Scripture Daily

Context No. 327 of 4322 · 2 Kings

Context · Reflection

2 Kings 23:21-27: in context

21The king commanded all the people, saying, “Keep the Passover to the LORD your God, as it is written in this book of the covenant.” 22Surely there was not kept such a Passover from the days of the judges who judged Israel, nor in all the days of the kings of Israel, nor of the kings of Judah; 23but in the eighteenth year of King Josiah, this Passover was kept to the LORD in Jerusalem. 24Moreover, Josiah removed those who had familiar spirits, the wizards, and the teraphim, and the idols, and all the abominations that were seen in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, that he might confirm the words of the law which were written in the book that Hilkiah the priest found in the LORD’s house. 25There was no king like him before him, who 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; and there was none like him who arose after him. 26Notwithstanding, the LORD didn’t turn from the fierceness of his great wrath, with which his anger burned against Judah, because of all the provocation with which Manasseh had provoked him. 27The LORD said, “I will also remove Judah out of my sight, as I have removed Israel; and I will cast off this city which I have chosen, even Jerusalem, and the house of which I said, ‘My name shall be there.’”

Josiah is the great reformer of Judah. After the lost book of the law is found in the temple, he throws himself into setting things right with a thoroughness no king before him had shown. In this passage he commands the whole nation to keep the Passover, and the text says there had not been a Passover kept like it since the days of the judges, through all the centuries of kings. He sweeps away the mediums and idols and household gods. And the verdict on him is extraordinary: there was no king before him who turned to the LORD with all his heart and soul and might, according to all the law of Moses, and none like him arose after. He did everything right.

And then comes one of the hardest words in the book. Nevertheless, the text says, the LORD did not turn from the fierceness of his great wrath against Judah, because of all the provocations of Manasseh, Josiah's grandfather, who had done tremendous evil. God will still remove Judah from his sight, still cast off Jerusalem, the city he had chosen. Josiah's reform, as total and sincere as any in Scripture, delayed the exile but did not cancel it. The best king Judah ever had could not undo the consequences already set in motion by an earlier generation.

That is a sober thing to sit with, and the writer records it plainly. Doing everything right does not always reverse what has already been set moving, and yet Josiah's faithfulness is not called a waste; it is praised more highly than any other king's. The reform was worth doing because it was faithful, not because it changed the outcome. Do I only count doing the right thing as worthwhile when it fixes the result, or can I, like Josiah, give myself wholly to what is right even when it will not undo what is already coming?

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