But Josiah would not turn his face from him, but disguised himself, that he might fight against him; and he hearkened not to the words of Necho from the mouth of God; and he came to fight in the valley of Megiddo.
Josiah was one of Judah's most godly kings. Near the end of his reign he marched out to a battle no one had asked him to fight. The verse names three fatal moves. He would not turn back. He put on a disguise. He ignored a warning that the text calls the word of God.
The chapter's closing lines break sharply with everything that came before them.
Most gladly would we linger over the brilliant and stirring scene in the opening verses of 2 Chronicles 35, but we must bring this paper to an end, and we shall only glance very quickly at the solemn and warning close of Josiah's history. It stands in sad and painful contrast with all the rest of his most interesting career, and sounds a note of warning in our ears that we are bound to take seriously.
Necho was a foreign king with no place among God's people, yet the text says his words came from God's mouth.
Amazing words! Does it strike Christian readers as strange that God should speak through a pagan king to one of His own choicest servants? The Holy Spirit adds His own comment to Pharaoh's message: "Josiah … did not listen to the words of Necho from the mouth of God." This is a remarkable example of the sovereignty of God. He works and speaks through whomever He pleases.
The messenger's character does not settle whether the message is from God.
God may speak to believers through any agency. We should be awake to discern whether it may be God speaking even through an unbeliever. At the very least, Necho's words should have made Josiah pause. He ought to have weighed God's will in this matter.
Years earlier the same king had heard the law read aloud and obeyed it. Something had changed in him, not in God.
Josiah a few years earlier had a sensitive conscience about the will of God. When the book of the law was read before him, he quietly recognised the divine voice and obeyed it. Why did he not recognise the same voice speaking to him through Pharaoh Necho? How easy it is for any of us to fall into a state of spiritual dullness! Then the voice of God fails to move us, even when it sounds out clearly through some chosen instrument or passage of Scripture.
The mask itself is the confession. A man sure of God's backing has no reason to hide.
As long as Josiah walked in the light of God's revelation, his path was lit by the bright beams of God's face. But then he tried to act for himself, and to travel off the straight and narrow way of simple obedience. At that moment dark and heavy clouds gathered around him, and the course that had opened in sunshine ended in gloom. … "He disguised himself." Why do this, if he was conscious of acting for God? Why wear a mask, if he was walking the path God appointed? … We can count on God to the fullest extent if we are walking in His way. But we have no security at all if we try to travel off the line God has drawn. Josiah had no command to fight at Megiddo, and so he could not count on divine protection. "He disguised himself," but that did not shield him from the enemy's arrow.
Josiah stepped into a war between two foreign powers. It was not his quarrel.
Josiah takes the Assyrian's side against Pharaoh, something God had in no way commanded him to do. What did he have to do with propping up the tottering structure of this power, Israel's cruel enemy? … Was he commissioned by God to correct world affairs or to lend his support in them? … Josiah had been set apart from all the course of this world to serve the Lord, he and his people. Yet we see him meddling in politics! He does not have to wait long for the result: the world punishes us for interfering in its affairs.
Josiah is not alone in this failure, and good men are not exempt from its results.
It is a serious thing for a child of God to persist in doing his own will. Josiah went to Megiddo when he should have stayed at Jerusalem, and the archers shot him, and he died. Jonah went to Tarshish when he should have gone to Nineveh, and he was thrown into the sea. Paul insisted on going to Jerusalem though the Spirit told him not to, and he fell into the hands of the Romans. Now, all these were true, earnest, devoted servants of God. But they failed in these things. God overruled their failure for blessing, yet they still had to reap the fruit of it.
One writer also sees a mercy in the timing of his death.
The people were completely unworthy of such a godly ruler. Despite the outward reformation, their wickedness called loudly for judgment. So the righteous was taken away from the evil to come. Seen from this angle it was a mercy to the man himself; but to the nation, humanly speaking, it was a terrible disaster.
- Voice heard. Josiah's best years began with a book read aloud and a king who obeyed what he heard.
- Voice sent. God spoke again through a foreign king. The messenger's unfitness did not cancel the message.
