Who was King Josiah in the Bible?

"JOSIAH was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned thirty and one years in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Jedidah, the daughter of Adaiah of Boscath. 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."

Josiah. The darkness of Amon’s reign serves as a background to throw into happy relief the reign of his illustrious son Josiah. It was a time of great weakness, for so many of the kings of Judah had brought down upon the nations the wrath of a patient God who, in long-suffering, waited for signs of true repentance from those who had received so much blessing at His hand. It is therefore refreshing to read that Josiah “did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, and walked in the ways of David his father, and declined neither to the right hand, nor to the left” (2 Chr. 34:1-2), a divine commendation given to no other occupant of the throne of David.

When but sixteen years old, Josiah sought after the God of David, and, with a zeal matching Hezekiah’s, he purged Judah and Jerusalem from idolatry, burnt the bones of the idolatrous priests upon their altars, and carrying his cleansing work to the cities of Manasseh, Ephraim and Simeon, and even reaching unto Naphtali; then sent his servants to repair the house of the Lord.

While engaged in the service of the house of God “a book of the law of the Lord given by Moses” was found, and brought to the king who, on reading it, rent his clothes, and sent to enquire of the Lord concerning what was written in the law. Huldah the prophetess confirmed that the Lord would bring His judgments upon His people because of their sins, but because the king’s heart was tender, and because he humbled himself on reading the curses of the law, the judgment would be deferred till after his death.

Josiah’s passover was a notable event, even as it is recorded, “Surely there was not holden such a passover from the days of the judges that judged Israel, nor in all the days of the kings of Israel, nor of the kings of Judah” (2 Kings 23:22). What encouragement is this for the saints of these last days. Even amidst the ruin of the church, when the judgment of God is about to fall upon the worthless Christian profession, it is possible to answer to the mind of God, doing that which is pleasing to Him.

Josiah was a king as remarkable for conscientious service to God as any man that ever reigned in Judah. How remarkable — not, alas! that a pious king should have an impious son, but that an impious father should have a pious son. This indeed was grace.

We find in Josiah a tender heart, subject to the word, and a conscience that respected the mind and will of God: only at last he had too much confidence in the effect of this to secure blessing from God, without the possession of that faith which gives intelligence in His ways to understand the position of God's people. God however makes use of this confidence to take Josiah away from the evil He was preparing in the judgments which were to fall upon Judah, the knowledge of which should have made Josiah walk more humbly. At the age of sixteen he began by the grace of God to seek Jehovah; and at twenty he had acquired the moral strength necessary for acting with energy against idolatry, which he destroyed even unto Naphtali. We see here how sovereign grace came in; for both Hezekiah and Josiah were the sons of extremely wicked fathers.

Having cleansed the land from idolatry, Josiah begins to repair the temple; and there the book of the law was found. The king's conscience, and his heart also, are bowed under the authority of the word of his God. He seeks for the prophetic testimony of God with respect to the state in which he sees Israel to be, and God makes known to him by Huldah the judgment about to fall upon Israel; but tells him at the same time that his eyes shall not see the evil. It was this communication which should have made him act with less precipitation, and with a more exercised heart than he manifested when he went up against the king of Egypt. The knowledge that their well-deserved judgment was soon to overwhelm Israel, and that there was no remedy for their sins (although Josiah himself was spared), ought to have prevented his going up against Pharaoh, when the latter did not attack him, and even warned him to forbear; but he would not hearken, and was lost through a hardihood which was not of God.

In the midst of Judah more and more corrupt, how marked is the tender conscience of Josiah (2 Chron. 34), with boldness for Jehovah's honour and hatred of idolatry and heed to the word of God! so that the passover was kept as not before since Samuel's days (2 Chron. 35). But fighting without divine direction he fell before the then king of Egypt. The evil under Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin, and the profane Zedekiah brought on the destruction of the kingdom, of Jerusalem and the temple, with the captivity of the remnant in Babylon (2 Chron. 36). "There was no remedy." After seventy years Cyrus the Persian according to the word of Jehovah proclaimed the return and the rebuilding of His house at Jerusalem.

