The Tragedy of Josiah’s Children

The Tragedy of Josiah’s Children

Josiah, Part 3

By Pastor Matt Black

17 January 2008
Midweek Prayer Meeting
2 Kings 22:1 - 23:30; 2 Chronicles 34:1 - 35:27

Scripture and Theme: Open your Bible to the book of 2 Kings 22 this evening. We are looking at the life of Josiah again tonight. As I’ve said before his name in the Hebrew sums it up, “The Fire of the Lord”. The title of our message this evening is: “Josiah’s Tragedy”.

Introduction: It is a tragedy that there were many in Israel after the death of Josiah that turned back to all the disgusting idolatries that were cleansed during the life of Josiah. They turned from what they knew to be the truth. And it is devastating to see today.

It is devastating to see those who have professed the Name of Jesus Christ to apostasize. It’s such an ugly word. I don’t even like to talk about it. I don’t like to think about it. But as a surgeon who comes to the table who wants to remove a deadly tumor, we must talk about it because of love and mercy. Apostasy is a turning back. Jesus said in Luke 9:62, “No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.” He is not a disciple of Jesus Christ who says he trust in Christ, and then turns back to the things of the world.

For years we as Bible believing Christians have been minimizing the importance of persevering fruit in the life of professing believers. Many who profess Christ don’t seem to grow and produce solid spiritual fruit. Many don’t seem to care. They don’t seem to get above the level of lukewarm as far as spiritual things, though they are visibly excited about the world. What about these kinds of people in our church and in our homes? We are going to examine them tonight and see that false professors eventually fall away.

We want our churches filled. The great temptation is to minimize the need for fruit in a believer’s life so that we can keep our pews warm. But we make that mistake by sacrificing the power of the Gospel. My Bible says that the Gospel changes and transforms and is the power of God unto salvation. It takes out the heart of stone and puts in a tender heart of flesh, pliable and moldable by the Lord. Everyone who receives the Gospel is changed, is transformed. And we minimize the evidence and fruit in a person’s life at the peril of their own soul!

We are going to get our text in 2 Kings 22, but first turn over to Matthew 25:31. And I want you to imagine yourself at the Day of Judgment. Very soon it will be a reality for all of us. We read, “When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory: 32 And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats: 33 And he shall set the sheep [THE BELIEVERS] on his right hand, but the goats on the left. 34 Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world”.

Now stop right there, and I want you to think of something. So many times we leave this in theology—we leave this on a textbook page. But I want you to think about your family before the throne of God. I want you to think of every person in your family all there before the throne of God. Think of your children. Now how awful would that be, to get to the Throne of God, thinking that your children or your neighbors or your loved ones were saved, and them be cast aside? But how wonderful will it be in that day for those we love, to see them come with us into the Kingdom, and to hear those words that Jesus said, “Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” (Matthew 25:34).

But look at verse 40—this is what will be said to those who do not know Christ. “The King…” whose that? Jesus Christ. Verse 41, “Then shall he [THE KING] say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels”. With that in mind, turn back to 2 Kings 22. I want to contrast the amazing life of Josiah with the awful apostasy and Lukewarmness of Josiah’s children that were not believers, but actually apostates who fell away.

Josiah is the picture of the believer for all of us. His life gives us the picture of the normal Christian life. I want you to observe what a true believer looks like. And if you just have one believer in a society, the salt and the light that comes from that one believer is awesome. Just one person that is a tool of the Spirit of God can shed awesome light on this wicked world.

I. First I want us to see the Amazing Life of Josiah.

A. Josiah is Reigning at the age of 8 (2 Kings 22:1-7). What love he had because immediately we are told in 2 Kings 22:2, “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”. This is the testimony. We see this immediately written of Josiah. And this is what I want written about me in the books of Heaven. And every child God will have that written about them in the books of Heaven. Even the thief on the cross did that which was right his remaining moments on that day. And if you are a believer, it will be written about you in the books of Heaven, that you did that which was right in the sight of the Lord.

