Second Kings 22:14

The Bible says in Second Kings 22:14-20, “So Hilkiah the priest, and Ahikam, and Achbor, and Shaphan, and Asahiah, went unto Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum the son of Tikvah, the son of Harhas, keeper of the wardrobe; (now she dwelt in Jerusalem in the college;) and they communed with her.[15] And she said unto them, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Tell the man that sent you to me,[16] Thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will bring evil upon this place, and upon the inhabitants thereof, even all the words of the book which the king of Judah hath read:[17] Because they have forsaken me, and have burned incense unto other gods, that they might provoke me to anger with all the works of their hands; therefore my wrath shall be kindled against this place, and shall not be quenched.[18] But to the king of Judah which sent you to inquire of the LORD, thus shall ye say to him, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, As touching the words which thou hast heard;[19] Because thine heart was tender, and thou hast humbled thyself before the LORD, when thou heardest what I spake against this place, and against the inhabitants thereof, that they should become a desolation and a curse, and hast rent thy clothes, and wept before me; I also have heard thee, saith the LORD.[20] Behold therefore, I will gather thee unto thy fathers, and thou shalt be gathered into thy grave in peace; and thine eyes shall not see all the evil which I will bring upon this place. And they brought the king word again.” The thing that we can notice about this passage is the fact that it talks about Hulda the prophetess. What is the difference between a prophet and a prophetess? One is a male and the other is a female. Other than that, there is no difference. What does a true prophet do? A true prophet gets a message from God and then tells that message to people. It has nothing to do with gender. But be careful because there are false prophets. The false prophets could be men and they could be women. The thing that is important about a prophet or a prophetess is their message. If they have the right message, then accept them and listen to them. Notice how Hulda started her message: “Thus saith the LORD.” She got her message from God and then she spoke that message to the people. It is the same principle in the Christian age. Notice that it says in Acts 2:17-18, “And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God,I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams:[18] And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy:” The day of Pentecost and beyond is the fulfillment of this prophecy. Both men and women will preach the truth from the Lord. In the church there is neither male nor female, there is nether bond nor free, but we are all one in Christ Jesus. That includes the call to spread the gospel. How did Josiah avoid the destructions that were now certain to come from God against the nation of Judah? Hulda stated it very clearly in verse 19, “Because thine heart was tender, and thou hast humbled thyself before the LORD, when thou heardest what I spake against this place, and against the inhabitants thereof…” Do not have a hard heard, but have a tender heart in regards to the truth from God. Receive it and open your heart to it. And secondly, humble yourself. Admit that you are a sinner and that you need God’s mercy. Jesus never turns anyone away who seeks mercy. We all need it, but how many will ask?

The Bible says in Second Kings 23:1-3, “And the king sent, and they gathered unto him all the elders of Judah and of Jerusalem.[2] And the king went up into the house of the LORD, and all the men of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem with him, and the priests, and the prophets, and all the people, both small and great: and he read in their ears all the words of the book of the covenant which was found in the house of the LORD.[3] And the king stood by a pillar, and made a covenant before the LORD, to walk after the LORD, and to keep his commandments and his testimonies and his statutes with all their heart and all their soul, to perform the words of this covenant that were written in this book. And all the people stood to the covenant.” The leader of the nation does the most important thing that he can do for his people: he himself reads to them the Word of God. The exact opposite has taken place n America. The leaders, starting with the Supreme Court, have been taking away the Bible from the schools and the public discourse. What will be the result? It has not been good, and it appears that it will get worse. But God can do anything, and maybe He will give us some leaders like Josiah.

Josiah did more than just read the Word of God. Verse three says that he “made a covenant before the LORD.” This means that he made a decision. Serving God is all about making decisions. To accept Christ as Savior is a decision. To confess one’s sins every day to Jesus is a decision. To walk with God every day is a decision. Josiah’s decision was “to walk after the LORD, and to keep his commandments and his testimonies and his statutes with all their heart and all their soul…” To walk after the Lord means to find out what God has said, and then to put into practice what He has said. God does not speak from heaven with an audible voice, and God does not speak with a voice that you hear in your head. God speaks from His written Word. That is why Josiah said that he wanted, “to perform the words of this covenant that were written in this book.” Get your life cleaned up. Get it in conformity to the written Word of God.

