Lesson 8 – Josiah and Huldah Find a Scroll

Read the Bible Background

  • Material skipped – none

o  We are continuing the wider historical story and 2 Kings.

  • Preparing to read the story

This session's story comes from the reign of Josiah. King Hezekiah (from Session 7) died in 2 Kings 20.
Examine 2 Kings 21:1-2 and 21:19-20 to learn about his two successors. Notice how many years have gone by since the events of the last session.

Read paragraph 1 of the Bible Background.
What insights does the paragraph give you about the work of reform?

 

  • Reading  & Interpreting the story

Read 2 Kings 22:1-20;
23:1-3,21-23.
Examine the story using these questions:

• How does the introduction to Josiah in 22:1-2 compare to the introduction of the two previous kings examined in Activity 1?

• Read about King Jehoash in 2 Kings 11:21—12:8.
What does Josiah have in common with this other child king?

• The historical context of Josiah's reform was the waning of Assyrian power and the eventual fall of Nineveh in 612 B.C. What is the significance of that context for what was occurring in the reform?
Read or review paragraph 6 of the "Bible Background" for additional background information.

• Why does Josiah command everyone to celebrate the Passover (23:21)?
What is the meaning of celebrating the Passover in a period of Assyrian decline?

• Why do you suppose the language shifts from "book of the law" (22:8) to "book of the covenant" (23:2)?

 

 

  • Making the story your own

 

The last paragraph of the "Bible Background" states,
"Nothing is harder to bring about in religion than a major reform in religious practices that have become firmly established in the practice of worshipers."
What have been some re­forms in the religious practices of our faith community?
What were the barriers to those reforms ?
What was God doing through them?

 

 

Memory verse: Isaiah 37:16b

“You have made heaven and earth.”

 

Bible Background (taken from Journey through the Bible Book 2, Christian Board of Publications, 1995, p. 30)

Levite teachers who came down from North Israel "when the Northern Kingdom col­lapsed joined forces with other Levite teachers in Judah. During the long reign of King Manasseh (697-642 B.C.E., though Hezekiah may have been the nominal king from 697-687), these Levites worked to bring about a reform of Israelite life and faith. The book of Deuteronomy in its present form probably was produced during these years. But there was no opportunity during Manasseh's reign or during the reign of his son and successor Amon for the reform to be put into effect. Only as the "people of the land" (2 Kings 21:24) stopped a palace revolution and put Josiah, the eight-year-old son of Amon, on the throne did their opportu­nity come.

2We do not know how they arranged for the book of the Law, which was probably our book of Deuteronomy, to be placed in the temple in Jerusa­lem, nor do we know just when this happened. But after King Josiah had become an adult and had assumed full responsibility for the kingship, he issued the order that the temple collections that had accumulated for some years were to be used to give the temple a thorough renovation. And in the temple collection box, apparently, the scroll of the Law, consisting of Deuteronomy or some large part of it, was found! The priest brought it to Shaphan, a high official in the king's court. He reported the discovery to King Josiah and read its contents to the attentive king.

3King Josiah was overwhelmed to learn just how far the people of Israel had drifted from the demands of God's Torah, God's Teaching. Espe­cially important were the commands, found re­peatedly in the book of Deuteronomy, that the Israelites not continue to worship God at the reli­gious shrines located throughout the land. They were to worship God at the central sanctuary, remove all the forms of idolatry that had crept into their worship, and abolish the local shrines and forbid the priests who served there from continu­ing to lead in the worship of Israel's God.

4Could all this be true? If so, then surely God would be furious with the people for such apos­tasy. But first, the question had to be settled whether this book was legitimately and reliably a book of God's Torah, God's Teaching or Law. They went to a woman prophet named Huldah, a well-known religious leader who was trusted to declare the book authentic or fraudulent. Huldah studied the book and gave her verdict: It was genuine! With this endorsement of Huldah, the authorities in Judah, including King Josiah in particular, were prepared to carry through a major reform of the religious life of the people.

