In Josiah's days, Pharaoh Neco king of Egypt went up to the king of Assyria at the river Euphrates. King Josiah went to meet him, and Pharaoh Neco killed him at Megiddo (a paraphrase of 2 Kings 23:29).

This is an abbreviated account of what happened to King Josiah. Chronicles gives a fuller account. After Josiah had set the temple in order, Neco king of Egypt went up to fight at Carchemish on the Euphrates, and Josiah went out to meet him. Neco sent envoys saying, "What have we to do with each other, king of Judah?" He was not coming against Josiah but against the house with which he was at war, and God had commanded him to hurry; Josiah should stop opposing God, who was with Neco, lest God destroy him. Nevertheless, Josiah would not turn away, but disguised himself to fight. He did not listen to the words of Neco "from the mouth of God," and came to fight in the plain of Megiddo (a paraphrase of 2 Chronicles 35:20–22).

This account is disturbing to me because Josiah is such a hero in the Scriptures. He did so much well and may have been the greatest of the Davidic kings, but his reign was cut short by a short-sighted act of disobedience. He did not accept Neco's claim that he was fighting at God's command. That was a reasonable assumption on Josiah's part, but he still should have inquired of the Lord.

Josiah was not the only one who failed in this regard. Abraham did not inquire of the Lord regarding Hagar. Joshua did not inquire of the Lord regarding the Gibeonites. Ahaz did not seek the Lord regarding the threat from Syria and Israel. These failures to inquire of the Lord led to disastrous consequences — and so it was with Josiah.

Friends, what can we learn and apply today? We do not have the level of communication enjoyed by the patriarchs, prophets, and kings of old. Apart from what I consider the confused and contradictory claims of some, Christians rarely if ever hear the audible voice of God or receive supernatural revelation.

But we have His inerrant Word! (cf. 2 Timothy 3:16–17). And even without immediate and audible answers, we are still commanded to pray and entrust ourselves to God (cf. Philippians 4:6–7).

In my view, it is often wishful thinking when people claim, "God told me this," "God gave me this," or "God led me to this." How do they know? I believe the prophets and apostles of Scripture knew because their revelations were supernaturally confirmed. Yet it is right to give God credit for every good thing, because that is what His Word teaches (cf. James 1:17). We do not have to attribute specifically to God every word, event, or circumstance that turned out well in our view, for what if it turns out badly later? We would have attributed to God what was untrue and been found presumptuous. No, friends, unless we have some truly supernatural confirmation, let us exercise restraint in making such claims. It is enough to attribute every good generally to God.

Friends, we do not need to insist that God work the same way He did in the time of the prophets. Trying to make it so leads to all kinds of error and self-deception. But we do know what God has commanded us. He has commanded us to "pray without ceasing" (1 Thessalonians 5:17). He has commanded us to diligently and correctly learn His Word (cf. 2 Timothy 2:15). And even if He does not engage us in daily dialogue and miraculous displays of power, we know God is providentially working out everything in our lives for good (cf. Romans 8:28) and will complete the work of salvation He began in us (cf. Philippians 1:6).

All that He has given us is more than enough! As God said to Paul, "My grace is sufficient for you" (2 Corinthians 12:9).

AI-Expanded Reflection

Josiah's death at Megiddo in 609 BC was a national tragedy. The Chronicler records that Jeremiah composed a lament for him, and that the singers "have spoken of Josiah in their laments to this day" (2 Chronicles 35:25). Historically, Pharaoh Neco was marching north to support the collapsing Assyrian empire against the rising power of Babylon, and Josiah may have hoped to block him — perhaps seeing Assyria's fall as God's judgment and not wanting Egypt to prevent it. His motives may have been partly patriotic or even religious, but the Chronicler's verdict is that he did not listen to the word God had spoken, even through an unexpected messenger.

