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2 Kings Chapter
Twenty-two
2 Kings 22
Chapter Contents
Josiah's good reign
His care for repairing the temple
The book of the law found. (1-10) Josiah consults Huldah the prophetess.
(11-20)
Commentary on 2 Kings 22:1-10
(Read 2 Kings 22:1-10)
The different event of Josiah's early succession from
that of Manasseh
must be ascribed to the distinguishing grace of God; yet
probably the persons that trained him up were instruments in producing this
difference. His character was most excellent. Had the people joined in the
reformation as heartily as he persevered in it
blessed effects would have
followed. But they were wicked
and had become fools in idolatry. We do not
obtain full knowledge of the state of Judah from the historical records
unless
we refer to the writings of the prophets who lived at the time. In repairing
the temple
the book of the law was found
and brought to the king. It seems
this book of the law was lost and missing; carelessly mislaid and neglected
as
some throw their Bibles into corners
or maliciously concealed by some of the
idolaters. God's care of the Bible plainly shows his interest in it. Whether
this was the only copy in being or not
the things contained in it were new
both to the king and to the high priest. No summaries
extracts
or collections
out of the Bible
can convey and preserve the knowledge of God and his will
like the Bible itself. It was no marvel that the people were so corrupt
when
the book of the law was so scarce; they that corrupted them
no doubt
used
arts to get that book out of their hands. The abundance of Bibles we possess
aggravates our national sins; for what greater contempt of God can we show
than to refuse to read his word when put into our hands
or
reading it
not to
believe and obey it? By the holy law is the knowledge of sin
and by the
blessed gospel is the knowledge of salvation. When the former is understood in
its strictness and excellence
the sinner begins to inquire
What must I do to
be saved? And the ministers of the gospel point out to him Jesus Christ
as the
end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.
Commentary on 2 Kings 22:11-20
(Read 2 Kings 22:11-20)
The book of the law is read before the king. Those best
honour their Bibles
who study them; daily feed on that bread
and walk by that
light. Convictions of sin and wrath should put us upon this inquiry
What shall
we do to be saved? Also
what we may expect
and must provide for. Those who
are truly apprehensive of the weight of God's wrath
cannot but be very anxious
how they may be saved. Huldah let Josiah know what judgments God had in store
for Judah and Jerusalem. The generality of the people were hardened
and their
hearts unhumbled
but Josiah's heart was tender. This is tenderness of heart
and thus he humbled himself before the Lord. Those who most fear God's wrath
are least likely to feel it. Though Josiah was mortally wounded in battle
yet
he died in peace with God
and went to glory. Whatever such persons suffer or witness
they are gathered to the grave in peace
and shall enter into the rest which
remaineth for the people of God.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on 2 Kings》
2 Kings 22
Verse 3
[3] And
it came to pass in the eighteenth year of king Josiah
that the king sent
Shaphan the son of Azaliah
the son of Meshullam
the scribe
to the house of
the LORD
saying
The scribe —
The secretary of state.
Verse 8
[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. And Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan
and he read it.
The book —
That original book of the law of the Lord
given or written by the hand of
Moses
as it is expressed
2 Chronicles 34:14
which by God's command was
put beside the ark
Deuteronomy 31:26
and probably taken from
thence and hid
by the care of some godly priest
when some of the idolatrous
kings of Judah persecuted the true religion
and defaced the temple
and (which
the Jewish writers affirm) burnt all the copies of God's law which they could
find. It was now found among the rubbish
or in some secret place.
Verse 11
[11] And
it came to pass
when the king had heard the words of the book of the law
that
he rent his clothes.
The words —
The dreadful comminations against them for the sins still reigning among the
people. If Josiah had seen and read it before
which seems more probable
yet
the great reverence which he justly bare to the original book
and the strange
and remarkable
and seasonable finding of it
had awakened and quickened him to
a more serious and diligent consideration of all the passages contained in it.
And what a providence was this
that it was still preserved! Yea
what a
providence
that the whole book of God is preserved to us. If the holy
scriptures had not been of God
they had not been in being at this day. God's
care of the bible
is a plain proof of his interest in it. It was a great
instance of God's favour
that the book of the law was thus seasonably brought
to light
to direct and quicken that blessed reformation
which Joash had
begun. And it is observable
they were about a good work
repairing the temple
when it was found. They that do their duty according to their knowledge
shall
have their knowledge increased.
Verse 13
[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.
Enquire —
What we shall do to appease his wrath
and whether the curses here threatened
must come upon us without remedy
or whether there be hope in Israel concerning
the prevention of them.
Verse 14
[14] So Hilkiah the priest
and Ahikam
and Achbor
and Shaphan
and Asahiah
went unto Huldah the prophetess
the wife of Shallum the son of Tikvah
the son
of Harhas
keeper of the wardrobe; (now she dwelt in Jerusalem in the college;)
and they communed with her.
Huldah —
The king's earnest affection required great haste; and she was in Jerusalem
which is therefore noted in the following part of the verse
when Jeremiah
might at this time be at Anathoth
or in some more remote part of the kingdom;
and the like may be said of Zephaniah
who also might not be a prophet at this
time
though he was afterward
in the days of Josiah.
College —
Where the sons of the prophets
or others
who devoted themselves to the study
of God's word
used to meet and discourse of the things of God
and receive the
instructions of their teachers.
Verse 15
[15] And
she said unto them
Thus saith the LORD God of Israel
Tell the man that sent
you to me
The man —
She uses no compliments.
Tell the man that sent you — Even kings
though gods to us
are men to God
and shall be so dealt
with: for with him there is no respect of persons.
Verse 17
[17]
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 kindled against this place
and shall not be quenched.
The works —
Gods made with hands.
Verse 19
[19]
Because thine heart was tender
and thou hast humbled thyself before the LORD
when thou heardest what I spake against this place
and against the inhabitants
thereof
that they should become a desolation and a curse
and hast rent thy
clothes
and wept before me; I also have heard thee
saith the LORD.