B. Josiah is Repenting at the age of 16. In 2 Chronicles 34:3, we learn “…in the eighth year of his reign, while he was yet young, he began to seek after the God of David his father”. It doesn’t say that Josiah “called on the name of the Lord”—I’m sure that he did that, but it says that “he began to seek after the God of David his father”. There was an outward fruit in his life that distinguished the new life from the old life.

C. By the age of 20, he is Removing the idols from the land. We learn this in 2 Chronicles 34:3b, “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”. There is a great reformation in the land.

1. Objection: Now remember one thing, because we need to shoot down some excuses that come to our hearts regarding professing Christians who do not bear fruit. We say, well they don’t know the Word that well, that’s why they live such ungodly lives, but they must still be Christians. I want to remind you that Josiah is not in possession of the Word of God. He didn’t have the New Testament, did he? He didn’t have the Prophets or the Psalms. What did he have? No, he didn’t even have the Pentateuch—it wasn’t found yet. All he had was the Holy Spirit of God in his heart, but he had distinguishable fruit in his life. And I’m telling you if you are a saved person, if you are a child of God, even if you’ve not been taught in the deep things of the Lord, there will be an immediate change in your life. And I can testify to this. And so can all of you if you’ve truly been born again. Before you know anything you’re telling everybody about this amazing thing that God has done in your life. You are confessing Jesus Christ as Lord to every one.

2. Illustration: I remember the night that I was saved. I went to my friend’s house. Several of my friends were there, and we had this tree house on the ground kind-of-a-thing. It was “the shack” where we all hung out. We had our alcohol stashed there. Our moms didn’t know about it. And I went over there and I said “guys, I can’t drink any more”. The next day at school, I remember two of my friends wanted to stop for a little bit of pot after school. I said “Guys, something happened last night, how can you go back to that?” Now I hadn’t even been to church yet. But I had God pulsating in my heart!

3. Scriptural Support: Romans 8:14 is clear, that “…as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God”. If you are a believer, like Josiah, you will be led by the Spirit of God even if you haven’t had your first discipleship lesson. You will be led by the Spirit of God. God enters into you and there is a massive difference. The difference is as great as chaos and order as we see from the picture of creation. The same picture is in the human heart.

Something amazing happens at the pinnacle of this national repentance led by Josiah. Much happens in this 26^th year of Josiah pf Josiah’s life. Remember he’s been reforming for six years, from the age of 20 through the age of 26. By the way, when I say “reforming” I do not mean ‘taking a corrupt thing and improving upon it’—I mean ‘returning to God’s standard’. He’s got the Spirit of God in his heart, and the Spirit is leading him to destroy all these idols! While he’s returning to God’s standard during these six years—all of this without the Bible—he decides to repair the Temple.

D. In Josiah’s 26^th year, he Repairs the Temple. Josiah’s taking a collection for the repairs. He’s got a group of builders working on this. And while they are repairing the Temple, Hilkiah discovers the book of the law underneath a pile of rocks.

E. So with the help of Hilkiah and Shaphan, we see that Josiah Recovers the Law.

Look at 2 Kings 22:8, “And Hilkiah the high priest said unto Shaphan the scribe, I have found the book of the law in the house of the LORD.” Now skip to verse 10, “And Shaphan the scribe shewed the king, saying, Hilkiah the priest hath delivered me a book”. And what did Shaphan do? “…Shaphan read it before the king.”

Shaphan took probably three or four hours to read the five books of Moses to Josiah.

Now I just want you to experience a little bit of what Josiah experienced that day. So you got your Pentateuch in your hand? Just imagine that you’ve just discovered this old scroll. And you hear these words written, and you’ve never heard them before. These words have never been uttered in your lifetime.

1. Genesis. Imagine as Shaphan read through Genesis about the Creation of the world—about the faith of Noah; and of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—then the life of Joseph. Imagine how he told of God’s people in slavery in Egypt, being delivered by Moses.

2. Exodus. And then imagine Shaphan reading to Josiah in Exodus. Turn over to Exodus 20:3-6. The words of Exodus 20 must have pierced the heart of Josiah as he thought of all the idolatry he had just put out of the land. Exodus 20 records the God’s Moral Law—He says, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me. 4 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: 5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; 6 And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments”.