That detail is worth pondering: God's warning came through a pagan king. Scripture records several such instances — Abimelech rebuking Abraham (Genesis 20:9–10), Balaam's donkey, and Caiaphas unknowingly prophesying (John 11:49–52). Josiah's mistake was to dismiss a word because of its source rather than weighing it before God. The comment's counsel — to inquire of God through prayer and Scripture, and to be humble about claiming to know God's specific will — is wise. Christians differ on how God guides believers today (see #1964); all agree that Scripture is the sure standard and that prayerful seeking is always commanded.

After Gedaliah was killed, all the people, from the least to the greatest, arose and went to Egypt, because they were afraid of the Chaldeans (a paraphrase of 2 Kings 25:26).

So after the people returned to Judah, Gedaliah was killed, which led the remnant to leave for Egypt. Gedaliah had been appointed governor by the Babylonian empire.

Gedaliah was warned by Johanan son of Kareah and the other commanders that Ishmael son of Nethaniah had been sent by Baalis, king of the Ammonites, to kill him. Gedaliah did not believe them. Ishmael killed Gedaliah and many others, and took captive the rest of the people at Mizpah.

Johanan and his men rescued the captives, and to escape Babylon's response they prepared to flee to Egypt. Even though they had already decided, the leaders asked the prophet Jeremiah to pray to God and ask what they should do, and Jeremiah agreed.

The Lord told them that if they stayed in the land, He would build them up, and there would be no need to fear the king of Babylon — how striking! But if they were determined to go to Egypt, the sword and famine they feared would overtake them there. Though they had sworn to do whatever the Lord said through Jeremiah, they did not listen, and went to Egypt, taking Jeremiah with them.

There in Egypt, Jeremiah prophesied that disaster would come because of the remnant's idolatry.

Baruch, Jeremiah's assistant, was promised that wherever he went, he would escape with his life. Presumably he was entrusted with the scrolls of Jeremiah's prophecy and the account of what happened to the Jews who went down to Egypt.

AI-Expanded Reflection

The book of Jeremiah tells this story at length (Jeremiah 40–44), and its most striking feature is the one the comment noticed: the people asked for God's word while having already decided what they wanted it to say. Jeremiah waited ten days for the answer (42:7), and when it came — stay, and I will plant you and not pluck you up — the leaders accused him of lying and of being manipulated by Baruch (43:2–3). The request for guidance was sincere in form only.

Gedaliah himself is a sympathetic figure. His father Ahikam had protected Jeremiah's life earlier (Jeremiah 26:24), and Gedaliah urged the remnant to settle, farm, and serve Babylon, promising that it would go well with them (40:9–10). He refused to believe the warning about Ishmael, and even forbade Johanan from striking first (40:16). He died trusting the wrong man. In Jewish tradition, the Fast of Gedaliah is still observed each year, marking his assassination as the event that ended the last hope of Jewish self-government in the land after the destruction.

Baruch's promise in Jeremiah 45 is small but tender: when Baruch lamented his own sorrow, God told him not to seek great things for himself, but promised him his life as a prize of war wherever he went (45:5). The whole chapter is a personal word to a faithful assistant whose own grief God noticed.

The king defiled the high places east of Jerusalem, on the south of the Mount of Corruption, which Solomon king of Israel had built for Ashtoreth the abomination of the Sidonians, for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and for Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites (a paraphrase of 2 Kings 23:13).

I find it remarkable that the high places Solomon built for idolatry were not removed by the good kings who followed him, especially Hezekiah. It appears that even the efforts of the best kings at moral and spiritual reform were incomplete.

Josiah also broke down the altar at Bethel and the high place made by Jeroboam son of Nebat, who made Israel sin. He removed all the shrines of the high places in the cities of Samaria that the kings of Israel had made, provoking the Lord, and did to them as he had done at Bethel. He slaughtered the priests of the high places on their altars and burned human bones on them, and then returned to Jerusalem (a paraphrase of 2 Kings 23:15, 19–20).

Josiah's zeal for the Lord is remarkable in that it extended even beyond his own kingdom. He broke down the altar at Bethel and the high places in the cities of Samaria, which had been part of the fallen kingdom of Israel and were now held by Assyria.

