Millions of Christians around the world are studying today about King Josiah of Judah, the king who did everything just right. He knew that the kingdom of David of which he was now the ruler was virtually on the rocks; their very existence was only a millimeter away from national disaster, for God was on the verge of withdrawing His care and protection from them, leaving them to the tender mercies of the pagan Babylonians.
Hilkiah had found the book of Deuteronomy in the Temple; reading it brought the king to his knees and tears to his eyes. He was utterly sincere in his efforts to avert the national ruin he saw coming. He put his whole soul into a work of repentance as he saw it was needed; what he led the people into was a “national repentance” or one might say, a “corporate repentance.” It began in the king’s palace, the proper place for any national or corporate repentance to begin.
The dear Lord heard and answered the penitent king’s prayers—the God of heaven recognized Josiah and honored him before the world. The young prophet Jeremiah was ecstatic; at last the Holy Spirit is being enabled to work; the throne of David is being rehabilitated; Jeremiah hopes that there will be no more occasion for weeping his eyes out in anguish for the incomprehensible rebellion of God’s own people. The evidence indicates that they are repenting and doing what is right, for they are following their king (cf. 9:1, 2).
But that was exactly their problem—they were following their king. That’s what Israel did throughout their history—they followed their good kings like Hezekiah and Josiah and they followed their bad kings like Manasseh and Ahab. They never truly followed the Lord!
Josiah’s glorious work came to a sudden and abrupt end when he rejected the living demonstration of the Spirit of Prophecy. Everything depended on his discernment, the “eyesalve” that Christ offers His last days church. But Josiah didn’t discern the strange thing that God had done, which he normally couldn’t fathom—God had given Pharoah Necho that gift, and good king Josiah refused to believe it.
Against this inspired counsel, he went to war against the Egyptian king, was wounded by an Egyptian arrow, driven back to Jerusalem in his “ambulance” chariot (imagine his physical agony in that rough ride!), where he died and Jeremiah and the nation mourned.
Study the story in 2 Chronicles 34, 35; you will see evidence that the poor king knew only the old covenant, not the new. Then 36 is downhill, all the way to ruin. Now let us learn!
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