign in ancient
times. The restoration of the solar disk was seen as a time of rejoicing, and
as such, it became ritualized among the cultic people of Egypt, Mesopotamia,
and Semites such as the Israelites, too. Doubtless, the Feast of
Trumpets/New Moon celebrations were incorporated into a dual festival as
they were both observed in the seventh month (Tishri/September-October).
Robert
Randle
776
Commerce St Apt 701
Tacoma,
WA 98402
March
23, 2017