No Passover like it had been kept since the days of the judges, nor in all the days of the kings of Israel and Judah; but in the eighteenth year of King Josiah, this Passover was kept to the Lord in Jerusalem (a paraphrase of 2 Kings 23:22–23).

This is another remarkable word about Josiah's reforms and his efforts at obeying the Law. His faithful celebration of the Passover had no parallel during the reigns of any of the kings of Israel and Judah. In this regard Josiah may even have exceeded the obedience of King David, who reigned at the close of the period of the judges, Samuel being the last judge.

Before him there was no king like him who turned to the Lord with all his heart, soul, and might, according to all the Law of Moses, and none like him arose after him (a paraphrase of 2 Kings 23:25; compare 2 Kings 18:5).

This is a remarkable epitaph for Josiah. Similarly, something like it was said of Hezekiah: that he trusted in the Lord, the God of Israel, so that there was no one like him among all the kings of Judah, before him or after him (a paraphrase of 2 Kings 18:5).

Is there a discrepancy here? Each text suggests that the king mentioned was the best, such that none before or after was better. There is no discrepancy. The texts make clear that Josiah was the greatest in his obedience to the Lord and in following God's Law, while Hezekiah was the greatest in his trust in the Lord.

Therefore, from both kings we can learn the two things required in faithfully following the Lord: to trust and to obey.

Finally, in spite of these great kings, God's judgment against Judah was beyond the reach even of repentance. The righteousness of Josiah did not prevent judgment; it only delayed it. The Lord sent raiding bands of Chaldeans, Arameans, Moabites, and Ammonites against Judah to destroy it, according to the word He had spoken through the prophets — surely at the Lord's command, to remove them from His sight for the sins of Manasseh and for the innocent blood he had shed, for he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood, "and the Lord would not forgive" (a paraphrase of 2 Kings 24:2–4).

The last phrase is telling and awful: "the Lord would not forgive." This should give pause to anyone who thinks that God is only loving and always forgiving. They forget that God is also holy and will judge sin in due course. He is not always willing to forgive, nor does He give everyone the same opportunity. It is true that the whole world is sinful and worthy only of condemnation, but we are saved by God's sovereign grace, by which He also chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world for eternal salvation.

If you know and have experienced this grace of God, then join me in giving the Lord our God all the glory. Speak no more of receiving this salvation as an exercise of your free will. Stop boasting as if salvation were a cooperative effort, where the only thing separating you from the unsaved was the exercise of your own free will. If you were saved by free will, then you were not saved by grace. And if you were saved by grace, then you were certainly saved against your fallen, sinful, and depraved will.

AI-Expanded Reflection

One detail makes Josiah's action at Bethel especially striking. About three centuries earlier, an unnamed man of God had stood before Jeroboam's new altar and announced that a son of David named Josiah would one day sacrifice its priests on it and burn human bones there (1 Kings 13:2). 2 Kings 23:15–18 records the fulfillment, and Josiah even spares the tomb of that prophet. The narrator clearly wants the reader to see the long arc between the two scenes.

On "the Lord would not forgive": the context shows this concerns the national judgment already decreed, not the possibility of individual forgiveness. The Chronicler records that Manasseh himself, taken captive to Babylon, humbled himself and prayed, and God heard him and restored him (2 Chronicles 33:12–13). The verdict on the nation stood even though the man whose sins provoked it was forgiven. This fits the comment's point about God's holiness, but it guards against reading the phrase as a statement that some individual sinners are beyond repentance. Ezekiel 33:11 insists that God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked.

The comment's closing paragraphs state a Reformed, monergist understanding of grace, which it holds with conviction and in the commenter's own voice. Faithful Christians in other traditions — Wesleyan, Arminian, and many others — also affirm that salvation is entirely by grace and that no one may boast (Ephesians 2:8–9), while understanding grace as enabling rather than overriding a person's response. This is a long-standing, good-faith disagreement among believers who share a commitment to grace alone.