Tender — He
trembled at God's word. He was grieved for the dishonour done to God by the
sins of his people. He was afraid of the judgments of God
which he saw coming
on Jerusalem. This is tenderness of heart.
Verse 20
[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. And they brought the king word again.
In peace —
That is
in a time of public peace: for otherwise he died in battle. Besides
he died in peace with God
and was by death translated to everlasting peace.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on 2 Kings》
22 Chapter 22
Verses 1-20
Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign.
A monarch of rare virtue
and a God of retributive justice
I. A monarch of
rare virtue. Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign.” In this
monarch we discover four distinguished merits.
1. Religiousness of action. “He did that which was right in the sight
of the Lord.” We discover in Josiah--
2. Docility of mind. “It came to pass when the king had heard the
words of the book of the law
that he rent his clothes.” In Josiah we see--
3. Tenderness of heart. See how the discovery of the book affected
him. “He rent his clothes.”
4. Actualisation of conviction. When this discovered document came
under Josiah’s attention
and its import was realised
he was seized with a
conviction that he
his fathers
and his people
had disregarded
and even
outraged
the written precepts of heaven.
II. A God of
retributive justice. Such a God the prophetess here reveals. “Thus saith the
Lord God of Israel
Tell 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 words of the book which the king of Judah hath read.” The
government over us
and to which we are bound with chains stronger than
adamant
is retributive
it never allows evil to go unpunished. It links in
indissoluble bonds sufferings to sin. Sorrows follow sin by a law as immutable
and resistless as the waves follow the moon. “Whatsoever a man soweth that
shall he also reap.” In this retribution
Josiah and the Book of the Law
This lesson gives us the account of a remarkable revival of
religion which took place something over six hundred years before the Christian
era
under the good reign of the boy-king Josiah. The history of the progress
of the kingdom of God on earth is the history of revivals. Like the ebb and flow of the tides
has his kingdom apparently advanced and receded
but with this difference
that
each spiritual flood-tide has marked a substantial advance upon any previous
flood-tide. Every revival has left the Church mightier than it ever was before
and has been a prophecy to the world of the time when “the earth shall be full
of the knowledge of the Lord
as the waters cover the sea.” In matters of
religion it had been a period of ebb-tide for many years before our lesson
opens.
I. We learn that
the agency God uses in a revival of religion is the agency of men
and often of
a single man. Some one torch must first be kindled. Some one soul must be
quickened. In some one closet the voice of prevailing prayer must be heard.
There was but one voice crying in the wilderness
but it inaugurated the first
Christian revival. There was but one Jonathan Edwards in America
and one John
Wesley in England
when the great revivals in which they were instrumental
began; but thousands were warmed at their fires
and lighted by their torches.
Nor is it always a great man intellectually
or one who wields a wide
influence
whom God uses to inaugurate the revival: it may be some praying
mother
some unknown Christian
some uninfluential brother. As the majestic
river rolls onward to the sea
we do not think much of its source
but only of
the broad meadows which it waters
and the whirring factories which it has set
in motion
and the bustling cities to which it bears the white wings of
commerce; but
after all
away back in the hills is a little rivulet which is
its source
and back of the rivulet perhaps a hidden spring on the
mountain-side
which no eye has ever seen. Back of every revival is some hidden
spring which has made it possible; and that spring
as likely as not
is in the
chamber of some very humble Christian. That God uses such instrumentalities
our lesson plainly tells us
for Josiah was but a boy of sixteen when this
revival began. He might well have objected that he was too young and
inexperienced to be the leader in such a reformation. Very likely he had many
struggles and misgivings which are not recorded
but it was God’s way to revive
his work under the leadership of a boy. What
now
let us ask
are the
characteristics of a true revival? We must take the parallel account of this
revival which is given in Second Chronicles
as well as the one given in Kings
into consideration.
1. Taking the two stories together
we learn that one remarkable
characteristic was the destruction of idolatry. When the king was twenty years
old
four years after he “began to seek after God
” we read that “he began to
purge Judah and Jerusalem from the high places
and the groves
and the carved
images
and the molten images.” Idols of all descriptions were cut down and
ground to dust
and strewn upon the graves of those who had sacrificed to them.
This work of destruction must be well done before the work of construction can
be begun. So
very often
is it in the Church and the individual heart
before
the reviving work of the Holy Spirit can be accomplished. There are false gods
which must be deposed; there are sins of long standing
with deep roots and
wide-spreading branches
which must be cut down. There we have a suggestion of
the reason why in many a heart and many a church the revival work is only
partial and incomplete. The uglier idols are cut down
the grosser sins are
abandoned
nevertheless there is some high place especially dear which is not
removed--nevertheless there is a pet sin of envy
jealousy or ill-will
or
self-indulgence
which is spared; and because no thorough work of reform is
accomplished
because the account must needs be qualified by a “nevertheless
”
the soul remains unsaved
the revival fails to come.
2. Another characteristic of this ancient revival and of every true
revival was liberality on the part of the people. There was evidently a large
sum of silver collected for the repair of the temple
for large repairs were
needed. True liberality is both a cause and an effect of a true revival. The
beginning of this century was a time of dearth and languishing in the churches.
Infidelity was rampant
and threatened to sweep everything before it. But
at
the same time
the cause of missions
home and foreign
began to assume
proportions they had never known before; the purse-strings of Christian people were
loosened; a revival of charity and money-giving spread over the land
and
revivals of religion
pure and undefiled
followed in quick and glorious
succession. “Is his purse converted?” was frequently a question of one of John
Wesley’s co-labourers when he heard of a rich man who had become a Christian.
It is a question which might be appropriately asked in every revival
season--“Have the purses been converted?”
3. Another characteristic of this ancient revival in Judah seems to
have been the honesty and faithfulness of the people
which extended even to
the small details of life. Money was given
we are told
to the carpenters and
builders and masons; “howbeit there was no reckoning made with them of the
money that was put into their hand
because they dealt faithfully.” That is the
legitimate effect
always and everywhere
of a revival of religion; and every
revival is spurious that does not tend to produce this result. The merchant
feels it as he measures every yard of cloth
and weighs every pound of sugar.
