In closing our remarks on "the life and times of Josiah," we shall in
few words advert, first, to the fact of his celebration of the
passover; and secondly, to the solemn close of his history. Our sketch
of this truly interesting period would unquestionably be incomplete
were these things omitted.
And first, then, as to the fact--so full of interest and
encouragement--that at the very close of Israel's history there should
be one of the brightest moments that Israel had ever known. What does
this teach us? It very manifestly teaches us that in darkest times it
is the privilege of the faithful soul to act on divine principles and
to enjoy divine privileges. We look upon this as a most weighty fact
for all ages, but specially weighty at the present moment. If we did
nothing more by writing our papers on Josiah than to impress this
great fact on the mind of the Christian reader, we should consider
that we had not written in vain. If Josiah had been influenced by the
spirit and principle which, alas! seem to actuate so many in this our
day, he never could have attempted to celebrate the passover at all.
He would have folded his arms and said, "It is useless to think of
maintaining any longer our great national institutions. It can only be
regarded as a piece of presumption to attempt the celebration of that
ordinance which was designed to set forth Israel's deliverance from
judgment by the blood of the lamb, when Israel's unity is broken, and
its national glory faded and gone."
But Josiah did not reason like this; he simply acted upon the truth of
God. He studied the Scriptures, and rejected what was wrong and did
what was right. "Moreover, Josiah kept a passover unto the Lord in
Jerusalem; and they killed the passover on the fourteenth day of _the
first month_." (2 Chron. xxxv. 1). This was taking higher ground than
Hezekiah had taken, inasmuch as he kept his passover "on the
fourteenth day of _the second month_." (Chap. xxx. 15). In so doing,
Hezekiah was, as we know, availing himself of the provision which
grace had made for cases of defilement. (See Num. ix. 9-11). The
divine order, however, had fixed "the first month" as the proper
period, and to this order Josiah was enabled to conform. In short, he
took the very highest ground, according to the truth of God, while
lying low under the deep sense of personal and national failure. This
is ever the way of faith.
"And he set the priests in their charges, and encouraged them to the
service of the house of the Lord, and said unto the Levites that
taught _all Israel_, which were holy unto the Lord, Put the holy ark
in the house which _Solomon_, the _son of David, king of Israel_, did
build: it shall not be a burden on your shoulders; serve now the Lord
your God, and _His people Israel_. And prepare yourselves by the
houses of your fathers, after your courses, _according to the writing
of David king of Israel_, and according to the writing of Solomon his
son, and stand in the holy place, according to the divisions of the
families of the fathers of your brethren the people, and after the
division of the families of the Levites. So kill the passover, and
sanctify yourselves, and prepare your brethren, _that they may do
according to the word of the Lord by the hand of Moses_."
Here we have Josiah taking the loftiest ground and acting on the
highest authority. The most cursory reader cannot fail to be arrested,
as he scans the lines just quoted from the inspired record, by the
names of "Solomon," "David," "Moses," "all Israel," and above all, by
the expression--so full of dignity, weight, and power,--"That they may
do according to the word of the Lord." Most memorable words! May they
sink down into our ears and into our hearts. Josiah felt it to be his
high and holy privilege to conform to the divine standard,
notwithstanding all the errors and evils which had crept in from age
to age. God's truth must stand forever. Faith owns and acts on this
precious fact, and reaps accordingly. Nothing can be more lovely than
the scene enacted on the occasion to which we are now referring.
Josiah's strict adherence to the word of the Lord is not more to be
admired than his large-hearted devotedness and liberality. "He gave to
the people of the flock, lambs and kids, all for the passover-offerings,
for all that were present, to the number of thirty thousand, and three
thousand bullocks: these were of the king's substance. And his princes
gave willingly unto the people, to the priests, and to the Levites....
So the service was prepared, and the priests stood in their place,
and the Levites in their courses, according to the king's
commandment.... And the singers, the sons of Asaph, were in their
place, according to the commandment of David, and Asaph, and Heman,
and Jeduthun the king's seer; and the porters waited at every gate;
they might not depart from their service; for their brethren the
Levites prepared for them. So all the service of the Lord was prepared
the same day, to keep the passover, and to offer burnt-offerings upon
the altar of the Lord, according to the commandment of king Josiah.
And _the children of Israel_ that were present kept the passover at
that time, and the feast of unleavened bread seven days. And there was
no passover like to that kept in Israel from the days of Samuel the
prophet; neither did all the kings of Israel keep such a passover as
Josiah kept, and the priests, and the Levites, and all Judah and
Israel that were present, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. In the
eighteenth year of the reign of Josiah was this passover kept."
What a picture! King, princes, priests, Levites, singers, porters, all
Israel, Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem--all gathered
together--all in their true place and at their appointed work,
"according to the word of the Lord,"--and all this "in the eighteenth
year of the reign of Josiah," when the entire Jewish polity was on the
very eve of dissolution. Surely this must speak to the heart of the
thoughtful reader. It tells its own impressive tale, and teaches its
own peculiar lesson. It tells us that no age, no circumstances, no
influence, can ever change the truth of God or dim the vision of
faith. "The word of the Lord endureth forever," and faith grasps that
word and holds it fast in the face of everything. It is the privilege
of the believing soul to have to do with God and His eternal truth;
and, moreover, it is the duty of such an one to aim at the very
loftiest standard of action, and to be satisfied with nothing lower.