Zedekiah was a hard and stubborn man, refusing to turn to the LORD, the God of Israel. Likewise, all the leaders of the priests and the people became more and more unfaithful. They followed all the pagan practices of the surrounding nations, desecrating the Temple of the LORD that had been consecrated in Jerusalem. The LORD, the God of their ancestors, repeatedly sent his prophets to warn them, for he had compassion on his people and his Temple. But the people mocked these messengers of God and despised their words. They scoffed at the prophets until the LORD’s anger could no longer be restrained and nothing could be done. (2 Chronicles 36:13–16 NLT)

As wicked as God's people have become in these chapters (2 Chronicles 36 parallels 2 Kings 23–25), I want to remind you of times past. At the end of Judges, the people were in this same sorry state:

In those days Israel had no king; all the people did whatever seemed right in their own eyes. (Judges 21:25 NLT)

Remember the state of things in Genesis 6:

The LORD observed the extent of human wickedness on the earth, and he saw that everything they thought or imagined was consistently and totally evil. So the LORD was sorry he had ever made them and put them on the earth. It broke his heart. (Genesis 6:5, 6 NLT)

But even after the terrible flood in Genesis 7–8, the people again rebelled against the LORD in Genesis 11, so that the LORD had to intervene and confuse their language so that they would no longer collude in their rebellion against Him.

Even after the Babylonian exile, by which God judged Judah in 2 Kings 25, and in the midst of rebuilding Jerusalem (covered in Ezra and Nehemiah), the people are again found desecrating the Sabbath, intermarrying with the Canaanites, and violating the Law (read Nehemiah 13).

In every major era of Israel's history, in the course of time, the people of God became more and more wicked until God refused to tolerate it any longer. Then He would judge them.

One of the reasons we are given this history is to show the breadth and depth of human depravity. And since what is given for us is the best of the world at the time, since they were God's chosen people, we must conclude that the rest of the world was either no better or much worse. And even among the best of God's servants, there were serious flaws. Abraham was a liar, Moses a murderer, and David an adulterer and murderer, even though these are among the most significant people in the history of God’s people.

Friends, let us acknowledge that we are no better and, in light of the greater revelation given to us, probably much worse. Adam may have arguably been the best of our race since he had no sin nature to start with. Of anyone, he had the most free will. And what did he do? He used his free will to violate God's one command, for which God said was death, that is, eternal separation from God. But God extended to him grace.

Adam neither chose God, nor did he confess His sin. No, God chose Adam, and then likely the lineage of Seth after him to bear His Name. But Cain and his lineage were likely all condemned. When the two lines intermarried and corrupted the entire world, the whole world of people were condemned except for Noah and his family. If we are to apply the language of salvation, and if we take Henry Morris' estimate in the Genesis Record of seven billion people on earth at the time (about the population of the world today), then only eight out of seven billion people were saved. Does that give you pause? What are the chances that you would have been one of the approximately 0.000000114% that got saved at the fateful time? Do you still have such confidence in the exercise of your free will?

I am only confident of one thing, that I am a sinner. Now, I believe that God has chosen me for salvation, but more and more I am distressed because as much as I write and speak on eternal things, my mind is still so set on worldly things. Even though the Scripture clearly teaches that this life is like a passing vapor, I don't live like it is. Isn't this why Paul writes, "Those who are married should live as if they were not; those who mourn, as if they did not; those who are happy, as if they were not; those who buy something, as if it were not theirs to keep; those who use the things of the world, as if not engrossed in them" (1 Corinthians 7:29–31)?

Marriage counseling? Career planning? Financial management? Insurance policies? Fitness and health programs? I have emphasized all of these things, thinking of them even to this day, but aren't these all distractions to the Christian's primary and all-consuming calling? When we read the following Scripture,

Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need. (Matthew 6:33 NLT)

why do we treat this as a metaphor for more human planning rather than seeing this as a literal promise of God's providence? If then this is what God has promised, why do most Christians and Christian leaders alike live as if this were not true? Am I out of line here? I appeal to those of you seasoned believers and pastors to show me how I'm wrong in my thinking and set me right. If I'm correct, then the people of God need to do some serious repenting.

