And Hilkijah and they that the king [had appointed] went to Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum the son of Tokehath, son of Hasrah, keeper of the wardrobe now she dwelt in Jerusalem in the second quarter [of the town]; and they spoke with her to that effect.
Josiah has just heard the rediscovered book of the law read aloud. To learn what God will do, he sends his highest officials — the high priest among them — not to a famous prophet, but to Huldah, a woman married to the man who kept the royal robes.
The detail matters. One writer reads it as a sign of how low things had fallen — and of grace working anyway:
Here, too, we are struck that a woman filled the prophetic office. It tells a tale. Things were low. But the grace of God was unfailing and abundant. Josiah was so completely broken down that he was ready to receive the message of the mind of God through whatever channel it reached him.
Another writer asks who could interpret the newly found book for Josiah. His answer explains why the king passed by both the scribe and the high priest:
Only the prophet, who represents the Spirit of Christ (1 Peter 1:11), can interpret this Word for us. Josiah does not turn to Shaphan the scribe for this, or even to Hilkiah the high priest. He wants to be brought into direct contact with the Word. In Josiah's time — days of revival but of deep weakness — we find a prophetess at Jerusalem. It was not that Judah had no prophets (2 Kings 23:2). But work entrusted to a woman is a mark of decline, just as it was with Deborah in the book of Judges. Like Deborah, Huldah, this servant of Jehovah, does not try to take up a public ministry, as the false prophetesses of our own day do. She uses her gift in the place appointed for her.
Notice who led that delegation. The high priest came to ask a question, not to answer one.
The leader of the delegation was Hilkiah the High Priest! The religious head of the nation, sent by the king to a woman for advice! Why was this?... "For the lips of a priest should guard knowledge, and people should seek instruction from his mouth, for he is the messenger of the LORD of hosts" (Mal. 2:7). Here the high privileges and the spiritual standing of the priesthood stand out... Yet Josiah sent the High Priest with others to learn the mind of God from a prophetess!
The same writer draws a wider principle:
But God never rebuilds an order of things that has failed in the hands of men. In His great grace He goes on to something better. Everything in which man has proved so incapable will be seen in perfection in Christ, on the day He is revealed.
Commentators differ. One leaves the question open:
Why they did not ask Jeremiah, or Zephaniah (who lived at the same time as Josiah, Jer. 1:3; Zeph. 1:1), is uncertain. Anathoth, Jeremiah's birthplace, was only three miles from Jerusalem, and so within easy reach. But both prophets may have been too young at the time for the nation to consult them.
Another points out that Jeremiah was already at work, and leaves the choice with God:
Why Jehovah chose to speak through Huldah to the King and to the High Priest, He alone knows. Jeremiah was already in His service, for he began his prophetic ministry in the thirteenth year of Josiah's reign (Jer. 1:2), and the book of the law was not found until five years later. Yet Jehovah spoke through Huldah on that occasion.
The verse places her in the Second Quarter of Jerusalem. Readers have taken that word in two ways:
The Hebrew word means 'second part,' as the margin shows at 2 Kings 22:14 and 2 Chr. 34:22. It may refer to a part of the city where there was a school. The Rabbis trace it to a word meaning 'to teach,' so 'the school' of the prophets.
Her answer came in two parts:
Huldah is the instrument to make known the Lord's mind. Her message has two parts. The first opens with 'tell the man'. It says the judgement will come and nothing can turn it aside now. The second speaks to 'the king of Judah'. It reassures Josiah that God had accepted his humiliation and would not bring the judgement in Josiah's day.
The writer quoted earlier draws the lesson for us:
We can be sure that here lies the true secret of divine guidance. "He leads the humble in what is right, and teaches the humble His way" (Ps. 25:9). If there were more of this blessed spirit of meekness among us, there would be less confusion, less controversy, and less arguing about words that does no good.
- Low. A woman in the prophet's place shows how far the nation had sunk — the same signal as Deborah in the book of Judges.
- Grace. Weakness did not silence God. He kept speaking, and His grace was "unfailing and abundant" when the usual channels had failed.