Under Josiah, as under Hezekiah, there is a resolute and complete rupture with ancient evil, long tolerated or established in Judah. Josiah's faithfulness in this respect, so as it is reported to us in Kings, is altogether remarkable.

Josiah began to reign while still a small boy and consequently under the care of his mother, Jedidah, the daughter of Adaiah of Bozcath, a woman of Judah (Joshua 15:39). He walked, like Hezekiah, "in all the way of David his father, and turned not aside to the right hand nor to the left" (v. 2). The first thing we are told of him here is that he began by taking care of the Lord's house, repairing its breaches, counting upon the faithfulness of those who were charged with this work. This is one of the distinctive signs of a revival in the last times. God's house acquires an entirely new importance to believers, and its state of ruin draws out their solicitude. It ought to be so in the days that Christendom is passing through at present. The voice of the faithful ought to be heard, drawing the attention of God's people to His house, the Assembly of the Living God, as being that object that is most dear to Christ's heart. It is in no way a matter of freshly rebuilding the ruined temple but one of repairing its breaches, of faithfully bringing the necessary material, of adding to this building cedar wood and hewn stone pleasing to God who had built the house. Likewise at this time of the end the Christian who is conscious of his calling, instead of adding wood, hay, and stubble to the house, will bring to it that which is suitable to the house of God — living stones, hewn by the Holy Spirit, in the quarry of the world, cut by the Master, and capable ultimately of forming a part of the building of God. The revival in our times has comprehended this. For it, God's Assembly exists, although this Assembly is in ruin; whereas it takes no account of those buildings that men call their churches and which are maintained by men. It is not to these buildings that Christ's faithful witnesses will bring material, but to the Church of the Living God, and each is responsible to Him alone for the work which has been entrusted to him. "But no reckoning was made with them of the money that was given into their hand, because they dealt faithfully" (v. 7).

The revival in the days of Josiah, king of Judah, followed the dreadful lapse during the reigns of Manasseh and Amon. These two, Manasseh especially — although he was converted towards the end of his days after being disciplined under the government of God by a Babylonish captivity — had dissipated all the goodly effects of the wonderful revival in the days of Hezekiah. Josiah set out to rid the land of idolatry. By the eighteenth year of his reign he had purged the land and the house. This being accomplished he set about repairing the house of the Lord with a view to full recovery.

During the search of the house for the money needed for the work of restoration, "Hilkiah the priest found a book of the law of the LORD given by Moses." This he delivered to Shaphan the scribe saying, "I have found the book of the law in the house of the LORD." How sorry a reflection on the preceding condition in Judah — the Word of God had been lost! Now it was recovered!

In the thirty-first year of his reign, Josiah, perhaps from fidelity to former treaties with Assyria, went out to oppose the king of Egypt when he himself was in no way attacked; and, though warned 'from the mouth of God,' he persisted in his purpose. He disguised himself, yet he was wounded and died. Jeremiah lamented for him and the singers also in their songs. 2 Chr. 35:20-26. His reign was like the last shining of God's lamp in Judah: though he had zealously followed the Lord, the heart of the people was not changed. Jer. 3:6-10: cf. Zephaniah. In Matt. 1:10-11 the name is JOSIAS.

Israel had been in captivity for eighty years when Josiah ascended the throne of Judah, and the judgment of God had already been pronounced on Judah because of the sins of Manasseh his grandfather (2 Kings 21:10-16). In spite of all the evil, God was pleased to raise up His servant king Josiah, giving a little respite before the execution of the judgment that had been pronounced, and giving His people time for repentance and to turn from all their sins to Himself. Just as we have the assembly of Philadelphia in Revelation 3 before Laodicea, which is to be spued out of the mouth of Christ, so have we the pious Josiah before judgment comes upon the nation of Israel, upon the kings, the priests, the prophets and the people.

The various periods in the life of Josiah are very strongly marked. "In the eighth year of his reign, he began to seek after the God of David his father"; "in the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem"; and "in the eighteenth year of his reign, when he had purged the land and the house, he sent Shaphan the son of Azaliah, and Maaseiah the governor of the city, and Joah the son of Joahaz the recorder, to repair the house of the Lord his God."