AI-Expanded Reflection

The sequence of rebellion across Scripture supports the original’s warning against confidence in mere changes of circumstance. A new beginning after the flood, a king after the judges, or a return from exile does not by itself cure the human inclination to turn from God. Second Chronicles 36 adds a moving explanation of the repeated warnings: God had compassion on his people. Judgment follows sustained rejection of that mercy, not an absence of concern.

Several historical and theological inferences should remain distinct from what the narratives establish. Moses is central to Israel’s history but is not in Jesus’ ancestry. The identification of the unions in Genesis 6 with the lines of Seth and Cain is one interpretation among others. The text also gives no population total for the world before the flood, and an estimate of seven billion is not a biblical statistic. Even on that assumption, the percentage represented by eight people is approximately 0.000000114 percent. Preservation through the flood should not automatically be treated as a complete register of the eternal destiny of every person living before it.

The call to seek God’s kingdom confronts real distraction, but it should not make responsible care a competitor with discipleship. Paul’s teaching about the shortness of time in 1 Corinthians 7 does not cancel marital obligations, honest work, or provision for relatives. Rather, it relativizes every present condition in light of the coming kingdom. A spouse, a livelihood, and physical health must not be treated as ultimate, but caring for them can be an expression of love and stewardship.

The pastoral challenge is therefore to examine the purpose governing these activities. Planning can be a wise response to responsibility or an anxious attempt to secure life independently of God. The same outward action may express different loyalties. Grace does not leave us trapped between complacency and despair: it exposes sin while summoning a renewed life of trust. The history of repeated failure should make believers humble and attentive, not persuade them that practical obligations are inherently unspiritual or that the smallness of a faithful remnant can be calculated into a reliable measure of their own standing before God.

Josiah and Judah's last four kings

Josiah lived at a pivotal moment in world history. The old powers, Egypt and Assyria, now faced the rise of a new power, Babylon. As Egypt watched Assyria fall, realizing it would threaten their own safety, they set out to help Assyria — but reaching them required marching through Israel. For unknown reasons, Josiah refuses passage and meets Egypt's army in battle at Megiddo (609 BC), where he's killed.

Josiah's fourth son, Jehoahaz, becomes king but is deposed after just three months by Pharaoh Necho and taken to Egypt. Jeremiah was the major prophetic voice through the reigns of these last four kings, telling the people not to weep for the dead king Josiah, but bitterly for Jehoahaz instead, since he'd never return or see his homeland again — he'd die exactly where he was taken captive (a paraphrase of Jeremiah 22:10–12). Exactly as prophesied, Jehoahaz dies in Egypt (2 Kings 23:34).

Josiah's second son, Jehoiakim, becomes king next. During his reign, Babylon's Nebuchadnezzar invades, and Jehoiakim becomes his vassal — until he rebels and is deposed, after an eleven-year reign (608–598 BC). Jeremiah prophesies against him too, but he refuses to repent, even burning a scroll containing the LORD's own words. So the LORD declares none of Jehoiakim's own line would ever sit on David's throne, his own body thrown out and exposed, judgment coming on him, his children, his attendants, and all Jerusalem and Judah for their refusal to listen (a paraphrase of Jeremiah 36:29–31).

Jehoiakim's son Jehoiachin becomes king next, reigning only three months before Nebuchadnezzar besieges Jerusalem. Jehoiachin surrenders and is carried into exile without being killed — his own grandson later returns from captivity, though Jeremiah prophesies that none of Jehoiachin's own descendants would ever sit on David's throne or rule in Judah again, recorded as though he were entirely childless (a paraphrase of Jeremiah 22:25, 30). Even after his grandson Zerubbabel later returns from exile, no more Davidic kings ever again sit on Jerusalem's throne. I wonder whether Jehoiachin surrendered out of fear of Nebuchadnezzar, or because he was actually heeding Jeremiah's warning — either way, his surrender is exactly what spared his life and preserved David's line.