5The description of the scene that follows is very valuable for an understanding of early Israel­ite religious practices and ceremonies. Standing by the temple, Josiah read the entire book of the Law to all the assembled leaders of the people, plus a great throng of the general population. He com­mitted himself to follow the requirements of the Law. And then he had the temple attendants bring out of the temple all of the objects that belonged to the worship of the gods of Canaan, the gods Baal and Asherah, and the worship of other deities associated with sun and moon and stars. The priests who had officiated in such worship were removed from office, and all the representations of the for­eign gods were destroyed.

6Josiah ordered the destruction of the many places of foreign worship on the hills surrounding Jerusalem, and when that was done, the cleansing was extended to the entire land of Judah and out into former North Israelite territory as well. Josiah was not rebelling against Assyrian authority out­right, but his religious reform was a move against Assyrian forms of worship and was a quiet stating of a claim to the land in the name of the God of Israel.

7This move had to have been carefully planned. Once the book of the Law had been found, events proceeded with great care and orderliness, and Josiah did not stop until the reform had run its course. It was a bold and courageous thing to do. Nothing is harder to bring about in religion than a major reform in religious practices that have be­come firmly established in the practice of worship­ers. Josiah must have met much opposition. But was such a reform only a surface move? All the evidence suggests that Josiah was a devout worshiper who worshiped God with all his heart and wanted nothing more than a true and lasting reform of the daily life of the people as well as a reform of their worship, a simplification of that worship, and a turning to God in holy fear and love. Even so, there can be no doubt that there were grave dangers in this centralization of worship at the Jerusalem temple. Not many years would pass before Josiah would die in battle, and affairs would very quickly become corrupt once more. The prophet Jeremiah had to deal with the consequences, after Josiah's son Jehoiakim managed to secure the throne of Judah. Under Jehoiakim, Josiah's reform only gave the king better opportunity to practice injustice.

 

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 Scripture

2 Kings                                                                                      

                                                                                                                                                                                                                       CHAPTER 22                                                                 

 

1 Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign; he reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Jedidah daughter of Adaiah of Bozkath. 

2 He did what was right in the sight of the LORD, and walked in all the way of his father David; he did not turn aside to the right or to the left. 

3 In the eighteenth year of King Josiah, the king sent Shaphan son of Azaliah, son of Meshullam, the secretary, to the house of the LORD, saying,

4 "Go up to the high priest Hilkiah, and have him count the entire sum of the money that has been brought into the house of the LORD, which the keepers of the threshold have collected from the people; 

5 let it be given into the hand of the workers who have the oversight of the house of the LORD; let them give it to the workers who are at the house of the LORD, repairing the house,

6 that is, to the carpenters, to the builders, to the masons; and let them use it to buy timber and quarried stone to repair the house. 

7 But no accounting shall be asked from them for the money that is delivered into their hand, for they deal honestly." 

8 The high priest Hilkiah said to Shaphan the secretary, "I have found the book of the law in the house of the LORD." When Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan, he read it. 

9 Then Shaphan the secretary came to the king, and reported to the king, "Your servants have emptied out the money that was found in the house, and have delivered it into the hand of the workers who have oversight of the house of the LORD." 

10 Shaphan the secretary informed the king, "The priest Hilkiah has given me a book." Shaphan then read it aloud to the king. 

11 When the king heard the words of the book of the law, he tore his clothes. 

12 Then the king commanded the priest Hilkiah, Ahikam son of Shaphan, Achbor son of Micaiah, Shaphan the secretary, and the king's servant Asaiah, saying,

13 "Go, inquire of the LORD for me, for the people, and for all Judah, concerning the words of this book that has been found; for great is the wrath of the LORD that is kindled against us, because our ancestors did not obey the words of this book, to do according to all that is written concerning us." 