The carpenter feels its influence as he drives his plane
the housewife as she
wields her broom
the banker as he counts his money
the schoolboy as he
studies his lesson. “Is such and such a man a Christian?”--“I don’t know; go
home and ask his wife
” used to be the answer of a famous religious teacher.
4. Another characteristic of this old revival about which we are
studying to-day was honour for the
house of God. Every true revival has just this characteristic--reverence
honour for the house of God.
5. Once more: the most striking characteristic of this revival of
Josiah’s reign was honour for the word of God. It hardly seems possible that
the “Book of the Law” could have been utterly lost for years
and that the very
remembrance of it should have become a dim tradition. Then the king gathers
together all the inhabitants of Jerusalem
and reads in their ears all the
words which have so awakened him. He renews his covenant with God; he carries
out more completely the work of reformation which he had begun
destroying
every idol
and restoring the worship of the true God in every part of his
domain. It was a wonderful revival; and no characteristic is so striking as the
king’s reverence for
and ready obedience to
the word of God. But King Josiah
is not the only one who has lost the word of God
not the only one from whom it
is buried out of sight
under the dust of years. Though copies of the law are
dropping from the printing press by the million every year
though it lies in
all our houses and is read in all our churches
it is a lost book to-day to
thousands
as it was in Josiah’s time
Our very familiarity with it hides it
from our eyes as
effectually as the rubbish of the temple hid it from the Jews; and only a
powerful revival of religion can bring it from its hiding-place
and put it in
our hands and in our hearts. (Monday Club Sermons.)
Josiah’s reformation
Josiah was only twenty years of age when he set about a national
reformation of religion as radical and as complete as anything that Martin Luther
or John Knox themselves ever undertook. But with this immense difference. Both
Luther and Knox had the whole Word of God in their hands both to inspire them
and to guide them and to sustain them and to support ‘them in their tremendous
task. But Josiah had not one single book or chapter or verse even of the Word
of God in his heathen day. The five Books of Moses were as completely lost out
of the whole land long before Josiah’s day as much so as if Moses had never
lifted a pen. And thus it was that Josiah’s reformation had a creativeness
about it: an
originality
an enterprise
and a boldness about it
such that in all these
respects it has completely eclipsed all subsequent reformations and
revivals--the greatest and the best. The truth is
the whole of that immense
movement that resulted in the religious regeneration of Jerusalem and Judah in
Josiah day
it all sprang originally and immediately out of nothing else but
Josiah’s extraordinary tenderness of heart. The Light that lighteth every man
that cometh into the world shone with extraordinary clearness in Josiah’s
tender heart and open mind. And Josiah walked in that light and obeyed it
till
it became within him an overmastering sense of Divine duty and an irresistible
direction and drawing of the Divine hand. And till he performed a work for God
and for Israel second to no work that has ever been performed under the
greatest and the best of the prophets and kings of Israel combined. It is a
very noble spectacle. (Alex. Whyte
D. D.)
Verses 1-20
Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign.
A monarch of rare virtue
and a God of retributive justice
I. A monarch of
rare virtue. Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign.” In this
monarch we discover four distinguished merits.
1. Religiousness of action. “He did that which was right in the sight
of the Lord.” We discover in Josiah--
2. Docility of mind. “It came to pass when the king had heard the words
of the book of the law
that he rent his clothes.” In Josiah we see--
3. Tenderness of heart. See how the discovery of the book affected
him. “He rent his clothes.”
4. Actualisation of conviction. When this discovered document came
under Josiah’s attention
and its import was realised
he was seized with a
conviction that he
his fathers
and his people
had disregarded
and even
outraged
the written precepts of heaven.
II. A God of
retributive justice. Such a God the prophetess here reveals. “Thus saith the
Lord God of Israel
Tell 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 words of the book which the king of Judah hath read.” The
government over us
and to which we are bound with chains stronger than
adamant
is retributive
it never allows evil to go unpunished. It links in
indissoluble bonds sufferings to sin. Sorrows follow sin by a law as immutable
and resistless as the waves follow the moon. “Whatsoever a man soweth that
shall he also reap.” In this retribution
Josiah and the Book of the Law
This lesson gives us the account of a remarkable revival of
religion which took place something over six hundred years before the Christian
era
under the good reign of the boy-king Josiah. The history of the progress
of the kingdom of God on earth is the history of revivals. Like the ebb and flow of the tides
has his kingdom apparently advanced and receded
but with this difference
that
each spiritual flood-tide has marked a substantial advance upon any previous
flood-tide. Every revival has left the Church mightier than it ever was before
and has been a prophecy to the world of the time when “the earth shall be full
of the knowledge of the Lord
as the waters cover the sea.” In matters of
religion it had been a period of ebb-tide for many years before our lesson
opens.
I. We learn that
the agency God uses in a revival of religion is the agency of men
and often of
a single man. Some one torch must first be kindled. Some one soul must be
quickened. In some one closet the voice of prevailing prayer must be heard.
There was but one voice crying in the wilderness
but it inaugurated the first
Christian revival. There was but one Jonathan Edwards in America
and one John
Wesley in England
when the great revivals in which they were instrumental
began; but thousands were warmed at their fires
and lighted by their torches.
Nor is it always a great man intellectually
or one who wields a wide
influence
whom God uses to inaugurate the revival: it may be some praying
mother
some unknown Christian
some uninfluential brother. As the majestic
river rolls onward to the sea
we do not think much of its source
but only of
the broad meadows which it waters
and the whirring factories which it has set
in motion
and the bustling cities to which it bears the white wings of
commerce; but
after all
away back in the hills is a little rivulet which is
its source
and back of the rivulet perhaps a hidden spring on the
mountain-side
which no eye has ever seen. Back of every revival is some hidden
spring which has made it possible; and that spring
as likely as not
is in the
chamber of some very humble Christian. That God uses such instrumentalities
our lesson plainly tells us
for Josiah was but a boy of sixteen when this
revival began. He might well have objected that he was too young and
inexperienced to be the leader in such a reformation. Very likely he had many
struggles and misgivings which are not recorded
but it was God’s way to revive
his work under the leadership of a boy. What
now
let us ask
are the
characteristics of a true revival? We must take the parallel account of this
revival which is given in Second Chronicles
as well as the one given in Kings
into consideration.
