2BC BIBLE STUDY NOTES
Wednesday in the Word
Second Baptist Church
May 31, 2023
2nd Chronicles Chapter 33:21-25-Chapter 34:1-33
Chapter 33: 21-25 We pick up this week after the death of King Manasseh who repented and turned back to God. His life taught us that it is never too late to turn back to the Lord. After his death, his son Amon became king. His reign was extremely short, only 2 years. Instead of following his father’s lead and serving God, Amon decided to do what his father did before his father repented. Amon chose to worship the false idols and false gods. This angered God. God decided that Amon would not be king very long. Sometimes God removes kings after 30 years, and sometimes God removes leaders in 2 years. Amon’s officials plotted to have him killed, and then the people of the land killed Amon’s killers. The people of the land installed Josiah the son of the King as their new king. He was only 8 years old at the time.
Chapter 34:1-3. We are told that Josiah becomes king at the young age of 8 years old and reigns as king for 31 years. The summary of his reign is that he served God with all his heart. In verse 3, we are told that he sought the Lord at an early age. The lesson for us in this verse is that it is never too late to seek God and it is never too early to seek God. With regards to King Manasseh, he finally sought God after many years of living. Regarding Josiah, he sought God at an early age and stayed faithful. The goal is to stay faithful after you start seeking God. The goal is faithfulness to God no matter the age or circumstances.
Verses 4-7. When he reached the age of 20, he commanded that the idols that were still around be torn down and destroyed. The worship of this great variety of idols was entrenched after the reign of Amon. The late reforms of Manasseh helped against this trend, but since the short but wicked reign of Amon, there was much idolatry in the land. The text gives us the impression that he had men go throughout the entire region to purge the community of any idols. The variety of idols described shows how deep idolatry was in Judah. There were idols dedicated to Baal and to Asherah (2 Kings 23:4) and to all the host of heaven (2 Kings 23:5) in the very temple itself (2 Kings 23:4). From the 2 Kings account, it seems that Josiah began the cleansing reforms at the center and worked outwards. We get the impression that none was left standing that they could find. This is a stark difference from other kings who didn’t completely rid the community of idols and high places. Josiah attempts to rid the land of them all.
Verses 8-13. At the age of 26, Josiah orders his officials to get with the High Priest to repair the temple of the Lord. Josiah orders them to gather offerings from all over Judah and the remnant of Israel for the priest and Levites to repair the temple. We are told that after receiving the offerings they gave the money to the priests who paid skilled craftsmen and other builders to repair the temple. Josiah understood that the work of repairing and rebuilding the temple needed organization and funding. He paid attention to both of these needs when he gave Hilkiah oversight over this restoration work of the temple. As a result, the men did the work faithfully. We are told that the Levites oversaw the construction and repair. There was much work to do, and all hands were needed on deck. We even see that some who had worship duties such as singing and playing instruments had to do other jobs that were needed to run the construction site. The lesson here is that sometimes you need to get in where you fit and do things that are not your job, but you can do the work.
Verses 14-15. During the repair, Hilkiah the priest found the Book of the Law of the LORD. According to Deuteronomy 31:24-27, there was to be a copy of this Book of the Law beside the ark of the covenant, beginning in the days of Moses. The word of God was with Israel, but it was greatly neglected in those days. ‘The Book,’ (most likely the first 5 books of our bible) however, seems to have become misplaced during the apostate administrations of the previous kings, Manasseh and Amon, under whom the ark had been moved all around. The finding of the “book” leads us to think that a generation of priests and Levites didn’t grow up hearing the word being read aloud.
Verses 16-28. Hilkiah said to Shaphan the secretary, “I have found the Book of the Law in the temple of the Lord.” He gave it to Shaphan. Then Shaphan took the book to the king and reported to him: “Your officials are doing everything that has been committed to them. They have paid out the money that was in the temple of the Lord and have entrusted it to the supervisors and workers.” Then Shaphan the secretary informed the king, “Hilkiah the priest has given me a book.” And Shaphan read from it in the presence of the king. Most likely Shaphan read from the book of Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy list the blessings and the curses that would fall upon the nation if they obeyed God or disobeyed the word of God. I suspect that Josiah heard those curses and immediately realized that the nation was facing judgment. He tore his clothes: The tearing of clothing was a traditional expression of horror and astonishment. In the strongest way possible, Josiah showed his grief on his own account and on account of the nation. This was an expression of deep conviction of sin, and a good thing. After tearing his clothes, the king orders some of the Levites to go to the woman of God and inquire of the Lord for himself and the entire nation about the words of the book. Hilkiah the priest consulted Huldah the prophetess for spiritual guidance. This woman was known as one who could hear from the Lord. Oftentimes scholars will minimize her role (because they want to minimize the role of women), but the text is clear, she is the person that God spoke through. Huldah, doesn’t give the king an easy word, but a very hard word. Huldah told the messengers to tell the King that calamity would come on the nation just as he suspected. But because he humbled himself, the Lord would allow him to die before he saw the destruction of the nation.
Verses 29-33. The king sent and gathered all the elders of Judah: Josiah heard the promise of both eventual judgment and the immediate delay of judgment. He did not respond with indifference or simple contentment that he would not see the judgment in his day. He wanted to get the kingdom right with God, and he knew that he could not do it all by himself--he needed all the elders of Judah to join in broken repentance with him. Josiah was so concerned that the nation would hear the word of God that he read it to them himself instead of the priest. King Josiah stood before the people and publicly declared his commitment to obey the word of God to the very best of his ability. “[He] made a covenant is literally ‘[he] cut a covenant,’ which goes back to the practice of cutting the carcass of an animal and separating the parts so the contracting parties could seal their agreement by walking between them (cf. Genesis 15:17; Jeremiah 34:18). It wasn’t enough for the king himself to do it and to offer his example to the people. They had to follow by taking a stand for the covenant themselves. All his days they did not depart from following the LORD God of their fathers: The work of King Josiah had a lasting effect among the people of Judah. They stayed faithful to God during his reign.
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