Josiah's Devotion to God

1911

Sunday School Lesson

LESSON TEXT — 2 Chronicles 34:1-13

TIME — Josiah began to reign B. C. 638. He reigned 31 years.

PLACE—Judah and Jerusalem. But his reforms extended over a considerable part of the territory of the Northern Kingdom which had become extinct in 722-718, 80 years before Josiah came to the throne.

Josiah was the grandson of Manasseh. He was born at Jerusalem, B. C. 646. His father was Amon, who reigned but two years, when he was murdered by his courtiers in his own palace. The people rose against the conspirators and made his eight-year-old son king in his place. Josiah's mother was Jedidah, the daughter of Adaiah. They belonged in Boscath, a town near Lachish in southwestern Judah, in the plains toward the Mediterranean sea. While King Amon was an idolater, and his court was corrupt, it is possible that Josiah's mother kept the true faith.

He began to reign when he was eight years old. Like his grandfather, Manasseh, he must for several years have been guided, and his kingdom controlled by his mother or by prime ministers. The worshipers of Jehovah must have been in control at the palace, the wise and religious teachers of the true God and the true religion. So that for the first sixteen years of his life the young Josiah must have been under good influences, while he also would know of his father's tragic death, and his grandfather's sins, sufferings, and repentance. And his ancestor, David, was ever before him as his ideal, his hero, his saint.

About the time when Josiah was twenty years old, and in the twelfth year of his reign, when he had begun his reforms, there came an invading host from the far east like a cyclone, an overwhelming scourge. Jeremiah foretells them in vivid pictures. But Herodotus tells us who they were, the Scythians "from the regions over Caucasus, vast nameless hordes of men who sweeping past Assyria, unchecked, poured upon Palestine. We can realize the event from our knowledge of the Mongol and Tartar invasions which in later centuries pursued the same path southwards. Living in the saddle, with no infantry nor chariots to delay them, these Centaurs swept on with a speed of invasion hitherto unknown. In 630 they had crossed the Caucasus, by 626 they were on the borders of Egypt.

The prophet, Jeremiah, describes in picturesque terms this invasion. "The lion is come up from his thicket;" "The destroyer of nations is on his way;" "Behold he cometh as clouds, and his chariot shall be as the whirlwind;" "Their quiver is an open sepulcher, they are all mighty men;" "They are cruel and have no mercy; their voice roareth like the sea; and they ride upon horses, set in array as men of war against thee."

It is easy to see how this terrible invader, coming so near, just as Josiah was beginning his reforms, must have interfered with his plans.

Josiah began his reformation in his twelfth year, but the invasion of the Scythians soon after this beginning interfered with the work. The savage and cruel host came close to Judah's borders. Scattered bands may have entered the kingdom. Terror reigned. Defenses must be strengthened. Outsiders rushed to Jerusalem and the fortified cities. How far the reformations had progressed we do not know. But the chronicler having recorded the beginning simply goes on with the story, as is frequently done by historians.

The restoration of the Temple was entrusted to a committee of three — Shapan, the secretary of state; and Maaseiah, the governor of the city, the mayor of Jerusalem; and Joah the recorder, the keeper of the records, the historian. The temple built by Solomon, was completed 330 years before. It was repaired by Joash 240 years before Josiah began his restoration. The ravages of time, with neglect and abuse during the sway of idolatry must have rendered it sadly in need of repair. It was during these repairs that the Book of Law was found.

The work interrupted by the Scythian hordes is now resumed with greatly increased intensity and enthusiasm, through the new consecration of king and people, due to the finding of the Book of the Law.

The first condition of salvation for individuals or nations is the putting away of sin at any cost. The second is the building up of the good. He that confesseth and forsaketh shall find mercy.

One of the greatest revivals of religion ever known was begun in meetings where the pastor called upon his church members on a fast day to confess and forsake their sins. "How many of you," he asked, "have neglected your family prayers?" Several arose and one was called upon to pray. "How many of you have been speaking evil of others?" Several arose. One led in prayer for all. And so through the list.

There has been a remarkable revival in the territory made famous in the Japanese-Russian war. The movement began in Llaoyang, spread at once to Mukden, and, soon after, to Haicheng, Fakumen, Newchwang, and numberless towns and villages and hamlets of less fame. A mighty outpouring of the Holy Spirit came to the Christians. Immediately after the opening of the meetings, and his power became manifested at once in heart-breaking confession of sin; then in outbursts of prayer, both petition and intercession, in great Joy, and, finally, in thank-offerings to God of money and of service. It was a case of complete surrender to God.