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Context No. 1924 of 4322 · 2 Kings

Context · Reflection

2 Kings 22:14-20: in context

14So Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam, Achbor, Shaphan, and Asaiah went to Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum the son of Tikvah, the son of Harhas, keeper of the wardrobe (now she lived in Jerusalem in the second quarter); and they talked with her. 15She said to them, “The LORD the God of Israel says, ‘Tell the man who sent you to me, 16“The LORD says, ‘Behold, I will bring evil on this place and on its inhabitants, even all the words of the book which the king of Judah has read. 17Because they have forsaken me and have burned incense to other gods, that they might provoke me to anger with all the work of their hands, therefore my wrath shall be kindled against this place, and it will not be quenched.’” 18But to the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of the LORD, tell him, “The LORD the God of Israel says, ‘Concerning the words which you have heard, 19because your heart was tender, and you humbled yourself before the LORD when you heard what I spoke against this place and against its inhabitants, that they should become a desolation and a curse, and have torn your clothes and wept before me, I also have heard you,’ says the LORD. 20‘Therefore behold, I will gather you to your fathers, and you will be gathered to your grave in peace. Your eyes will not see all the evil which I will bring on this place.’”’” So they brought this message back to the king.

When the lost book of the law is found and read to King Josiah, he tears his clothes in grief, and sends to inquire of the LORD. The prophetess Huldah gives God's answer: judgment is indeed coming on Judah for forsaking him. But to Josiah personally she gives a different word: because your heart was tender, and you humbled yourself before the LORD when you heard his words, and tore your clothes and wept before me, I have heard you; you will be gathered to your grave in peace, and will not see the disaster.

The reason God gives for showing Josiah mercy is worth dwelling on: because your heart was tender, and you humbled yourself, and wept when you heard my words. Josiah's response to God's word was not indifference or hardness, but a tender heart: he was pierced by what he heard, humbled, moved to grief and repentance, torn open by the word of God. And God honored that tender, responsive heart. It was not Josiah's righteousness alone but the tenderness of his heart toward God's word that drew God's mercy. There is something to learn here about how we receive God's word. The same word can fall on a hard heart and a tender one, and the difference is everything. A hard heart hears God's word and is unmoved, unpierced, unchanged, resistant, deflecting the word rather than being cut by it. A tender heart hears the same word and is moved, humbled, pierced, brought to repentance and grief over sin, responsive rather than resistant. And God honors the tender heart. This is the heart God looks for: not one that hears his word and shrugs, but one that is soft toward it, movable, pierced by it, quick to be humbled and to repent when the word convicts. To this one God looks, Isaiah says, who is humble and contrite in spirit, and who trembles at my word. A broken and contrite heart, the psalm says, God will not despise. The question this puts to us is what kind of heart we bring to God's word: a hard one that hears and is unmoved, or a tender one that is pierced and humbled and responsive. Josiah's tender heart, moved to grief and repentance by God's word, drew God's mercy; and God still looks for, and honors, the tender heart that trembles at his word rather than the hard heart that deflects it. To cultivate a tender heart, soft toward God's word, quick to be humbled and to repent, is to be the kind of person to whom God draws near.

When God's word confronts me, do I receive it with a hard heart that hears and is unmoved, deflecting the word rather than being pierced by it, or with a tender heart like Josiah's, humbled and moved to repentance, and can I cultivate the tenderness toward God's word that he honors, the contrite heart that trembles at his word rather than the hard heart that shrugs it off?

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