1. Taking the two stories together
we learn that one remarkable
characteristic was the destruction of idolatry. When the king was twenty years
old
four years after he “began to seek after God
” we read that “he began to
purge Judah and Jerusalem from the high places
and the groves
and the carved
images
and the molten images.” Idols of all descriptions were cut down and
ground to dust
and strewn upon the graves of those who had sacrificed to them.
This work of destruction must be well done before the work of construction can
be begun. So
very often
is it in the Church and the individual heart
before
the reviving work of the Holy Spirit can be accomplished. There are false gods
which must be deposed; there are sins of long standing
with deep roots and
wide-spreading branches
which must be cut down. There we have a suggestion of
the reason why in many a heart and many a church the revival work is only
partial and incomplete. The uglier idols are cut down
the grosser sins are
abandoned
nevertheless there is some high place especially dear which is not
removed--nevertheless there is a pet sin of envy
jealousy or ill-will
or
self-indulgence
which is spared; and because no thorough work of reform is
accomplished
because the account must needs be qualified by a “nevertheless
”
the soul remains unsaved
the revival fails to come.
2. Another characteristic of this ancient revival and of every true
revival was liberality on the part of the people. There was evidently a large
sum of silver collected for the repair of the temple
for large repairs were
needed. True liberality is both a cause and an effect of a true revival. The
beginning of this century was a time of dearth and languishing in the churches.
Infidelity was rampant
and threatened to sweep everything before it. But
at
the same time
the cause of missions
home and foreign
began to assume
proportions they had never known before; the purse-strings of Christian people
were loosened; a revival of charity and money-giving spread over the land
and
revivals of religion
pure and undefiled
followed in quick and glorious
succession. “Is his purse converted?” was frequently a question of one of John
Wesley’s co-labourers when he heard of a rich man who had become a Christian.
It is a question which might be appropriately asked in every revival
season--“Have the purses been converted?”
3. Another characteristic of this ancient revival in Judah seems to
have been the honesty and faithfulness of the people
which extended even to
the small details of life. Money was given
we are told
to the carpenters and
builders and masons; “howbeit there was no reckoning made with them of the
money that was put into their hand
because they dealt faithfully.” That is the
legitimate effect
always and everywhere
of a revival of religion; and every
revival is spurious that does not tend to produce this result. The merchant
feels it as he measures every yard of cloth
and weighs every pound of sugar.
The carpenter feels its influence as he drives his plane
the housewife as she
wields her broom
the banker as he counts his money
the schoolboy as he
studies his lesson. “Is such and such a man a Christian?”--“I don’t know; go
home and ask his wife
” used to be the answer of a famous religious teacher.
4. Another characteristic of this old revival about which we are
studying to-day was honour for the
house of God. Every true revival has just this characteristic--reverence
honour for the house of God.
5. Once more: the most striking characteristic of this revival of
Josiah’s reign was honour for the word of God. It hardly seems possible that
the “Book of the Law” could have been utterly lost for years
and that the very
remembrance of it should have become a dim tradition. Then the king gathers
together all the inhabitants of Jerusalem
and reads in their ears all the
words which have so awakened him. He renews his covenant with God; he carries
out more completely the work of reformation which he had begun
destroying
every idol
and restoring the worship of the true God in every part of his
domain. It was a wonderful revival; and no characteristic is so striking as the
king’s reverence for
and ready obedience to
the word of God. But King Josiah
is not the only one who has lost the word of God
not the only one from whom it
is buried out of sight
under the dust of years. Though copies of the law are
dropping from the printing press by the million every year
though it lies in
all our houses and is read in all our churches
it is a lost book to-day to
thousands
as it was in Josiah’s time
Our very familiarity with it hides it
from our eyes as
effectually as the rubbish of the temple hid it from the Jews; and only a
powerful revival of religion can bring it from its hiding-place
and put it in
our hands and in our hearts. (Monday Club Sermons.)
Josiah’s reformation
Josiah was only twenty years of age when he set about a national
reformation of religion as radical and as complete as anything that Martin
Luther or John Knox themselves ever undertook. But with this immense difference.
Both Luther and Knox had the whole Word of God in their hands both to inspire
them and to guide them and to sustain them and to support ‘them in their
tremendous task. But Josiah had not one single book or chapter or verse even of
the Word of God in his heathen day. The five Books of Moses were as completely
lost out of the whole land long before Josiah’s day as much so as if Moses had
never lifted a pen. And thus it was that Josiah’s reformation had a
creativeness about it:
an originality
an enterprise
and a boldness about it
such that in all these
respects it has completely eclipsed all subsequent reformations and
revivals--the greatest and the best. The truth is
the whole of that immense
movement that resulted in the religious regeneration of Jerusalem and Judah in
Josiah day
it all sprang originally and immediately out of nothing else but
Josiah’s extraordinary tenderness of heart. The Light that lighteth every man
that cometh into the world shone with extraordinary clearness in Josiah’s tender
heart and open mind. And Josiah walked in that light and obeyed it
till it
became within him an overmastering sense of Divine duty and an irresistible
direction and drawing of the Divine hand. And till he performed a work for God
and for Israel second to no work that has ever been performed under the
greatest and the best of the prophets and kings of Israel combined. It is a
very noble spectacle. (Alex. Whyte
D. D.)
Verse 2
And he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord.
Josiah an example for young men
Of the young king
whose piety is thus described
it is also said
in another place (2 Kings 23:25)
“And like unto him
was there no king
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.