- Set aside. The high priest came to ask, not to answer. God never rebuilds an order that has failed in men's hands; He goes on to something better in Christ.
- Meek. Josiah cared that the word was God's, not who carried it. Commentators call such meekness the true secret of guidance.
- Answered. Huldah used her gift in the place given her. Her message settled both halves: judgement for the nation, mercy for the king who humbled himself.
And she said to them, Thus saith Jehovah the God of Israel Tell the man that sent you to me,
Josiah had just heard the rediscovered law read aloud, and he sent men to ask God what would happen to a nation that had ignored it. The answer came through Huldah, a woman in Jerusalem, and it named the king simply "the man who sent you."
Huldah's answer begins here. Writers first notice who God chose to speak through.
We are struck that a woman filled the prophetic office. It surely tells a tale. Things were low. But the grace of God was unfailing and abundant, and Josiah was so completely broken down that he was ready to receive the mind of God through whatever channel it might reach him. It might seem very humiliating, to nature's view, for a king of Judah to turn to a woman for counsel. But that woman held the mind of God, and for a humble and contrite spirit like Josiah's that was quite enough.
The text gives no reason why God chose her. One writer points out that a well-known prophet was already serving at the time.
Still, we must never lose sight of the sovereignty of God. He works as He pleases, and gives no account of His matters. This is especially true when everything is in confusion among His people. Why the Lord chose to speak through Huldah to the king, and to the high priest, is known to Himself alone. Jeremiah was already in His service, for he began his prophetic ministry in the thirteenth year of Josiah's reign (Jer. 1:2), and the book of the law was not found until five years later. Yet the Lord spoke through Huldah on the occasion we are dealing with, and not through Jeremiah!
Josiah had already heard the curses read out. Her word added nothing new. It confirmed them, and it left the nation no way out.
She gave them God's answer faithfully: He would bring calamity upon Israel, all the curses written in the book Josiah had heard read. God gives the reason plainly: "because they have forsaken Me and burned incense to other gods, that they might provoke Me to anger with all the works of their hands. Therefore My wrath will be poured out on this place, and not be quenched" (vv. 24-25). Not even the exceptional faithfulness of Josiah could avert this judgment.
Yet a repeated word is not a wasted word. The same truth struck harder when it came back as a message to him personally.
All this was only the solemn repeating and confirming of what the king of Judah had already heard with an open and attentive ear. But it came with fresh force, emphasis, and interest, as a direct personal message to himself. It came enforced and heightened by that earnest sentence, "Tell the man who sent you to me."
The wording shifts partway through her reply. Verse 23 says "the man"; verse 26 says "the king of Judah." That change marks off two halves of the message.
Huldah is the instrument to make known the Lord's mind (exercising this gift in the sphere given to her). Her message has two parts. The first part opens with "tell the man." It states that the judgement will come and cannot be averted any more. The second part speaks to "the king of Judah." It reassures Josiah that God had accepted his humiliation and would not bring the judgement in Josiah's day.
Josiah's servants had to travel to one house in Jerusalem to hear "Thus says the LORD." One writer contrasts that with what believers have now.
The king's messengers knew who had the mind of God. They went to Huldah the prophetess, who said to them, "Thus says the Lord God of Israel" (2 Chr. 34:23). How good it was that the Lord had His servant to speak His word to the devout king! In the same way He had His interpreter ready for the Ethiopian eunuch, who wanted to know who the prophet Isaiah was speaking about (Acts 8:27-35). The word of God is now complete, and the Spirit of God is with us and in us. So we can come to Him at all times to know His mind and will for every occasion and circumstance of life.
- Low state. A woman held the prophetic office — a sign of how far things had fallen. Yet grace still spoke.
- Sovereign choice. Jeremiah was already prophesying, yet God used Huldah. Commentators leave the reason with God alone.
- Meek ears. Josiah was broken enough to take God's word from any channel, and so he got his answer.
- Confirmed, not softened. Huldah added nothing to the curses Josiah had heard. His faithfulness could not cancel the judgment — only delay it past his lifetime.
