2 Kings 23
McGee2 Kings 23:1
JOSIAH’S FURTHER REFORMATIONSThe people said that not only would they read the Word of God, they would also walk itthey would live in the manner it prescribed. We could have revival in many of our churches, but there must be a conviction of sin that only the Word of God can bring. When the Bible brings conviction to the heart, repentance must follow. To repent means to make things right, my friend. Repentance means to turn around and go in the opposite direction. If you are going the wrong way, you turn around and go the right way. I heard of an evangelist who held meetings in upper New York State years ago. He preached for a week, and not one person made a move toward God. Then one night the leading deacon in the church came forward, shedding tears of repentance. That broke the meeting wide open because he was the one standing in the way of revival in that church. He apologized to someone he had wronged, and all during the night as he prayed, the Lord would convict him of something elsehis life hadn’t been right. He would go over and knock on the door of the person he had wronged, and say, “I’m here to make things right.” That went on all night! Imagine getting folk out of bed in the middle of the night! By morning there was a revival going on in that town because one man repented. Now Josiah as king has a tremendous influence. He will now put into operation a very bold plan. His repentance put him in first gear, and he started moving out. First he put idolatry out of the temple of God. All of the things that pertain to the worship of false gods were burned in the fields of Kidron, outside of the city of Jerusalem. The ashes were then taken out of town so that the people could not even look to the ashes. Then Josiah put away immorality.
2 Kings 23:7
Today the church is looking upon homosexuality as permissible behavior. God says in Rom_1:26 and Rom_1:27 that He gave up a people because of this unnatural thing. I’m of the opinion that God will give this nation up if we continue smiling upon the unnatural sex orgies that are taking place in our land. Josiah had the courage to condemn the sodomites. He not only condemned their actions, he put them out of the kingdom. Unnatural sex is wrong even if the church today condones it. I know that there are groups that say, “We ought to accept this sort of thing among consenting adults and even among consenting teenagers. It is perfectly all right.” Who told them it was all right? Somebody says, “Well, I think it is all right.” Well, my friend, that judgment is no bigger than your little mindand you may have a Ph.D. Your little mind and my little mind are not big enough to make judgments like that. God has said that sodomy will bring down His wrath. It has in the past, and He has not changed. We have changed, but God has not changed. Josiah was a brave man, and he got rid of the sodomites. Josiah also stopped the offering of human sacrificeschildrento Molech.
2 Kings 23:10
Josiah also broke down images, altars, high places, and groves that kings before him had brought into the land. He even went beyond the borders of Judahas far north as Bethel. 2Ch_34:33 sums it up in one verse: “And Josiah took away all the abominations out of all the countries that pertained to the children of Israel, and made all that were present in Israel to serve, even to serve the LORD their God. And all his days they departed not from following the LORD, the God of their fathers.” It is interesting that at Bethel he came upon the grave of the prophet who had predicted he would do these things (1Ki_13:2).
2 Kings 23:17
Now Josiah makes a tremendous positive move. He reinstitutes the Passover.
2 Kings 23:21
THE PASSOVER IS REINSTITUTEDThe holding of the Passover is a wonderful thing. Apparently it had not been kept for a long time; they had passed it by. What does it mean? The Passover speaks of Christ. The people had forgotten all about Him. Paul says, “…For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us” (1Co_5:7). Today we are trying to have religion without Christ. The deity of Christ is ridiculed in seminaries and in pulpits. The value of Christ’s death is rejected and spurned. The efficacy of Christ’s blood is hooted down as something evileven by some men in the pulpit. My friend, the only thing that can save our nation is revival. Somebody asks, “Can it come?” Yes, I believe it can come. There is a “sound of going in the tops of the mulberry trees” today. A flood tide came in the sixteenth century, which was led by the Reformers Luther, Calvin, and Zwingli. Wycliffe and John Knox in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries were the Reformers before the Reformation. In the seventeenth century came another spiritual awakening known as the Puritan movement.
In the eighteenth century, a time of darkness and deism, came another great spiritual awakening led by Wesley and Whitfield. In the nineteenth century there was a mighty turning to God in Oxford, and the missionary movement resulted. Toward the end of the century great revivals were led by Moody and Finney. In the twentieth century (hear me now very carefully) there has been no great world-sweeping, earth-shaking revival. There have been a few local revivals. The twentieth century is quickly drawing to an end.