I. The piety of
Josiah as illustrative of the power of a good example. “He walked in all the
ways of David his father.” Few influences are more powerful than that of
example. The child imitates his parent; the schoolboy his classmate; the youth
his playfellows; and so on through every stage of life. Note in what recorded
actions of Josiah there were marks of an imitation of David’s example.
1. The first of these in order of time was his attachment to God’s
house
and his devotion to God’s service.
2. His love to the. Word of God. Turn to the narrative in 2 Chronicles 34:14-21. David said of
the man who is blessed
that “his delight is in the law of the Lord.” There is
no book more valuable to the young
3. His reverence for godly men (2 Kings 23:15-18). We know enough of
David’s life to recognise in this respect for a man of God an imitation of his
example. The servants are to be revered; to be “esteemed very highly for their
works’ sake.” Goodness is always worthy of regard; and he who does not respect
it tells us that he has no goodness in himself to be respected.
II. The piety of
Josiah as illustrative of the strict integrity of godliness. “He turned not
aside to the right hand
nor to the left. The man of the world may turn his
creed and shape his course according to the fashion of the varying hour”; but
not the Christian. He must bear in mind the words of wisdom: “Let thine eyes
look right on
and let thine eyelids look straight before thee.”
1. Josiah was not influenced by the force of ancient custom
when
that custom ran counter to the course pointed out by conscience.
2. He was not influenced by any feeling of false shame. When the book
of the law was found and read before him
he rent his clothes
feeling that he
was a sinner.
III. The piety of
Josiah illustrates the course of life that ensures Divine approval. “He did
that which was right in the sight of the Lord.” It is comparatively easy to
pursue a course that seems right to ourselves
or that may secure the applause
of the world. It is a widely different matter so to live as to ensure the
approval and commendation of God.
1. By far the greater part of men seem to live for self. They have no
care or consideration for others. Selfishness is the vilest principle that ever
spread in this world.
2. Others care most about the approval of the world. These are
selfish coo. It is because that applause is gratifying to their selfish vanity.
The man who would lick the dust to secure the favour of a fellow-mortal would
sacrifice his dearest friend to
gain.
3. They only are godlike who do and love that which is holy and true;
who live not for themselves
but for others and for God. Application--Have an
object in life! Live! Do not be content with mere existence. Remember
there is
but one unfailing condition of true greatness and that is goodness. (Frederic
Walstaff.)
Example for Royalty
There is at the top of the Queen’s staircase in Windsor Castle a
statue from the studio of Baron Triqueti
of Edward VI. marking with his
sceptre a passage in the Bible
which he holds in his left hand
and upon which
he earnestly looks. The passage is that concerning Josiah: “Josiah was eight
years old when he began to reign
and he reigned thirty and one years in
Jerusalem. 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.” The statue was erected by the will of the late prince
who
intended it to convey to his son the Divine principles by which the future
governor of England should mould his life and reign on the throne of Great
Britain. (T. Hughes.)
Traits of youthful religion
1. Josiah began to reign when he was eight years old
and he reigned
thirty and one years in Jerusalem. He ascended the throne when vice had taken
deep root in the people
and national faults had become stereotyped in the
Jewish character. His character and his conduct are exactly those which
judging from reason or historical experience
we should expect from the
freshness and energy of a religious boy. That character is thus briefly summed
up by Huldah the prophetess: His heart was tender
his humility was great
he
had given a quick and childlike credit to God’s threats against the sins of the
people
and had yielded a ready sympathy with penitential acts for sins in
which he had taken no part
for under God’s threats he had shed tears
and rent
his garments and done his utmost to avert Divine anger. The acts which
illustrate this character are seven in number
and inasmuch as they have a
natural coherence and agreement with each other
I will sum them up. His first
work was to repair the temple
his second to read attentively the newly
discovered Scriptures
till alarmed at the threats against sin
he
thirdly
abased himself openly. He then commanded the destruction of the idols and
priests of Baal
and the professed profligates of the land. He
fifthly
ordered the public reading of the Scriptures
he brought out to public notice
the remains of God’s saints
and lastly
proclaimed a public celebration of the
Passover. Now these are just the acts of a fresh and rumple mind
and while
many of them are the features of the early days of religion
which we would
fain frequently copy
they are at the same time marks of the earlier stages of
religion
and cannot be expected to exist in its later day. But while this is
the case with regard to the individual character
these will be signs of the
early days of a great religious revival
and will speak as much of the zeal of
the social body as they do of the individual.
2. To reduce these reflections to some practical bearing
the
following character is not uncommon amongst us. A child
a boy
a youth at
home
at school
or the university is under the influence of religious
principles; he studies attentively the Scriptures of God as they are presented
to him through the received translations and interpretations of his day; he
follows with earnestness and alacrity a pathway which he strikes out himself in
which he has received his impetus from the wonderful coincidences of prophecy
or the theological questions raised on the subject of faith and works; he is
startled by the mention of the Judgment
and is so keenly sensitive to the
subject
that the sublime awfulness of a thunderstorm
or the congregational
singing of a hymn about the “day of wonders” will awaken the most sensible
alarm in his mind
doter him from a fault
or drive him to an act of devotion
and holiness; he will be so anxious lest he should be guilty of mixing too
indiscriminately with the wicked and those that know not God that he will be
inclined to draw far too rigidly the limits between good and evil
and will be
inclined to decide on certain shibboleths of the world and the worldly minded
which will neither stand the tests of reason
scripture
or experience. Certain
modes of amusement will be rapidly denounced as sinful which are merely made so
by the unguarded or ungracious mind of him who uses them; and certain places
and people are placed under bar and ban
which have in them no essential evil
whatever. In proportion as the mind of such a youth is fresh in his religious
career
he will be painfully conscious of the weight of a committed sin
and
will find the flow of penitential tears spontaneous and natural Such will be
the features of youthful religion
and such wore the features of the religion
of Josiah. There are points in the earlier religion of the child which are ever
to be kept in view through after life; lovely echoes of the sweet voice
associated with the first can of God still sounding round us; as fresh water
drops sprinkled with the kindly hand over the dim and dusty picture of the
past; dreams of fresh and happy childhood rousing us to renewed vigour when we
wake to the daily strife of life.