After Jehoiachin's exile, Nebuchadnezzar installs Zedekiah, Josiah's third son, as king. He reigns eleven years until Jerusalem's fall in 586 BC — captured while trying to escape, his own sons killed before his eyes. Jeremiah meets with Zedekiah repeatedly, each time urging him not to rebel against Babylon, promising his life and the city would be spared if he simply surrendered, but destruction if he didn't (a paraphrase of Jeremiah 38:17–18). Zedekiah refuses this advice — doing evil in the LORD's sight, refusing to humble himself before Jeremiah's prophetic word, rebelling against Nebuchadnezzar despite an oath sworn in God's own name, becoming stiff-necked and hardened, refusing to turn to Israel's God (a paraphrase of 2 Chronicles 36:12–13).

Reading about these last four kings, they don't seem any different from people today — listening only to what pleases their ears, rejecting godly advice. Jeremiah laments having no one left willing to listen, their ears closed, God's own word simply offensive to them, bringing no pleasure at all (a paraphrase of Jeremiah 6:10). Political correctness drives much of modern America the same way — God's word remains offensive to many people today too. But what did David say instead? That the LORD's law is perfect, refreshing the soul; His statutes trustworthy, making the simple wise; His precepts right, bringing joy to the heart; His commands radiant, giving light to the eyes; the fear of the LORD pure, enduring forever; His decrees firm and entirely righteous — more precious than gold, sweeter than honey from the comb (a paraphrase of Psalm 19:7–10).

AI-Expanded Reflection

The pattern this comment traces across all four final kings — each one offered a genuine chance to listen to Jeremiah's counsel, each one refusing in a slightly different way — is worth noting as more than a string of individual failures. Taken together, they form a kind of extended demonstration of exactly the point Jeremiah 6:10 makes explicit: it wasn't that God's warnings weren't clear or specific enough; four separate kings, given four separate opportunities across roughly twenty years, all reached the identical conclusion that the message was simply unwelcome. The tragedy of Judah's final decades wasn't a shortage of prophetic warning — it was a documented, repeated refusal to receive warning that had already been given plainly.

I'd like to discuss two prophecies fulfilled in today's reading. The first concerns the altar Israel's first Northern king built specifically to keep his subjects from traveling to Jerusalem to worship. God sends a prophet to Jeroboam, declaring that a son named Josiah would one day be born to David's own house, who would sacrifice the high places' priests on that very altar, burning human bones on it (a paraphrase of 1 Kings 13:1–2), confirming this with an immediate sign — the altar splitting apart, its ashes poured out (a paraphrase of 1 Kings 13:3).

It's remarkable that the prophet named the exact future king by name, generations in advance. That's far too precise to be dismissed as a lucky guess — I clearly see God's sovereign hand across our own history. The second prophecy concerns Isaiah's word to Hezekiah, warning that everything in his palace, everything his ancestors had stored up, would eventually be carried off to Babylon, with nothing left behind — and some of his own descendants would be taken away too, becoming eunuchs in Babylon's royal palace (a paraphrase of 2 Kings 20:17–18).

This prophecy was fulfilled exactly when Babylon eventually came, burned the Temple, and carried off every article within it. Brothers and sisters, remember what our Lord Jesus said in Matthew 5:18 — that until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter or stroke of a pen will disappear from the Law until everything is fully accomplished (a paraphrase).

Most biblical prophecies have already been fulfilled, and now the most exciting one still remains: the Messiah's second coming. This is the hope we need to hold onto, to be strengthened in our faith — the very reason we must stay alert, since we don't know exactly when the Lord will return, though it's absolutely certain that He will.

AI-Expanded Reflection

The naming of Josiah roughly three centuries before his birth is worth noting as one of Scripture's most specific individual prophecies, since it doesn't just describe a general future event, but names a person who wouldn't exist for generations. That level of specificity is exactly what this comment finds so compelling as evidence against mere coincidence — and it's worth adding that 2 Kings 23:15–16 later records this prophecy's fulfillment being narrated with the prophet's original words explicitly recalled at the moment Josiah actually carries it out, meaning the text itself draws deliberate attention to the fulfillment, treating the three-century gap between prophecy and completion as the very point being emphasized, not an incidental detail.