14 So the priest Hilkiah, Ahikam, Achbor, Shaphan, and Asaiah went to the prophetess Huldah the wife of Shallum son of Tikvah, son of Harhas, keeper of the wardrobe; she resided in Jerusalem in the Second Quarter, where they consulted her. 

15 She declared to them, "Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Tell the man who sent you to me,

16 Thus says the LORD, I will indeed bring disaster on this place and on its inhabitants--all the words of the book that the king of Judah has read. 

17 Because they have abandoned me and have made offerings to other gods, so that they have provoked me to anger with all the work of their hands, therefore my wrath will be kindled against this place, and it will not be quenched. 

18 But as to the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of the LORD, thus shall you say to him, Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel:  Regarding the words that you have heard,

19 because your heart was penitent, and you humbled yourself before the LORD, when you heard how I spoke against this place, and against its inhabitants, that they should become a desolation and a curse, and because you have torn your clothes and wept before me, I also have heard you, says the LORD. 

20 Therefore, I will gather you to your ancestors, and you shall be gathered to your grave in peace; your eyes shall not see all the disaster that I will bring on this place." They took the message back to the king. 

 

 

                                                                 CHAPTER 23                                                               

 

 

1 Then the king directed that all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem should be gathered to him. 

2 The king went up to the house of the LORD, and with him went all the people of Judah, all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the priests, the prophets, and all the people, both small and great; he read in their hearing all the words of the book of the covenant that had been found in the house of the LORD. 

3 The king stood by the pillar and made a covenant before the LORD, to follow the LORD, keeping his commandments, his decrees, and his statutes, with all his heart and all his soul, to perform the words of this covenant that were written in this book. All the people joined in the covenant. 

4 The king commanded the high priest Hilkiah, the priests of the second order, and the guardians of the threshold, to bring out of the temple of the LORD all the vessels made for Baal, for Asherah, and for all the host of heaven; he burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of the Kidron, and carried their ashes to Bethel. 

5 He deposed the idolatrous priests whom the kings of Judah had ordained to make offerings in the high places at the cities of Judah and around Jerusalem; those also who made offerings to Baal, to the sun, the moon, the constellations, and all the host of the heavens. 

6 He brought out the image of Asherah from the house of the LORD, outside Jerusalem, to the Wadi Kidron, burned it at the Wadi Kidron, beat it to dust and threw the dust of it upon the graves of the common people. 

7 He broke down the houses of the male temple prostitutes that were in the house of the LORD, where the women did weaving for Asherah. 

8 He brought all the priests out of the towns of Judah, and defiled the high places where the priests had made offerings, from Geba to Beer-sheba; he broke down the high places of the gates that were at the entrance of the gate of Joshua the governor of the city, which were on the left at the gate of the city. 

9 The priests of the high places, however, did not come up to the altar of the LORD in Jerusalem, but ate unleavened bread among their kindred. 

10 He defiled Topheth, which is in the valley of Ben-hinnom, so that no one would make a son or a daughter pass through fire as an offering to Molech. 

11 He removed the horses that the kings of Judah had dedicated to the sun, at the entrance to the house of the LORD, by the chamber of the eunuch Nathan-melech, which was in the precincts; then he burned the chariots of the sun with fire. 

12 The altars on the roof of the upper chamber of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and the altars that Manasseh had made in the two courts of the house of the LORD, he pulled down from there and broke in pieces, and threw the rubble into the Wadi Kidron. 

13 The king defiled the high places that were east of Jerusalem, to the south of the Mount of Destruction, which King Solomon of Israel had built for Astarte the abomination of the Sidonians, for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and for Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites. 

14 He broke the pillars in pieces, cut down the sacred poles, and covered the sites with human bones. 

15 Moreover, the altar at Bethel, the high place erected by Jeroboam son of Nebat, who caused Israel to sin--he pulled down that altar along with the high place. He burned the high place, crushing it to dust; he also burned the sacred pole. 