The Bible says in Second Kings 23:4-8, “And the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest, and the priests of the second order, and the keepers of the door, to bring forth out of the temple of the LORD all the vessels that were made for Baal, and for the grove, and for all the host of heaven: and he burned them without Jerusalem in the fields of Kidron, and carried the ashes of them unto Bethel.[5] And he put down the idolatrous priests, whom the kings of Judah had ordained to burn incense in the high places in the cities of Judah, and in the places round about Jerusalem; them also that burned incense unto Baal, to the sun, and to the moon, and to the planets, and to all the host of heaven.[6] And he brought out the grove from the house of the LORD, without Jerusalem, unto the brook Kidron, and burned it at the brook Kidron, and stamped it small to powder, and cast the powder thereof upon the graves of the children of the people.[7] And he brake down the houses of the sodomites, that were by the house of the LORD, where the women wove hangings for the grove.[8] And he brought all the priests out of the cities of Judah, and defiled the high places where the priests had burned incense, from Geba to Beer-sheba, and brake down the high places of the gates that were in the entering in of the gate of Joshua the governor of the city, which were on a man's left hand at the gate of the city.” These verses show some of the things that Josiah did to take away the false religion. There was a lot of work to do. The same type of cleanup needs to take place in the churches today. Almost every single church has some false teachings and false emphasis that need to done away with. Are there any that have enough zeal and interest in the truth to be able to do it? Most are caught up in the doctrines of their denominations that they have inherited from the traditions of men, and they no longer see the need to fix things. Notice how bad things had become. Verse seven says that the houses of the Sodomites “were by the house of the LORD.” The places of immorality had been set up right next to the temple. If you are not spiritually minded by turning to the Lord Jesus, you are likely to become more and more carnally minded.

The Bible says in Second Kings 23:9-15, “Nevertheless the priests of the high places came not up to the altar of the LORD in Jerusalem, but they did eat of the unleavened bread among their brethren.[10] And he defiled Topheth, which is in the valley of the children of Hinnom, that no man might make his son or his daughter to pass through the fire to Molech.[11] And he took away the horses that the kings of Judah had given to the sun, at the entering in of the house of the LORD, by the chamber of Nathan-melech the chamberlain, which was in the suburbs, and burned the chariots of the sun with fire.[12] And the altars that were on the top of the upper chamber of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and the altars which Manasseh had made in the two courts of the house of the LORD, did the king beat down, and brake them down from thence, and cast the dust of them into the brook Kidron.[13] And the high places that were before Jerusalem, which were on the right hand of the mount of corruption, which Solomon the king of Israel had builded for Ashtoreth the abomination of the Zidonians, and for Chemosh the abomination of the Moabites, and for Milcom the abomination of the children of Ammon, did the king defile.[14] And he brake in pieces the images, and cut down the groves, and filled their places with the bones of men.[15] Moreover the altar that was at Bethel, and the high place which Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin, had made, both that altar and the high place he brake down, and burned the high place, and stamped it small to powder, and burned the grove.” Once again we have a very long list of the things that Josiah cleaned up in Judah. There was a lot to clean up. Josiah could change the behaviors of people a little bit, but he could not change their hearts. Notice what it says in verse nine, “Nevertheless the priests of the high places came not up to the altar of the LORD in Jerusalem, but they did eat of the unleavened bread among their brethren.” The “high places” were the places of false religion. The high places were destroyed by Josiah, so these priests had nothing to do. The fact that they did not go to the altar of the Lord in Jerusalem shows that they were not right with God. They could no longer practice false religion, but they were not going to go to practice the true religion either. By the way, they had no problem taking the free food.

The Bible says in Second Kings 23:16-20, “And as Josiah turned himself, he spied the sepulchres that were there in the mount, and sent, and took the bones out of the sepulchres, and burned them upon the altar, and polluted it, according to the word of the LORD which the man of God proclaimed, who proclaimed these words.[17] Then he said, What title is that that I see? And the men of the city told him, It is the sepulchre of the man of God, which came from Judah, and proclaimed these things that thou hast done against the altar of Bethel.[18] And he said, Let him alone; let no man move his bones. So they let his bones alone, with the bones of the prophet that came out of Samaria.[19] And all the houses also of the high places that were in the cities of Samaria, which the kings of Israel had made to provoke the LORD to anger, Josiah took away, and did to them according to all the acts that he had done in Bethel.[20] And he slew all the priests of the high places that were there upon the altars, and burned men's bones upon them, and returned to Jerusalem.” Josiah polluted all the altars of false religion by burning human bones on them. It is interesting that in verse nineteen Josiah even went into the area of the northern kingdom and cleaned up the false religion there too. Of course, we are still in the Old Testament: a much different time than the time where we live. Josiah executed the false priests that he found in Samaria. Both Bethel and Samaria had been places known for a great amount of false religion. Josiah cleaned them up. We need to clean up our hearts, and ask God to take away anything that should not be there.

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