- Voice refused. Dullness, not ignorance, was the problem. The ear that once obeyed no longer knew His voice.
- Voice replaced. He acted without any command, meddled in a war that was not his, and the disguise proved he knew it.
- Voice vindicated. No mask shields a believer who has left God's path. The arrow found him. Yet God spared him from seeing the judgment to come.
And the archers shot at king Josiah; and the king said to his servants, Have me away, for I am sore wounded.
Josiah's reign was the brightest in generations. Yet it ends with a wounded king at Megiddo, and with a hard question: why did God not protect him?
Josiah went into this battle dressed as someone else. One writer asks what that disguise admits.
"He disguised himself." Why do this, if he was conscious of acting for God? Why wear a mask, if walking the path God has appointed? ... We can count on God to the fullest extent if we are walking in His way. But we have no security at all if we try to travel off the line God has appointed. Josiah had no command to fight at Megiddo, and so he could not count on divine protection. "He disguised himself," but that did not shield him from the enemy's arrow.
The archers look like soldiers doing an ordinary job. One writer sees a hand behind their arrow, and sets Josiah beside a king who asked God before going to war.
But Josiah, in this matter, did not enquire of the Lord: it was his own eagerness that led him to stand against Pharaoh Necho. And as if he had a feeling that he would die, he disguised himself, which was not needed if he had faith in God. He did not even have the faith of Jehoshaphat. Jehoshaphat was supporting and helping Ahab. Even so, he would not go to battle without asking the prophet of the Lord. And he went into battle wearing his royal robes. Jehoshaphat was preserved; Josiah was slain. The God of battles, who guided the arrow that gave Ahab his death-wound, controlled the archers that slew Josiah.
Megiddo was not new ground for Israel's armies. The same valley had already seen Israel win there by faith.
A chance arrow struck Ahab despite his disguise, guided no doubt by the God of Judgement. Something similar happened to Josiah. "And the archers shot King Josiah. And the king said to his servants, 'Take me away, for I am badly wounded'" (2 Chron. 35:23). His servants lifted him out of his fighting chariot and put him into another; but sadly, he was soon dead! Megiddo was the scene of a great victory when Barak and Deborah moved in faith against the Canaanites, for God was with them (Judges 5:19). Now Megiddo was the scene of a crushing defeat, for God was not with Josiah in his foolish venture.
Scripture had already warned against stepping into someone else's fight. What is missing from the record before this battle says as much as what is in it.
Necho came against Assyria, and had no quarrel with Josiah. ... Josiah should also have known a proverb "copied by the men of Hezekiah." It says: "Whoever meddles in a quarrel not his own is like one who takes a passing dog by the ears" (Prov. 26:17). ... It was not of faith — otherwise why "disguise" himself? There is no record of any prayer before the battle. The records of so many of his godly ancestors do show such prayer. This rash act of Josiah seems hard to explain. ... And God, who is the God of peace and righteousness, would not preserve him, as He had Jehoshaphat.
The same writer reads this death two ways at once.
There is another way, too, to look at Josiah's early end. The people were completely unworthy of such a godly ruler. Their wickedness, despite outward reform, cried out for judgment. So the righteous was taken away from the evil to come. Seen this way, it was a mercy to the man himself. For the nation, humanly speaking, it was a terrible disaster.
Josiah's failure was not unique. One writer sets two other servants of God beside him.
It is a serious thing for a child of God to persist in doing his own will. Josiah went to Megiddo when he ought to have stayed at Jerusalem, and the archers shot him, and he died. Jonah went to Tarshish when he ought to have gone to Nineveh, and he was thrown into the deep. Paul insisted on going to Jerusalem though the Spirit told him not to, and he fell into the hands of the Romans. Now, all these were true, earnest, devoted servants of God. But they failed in these things. God overruled their failure for blessing, yet they still had to reap the fruit of their failure, for "our God is a consuming fire" (Heb. 12:29).
- No command — Josiah had no order to fight at Megiddo, so he had no claim on God's protection there.
- Disguise — the mask showed he had no confidence in his own plan, and it stopped nothing.
- Arrow — the archers shot, but the God who guided the arrow into Ahab controlled these archers too.