3. Then he read of Leviticus...

4. …and Numbers and all the sacrifices. How long had it been since they had kept the feasts and the sacrifices and the Passover?

5. And then Shaphan turned to Deuteronomy.

a. Look at chapter 6:4-6, “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD: 5 And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. 6 And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: 7 And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children”. They hadn’t taught them diligently to their children.

b. Imagine as He listened to Shaphan reading Deuteronomy 19:9-13, “When thou art come into the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not learn to do after the abominations of those nations.” And yet they had learned all the abominations of the nations.

c. How about Deuteronomy 28:1-10, “And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe and to do all his commandments which I command thee this day, that the LORD thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth: 2 And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God. 3 Blessed shalt thou be in the city, and blessed shalt thou be in the field. 4 Blessed shall be the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy ground, and the fruit of thy cattle, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep. 5 Blessed shall be thy basket and thy store. 6 Blessed shalt thou be when thou comest in, and blessed shalt thou be when thou goest out. 7 The LORD shall cause thine enemies that rise up against thee to be smitten before thy face: they shall come out against thee one way, and flee before thee seven ways. 8 The LORD shall command the blessing upon thee in thy storehouses, and in all that thou settest thine hand unto; and he shall bless thee in the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee. 9 The LORD shall establish thee an holy people unto himself, as he hath sworn unto thee, if thou shalt keep the commandments of the LORD thy God, and walk in his ways. 10 And all people of the earth shall see that thou art called by the name of the LORD; and they shall be afraid of thee”.

But skip down to verses 15-32 of Deuteronomy 28. It is here that Josiah’s heart is pierced with sorrow: “But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command thee this day; that all these curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee: 16 Cursed shalt thou be in the city, and cursed shalt thou be in the field. 17 Cursed shall be thy basket and thy store. 18 Cursed shall be the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy land, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep. 19 Cursed shalt thou be when thou comest in, and cursed shalt thou be when thou goest out. 20 The LORD shall send upon thee cursing, vexation, and rebuke, in all that thou settest thine hand unto for to do, until thou be destroyed, and until thou perish quickly; because of the wickedness of thy doings, whereby thou hast forsaken me. 21 The LORD shall make the pestilence [PANDEMIC DISEASE] cleave unto thee, until he have consumed thee from off the land, whither thou goest to possess it. 22 The LORD shall smite thee with a consumption, and with a fever, and with an inflammation, and with an extreme burning, and with the sword, and with blasting, and with mildew; and they shall pursue thee until thou perish. 23 And thy heaven that is over thy head shall be brass, and the earth that is under thee shall be iron. 24 The LORD shall make the rain of thy land powder and dust: from heaven shall it come down upon thee, until thou be destroyed. 25 The LORD shall cause thee to be smitten before thine enemies: thou shalt go out one way against them, and flee seven ways before them: and shalt be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth. 26 And thy carcase shall be meat unto all fowls of the air, and unto the beasts of the earth, and no man shall fray them away. 27 The LORD will smite thee with the botch of Egypt, and with the emerods, and with the scab, and with the itch, whereof thou canst not be healed. 28 The LORD shall smite thee with madness, and blindness, and astonishment of heart:”. For sake of time look down at verse 32, “Thy sons and thy daughters shall be given unto another people, and thine eyes shall look, and fail with longing for them all the day long: and there shall be no might in thine hand.” And this all would most certainly take place. Twenty two and a half years after Josiah’s death. Zedekiah would be taken into Babylon. His eyes would be gouged out. And the people of Judah would be taken into this strange land. And every word of God that was written of them years and years before would come to pass exactly.

F. Now let’s see Josiah’s Response to the reading of these very passages of Scripture amidst the entire Pentateuch.

1. First, he is cut to heart. He agonizes. He feels the Word. Turn back to 2 Kings 22:11, “And it came to pass, when the king had heard the words of the book of the law, that he rent his clothes”.

2. He then makes a conclusion in verse 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.” Josiah sees the soon destruction of his nation.

3. He then consults Huldah the prophetess who “dwelt in Jerusalem in the college” (verse 14). Huldah gives them a terrifying message. 2 Kings 22:12-20 spells out the impending doom for the people. Regardless of the changes, Judah will destroyed. Verse 17, “Because they [the people] 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.” But Josiah would be safe—verse 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.”