- Personal address. "Tell the man" carries judgment for the nation. "The king of Judah" carries mercy for one humbled heart.
Thus saith Jehovah Behold, I will bring evil upon this place, and upon the inhabitants thereof, all the curses that are written in the book which they have read before the king of Judah.
Josiah had just led a great reform, and then he heard the lost book of the law read aloud. He sent men to ask God what it meant, and the answer came back through Huldah the prophetess: disaster, and every curse written in that book.
The messenger says as much about the times as the message does. Judah had sunk so low that a woman held the prophet's office, and the king did not mind.
It strikes us here, too, that a woman held the prophetic office. It surely tells a tale. Things were low. But the grace of God was unfailing and abundant, and Josiah was so broken down that he was ready to receive God's mind through whatever channel it reached him. This was morally lovely. To nature's view it might seem very humiliating for a king of Judah to turn to a woman for counsel. But that woman held the mind of God, and that was quite enough for a humble and contrite spirit like Josiah's.
The curses were not new threats. They stood in a book the nation had lost for decades.
It was, no doubt, the Pentateuch, the five books of Moses — either the original, as written by Moses, or the temple copy (Deut. 31:26), used in days gone by at the coronation of their kings (see Deut. 17:18; 2 Chron. 23:11). No one knows how long it had been lost; probably since the beginning of Manasseh's reign at least.
Losing the book had not weakened it. Josiah's answer held both a mercy for him and a fixed sentence for the city.
Scripture may be neglected, but it cannot be broken. The Lord answers Josiah that the curses read out of the book will certainly take hold. Josiah himself has a tender heart and trembles at the word, so he will go to his fathers in peace and will not see the evil.
One sin stands behind this sentence, and behind every judgment before it.
My readers may have noticed something in Scripture. Every time God showed His displeasure with Israel, down to the point we have traced in their history, the main cause was idolatry... Israel was meant to be a standing witness against idolatry, and a witness to the unity of the true God — Jehovah — who had chosen to call them His people and to call Himself their God. When they became hardened idolaters themselves, what was left but that God should give them up to judgment and desolation, as He did?
Josiah's own faithfulness was exceptional. It still did not change the verdict.
She faithfully gave them God's answer: He would bring calamity upon Israel, all the curses written in the book Josiah had heard read. The reason is plain: "because they have forsaken Me and burned incense to other gods, that they might provoke Me to anger with all the works of their hands. Therefore My wrath will be poured out on this place, and not be quenched" (vv. 24-25). Not even the exceptional faithfulness of Josiah could avert this judgment.
Something was missing in the reform, and God said what it was. The change reached what people did, not what they loved.
The king's power had brought about a great reformation, but it left the hearts of the people mostly untouched... But why could not God rest in the outwardly improved state of the kingdom of Judah in Josiah's day? He looked beneath the surface. He looked for reality, for tenderness of conscience, for a heart subject to His word; and He found none. "The kindness of your youth, the love of your engagement," were missing. Nothing less than thoroughness will ever satisfy God.
The same word that announced this judgment had already broken the king. Not everyone answers it that way.
What a striking contrast! Josiah had a contrite heart, an awakened conscience, and torn garments, and he bowed down under the mighty working of the Word of God. Our modern skeptics and unbelievers do the opposite: with shocking boldness they dare to sit in judgement on that very same Word. Oh that men would be wise in time, and bow their hearts and consciences in reverent submission to the Word of the living God.
- Written — The disaster is nothing new. It is the curses already written in the book of Moses, lost for a generation and read aloud again to Josiah.
- Unbroken — Scripture can be neglected, but it cannot be broken. Years out of sight did not soften one line of it.
- Named — God gives the reason: they left Him for other gods. Idolatry lies behind almost every judgment that ever fell on this people.
- Unaverted — One man's exceptional faithfulness could not cancel the judgment. The nation's change was outward only.
- Personal — God did answer one tender heart. The word that sentenced the city was the word Josiah bowed under, and the call is to bow now, in time.
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 fury shall be poured out upon this place, and shall not be quenched.