- Mercy — his early death spared him the judgment coming on Judah, though for the nation it was a disaster.
- Reaping — Josiah, Jonah and Paul were all real servants of God who still reaped what self-will sowed.
And his servants took him out from the chariot, and put him in the second chariot that he had, and brought him to Jerusalem. And he died, and was buried in the sepulchres of his fathers. And all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah.
This verse closes the reign of Judah's last godly king. His servants carry him out of the battle dying, the nation weeps for him — and the hard question stands: why did such a king die in a fight he was never sent to?
after_note: DELETE
Chronicles records Josiah's obedience and his self-will with equal honesty. One writer explains why:
The Holy Spirit does not expand on it, but He has recorded it for our learning. It is always His way to give us men as they were. He writes the history of their "deeds, first and last" — good and bad — one as well as another. He tells us of Josiah's piety at the "first," and of his wilfulness at the "last." He shows us that as long as Josiah walked in the light of divine revelation, his path was lit up by the bright beams of God's face. But then he tried to act for himself — to walk by the light of his own eyes, off the straight and narrow way of simple obedience. At that moment dark and heavy clouds gathered around him, and the course that had opened in sunshine ended in gloom. Josiah went against Necho without any command from God. Indeed, he went in direct opposition to words spoken "from the mouth of God." He meddled with strife that did not belong to him, and he reaped the consequences.
after_note: DELETE
Josiah entered the battle in disguise. One writer reads that detail as evidence against him, and applies it to us:
He disguised himself, which proves that he had no good conscience about the matter. We are not surprised that Ahab wore a disguise on the battlefield, while shamefully urging his friend Jehoshaphat to expose himself in his royal robes. Ahab knew that God's sentence of judgement hung over his head (1 Kings 22:30), and he would escape it if he could. But Josiah should have known better. The God who has revealed Himself so fully to us in the person of His Son is not served by underhand methods at any time. In everything we do, whether in the world or in the church, let everything bear the full light of day.
Josiah did not enquire of the Lord before this battle. One writer sets him beside an earlier king who did:
He had not even the faith of Jehoshaphat. Jehoshaphat supported and helped Ahab, yet he would not go into battle without enquiring of the prophet of the Lord, and he went wearing his royal robes. Jehoshaphat was preserved; Josiah was slain. The God of battles guided the arrow that gave Ahab his death-wound. That same God controlled the archers who killed Josiah. Mercy took him away from the evil to come (Isa. 57:1); but there was judgment in the way it happened, and that judgment fell on the guilty city unmixed.
That he was carried back and laid in his own family tomb answered the word spoken to him earlier. One writer sees the same principle at work in Isaiah's words about the righteous being taken away:
A striking example of this was seen somewhat later when God-fearing Josiah was taken away so that his eyes might not see the disasters that were coming. It could then be said of him that "he shall enter into peace."
The grief was real and nationwide, and Scripture later uses it to picture a greater mourning still to come:
In truth the death of this king was the sunset of the kingdom of Judah. A few gleams of light may have lingered afterwards in Jehovah's mercy. But these soon faded into utter night, for both kings and people were deaf to the pleadings of the prophets. It seems the people grasped at once what Josiah's death meant… It was therefore a true national sorrow. The Holy Spirit here points back to it, to illustrate the mourning that will follow when their crucified and glorified Messiah is revealed to their hearts.
Yet their loyalty had been to the king rather than to the Lord:
Josiah set himself with his whole heart and soul to bring worshippers of carved images back to the living and true God. He was a bright and shining light, and the people were willing for a time to walk in his light. "All his days" they did not turn away from following the Lord. Yet at heart, according to the Lord's own declaration, they were still idolaters. They walked in the light of Josiah, not in the light of the Lord. They lived on the breath of Josiah, not on the words that came out of the mouth of God. They thought to live under the shadow of Josiah, not under the shadow of the Almighty.
- Light — Josiah was safe while he walked by God's revelation. The moment he walked by his own eyes, a life that opened in sunshine ended in gloom.
- Disguise — The mask he wore betrayed a bad conscience. God is not served by underhand methods; everything we do should bear the full light of day.
