When Judgment Cannot Be Delayed Further

There comes a time for which the wrath of God is to be poured out upon a wicked nation; and even national repentance cannot delay its coming.  Let us consider this event in Israel's history and repent before the evil in our midst is too great to escape judgment.

  

Josiah was the next-to-the-last Judean king to reign before that kingdom's downfall.  He was 8 years old when he began his 31 year reign as king in Jerusalem.  Nearly 2 chapters of scriptures are assigned to the telling of his righteous acts during his reign (see 2 Kings, chapters 22 and 23).  It is recorded that Josiah did that which was right in the eyes of the LORD and he did not turn aside from following the ways of his father (ancestor) King David. 

During the 18th year of his reign he sent the scribe, Shaphan, to the house of the LORD, to Hilkiah, the high priest, to take the money collected at the temple doors and engage workmen to repair the breaches of the house of the LORD.  Hilkiah had found the book of the Law (the Torah) in the house of the LORD which he gave to Shaphan, who read it before the king.

When the king heard the words of the book of the Law, he tore his clothes and commanded that Hilkiah, and others with him, seek a prophet to inquire of the LORD for him and the people and for all Judah, for he realized that the wrath of the LORD was kindled against them because their fathers had not hearkened to the words of the book, to do according to all that was written concerning them. 

They went to Huldah, the prophetess and she said to them: "Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel:  Tell the man who sent you to me: 'Thus says the LORD:  Behold, I will bring evil upon this place and upon the inhabitants, even all the words of the book which the king of Judah has read, because they have forsaken Me, and have offered to other gods, and they provoked Me with all the work of their hands.  Therefore, My wrath shall be kindled against this place, and it shall not be quenched.'  But to the King of Judah, who sent you to inquire of the LORD, thus shall you say unto him:  'Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel:  As touching the words which you have heard, because your heart was tender and you humbled yourself before the LORD when you heard what I spoke against this place, and against its inhabitants, that they should become an astonishment and a curse, and you have torn your clothes, and wept before Me, I also have heard you, says the LORD.  Therefore, behold, I will gather you to your fathers, and you shall be gathered to your grave in peace, neither shall your eyes see all the evil which I will bring upon this place.'"  And they brought back word to the king. 

The king had all the elders of Judah and of Jerusalem gathered to him.  He went up to the house of the LORD with all the men of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem with him, and the priests, and the prophets, and all the people, both small and great; and he read to them all the words of the book of the covenant which was found in the house of the LORD. 

And the king stood on a platform and made a covenant before the LORD, to walk after the LORD, and to keep His commandments, and His testimonies and His statutes, with all his heart, and all his soul, to confirm the words of this covenant that were written in this book; and all the people stood to the covenant (accepted it). 

The king commanded Hilkiah the high priest and the priests of the second order, and the keepers of the door, to bring forth out of the temple of the LORD all of the vessels that were made for Baal, and for the Asherah, and for all the host of heaven; and he burned them outside of Jerusalem in the fields of Kidron, and carried the ashes of them to Beth-el.  And he put down the idolatrous priests, whom the kings of Judah had ordained to offer in the high places round about Jerusalem; and those who also offered to Baal, to the sun, and to the moon, and to the constellations, and to all the host of heaven. 

He brought out the Asherah from the house of the LORD, to outside of Jerusalem, to the brook Kidron, and burned it and stamped it to powder and cast the powder upon the graves of the common people. 

He broke down the houses of the sodomites that were in the house of the LORD, where the women wore coverings for the Asherah.  He brought all the priests out of the cities of Judah and defiled the high places where the priests had made offerings, from Geba to Beer-sheba; and he broke down the high places of the gates that were at the entrance of the gate of Joshua the governor of the city, which were on the left as one entered the gate of the city.

Nevertheless, the priests of the high places did not come up to the altar of the LORD in Jerusalem, but they ate unleavened bread among their bretheren. 

He defiled Topheth, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnon, that no man might make his son or his daughter to pass through the fire to Molech.  He took away the horses that the kings of Judah had given to the sun, at the entrance of the house of the LORD, by the chamber of Nethan-melech the officer, which was in the precincts; and he burned the chariots of the sun with fire. 

He broke down the altars that were on the roof of the upper chamber of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and the altars which Manasseh had made in the two courts of the house of the LORD; he beat them down to dust and cast the dust into the brook Kidron. 

King Josiah also defiled the high places that were before Jerusalem, which were on the right hand of th mount of corruption, which Solomon the King of Israel had built for Ashtoreth the detestation of the Zidonians, and for Chemosh the detestation of Moab, and for Milcom the abomination of the children of Ammon.

Moreover the altar that was at Beth-el, and the high place which Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin, had made, even that altar and the high place he broke down and he burned the high place and stamped it to powder and burned the Asherah.

And he took the bones that were in the sepulchres in the mount and burned them opon the altar, and defiled it, according to the work of the LORD which the man of God proclaimed, who proclaimed these things.  But the bones of the sepulchre of the man of God who had proclaimed that these things would happen were left alone by the command of King Josiah.  And they let the bones of the prophet who came out of Samaria alone too.

All the houses of the high places that were in the cities of Samaria, which the kings of Israel had made to provoke the LORD Josiah took away and did to them according to all the acts that he had done in Beth-el. 

He slew all the priests of the high places that were there, upon the altars, and burned men's bones upon them; and he returned to Jerusalem.  And the king commanded all the people, saying: 'Keep the passover unto the LORD your God, as it is written in this book of the covenant.  And there has not been kept such a passover from the days of the judges that judged Israel, nor in all the days of the kings of Israel, nor of the kings of Judah; but in the 18th year of king Josiah was this passover kept to the LORD in Jerusalem. 

Those who divined by a ghost or a familiar spirit, and the teraphim, and the idols, and all the detestable things that were spied in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, did Josiah put away, that he might confirm the words of the law which were written in the book that Hilkiah the priest found in the house of the LORD.  And there was no king like him before him, that turned to the LORD with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his might, according to all the law of Moses; neither after him arose there any like him. 

Notwithstanding, the LORD turned not away from the fierceness of His great wrath, wherewith His anger was kindled against Judah, because of all the provocations wherewith Manasseh had provoked Him.  And the LORD said:  'I will remove Judah also out of My sight, as I have removed Israel, and I will cast off this city which I have chosen, even Jerusalem, and the house of which I said: My name shall be there.'

Now the rest of the acts of Josiah, and all that he did, were written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah.  In his days Pharaoh-necoh king of Egypt went up against the king of Assyria to the river Euphrates; and king Josiah went against him; and he was slain at Megiddo.  His servants carried him in a chariot dead from Megiddo and brought him to Jerusalem and buried him in his own sepulchre.  Then the people took Jehoahaz his son and anointed him king in his father's stead. 

So, here is an event in history that shows us that when sin is so grievous to the LORD as this, even great national repentance cannot stay His judgment.  Was there ever a more devoted king ruling over Judah?  But the damage had already been done.  God spared Josiah from seeing the destruction by allowing his death in battle.  And yet there remains a day, that great and terrible day, of judgment.