Josiah had torn his clothes when the book was read aloud to him. He sent men to ask God what it meant for him and for the people. God's answer came back through the prophetess Huldah, and it begins here. It opens with a charge and a sentence, not with comfort. It also raises the hardest question of Josiah's reign: why could even his faithfulness not turn the judgement back?
God gives His reason before He gives the sentence. He names two charges: they abandoned Him, and they made offerings to other gods.
She faithfully gave the men God's answer. He would bring disaster on Israel — all the curses written in the book Josiah had heard read. God gives the reason plainly... Not even Josiah's exceptional faithfulness could turn this judgment aside.
The phrase is not a general word for bad behaviour. It carries a settled meaning across the Old Testament.
"The works of their hands"... is a phrase used only of pagan idolatry (Isaiah 2:8; Jeremiah 1:16; Deuteronomy 4:28; Psalm 115:4-7).
But hands are only the visible end of it. The root goes deeper than carved wood and metal.
The root of all idolatry is self-will; it is making a god of our own. It starts with self and fashions a god, not necessarily out of silver, and not necessarily with our hands... there is a tool more cunning and skilful than the hands, and that is the intellect of man. Wherever self takes the place of the will of God, you will find the human mind busy making a god to please itself. And it does this in the name of the Lord, in the name of the true God.
The wrath here is not a sudden reaction to one generation. Judah's guilt had a long history, and one earlier king weighs heaviest in it.
The first part of the message spoke of the ruin coming on the nation. Its cup of sin had been filling up for centuries. Manasseh's defiance of the Lord's Word, and his excessive evil, had made the cup overflow... So it was persistent and hopeless evil.
Josiah's faithfulness was real. Yet "will not be quenched" means what it says. An earlier king of Judah, Hezekiah, had already met the same limit.
Hezekiah had it in his heart to make a covenant with the Lord God of Israel, so that His fierce anger might turn away. But the sentence was already decreed. Neither Hezekiah's piety nor Josiah's could turn aside the judgement about to fall on Judah and Jerusalem. The most they gained was a delay.
Huldah's reply comes in two parts, and the change of address matters.
The first part begins with "tell the man." It states that the judgement will come and cannot be turned aside any more. The second part speaks to "the king of Judah." It reassures Josiah that God had accepted his humbling of himself, and would not bring the judgement in Josiah's day.
A settled sentence could have left Josiah doing nothing. It did not.
Josiah might have thought the case hopeless. He might have said that nothing could turn back the tide of wrath and judgement about to roll over Jerusalem and the land. He might have said that any move of his must prove useless, that the purpose was settled and the decree gone out, and that he had only to stand by and let things take their course. But Josiah did not reason like that... He humbled himself, tore his clothes, and wept. God took notice of this. Josiah's tears of repentance were precious to the Lord. The dreadful judgement still had to take its course, yet the penitent man escaped. And he did not only escape himself; he became the honoured instrument in the Lord's hand for delivering others as well. He did not give in to the harmful belief that nothing could be done. Instead, with a broken spirit and an earnest heart, he cast himself on God, confessing his own sins and the sins of his people.
- Cause. God gives the reason before the sentence: they forsook Him and made offerings to other gods. The judgement is explained, never arbitrary.
- Cup. The wrath answers evil that had been filling up for centuries. Manasseh made the cup overflow.
- Craft. "The works of their hands" is the language of idolatry. Its root is self-will — a god of our own making, often set up in the true God's name.
- Ceiling. Josiah's reform, like Hezekiah's, reached a limit. The sentence stood; the most it won was a delay.
- Contrition. What the reform could not cancel, a tender heart could still meet. Josiah refused to give up, wept, and escaped — and God used him to deliver others. Repentance stays open even when the sentence is fixed.
But to the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of Jehovah, thus shall ye say to him Thus saith Jehovah the God of Israel touching the words which thou hast heard
God's reply to Josiah comes in two halves. First a word about the doomed city, then a word for the king himself, who had "sent you to inquire of the LORD." Why does God answer one man personally just after announcing that judgment on his nation still stands?