Unbelief will draw a plea from the condition of things around to lower
the standard, to relax the grasp, to slacken the pace, to lower the
tone. Faith says, "No!"--emphatically and decidedly, "No!" Let us bow
our heads in shame and sorrow on account of our sin and failure, but
keep the standard up. The failure is ours: the standard is God's.
Josiah wept and rent his clothes, but he did not surrender the truth
of God. He felt and owned that he and his brethren and his fathers had
sinned, but that was no reason why he should not celebrate the
passover according to the divine order. It was as imperative upon him
to do right as it was upon Solomon, David, or Moses. It is our
business to obey the word of the Lord, and we shall assuredly be
blessed in our deed. This is one grand lesson to be drawn from the
life and times of Josiah, and it is undoubtedly a seasonable lesson
for our own times. May we learn it thoroughly. May we learn to adhere
with holy decision to the ground on which the truth of God has set us,
and to occupy that ground with a larger measure of true devotedness to
Christ and His cause.
Most gladly would we linger over the brilliant and soul-stirring scene
presented in the opening verses of 2 Chronicles xxxv, but we must
bring this paper to an end, and we shall merely glance very rapidly at
the solemn and admonitory close of Josiah's history. It stands in sad
and painful contrast with all the rest of his most interesting career,
and sounds in our ears a note of warning to which we are bound to give
our most serious attention. We shall do little more than quote the
passage, and then leave the reader to reflect upon it, prayerfully and
humbly, in the presence of God.
"_After all this_, when Josiah had prepared the temple, Necho king of
Egypt came up to fight against Charchemish by Euphrates; and Josiah
went out against him. But he sent ambassadors to him, saying, What
have I to do with thee, thou king of Judah? I come not against thee
this day, but against the house wherewith I have war; for God
commanded me to make haste: forbear thee from meddling with God, who
is with me, that He destroy thee not. Nevertheless, Josiah would not
turn his face from him, but _disguised himself_, that he might fight
with him, and harkened not to the words of Necho _from the mouth of
God_, and came to fight in the valley of Megiddo. And the archers shot
at king Josiah; and the king said to his servants, Have me away, for I
am sore wounded. His servants therefore took him out of that chariot
and put him in the second chariot that he had; and they brought him to
Jerusalem, and he died, and was buried in one of the sepulchres of
his fathers. And all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah" (2 Chron.
xxxv. 20-24).
All this is very sad and humbling. We do not wish to dwell upon it
further than is absolutely needful for the purpose of instruction and
admonition. The Holy Spirit does not expatiate, but He has recorded it
for our learning. It is ever His way to give us men as they were,--to
write the history of their "deeds, _first and last_"--good and
bad--one as well as another. He tells us of Josiah's piety at the
"first," and of his wilfulness at the "last." He shows us that so long
as Josiah walked in the light of divine revelation, his path was
illuminated by the bright beams of the divine countenance; but the
moment he attempted to act for himself--to walk by the light of his
own eyes--to travel off the straight and narrow way of simple
obedience, that moment dark and heavy clouds gathered around him, and
the course that had opened in sunshine ended in gloom. Josiah went
against Necho without any command from God--yea, he went in direct
opposition to words spoken "from the mouth of God." He meddled with
strife that belonged not to him, and he reaped the consequences.
"He disguised himself." Why do this, if he was conscious of acting for
God? Why wear a mask, if treading the divinely appointed pathway?
Alas! alas! Josiah failed in this, and in his failure he teaches us a
salutary lesson. May we profit by it. May we learn more than ever to
seek a divine warrant for all we do, and to do nothing without it. We
can count on God to the fullest extent if we are walking in His way,
but we have no security whatever if we attempt to travel off the
divinely appointed line. Josiah had no command to fight at Megiddo,
and hence he could not count on divine protection. "He disguised
himself," but that did not shield him from the enemy's arrow. "The
archers shot him"--they gave him his death wound, and he fell, amid
the tears and lamentations of a people to whom he had endeared himself
by a life of genuine piety and earnest devotedness.
May we have grace to imitate him in his piety and devotedness, and to
guard against his wilfulness. It is a serious thing for a child of God
to persist in doing his own will. Josiah went to Megiddo when he ought
to have tarried at Jerusalem, and the archers shot him, and he died:
Jonah went to Tarshish when he ought to have gone to Nineveh, and he
was flung into the deep: Paul persisted in going to Jerusalem though
the Spirit told him not, and he fell into the hands of the Romans.
Now, all these were true, earnest, devoted servants of God; but they
failed in these things; and though God overruled their failure for
blessing, yet they had to reap the fruit of their failure, for "_our_
God is a consuming fire" (Heb. xii. 29).