But in the eighteenth year of King Josiah this Passover was kept to the LORD in Jerusalem.
Josiah's great Passover came at the end of a long clean-up. He had cleared the idols out of the land, repaired the temple, and turned the nation back to the Scriptures. The verse dates the feast to his eighteenth year. Commentators ask why this one Passover, so late in Judah's story, stands above every other.
The Eighteenth Year
The date matters. The feast had to wait until the land and the temple were clean.
W. W. FeredayJosiah's Passover was kept in the eighteenth year of his reign, when he was twenty-six years old. Cleaning out the land and the temple took a long time. The king was right to feel that the LORD must be worshipped in pure surroundings... In Josiah's day the land was full of detestable things — not only the idols themselves, but also the filthy practices that always go with idolatry. Clearing it all away seems to have taken eight years of hard work... The order Josiah followed teaches us something. First he cleansed the land and the temple. Next he "repaired the house of the LORD his God." Then he felt ready to call the people together to keep the feast.
Where the Feast Belongs in a Revival
The feast did not stand alone. It came after two other things, and grew out of them.
H. L. RossierTwo great principles mark revival in the end times: breaking with the idolatry of the world or of its religious traditions, and returning to the Holy Scriptures. The celebration of the Passover follows these two facts, and comes as a result of them.
Why It Surpassed All Others
Israel had known far richer days. Something other than resources or national strength made this feast stand out.
C. H. MackintoshWhat a remarkable testimony! Hezekiah's Passover carries us back to the brilliant reign of Solomon, but here we have something brighter still. What gave Josiah's Passover such glory? We believe it was this: the feast was the fruit of holy and reverent obedience to the Word of God at a time when ruin and corruption, error and confusion were everywhere. The dark background of the nation's condition made the working of faith in an obedient and devoted heart stand out.
Done Exactly by the Book
Josiah measured this feast by one thing only, and it was not what earlier kings had managed.
W. W. FeredayWhat made this Passover different from every one before it was that both king and people carefully obeyed the Word of the LORD... The failures and shortcomings of earlier days did not set the pattern now. Hezekiah kept the Passover in the second month; but Josiah kept it in the first. In Hezekiah's day the cleansing of the people and the sanctuary was only partial. Josiah made sure that this cleansing was thorough and complete.
What the Passover Carried
Who the feast was given to shaped what it came to mean.
H. L. RossierBecause it was given to a redeemed and circumcised people, the memorial became the symbol of the unity of the people of God. So the Passover was at once the remembrance of redemption and the announcement of the unity of the people.
That second meaning does not fade when God's people fall apart. It grows.
H. L. RossierSo the further we go into the history of the ruin of the people of God, the more the Passover matters to the faithful, along with the state of heart that fits it. Strikingly, the sign of the people's unity grows more important the more the ruin scatters them.
A Small Gathering, Greatly Valued
Size was not what made this feast valuable.
W. W. FeredayIn Josiah's day the nation was broken, and Gentile powers had carried large numbers of the people away from the land. Only a remnant was left. Yet the LORD treasured the sight of them gathering at that late moment in the nation's history, putting themselves once more, in their danger and need, under the shelter of the blood of the lamb.
What the Lamb Pointed To
Why a Passover, and not some other feast? Its meaning reaches far past Josiah's day.
W. W. FeredayJosiah wanted to keep a Passover to the LORD. This was Israel's great foundation feast. Under the shelter of the blood of the lamb, the people were spared the judgement that fell on the Egyptians. God wanted a grateful people to keep it in remembrance for ever... The Passover lamb pictured Christ: "For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed" (1 Corinthians 5:7). The Lord's Supper differs a little from the Passover. It is not simply a memorial of a great deliverance, but a remembrance of the Person who won that deliverance for us. "Do this in remembrance of me," were our Lord's words (Luke 22:19).
Summary
- Cleared — Eight years of tearing down idols and repairing the temple came first. Worship follows the clearing away of what defiles.
- Written — Careful obedience to the Word lifted this feast above every other. Earlier failures set no standard.
- Remembered — The feast held two things at once: redemption by the blood of the lamb, and the oneness of the people who ate it.
- Scattered — As ruin spreads, the sign of unity matters more, not less; a remnant gathering late is precious to God.
- Brightest — The darker the day, the brighter such obedience shines; and the lamb they sheltered under pictured Christ, sacrificed for us.