Look around you today. When we had a depression in this country, we did not turn to God as a nation. We were plunged into World War II and saw the spilling of American blood that had not been equaled. That experience apparently did not teach us a thing. There was no revival. Since then we have had the Korean and the Vietnam wars.
Neither did they bring us back to God. Many people seem to think that if they get out and protest, things will change. But what we need is some real deep conviction on the inside. We need to recognize our coldness and indifference. When was the last time you confessed your coldness and indifference to the Lord? Have you told Him today that you love Him? He is your Savior, my friend, and I am convinced that even in this dark hour, as has happened in the past, we can have a revival. The story of Josiah encourages me. It was in the darkest hour in the life of his nation that revival came.
2 Kings 23:29
JOSIAH’S DEATHNow we come to a heartbreak in this story of Josiah. Great revival had come near the end of the kingdom of Judah. Soon his people will go into captivity. God moved in a mighty way to reveal the fact that He can send revival in the most difficult and dark days. Now what ended the revival? Josiah should have stayed home. He should have kept his nose out of it. This was not his fight, but he went out anyway. What happened? He was slain at Megiddo. (By the way, Megiddo in the great Valley of Esdraelon is the place where the War of Armageddon is to be fought in the last days.) Josiah was a great man of God, but he was foolish. He entered a battle that was none of his concern. This story might be a message for another nation I know about. I am afraid that we have meddled enough throughout the world today. We need to recognize that the only message that America has for the world is not democracy but the Word of God. We were blessed when we were sending out God’s Word. Today we are sending out propaganda and we have become an immoral nation. God is not in the things we do as a nation, and we are no longer being blessed.
2 Kings 23:31
JEHOAHAZ REIGNS AND IS DETHRONEDYou would think that Jehoahaz would follow in the righteous steps of his father, but he did not. Jehoahaz was an evil king. As a matter of fact, he hardly got the throne warm sitting on ithe lasted for only three months. Pharaoh didn’t like the way he was reigning. He removed him from the throne and took him down to the land of Egypt, where he died.
2 Kings 23:34
JEHOIAKIM IS MADE KINGJehoiakim was another son of Josiah, and he reigned for eleven years. He also was an evil king. We go from bad to worse. Jehoahaz was bad; Jehoiakim was worse. At this time the great power of Babylon is rising in the east on the Euphrates River. Babylon is displacing Assyria. Babylon, in fact, overcame Assyria. Babylon will also overcome Egypt and become the first great world power, as we will see in the Book of Daniel. It is at this point that we ought to read the Book of Jeremiah, because Jeremiah was the great prophet during this era. He was the one calling Israel back to God and warning them that if they do not turn to God they will be taken captive and sent to Babylon.
Jeremiah’s words seemed unbelievable to the people of Israel, because at this time Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon was not a formidable foe. The false prophets were telling the nation that God simply could not get along without them. Jerusalem was the city of God; His holy temple was there; they were His chosen people. He couldn’t get along without them. Well, they will find that He could get along without them. Actually, He didn’t need that temple; it would soon be destroyed.
2 Kings 23:37
Jehoiakim was another son of Josiah, and he reigned for eleven years. He also was an evil king. We go from bad to worse. Jehoahaz was bad; Jehoiakim was worse. At this time the great power of Babylon is rising in the east on the Euphrates River. Babylon is displacing Assyria. Babylon, in fact, overcame Assyria. Babylon will also overcome Egypt and become the first great world power, as we will see in the Book of Daniel. It is at this point that we ought to read the Book of Jeremiah, because Jeremiah was the great prophet during this era. He was the one calling Israel back to God and warning them that if they do not turn to God they will be taken captive and sent to Babylon.
Jeremiah’s words seemed unbelievable to the people of Israel, because at this time Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon was not a formidable foe. The false prophets were telling the nation that God simply could not get along without them. Jerusalem was the city of God; His holy temple was there; they were His chosen people. He couldn’t get along without them. Well, they will find that He could get along without them. Actually, He didn’t need that temple; it would soon be destroyed.