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(The view expressed in this blog are my own and should not be taken as inspired in any way.)
2 Kings 23:25–30, “And like unto him was there no king before him, that turned to the LORD with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his might, according to all the law of Moses; neither after him arose there any like him. Notwithstanding the LORD turned not from the fierceness of his great wrath, wherewith his anger was kindled against Judah, because of all the provocations that Manasseh had provoked him withal. And the LORD said, I will remove Judah also out of my sight, as I have removed Israel, and will cast off this city Jerusalem which I have chosen, and the house of which I said, My name shall be there. Now the rest of the acts of Josiah, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? In his days Pharaohnechoh king of Egypt went up against the king of Assyria to the river Euphrates: and king Josiah went against him; and he slew him at Megiddo, when he had seen him. And his servants carried him in a chariot dead from Megiddo, and brought him to Jerusalem, and buried him in his own sepulchre. And the people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of Josiah, and anointed him, and made him king in his father’s stead.”
Even though Josiah was a righteous king before the Lord, he still couldn’t make up for the multitude of sins committed by his father and grandfather. They had led Israel so far away from the Lord that Judah resembled the Amorites, who were in the Land before the Lord gave it to Israel. However, the king was not entirely responsible for Judah’s spiritual state. In Deut 13: 6-11, the Lord told Israel that every individual was responsible for the spiritual state of the nation. When one person heard another person leading someone else astray that person was responsible to immediately deal with that sin. It didn’t matter if one person heard their most loved partner or child saying these things that person was still responsible for dealing with the sin. This means that the kings of Judah were only able to lead Judah astray because the people of Judah let it happen. Josiah may have led a revival but the whole nation had tolerated the sin of their kings for many years and had done nothing about it. The Lord sent prophets but they were persecuted by the general population who were too much in love with their idols and their ways. On the other hand, the Lord made sure that there was an up to date and understood copy of the Book of the Law in Judah before they were taken away into exile so that they could have access to that book and begin the process of revival. When they returned from their exile they had that book with them to rebuild and seek to restore the contract. Josiah went to fight against the Egyptian Pharaoh who was on his way to fight against the Babylonians at Carchemish. This is where the Babylonians defeated the Assyrians and took away their empire. When the Babylonians came down to take possession Egypt they found an ungodly king in Jerusalem because the Egyptians had killed Josiah. The Lord promised Hezekiah that these people would take away Jerusalem’s wealth. (2 Kings 20: 12-19)
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