One writer sums up what God's Word produces, then marks off the two parts of Huldah's reply by the way each one begins.
The word of God brings about repentance and dependence. Huldah is the instrument who makes the Lord's mind known (using this gift in the sphere given to her). The message has two parts. The first begins with "tell the man." It says the judgement will come and can no longer be turned aside. The second speaks to "the king of Judah." It reassures Josiah that God had accepted his humiliation and would not bring the judgement in Josiah's day.
One writer asks who can interpret God's Word for us, and notes whom Josiah passed over.
And now who will interpret this Word for us? How do we "inquire of the LORD" about what we should do, when this Word tells us we have brought His displeasure on ourselves? The prophet alone, the representative of the Spirit of Christ (1 Peter 1:11), can interpret it for us. Josiah does not turn to Shaphan the scribe for this, or even to Hilkiah the high priest. He wants to be brought into direct contact with the Word.
The answer came through a woman at a time when the nation had sunk low, and the king raised no objection.
Here, too, we are struck that a woman held the prophetic office. It surely tells a tale. Things were low. But the grace of God was unfailing and abundant, and Josiah was so completely broken that he was ready to receive God's mind through whatever channel it reached him. This was morally lovely. To human eyes it might look very humiliating for a king of Judah to turn to a woman for counsel. But that woman held the mind of God. For a humble and contrite spirit like Josiah's, that was quite enough.
The same writer draws out the principle behind it, that God's guidance follows a certain kind of heart:
We may rest assured that here lies the true secret of divine guidance. "He leads the humble in what is right, and teaches the humble his way." (Ps. 25:9) Were there more of this blessed spirit of meekness among us, there would be less confusion, less controversy, less striving about words to no profit.
God's message points back to the words Josiah had heard read aloud, and his response to that reading marks him out.
Here we have a tender conscience bowing under the action of the Word of God. This was one special charm in the character of Josiah… Josiah had no doubt at all that the words Shaphan had read aloud to him were genuine and truly from God. We do not read of his asking, "How am I to know that this is the Word of God?" No. He trembled at it. He bowed before it. It struck him down. He tore his garments. He did not presume to sit in judgement upon the Word of God, but, as was right, he allowed the Word to judge him.
The sentence on Jerusalem stood. Yet Josiah refused to treat a settled decree as a reason to do nothing.
It teaches us how much God values deep personal searching of soul and a broken heart. Josiah might have thought the case hopeless. He might have thought that nothing could turn aside the great tide of wrath and judgement about to roll over the city of Jerusalem and the land of Israel… and that, in short, he had only to stand by and let things take their course. But Josiah did not reason like that… He humbled himself, tore his clothes, and wept. God took knowledge of this. Josiah's tears of repentance were precious to the Lord. The dreadful judgement still had to take its course, yet the man who repented escaped. And he did not only escape himself. He became the honoured instrument in the Lord's hand to deliver others too.
Josiah had to send messengers across the city to find someone who could speak for God.
The messengers of the king knew who had the mind of God, and they went to Huldah the prophetess, who said to them, "Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel" (2 Chr. 34:23). How good it was that the Lord had His servant ready to speak His word to the devout king! In the same way He had His interpreter ready for the Ethiopian official who wanted to know who the prophet Isaiah was speaking about (Acts 8:27-35). The word of God is now complete, and the Spirit of God is with us and in us. So we can come to Him at any time to know His mind and will for every situation in life.
- Heard — Josiah treated the words read to him as God's own, and let them judge him instead of judging them.
- Humbled — Broken in heart, he took God's mind through any channel, even one the world would call beneath a king.
- Inquired — He did not stop at grief; he sought direct contact with the Word to know what to do next.
- Heard by God — The message singles him out: the nation's sentence stands, yet God answers the one who repents.
- Helped others — His own escape was not the end: the Lord used him to deliver others too.
Because thy heart was tender, and thou didst humble thyself before God, when thou heardest his words against this place and against the inhabitants thereof, and humbledst thyself before me, and didst rend thy garments and weep before me, I also have heard [thee], saith Jehovah.