- Arrow — The God of battles who guided the arrow that killed Ahab controlled the archers who killed Josiah. Nothing about this death was accidental.
- Grave — Mercy took him away from the evil to come. His servants laid him in his fathers' tomb, and the judgment fell undiluted on the guilty city.
- Shadow — The nation wept for the man but never turned to his God. They lived in Josiah's light and under Josiah's shadow, not under the shadow of the Almighty. When he died, the sunset came.
And Jeremiah lamented for Josiah; and all the singing men and singing women spoke of Josiah in their lamentations to this day; and they made them an ordinance for Israel. And behold, they are written in the lamentations.
Josiah fell in battle at Megiddo, and the nation's grief outlasted his funeral: singers set it to music and kept it as a fixed custom. Why did one king's death cut so deep, and are these "lamentations" the Bible book that carries Jeremiah's name?
Commentators tie the grief to the collapse of the kingdom itself. A godly man's own folly hastened that end.
"All Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah" (2 Chron. 35:24). They might well mourn, for the disaster in the valley of Megiddo was the end of the Kingdom of Judah. The crash had to come, for Jehovah had spoken of it years before. But it is sad that the folly of one of the brightest saints who ever lived should have hastened it! This thought should take every last trace of self-confidence out of us. We are poor stewards of God at best! Only His grace can keep us right for a single hour.
The loss was sharper because of what his reign had been.
Josiah's death hit Jeremiah and all the people hard, and they lamented greatly. Well they might. His reign had been like a shining light in the middle of Israel's darkness, and that darkness closed in again fast after his death. In fact, the laments of the singing men and women became a regular memorial of Josiah (v. 25).
Commentators differ here. Are these songs the Bible book called Lamentations? One reading keeps them apart, on grounds of timing:
Do not confuse these "lamentations" with Jeremiah's book "Lamentations." That book was written over the fall of Jerusalem, and so it came after it.
Another reading treats Josiah's death as the very thing that set Jeremiah writing:
The death of the godly Josiah (2 Chron. 35:24-25) was what directly prompted these songs of unmatched feeling, for Israel's last hope died with this godly king.
Public mourning in Israel had its trained specialists — and that skill carried a danger.
Real mourning grows out of sympathy for a neighbour, but it became twisted into shallow professionalism. Lamenting sank into an art, and some won a reputation for their skill (Amos 5:16). Mourning women stood ready to come and take up a wailing for the dead (Jer. 9:17-18), sometimes in songs of mourning (2 Chron. 35:25). The Lord was always tender and gracious to the distressed and afflicted, yet He rebuked this show of hollow grief at the house of the ruler whose daughter had died. He said to the hired mourners, "Why are you making a commotion and weeping? The child is not dead but sleeping."
The people followed the Lord for as long as Josiah lived. That was exactly the problem.
It was with his whole heart and soul that Josiah set himself to work to bring worshippers of carved images back to the living and true God. He was a bright and shining light, and the people were willing for a season to walk in his light. "All his days" they did not turn away from following the Lord. Yet at heart, according to the Lord's own declaration, they were idolaters still. They walked in the light of Josiah, not in the light of the Lord. They lived on the breath of Josiah, not on the words that came out of the mouth of God. They thought to live under the shadow of Josiah, not under the shadow of the Almighty.
Scripture later reaches back to this scene at Megiddo.
The death of this monarch was the sunset of the kingdom of Judah… The people seem to have sensed at once what Josiah's death meant. We read that "all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah… and made them an ordinance in Israel." So it was a true national sorrow. The Holy Spirit points back to it here to illustrate the mourning that will follow when their crucified and glorified Messiah is revealed to their hearts.
- Light. Josiah's reign shone in a dark stretch of Israel's history, and the darkness closed in again fast once he was gone.
- Borrowed light. The people walked in Josiah's light, not the Lord's. They lived on his breath, not on the words from the mouth of God.
- Light lost. Megiddo was the sunset of Judah's kingdom. One godly man's folly hastened a crash God had already announced.
- Light remembered. Trained singers turned the grief into songs and a fixed custom. Commentators differ on whether these are the book of Lamentations.
