THE KING'S RESPONSE TO HULDAH'S WORDS IN THE MAKING OF A COVENANT WITH THE PEOPLE FOLLOWED BY A DETAILED DESCRIPTIONS OF JOSIAH'S REFORMS (2 KINGS 23:1). On receiving Huldah's response Josiah called together the elders of the people, and then as a consequence summoned to the house of YHWH the whole... [ Continue Reading ]
THE READING OF THE LAW AND THE MAKING OF THE COVENANT (2 KINGS 23:1). 2 Kings 23:1 ‘And the king sent, and they gathered to him all the elders of Judah and of Jerusalem.' Deeply moved by the words of Huldah the prophetess the king sent and gathered to him ‘all the elders of Judah and of Jerusalem'... [ Continue Reading ]
DETAILS OF JOSIAH'S REFORMS WHICH TOOK PLACE THROUGHOUT HIS REIGN OVER MANY YEARS (2 KINGS 23:5). What is now described would have commenced well before Josiah's eighteenth year as the Temple was purified preparatory to its being repaired and restored, and it would have continued on throughout his r... [ Continue Reading ]
THE OBSERVANCE OF THE PASSOVER (2 KINGS 23:21). The making of the new covenant following the reading of the Law was then followed by an observance of the Passover. There are no grounds whatsoever for the suggestion that previously the Passover had been observed in people's houses and that this was n... [ Continue Reading ]
JOSIAH'S OBEDIENCE TO THE LAW WOULD PROVE TO BE INSUFFICIENT TO PREVENT THE FINAL CATASTROPHE FOR JUDAH BECAUSE JERUSALEM'S SIN HAD BEEN TOO GREAT AND WAS STILL TOO DEEPLY IMBEDDED IN THE PEOPLE (2 KINGS 23:24). With all his enthusiasm and godliness Josiah could only reform the outward trappings of... [ Continue Reading ]
THE CLOSURE OF JOSIAH'S REIGN (2 KINGS 23:28). Josiah's glorious reign came to a sorry end when he made a fatal miscalculation without consulting YHWH. Assyria were by this time in dire straits after the sack of Nineveh and fighting for their very existence against the Babylonians, Medes and Scythia... [ Continue Reading ]
THE LAST DAYS OF JUDAH (2 KINGS 23:31 TO 2 KINGS 25:26). As Huldah had forewarned the death of Josiah signalled the beginning of the end for Judah, and in fact within twenty five years of his death (in 609 BC) Jerusalem would be no more. Jehoahaz (nee Shallum), who succeeded him, only lasted three m... [ Continue Reading ]
THE REIGN OF JEHOAHAZ KING OF JUDAH (609 BC) - (2 KINGS 23:31). Jehoahaz, who was Josiah's fourth son, was given the unenviable task of replacing Josiah, knowing full well that the wrath of Egypt would inevitably fall on Judah as a result of Josiah's action against Pharaoh, and sure enough within t... [ Continue Reading ]
THE REIGN OF ZEDEKIAH, KING OF JUDAH 597-587 BC (2 KINGS 24:18 TO 2 KINGS 25:7). It is a reminder of how quickly events were moving that it was a son of Josiah himself who now came to the throne as the last king of Judah, and that he was only twenty one years old, so short would be the time from th... [ Continue Reading ]