Early piety
King Josiah
it is said
at eight years feared the Lord. Polycarp
martyred at the age of ninety-five
declared that he had served God eighty-six
years
showing that he was converted at nine years. It is commonly held that
Jeremiah and John the Baptist
who are spoken of in Scripture as sanctified
from their birth
were early children of grace. Coming down to more modern
times it is easy to name many eminent servants of God who began to serve him in
childhood
as Baxter
for instance
who said he did not remember the time when
he did not love God and all that was good. Matthew Henry was converted before
eleven. Mrs. Isabel Graham at ten. President Edwards probably at seven. Dr.
Watts at nine. Bishop Hall and Robert Hall at eleven or twelve. (H. C. Fish)
Verses 8-20
Verse 8
I have found the book of the law in the house of the Lord.
The finding of the book
Following two of the most notoriously wicked rulers
Josiah
the
boy king of Judah
was a remarkable instance of independence of character and
the differentiating influence of the grace of God. His individuality made a deep
and lasting impress upon the history of the nation. One of the chief tasks he
set himself was the repair of the temple--not done since the time of Joash
two
hundred and fifty years before. It was during the progress of this work that
the Book of the
Law was discovered
a circumstance which was so powerfully to affect the action
of the king and the future of his people.
I. The finding of
the book constituted in itself a literary resurrection of the most remarkable
description. There has been no lack of dogmatic opinions as to what the book
was which was thus found. In the passages referred to above it is simply styled
“a book” and “the book of the Law of the Lord given by Moses”; language
perfectly consistent with the theory that it was the survivor of several
it
may be many
previously existing copies but one doughty champion of the
Reformation does not hesitate to identify it with the copy of the law that was
preserved in the Ark of the Covenant
and others
as
for instance
the
Fathers
and Wellhausen and his Scottish disciple
Robertson Smith
hold that
it was none other than the Book of Deuteronomy. How significant the
circumstances of this discovery! Are we to pronounce it a “happy accident”? or
to refer it to some “Intelligent Cause”? We can recall similar incidents in the
history of non-religious or (so-called) profane literature. The Nicomachean
Ethics are said to have lain in the cellars of Scepsis
the king of Pergamos
for nearly two centuries after Aristotle had ceased to teach
when
rediscovered
by men who loved philosophy
they were conveyed to Athens and then to Rome in
the days of Cicero. Their publication stirred afresh the dormant spirit of the
schools
and broke like a new morning upon the intellectual life of Europe. I
have read
too
an even more romantic tale concerning a book of modern poetry
familiar to most of us. Its author had occasionally quoted stanzas in the
hearing of his friends
which he said belonged to poems he once had written
but never intended to publish. At last they prevailed upon him to divulge their
secret. Years before he had lost the wife of-his youth
in whose praise they
had been written
and he had vowed that they should be buried with her.
Searching in her coffin they found the MS. pillowing her head
the golden
tresses of which were so intertwined with its leaves that it was with the
greatest difficulty they were separated and restored to a condition that
admitted of their being printed. Instances of a similar character might be
multiplied
and it may be asserted that the problem is essentially the same in
any case; that the intrinsic character of the writings can have no bearing upon
the interpretation to be put upon their rescue from oblivion. But surely the
respective circumstances must be taken into account
and the relation of the
writings to the spiritual life of mankind? The loss of the “Ethics” would have
been a great loss
in some respects an irretrievable one; and had Rosetti’s House
of Life still lain beneath the cerements of the tomb
English
literature to-day would have been distinctly poorer
and the development of our
poetry less perfect than it has been. But who will say that such works as these
are essential to the higher life
the spiritual progress of humanity? Apart
from its own solemn claim to immortality
the Word of the Lord is too closely
and causatively associated with the future of the race
and it has outlived too
many antagonistic influences
too many ages of unbelief and indifference
for
us to conclude hastily that its presence amongst us now is but a lucky
survival
to be accounted for by a theory of chances.
II. The discovery
was connected with a great awakening of religious life. The story of its
reception by the young king and his subjects
simply as it is told
thrills us
as we read it. The great high-priestly penitence of the one for the general sin
and the heroic resolution of the others as they “stood by the covenant” have in
them not a little of the “moral sublime.” But we must not fail to lay to heart
the enduring lessons it teaches us.
1. Look at the light which it throws upon the question of a
“book-religion.” The history of that age illustrated the difference there is
between being with a Bible and being without one. Of course it is allowed that
the sense the expression “book-religion” often bears is false and mischievous
enough. When Chillingworth shouted that “the Bible
and the Bible alone
was
the religion of Protestants
” he probably attached a very different
signification to “religion” than the term generally conveys; if he did not his
error was not much less than that which he sought to overturn. Religion is of
the heart--an inward and spiritual influence--a communion with God. But it is
not independent of external standards
nor does it spring into existence
unprovoked or unassisted. This
at any rate
is the teaching of history and of
individual experience. Without the authoritative medium of Scripture Judah
failed to advance upon
the religion of the Fathers
in fact
fell further and further behind it. The
beliefs of the people wanted fixity; their pious emotions were without
definiteness or moral force; and they became a prey to the plausible falsehoods
of heathenism. With the reappearance of the Book of the Law the religious
spirit of the nation recovered itself
and the forward movement towards the
great fulfilment was resumed. But it would be a mistake to suppose that a
truth
even an important truth
is as such immortal. As John Stuart Mill has
remarked
there are too
many instances to the contrary for us to entertain such a comfortable belief.