- Light to come. Scripture uses this national sorrow to picture a deeper mourning still ahead, when Israel sees their crucified and glorified Messiah.
And the rest of the acts of Josiah, and his good deeds, according to that which is written in the law of Jehovah,
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
and his acts, first and last, behold, they are written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah.
Josiah's reign ends with a pointer, not a verdict: God keeps his acts on record, "first and last." Two questions follow. Why does Scripture hold on to both ends of a life? And what does God do with a story that began in obedience and ended at Megiddo?
One writer reads the phrase as the Holy Spirit's settled way of writing a life:
It is always His way to give us men as they were — to write the history of their "deeds, first and last" — good and bad — one as well as another. He tells us of Josiah's piety at the "first," and of his willfulness at the "last." He shows us that as long as Josiah walked in the light of God's revelation, his path was lit by the bright light of God's face. But the moment he tried to act for himself — to walk by the light of his own eyes, to step off the straight and narrow way of simple obedience — dark and heavy clouds gathered around him. The course that had opened in sunshine ended in gloom. Josiah went against Necho without any command from God; indeed, he went in direct opposition to words spoken "from the mouth of God." He meddled with a quarrel that was not his, and he reaped the consequences.
That habit sets the Bible apart from the way people usually write about their heroes:
The Book is a record — a history of things as they are. Scripture describes its characters with no effort at what might be called "dressing up" for appearances. In this the absolute truthfulness of God's word stands in striking contrast with ordinary biography. In those books, the subject appears only at his best. Judging from the narrative, you would gather there were no faults to record. But when we come to the Scriptures, the very men whose faith is our example appear as they were. Noah's faith in building the ark is not allowed to hide his drunkenness after he came out of it. Again and again we are told of Abraham's faith, and his acts of unbelief are not passed over either. David, the king, the man after God's heart, had the same passions we do, and Scripture records his sins in the same detail as his acts of faith.
The same phrase closes other reigns. Writing on Amaziah, one commentator asks whether it marks more than a span of years:
"First and last" — Is there not a division here between the earlier and the later part of his reign? And is the dividing line the point where he turned away from the Lord?
The record holds Josiah's goodness too. One writer looks ahead to the day when it all comes out:
At the judgement seat of Christ everything will come out in the light of God. God records our goodness as well as our badness. No unfortunate last deeds will blot out our first deeds, done when love was fresh and warm. God will remember everything and weigh it. "The LORD is a God of knowledge, and by him actions are weighed" (1 Sam. 2:3). Not "counted," as if quantity were everything with God, but "weighed"; quality is the chief thing with Him.
One writer turns Josiah's last deeds into a warning, and sets him beside others who insisted on their own way:
It is a serious thing for a child of God to persist in doing his own will. Josiah went to Megiddo when he should have stayed at Jerusalem, and the archers shot him, and he died. Jonah went to Tarshish when he should have gone to Nineveh, and he was thrown into the deep. Paul persisted in going to Jerusalem though the Spirit told him not to, and he fell into the hands of the Romans. Now all these were true, earnest, devoted servants of God, but they failed in these things. God overruled their failure for blessing, yet they still had to reap the fruit of it.
One writer marks what ended with Josiah:
Josiah was the last good king to sit on the throne of David, "till HE come whose right it is." He was also the last whose body found a resting place among the kings, in "the tombs of his fathers."
The closing verses of his story are not the closing word about him:
Poor Josiah! He finished badly, but despite his sorry blunder, he is "away from the body and at home with the Lord" (2 Cor. 5:8). We shall meet him in the presence of the Lord Jesus at His coming. No blunders there; each saved one will bear the image of the First-born Son for ever. It is all of grace.
- Written — God keeps Josiah's whole life on record. Scripture writes men as they were, good and bad.
- First — Josiah walked in the light of God's word, and those early deeds, done when love was fresh, are not cancelled by the last ones.
- Last — one step taken without a word from God ended a bright course in gloom; Jonah and Paul stand in the same list.
- Weighed — at the judgement seat God weighs actions; He does not merely count them. Quality is the chief thing with Him.
- Grace — Josiah finished badly, yet he is at home with the Lord. It is all of grace.