Josiah shows the heart of a true child of God. He leads the people. He’s consumed with the Word of God. He knows doom is coming, but this makes little difference to his righteous heart. His heart is aflame for God to make things right! And that is the picture of every true child of God from Adam until the last person saved.

As you know after all of this, Josiah makes a covenant with the people. He celebrates the Passover with the people. He spends 13 more years with these people. And then he dies in battle at the age of 39.

II. Now that we’ve looked at the life of Josiah, I want you to see the Amazing Lukewarmness of the people that followed Josiah. In the Book of Revelation, Lukewarmness is a term that refers to an apostasy within the church. This is a group of professing Christians that is neither hot nor cold. This is a group within the professing church that God will not keep as part of the Body of Christ. John writes to a church that at least part is constituted by simple mere professors. It refers to a profession without a true relationship with Christ. And of course you already know that Christ says, ‘You are not part of my Body! In fact “I will spue thee out of my mouth”. That’s what you are as in the Body, you are the vomit. A false professor looks like they are part of the Body of Christ, but on the Day of Judgment, Christ cannot bear them any longer, and He vomits them from the Body. Though they seemed to be part of the Church of God, they were in reality in no way a part of His Body. A person may belong to a local church while on earth, but the wheat and the tares within the church will be divided when we stand before Christ.

I want you to see this in the people that followed Josiah.

What we are going to see is that though the people seemed to go along with following Josiah’s reforms, Josiah’s children led a rebellion in Israel that unraveled the his revival. You may be on fire for the Lord, but I’m telling you, while you still have influence over your children, you had better make sure that your children are serving God from their heart.

A. The first thing I want you to see is the People’s seeming Relationship with God. The people don’t seem lukewarm.

1. First look at the People’s Education! He gathers everyone up and reads the Law to them. The king educates them. Look at 2 Kings 23:1-2, “And the king sent, and they gathered unto him all the elders of Judah and of Jerusalem. 2 And the king went up into the house of the LORD, and 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 in their ears all the words of the book of the covenant which was found in the house of the LORD.” How many words of the book of the covenant did Josiah read? He read it ALL to them. These people had a great education in the Word of God. But we would all agree that that alone does not make anyone a believer. We all instruct our children in the word of God. Now that’s good, but it is NOT GOOD ENOUGH.

As Romans 2:13, “For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified.”

Jesus said in Matthew 7:21, “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.”

So the People had a good theological education, but that’s not enough.

2. Now look at the People’s Profession of faith. They made what we would call a “profession of faith” in the Lord. They committed themselves to live for the Lord and to give their lives to Him. 2 Kings 23:3, “And the king stood by a pillar, 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 their heart and all their soul, to perform the words of this covenant that were written in this book. And all the people stood [TOOK A STAND UPON] to the covenant.” To “stand to the covenant” means to be bound by it or to take a stand upon it. They made a promise before God that they would serve Him and not return to idols. So these people made a profession of faith and gave their lives to the Lord.

3. Thirdly, the People even had a great Enthusiasm in following Josiah. They had a real team spirit in following him. He seemed to have conviction.

a. They made the final purge the High places. 2 Kings 23:4-20 tell us how Josiah defiled the former places of worship with the bones of false prophets who had died.

b. They purged the Temple. Temple was filled with idols. So they got rid of that. Josiah “brake down the houses of the sodomites” (verse 7) that was next to the Temple.

c. He “defiled…the valley of the children of Hinnom, that no man might make his son or his daughter to pass through the fire to Molech” (verse 10).

d. He went so far as to Execute the false priests. Look at verse 20, “And he slew all the priests of the high places that were there upon the altars, and burned men’s bones upon them, and returned to Jerusalem.” The people went along with all of this.