God had already announced judgment on Jerusalem, and nothing Josiah did could call it back. Yet He sent the king a personal message through the prophetess Huldah, and the reason He gives for hearing him is the state of his heart: tender, humbled, weeping.
The verse names tenderness as the reason God listened. One writer points out that this is not how hearts naturally are, and traces where Josiah's came from.
The heart of man is naturally hard toward God. The Apostle writes in Ephesians 4:18 that people are "alienated from the life of God… due to their hardness of heart." The Lord Jesus, in His parable of the Sower, spoke of the good seed of the Word falling along the path (Matthew 13:4). What could be harder, or less likely to be productive? In contrast with this, Josiah's heart was impressionable — surely the gracious work of the Holy Spirit of God. Jeremiah 23:29 compares the divine Word to a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces. The Philippian jailer needed the hammer when Paul and Silas first dealt with him: not so King Josiah. His heart was already tender.
God had just told Josiah the sentence would fall anyway. He could have decided that grief was pointless.
Josiah might have thought the case hopeless. He could have reasoned that nothing would hold back the mighty tide of wrath and judgment about to roll over the city of Jerusalem and the land of Israel. Any move of his must prove useless; the divine purpose was settled and the decree had gone out. In short, he had only to stand by and let things take their course. But Josiah did not reason that way. No; he bowed before the divine testimony. He humbled himself, tore his clothes, and wept. God took knowledge of this. Josiah's tears of repentance were precious to the Lord. The terrible judgment had to run its course, yet the penitent escaped… He did not give himself over to a harmful fatalism. With a broken spirit and an earnest heart he cast himself upon God, confessing his own sins and the sins of his people.
God's answer reached beyond Josiah himself. Another writer compares him with an earlier king who also humbled himself.
Through Huldah the king learned that there was no turning back of the divine judgment. But God had taken account of his tender heart, of his repentance and his weeping, and the judgment would not take place in his day. God, in His mercy, delayed the judgment because of the faithfulness of good king Josiah. Hezekiah also delayed the coming judgment when he "humbled himself for the pride of his heart" (2 Chronicles 32:26). Yet Hezekiah's answer does not compare with Josiah's. Hezekiah seemed more concerned with himself. Of the judgment his folly would bring on his house he said, "The word of the LORD that you have spoken is good… if there will be peace and security in my days" (2 Kings 20:19).
The same writer treats these words as the foundation of everything Josiah later did.
Here we have the moral basis of Josiah's remarkable career, and there was certainly nothing of presumption in it. A contrite heart, weeping eyes, and torn garments do not go with presumption or self-confidence. No; they are the precious results of the Word of God acting on the heart and conscience, leading to a life of deep personal devotion.
Mackintosh applies this to anyone who wants others to feel what they have felt.
It is impossible for a man to feel the weight and seriousness of truth and not seek to bring others under its action. A man may hold a quantity of truth in the mind — hold it on the surface, hold it in a merely theoretical way. But this has no practical effect… we may be sure that the best way to make others feel deeply is to feel deeply ourselves.
Fereday turns the verse into a question for the reader.
Josiah felt the weight of Israel's disobedience through nine centuries. How should we feel as we look back over our own history in the nineteen centuries since Pentecost? What a record of departure from the Word of God! And what is the condition of things around us at this moment? Are our hearts tender? Do we know anything of holy trembling at the Word of God?
- Softened first. Hearts are hard toward God by nature. Josiah's tenderness was the Spirit's work before it was his own.
- Softened, so he bowed. Told the sentence stood, he refused fatalism and wept anyway — and God took knowledge of it.
- He bowed, so God heard. Tenderness, not achievement, is the reason given; his grief bought a delay for the whole nation.
- God heard, so others gain. Truth held only in the mind moves no one. Truth that is felt carries.
- The same question stands. Josiah trembled at the Word of God. The test now is whether our hearts still do.
Behold, I will gather thee unto thy fathers, and thou shalt be gathered to thy grave in peace; and thine eyes shall not see all the evil that I will bring upon this place, and upon the inhabitants thereof. And they brought the king word again.
