Chapter 23
Josiah calls all the people to the Temple, reads the book to them, and then swears to perform all that is written there. He makes a covenant. So do all the people. Then Josiah has all the idols and instruments of false gods brought out of the Temple. He burns them, and sends even the ashes far away. He also deposed all the priests to these false gods who had been set up by the Kings that came before him.
He broke down the houses of the male cult prostitutes. Does not specifically say they were homosexuals, at least not in this translation. NKJV calls them perverted persons. KJV calls them sodomites. Would need to look into the actual word used, and see how it is translated elsewhere. See if it always means homosexuals, or can mean either. Or both really. In any case, they were evicted. Josiah "defiles" all the worship places dedicated to all kinds of false gods that were being worshiped in and around the Temple and Jerusalem. He sort of says "In your face, Molech..." and so on. He gets rid of every idol, instrument, and deposes every false priest in the land. Total house-cleaning. He even pulls down the altar at Bethel that Jeroboam had set up for the northern kingdom to worship a golden calf. He burned all the bones in the tombs near this altar, as had been predicted in 1Ki 13:2. The predictor is only referred to as "A man of God", sent for the purpose of telling Jeroboam that human bones would someday be burned on this altar. In vs 20, it looks to me like Josiah burned the then current priests of these places on the altar, again sort of daring that golden calf to do something about it.
Josiah re-institutes the Passover. Amazingly, it had not been properly observed since the time of the judges, in either Israel or Judah. So even David didn't get that right. Because of all these things that Josiah did, this is written of him:
25 Before him there was no king like 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, nor did any like him arise after him. [2Ki 23:25 ESV]
What an epitaph.
Even given this intense a revival in Judah and Jerusalem, we see this in the very next verse:
26 Still the LORD did not turn from the burning of his great wrath, by which his anger was kindled against Judah, because of all the provocations with which Manasseh had provoked him. [2Ki 23:26 ESV]
Once a nation has crossed God's line, there is no escape, no undoing. There is only short term forbearance. And it is interesting that the pronouncement is because of Manasseh. Sure, idolatry and paganism were running rampant in Judah, but it says it is because of Manasseh's provocation that wrath is coming.
2025 - This verse, equating the Judah and Israel as objects of God's wrath:
27 And the LORD said, "I will remove Judah also out of my sight, as I have removed Israel, and I will cast off this city that I have chosen, Jerusalem, and the house of which I said, My name shall be there." [2Ki 23:27 ESV].
There is no "dodging" this verse. Either this has happened, as I believe in 586 BC and again in 70 AD to complete the double punishment, or it is still to come. God was never going to take this back. All of Israel was and has been removed from his sight. I don't think they will be reinstated until the last seven. I believe he maintains a remnant now, and he retains all the bloodlines of the twelve tribes, but they are NOT a favored nation or a special people in his view and blessing of them. There may not even be a remnant - other than those who believe in Jesus. It isn't as though God cannot "get Israel back home" whenever he chooses to do so. He has no obligation to protect Israel today, he can raise up stones to be Israel, and drive out their enemies all by himself - as he mostly did the first time and as Jesus will do at Armageddon at his second coming.
We surely ought to support Israel, to pray for Israel, to be fans of Israel. But it is going too far to believe that they can do nothing wrong, that no decision of theirs can be questioned, that we must snuggle up with them no matter what they do. Manasseh was Israel, and it was Manasseh's deeds that caused God to remove Judah also out of His sight.
Josiah is killed by Pharoah Neco, when Josiah goes out to meet Neco as he approaches Assyria. He kills Josiah at Megiddo as soon as he sees him. No talk, no questions, just kills him. Josiah's body is taken by chariot to Jerusalem, where he is buried. MSB says we don't know why Josiah went to talk to Neco, or why he didn't want Neco's army to join the Assyrian army against Babylon. Says there will be more detail in 2 Chron 35. Jehoahaz, Josiah's son, reigns in his place.
2025 - We know that Josiah became King at the age of 8 from 22:1, and he ruled 31 years. He was therefore 39 when Neco killed him. Then we get this:
36 Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Zebidah the daughter of Pedaiah of Rumah. [2Ki 23:27, 36 ESV].
Let's do the math. 39 - 25 is 14. Josiah's son - and it doesn't even say this was his first son - was born when Josiah was 14.
Jehoahaz reigns only 3 months. Pharoah Neco captures Jehoahaz, and has him taken to Egypt so that he will not rule Judah. Jehoahaz dies in Egypt. Neco makes another son of Josiah, Eliakim, sort of a vassal king and demands an annual tribute. He also changes Eliakim's name to Jehoiakim. He reigns 11 years. He is an evil king, as might be expected at this point.