Not once only
but many times
have great religious or moral movements perished
untimely for lack of a Scripture that could give their principles authoritative
expression and permanence. On the other hand
the “book-religions” of the world
have been the only persistent or widely influential ones
as witness the faiths
of China
India
Persia
or Palestine. Once fixed in literary form
the creed
of a people is open to general reference
becomes a public standard of opinion
and of conduct
and in conjunction with the spiritual experience to which it is
related
it of necessity advances and refines upon itself. In Fetichism alone
have we a religion (if religion it can be called) without a book
which at the
same time continues and reproduces itself! Proteus
like it springs up
a rank
but stunted growth of diseased imaginations
wild vagaries
and sexual
excesses. Yes
in the superstition that haunts the dark places of the earth
that either opposes morality or lies wholly outside of it
and that brands with
such unmistakable inferiority its devotees
we have
par excellence
the
religion without a book!
2. How independent Divine revelation is of the moral and intellectual
conditions amidst which it appears. It is impossible for any candid inquirer to
suppose that the dust-covered MS. so seasonably brought forth from its age-long
rest was the product of forgery. Apart from the transparent self-contradiction
of such a conception
there was no man of that day who could have achieved such
a tour de force in literature or morals. How is the problem to be explained
that in an epoch of decadence and apostasy
there should have appeared at once
so marvellous a transformation in public and private conduct? Evolution
however it may be manipulated
cannot solve the difficulty. Revelation
that
glorious “anticipation of reason
” as Lessing conceived it to be
was in that
instance
at any rate
no child of the Zeit-geist. The truth that could so
regenerate a people must have had its origin in the supernatural and Divine.
3. Vital contact with Holy Scripture is essential to the enjoyment of
its advantages. So commonplace are our notions of God’s ways that we are
startled at the thought of His permitting such an utter and appalling ignorance
of Divine things. It is a great mystery; yet we can see certain disciplinary
reasons for it. To have a Bible is of little use if we do not read it; to read
it
if it be not laid to heart. Of how many might it still be said
“The word
of hearing did not profit them
because they were not united by faith with them
that heard.” Only when in penitence and faith we “read
mark
learn
and
inwardly digest” the teachings of the Bible
can it become a means of grace
a
source of spiritual life and power. (A. F. Muir
M. A.)
The book that finds me
The striking fact in the incident is the reversal of the
statement
is the deeper truth: the book found them. This stamped it as Divine.
This is always the great fact concerning the Bible--it finds me.
I. In my deepest
thought--to know God. The questions of sin and destiny and immortality
&c.
The greatest minds have here found the answer. The ordinary man can know for
himself. Every man can know for himself whether the Bible is the revelation of
God. Give it his best thought.
II. In my deepest
desire--to serve God
to do His will. “If any man wills to do my will he shall
know truth”--must be lived to be realised. It costs something to live it.
Obedience is the pathway to knowledge.
III. In my deepest
need--to have God--my God--my Father. His love and mercy and care. Experience
is the great teacher. Sorrows test. So personal--every line for each man.
Reality of promises. (C. Meyers
D. D.)
Preservation of the Word of God
Wondrously has the Spirit of God watched over and preserved the
Scriptures. The original copy of Magna Charta
on which hung all the greatest
liberties of the British people
was once nearly destroyed. Sir Richard Cotton
was in a tailor’s shop
and the great scissors were opened to cut it in pieces.
The man into whose hands it had fallen knew nothing either of its nature or
value. But it was rescued and remains to-day in the nation’s keeping as the
priceless charter of its liberty. The Bible is the charter of the soul’s
freedom
and many and many a time its enemies have sought to exterminate it
but God has watched over it
preserved it by many a miracle
and to-day it is
declaring liberty to spiritual captives all over the world. (H. O. Mackey.)
The reviving word
John Stuart Mill tells how that at one time he had lost all
interest in life
every blossom of joy and hope withered
but the charm and
thrill of life were restored to him by the reading of Wordsworth’s poems. The
gifted singer revived the weary
despondent philosopher. How much more shall
the words of God which are “spirit and life” revive and gladden our souls! (Helps
for Speakers.)
Discovery of truth
To take an old diamond out of the casket in which it has lain
forgotten
is as good as to find a new diamond. So with truth. To strike men’s
eyes with an old maxim
is as good as to think out a fresh one--nay
better;
for the best truths are old. (Charles Buxton.)
Preservation of the Book
Just as Dr. Judson had finished translating the New Testament into
Burmese he was cast into prison. His wife took the precious manuscript and
buried it in the ground. But if left there it would soon decay
while to reveal
its existence to its foes would surely lead to its destruction. So it was
arranged that she should put it within a roll of cotton and bring it to him in
the form of a pillow
so hard and poor that even the keeper of the prison did
not discover it. After seven months this pillow
so uninviting externally
so
precious to him
was taken away
and then his wife redeemed it by giving a
better one in exchange. Some time after that he was hurried off to another
prison
leaving everything behind him
and his old pillow was thrown into the
prison yard
to be trodden underfoot as worthless cotton; but after a few hours
one of the native Christians discovered the roll and took it home as a relic of
the prisoner
and there
long afterwards
the manuscript was found within the
cotton
complete and uninjured. Surely the hand of the Lord was interposed to
save from destruction the fruit of years of toil
so important for those who
were to read the Burmese Bible.
Chance literature
Many of the greatest discoveries in the era of the revival of
learning were characterised by the merest chance. Cicero’s important treatise
De
Republica
was discovered concealed beneath some monastic writing. Part
of Livy was found between the leaves of a Bible
and a missing page in a
battledore. Quintilian was picked out of an old coffer full of rubbish. The one
copy of Tacitus which survived the general destruction of Roman libraries was
found in a Westphalian monastery. An original Magna Charts
with all its seals
and signatures was found by Cotton about to be cut up by a tailor into
measures. Thurloe’s State papers fell out of a ceiling in Lincoln’s Inn. Many
of Lady Montague’s letters were discovered by Disraeli in the office of an
attorney
where they might have remained till this day but for the chance visit
of the great bibliophile. And undoubtedly many hundreds of rare books and
manuscripts and papers lie hidden away in the presses and cupboards of old
manor houses
whence gradually they may be dragged into the light of day
to be
destroyed
or to awaken universal interest.