4. Fourthly, Look at the People’s Consecration.

a. They kept the Celebration of the Passover. 2 Kings 23:21-23, “And the king commanded all the people, saying, Keep the passover unto the LORD your God, as it is written in the book of this covenant. 22 Surely there was not holden 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; 23 But in the eighteenth year of king Josiah, wherein this passover was holden to the LORD in Jerusalem”.

b. They imprisoned or banished Compromisers. 2 Kings 23:24, “Moreover the workers with familiar spirits, and the wizards, and the images, and the idols, and all the abominations that were spied in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, did Josiah put away, that he might perform the words of the law which were written in the book that Hilkiah the priest found in the house of the LORD.”

But none of this “does a Christian make”. You can have a great education in the Word of God, you can profess to know and serve Christ. You can have enthusiasm for the activities of the church; you can cheer on the pastor; you can even enjoy being with the nice people at church. You can even make decision after decision. That’s not enough to prove that you are a believer. You see the people of Josiah’s day had all of that, but they rejected God! They apostasized. We don’t like to talk about this. The Bible has a name for those who profess Christ, but turn back to the world: apostates. It’s an ugly word, but we must look into it. We must talk about this. We cannot ignore this in the professing church.

B. So as we close I want you to see is the People’s Rejection of God.

1. They received a strong warning. Look at verse 26. They knew that “the LORD turned not from the fierceness of his great wrath, wherewith his anger was kindled against Judah, because of all the provocations that Manasseh had provoked him withal. 27 And the LORD said, I will remove Judah also out of my sight, as I have removed Israel, and will cast off this city Jerusalem which I have chosen, and the house of which I said, My name shall be there.”

2. But upon Josiah’s death, they went back to the world. Josiah went to battle against the King of Egypt—Pharoah Necho. He died in battle, and verse 30 records, “And his servants carried him in a chariot dead from Megiddo, and brought him to Jerusalem, and buried him in his own sepulchre. And the people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of Josiah, and anointed him, and made him king in his father’s stead.” Who was Jehoahaz? The “son of Josiah”.

a. A revealing choice. And I want to show you the tragedy of Josiah’s children. I want you to see the tragedy of those people who said they followed Josiah. They followed the Lord not because they were born again, but because Josiah was a strong and popular leader. They did not follow the Lord with their heart. We see this because the people made Jehoahaz “king in his father’s stead.”

b. A line of rebellious kings.

· What do we know about Jehoahaz? Verse 32 says, “And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his fathers had done.”

· His reign is only three months long because Pharoah Necho King of Egypt takes Jehoahaz to Egypt and installs Josiah’s other evil son, Eliakim, as king. Turn over to 2 Chronicles 36:5. His name is changed to Jehoiakim. We read in 2 Chronicles 36:5, “Jehoiakim was twenty and five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem: and he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD his God.”

Within the next three kings spanning only 22 years and 6 months, Judah would be carried away to Babylon for their evil. During the 22 and a half years after the death of Josiah, the people would completely return to all their idolatries!

Johoahaz, son of Josiah: 3 months

Jehoiakim, son of Josiah (Eliakim): 11 years

Jehoiachin, grandson of Josiah (2 Kings 24:8): 3 months

Zedekiah (2 Kings 24:18): 11 years

Conclusion: The people had a good theological education. They had a profession of faith in the Lord. They had an enthusiasm for Josiah’s reforms and even seemed to gladly take part in religious activities. But they lacked one thing. They lacked a true heart for the Lord. When Josiah died, they chose wicked king after wicked king!

Josiah had a wonderful Revival and a wonderful Legacy. But Josiah’s children turned away from it all! And if I could plead with you tonight, I would say, ‘Now is the time to teach your children’. You had better make sure your children are right with God while they are in your care. No matter how on fire for God you are, don’t let the same tragedy happen to your children that befell Josiah’s. Make certain they are following God fervently and radically today!!

And perhaps you have unbelieving adult children outside of the home. Remember this: God is sovereign. God does the saving, you do not. God will use the means of prayer and of the precious Word of God to convert your child’s soul.

Finally, what about you? Is there heart evidence and fruit in your life that you are a true believer? It must go beyond education and a simple profession of faith. It’s not even enough to have enthusiasm for the activities of the church. Are you led by the Spirit of God? Are you consumed with the holiness of God? Do you find your highest pleasure in God and your highest hatred against sin? What a tragedy it would be to come to Judgment Day unprepared and unconverted.