God's reply through the prophetess Huldah falls into two parts. He will bring disaster on the city and its people. But He has a separate word for the king who wept over the book of the law: not rescue from death, but shelter from what is coming. So what does "peace" mean for a man who later fell in battle?
God's reason for hearing Josiah is his heart, not his reforms. One writer shows how rare that softness is, and where it came from:
The human heart is hard toward God by nature. Note the Apostle's words in Ephesians 4:18: "They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart." ... Josiah's heart was different. It was easily moved — a gracious work of the Holy Spirit of God. Jeremiah 23:29 compares God's Word to a hammer: "Is not My word like fire, declares the LORD, and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?" The Philippian jailer needed the hammer when Paul and Silas first had to do with him: not so King Josiah. His heart was already tender.
Huldah had just told Josiah that nothing could turn back the judgment on Jerusalem. He could have concluded that tears were pointless.
Josiah might have thought the case hopeless. He could have said that nothing would turn back the great tide of wrath and judgment about to roll over Jerusalem and the land of Israel. Any move of his must prove useless. God's purpose was settled, the decree had gone out, and he had only to stand by and let things take their course. But Josiah did not reason that way. He bowed before the divine testimony. He humbled himself, tore his clothes, and wept. God took notice of this. Josiah's tears of repentance were precious to the Lord. The dreadful judgment still had to run its course, but the penitent escaped.
The mercy is stated as something he will never see. One writer reads it alongside a line in Isaiah:
Josiah's heart was tender. He humbled himself before God at the words of the book of the law, tore his clothes and wept before Him. So the Lord responded kindly. He would let Josiah die before the threatened judgment fell on Judah, so that he would not see all the disaster that Judah's sin brought on. Isaiah describes the same thing: "The righteous man perishes, and no one lays it to heart; devout men are taken away, while no one understands. For the righteous man is taken away from calamity."
What comforts the king costs the kingdom:
The people did not deserve such a godly ruler. Their wickedness, despite the outward reform, called for judgment. So the righteous man was taken away from the evil to come. Seen this way, it was a mercy to the man himself. But for the nation, as people would see it, it was a terrible loss.
Josiah later died at Pharaoh Necho's hand. One writer holds together both the promise and the way Josiah died:
For another detail of God's government, look at the case of Josiah. He fell by the hand of Pharaoh Necho, even though God had said, "You shall be gathered to your grave in peace." But he was taken from the evil to come. The circumstances were painful, for it seems he should have listened to Pharaoh. God disciplined Josiah himself, yet Josiah did not see, as Daniel did, all that came upon Jerusalem. What a sparing from sorrow that was!
That promise also put a weight on Josiah's own life:
God had promised him that the judgments would not fall while he lived. He was twenty-six years old when Huldah spoke. Humanly speaking, many years of rule lay before him. Oh, why did he not walk carefully, knowing that so much depended on his life?
Knowing he would be spared did not make Josiah passive. One writer applies this to us:
Josiah heard that nothing could reverse the sentence against Jerusalem and Judah, and that he himself would be spared. That is when he humbled himself still further before the Lord. He set about a reformation with no parallel until then in the nation's history. ... Our comfort is not the promise of being gathered to the grave in peace, but the hope of being gathered to meet the Lord in the air. Yet surely the effect of such a hope is not to make the heart indifferent to the dishonour cast on Christ's name.
- Tender — God points to the heart, not the achievement, as His reason for hearing. A heart soft under His Word is His own work in a person.
- Heard — God never reversed the sentence on Jerusalem, yet He counted one man's tears. The judgment ran its course, and God still heard the penitent.
- Spared — the gift is what his eyes will never see, the pattern of the righteous taken away before the evil arrives.
- Costly — one man's shelter was the nation's loss; his life was the only thing standing between Judah and the outpouring, so his careless risk against Pharaoh cost far more than it looked.
- Stirred — knowing he would be spared, Josiah humbled himself further and pressed the reform on. A hope of rescue that leaves the heart cold to God's dishonour has missed the point.