16 As Josiah turned, he saw the tombs there on the mount; and he sent and took the bones out of the tombs, and burned them on the altar, and defiled it, according to the word of the LORD that the man of God proclaimed, when Jeroboam stood by the altar at the festival; he turned and looked up at the tomb of the man of God who had predicted these things. 

17 Then he said, "What is that monument that I see?" The people of the city told him, "It is the tomb of the man of God who came from Judah and predicted these things that you have done against the altar at Bethel." 

18 He said, "Let him rest; let no one move his bones." So they let his bones alone, with the bones of the prophet who came out of Samaria. 

19 Moreover, Josiah removed all the shrines of the high places that were in the towns of Samaria, which kings of Israel had made, provoking the LORD to anger; he did to them just as he had done at Bethel. 

20 He slaughtered on the altars all the priests of the high places who were there, and burned human bones on them. Then he returned to Jerusalem. 

21 The king commanded all the people, "Keep the passover to the LORD your God as prescribed in this book of the covenant." 

22 No such passover had been kept since the days of the judges who judged Israel, or during all the days of the kings of Israel or of the kings of Judah; 

23 but in the eighteenth year of King Josiah this passover was kept to the LORD in Jerusalem. 

24 Moreover Josiah put away the mediums, wizards, teraphim, idols, and all the abominations that were seen in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, so that he established the words of the law that were written in the book that the priest Hilkiah had found in the house of the LORD. 

25 Before him there was no king like him, who turned to the LORD with all his heart, with all his soul, and with all his might, according to all the law of Moses; nor did any like him arise after him. 

26 Still the LORD did not turn from the fierceness of his great wrath, by which his anger was kindled against Judah, because of all the provocations with which Manasseh had provoked him. 

27 The LORD said, "I will remove Judah also out of my sight, as I have removed Israel; and I will reject this city that I have chosen, Jerusalem, and the house of which I said, My name shall be there." 

 

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BIBLICAL TIME SCALE

BCE

 

1300

 

 

Exodus from Egypt, Moses

 

 

 

Conquest of Canaan, Joshua

1200

 

 

Invasion of the Philistines

 

 

 

 

 

 

1100

Deborah

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Samuel

1000

Saul founds monarchy  1020-1000

 

David rules united kingdom 1000-961 (965)

 

Solomon rules united kingdom  961-922 (965-931)- first Temple

 

 

 

Division of kingdom

900

Asa king of Judah 913

 

 

 

Ahab king of Israel,  869 Elijah

 

Elisha

 

Jehu's revolution 842

800

Jehoash king of Judah  801

 

 

 

Jeroboam II king of Israel 786 , Azariah (Uzziah) of Judah 783

 

Amos, Hosea

 

 

700

Isaiah (1), Micah

 

Hezekiah king of Judah 715   Assyrians take Samaria  721

 

Manasseh king of Judah 687

 

Zephaniah

 

Josiah's reform,  641  Nahum

600

Jeremiah

 

Ezekiel, Babylonians sack Jerusalem 587

 

Exile in Babylon

 

Isaiah (2), Cyrus begins Persian Empire

 

Haggai & Zechariah

500

2nd Temple built

 

 

 

 

 

Nehemiah rebuilds Jerusalem

 

 

400

The Pentateuch accepted as Scripture (or 550?)

 

 

 

 

 

Alexander conquers East

 

 

300

Egypt rules Palestine

 

 

 

 

 

The Prophets accepted as Scripture

 

 

200

 

 

Syria rules Palestine

 

Maccabees

 

Hasmonean rulers

 

 

100

 

 

 

 

Romans conquer Palestine

 

Herod the Great

 

3rd Temple built

C.E.

Birth of Jesus

 

Jesus' ministry

 

Paul's ministry

 

Roman's destroy Jerusalem

 

Gospels written

100

The Writings close the OT Canon

 

Last NT books written, Clement

 

 

 

 

 

 

200

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

300

 

 

Nicene Creed 325

 

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