Finding the Sinaitic manuscript
Dr. Tischendorf describes as follows the finding of the remarkable
manuscript on Mount Sinai: “On the afternoon of the 4th February 1859
I was
taking a walk with the steward of the convent in the neighbourhood
and as we
returned
towards sunset
he begged me to take some refreshment with him in his
cell. Scarcely had we entered the room
when he said: ‘And I
too
have read a Septuagint’--that is
a copy of the Greek translation made by the Seventy. And so saying
he took
down from the corner of the room a bulky kind of volume
wrapped up in red
cloth
and laid it before me. I unrolled the cover
and discovered
to my great
surprise
not only those very fragments which fifteen years before I had taken
out of the basket
but also other parts of the Old Testament
the New Testament
complete
and
in addition
the Epistle of Barnabas
and a part of the Pastor
of Hermas. Full of joy which this time I had the self-command to conceal from
the steward
I asked
as if in a careless way
for permission to taker the
manuscript into my sleeping-chamber
to look over it more at leisure. There by
myself I could give way to the transport of joy which I felt. I knew that I
held in my hand the most precious Biblical treasure in existence
a document
whose age and importance exceeded that of all the manuscripts which I had ever
examined during twenty years’ study of the subject. I cannot now
I confess
recall all the emotions which I felt in that exciting moment with such a
diamond in my
possession. Though my lamp was dim
and the night was cold
I sat down at once
to transcribe the Epistle of Barnabas.”
Verse 19
Because thine heart was tender
and thou hast humbled thyself
before the Lord.
The tender heart
I. The
circumstances in which such a character may be placed and tried.
1. It may often have to contend with great difficulties. Observe the
illustration of this in the history before us.
2. It may sometimes be surrounded by external difficulties.
3. A tender heart may sometimes misunderstand
and therefore
misinterpret
the follies and frailties of other Christians. There must be the
knowledge of evil as well as of good in the Christian as in the common life.
Stumbling-blocks will be found
though deeply to be deplored
in every section
of the Christian Church.
II. Some of the
indications of a tender heart. All life reveals itself. The tiniest herb or
flower that drinks the morning dew reveals itself. Life cannot be hid
and that
because it is life. Not always in the same manner
but always in some manner;
for as external life is full of variety
from the “cedar of Lebanon to the
hyssop that groweth on the wall
” so inward religious life has its manifold
phases
full of variety
full of beauty
and all significant of their Divine
origin. Let us notice some--
1. There will be thoughtful interest in religious truth. We cannot
conceive of the commencement
much less of the continuation
of a religious
life in connection with thoughtlessness.
2. There will be practical co-operation in works of religious
activity. Religious life has ever holy work to do
as holy words to say. The
commencement of this new life starts with the question
“Lord
what wilt thou
have me to do?”
3. There will be devout interest in religious assemblies. The object
of Christian assemblies is one--the worship of God and the edification of the
Church. In proportion as our heart is penetrated with the ideas proper to
and
regulated by the principles of
the Christian life
there will not only be the
desire but the determination to avail ourselves of seasons of religious worship
for purposes of spiritual improvement.
4. There will be also personal determination to secure religious
progress. First the blade
but afterwards
if the blade is healthy
there will
be the ear: lovely is the blade in all its tenderness and vigour
so in its
season is the maturing ear
that gives promise of the fully ripened and
perfectly developed corn in the ear.
III. The blessedness
of having a tender heart. Because
1. It is the disposition produced by the influences of God’s Spirit.
It is God” who worketh in us both to will and to do.” “Every good and perfect
gift cometh down from above”
2. Because it will prevent great irregularity if not sinfulness of
life. Religion subtracts nothing from the real enjoyment of life. The happiest
transaction of life is the hour of consecration to God.
3. Because a tender heart is the sure sign of a regenerate one. “And
whom He did
” etc. (Romans 8:29.) (W. G. Barrett.)
Humility the grace of graces
“I was always exceedingly pleased with that saying of Chrysostom
”
says Calvin
“‘The foundation of our philosophy is humility.’ And yet more
pleased with that of Augustine. ‘As
’ says he
‘the rhetorican being asked was
what the first thing in the rules of eloquence
he answered
Pronunciation.
What was the second
Pronunciation. What was the third
still he answered
Pronunciation So if you ask me concerning the graces of the Christian
character
I would answer
firstly
secondly
and thirdly
and for ever
humility.’” And thus it is that God sets open His school for teaching us
humility every day. Humility is the grace of graces for us sinners to learn.
There is nothing again like it
and we must have a continual training and
exercise in it. You learn to pronounce by your clients complaining that they
cannot hear you
and that they must carry their cases to another advocate
unless you learn to speak better. And
as you must either please your patrons
or die of starvation
you put pebbles in your month and you go out to recite by
yourself by the riverside till your rhetoric is fit for a Greek judge and jury
to sit and hear. And so with humility
which is harder to learn than the best
Greek accent. You must go to all the schools
and put yourself under all the
disciplines that the great experts practise
if you would put on this humility.
And the schools of God to which He puts His great saints are such as these. You
will be set second to other men every day. Other men will be put over your head
everyday. Rude men will ride roughshod over your head every day. God will set
His rudest men
of whom He has whole armies
upon you every day to judge you
and to find fault with you
and to correct you
and to blame you
and to take
their business away from you to a better--to a better than you can ever be with
all the pebbles that ever river rolled. Ay
He will take you in hand Himself
and He will set you and will keep you in a low place. (Alex. Whyte
D.
D.)
Humbleness the work of true Christian
John Newton wrote a book about grace in the blade
and grace in
the ear
and grace in the full corn in the ear. A very talkative body said to
him
“I have been reading your valuable book
Mr. Newton; it is a splendid
work; and when I came to that part
‘the full corn in the ear’ I thought how
wonderfully you had described me.” “Oh
” replied Mr. Newton
“but you could not
have read the book rightly
for it is one of the marks of the full corn in the
ear
that it hangs its head very low.” (C. H. Spurgeon.)
──《The Biblical Illustrator》