The Word of God gives us the history of His cause in the past. Sometimes it was very low, and when it was so low that there was none to help His people, then the Lord began to revive it. In the days of Josiah it was very low. His grandfather, Manasseh, had brought this about by his sin against God. Hezekiah, his father, had left the cause in a flourishing condition at his death. And in this condition it was delivered to Manasseh when he succeeded his father on the throne. Manasseh was bound to keep it in this condition, but this he did not do. Instead of doing so, he began to set up new ways of worship to suit his own taste. Perhaps he would not say that Hezekiah was not a godly man, but he would contend that the things that suited in his father’s time would not do in his generation. So he pulled down what his father had set up. He set up another order of things instead, and he borrowed his new order from the idolatrous customs of the heathen around him. He set up the image of Baal in the house of the Lord. Not only was it the case that he went as far as the heathen away from God, but he actually led his people further away from God than the very heathen.
Let us now see how he acted when he found out that the way of transgressors is hard. He took pains to pull down what he had built up with his own hands. He had first been at the pains of pulling down what his godly father had built up, and these he had built up according to his own inventions. Now, however, he had to pull down what he had spent a lifetime in building up, and to build up what he had spent his days in pulling down. Such are the troublesome ways of sin. Matters would have been all right had he continued them as he had found them. Though Manasseh got repentance, and his soul was saved, the Lord kept his sins in remembrance, and though he did his utmost after his conversion to build up, yet his son Amon followed the evil example of Manasseh’s earlier days, and pulled down the cause of God again. Men in this generation are busy at work pulling down what our fathers built up. See, although Hezekiah left the cause of God prosperous, others pulled it down. So with the men of this age, after our fathers laid the foundations, their sons attempt to raze them. That Manasseh got repentance and pardon cannot afford them the slightest excuse for their conduct. He got repentance, and is in glory, but the evil of his rebellion against God, continued after his death, and many poor souls were brought by its means to the pit of ruin.
Amon succeeded Manasseh, and he reigned for only two years, yet he spent them in doing what he could to injure and to overthrow the worship and kingdom of God. Satan did not know how short Amon’s reign was to be, but had he known it he could not have asked him to undertake any work worse than what he put his hands to. For he spent his short reign in trying to overthrow the cause of God.
But when the Lord has a work to do, He raises up fit instruments to do it. It is a bad sign for the generation when wicked kings are raised up. Saul was given to the children of Israel in judgment. On the other hand, when good is intended for a country — when a kingdom is to be reformed — the Lord raises up men in high position to do His work. The poor and humble ones do not reform whole kingdoms. They may be owned and blessed for local reformation and the advance of Christ’s cause in their own neighbourhood, but a national reformation is not a case of rain falling on one city and not falling on another. The shower is generally all over the land when the land is to be turned to God.
From the time of David and Solomon, Israel had not the privilege of godly rulers. On the death of Solomon the ten tribes revolted from the house of David and followed Jeroboam and his sin. It was a great blessing that Judah enjoyed when the Most High raised up over the southern kingdom a number of godly kings, and after times of decay and backsliding He raised up reforming kings. Of these was Josiah.
There are two things which are worthy of notice regarding this good king: his personal character and the good work he did in his day.
There is a very high character given him in the Word of God. “And like unto him there was no king before him that 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, neither after him arose there any like him.” — (2 Kings 23: 25). “And he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, and walked in the ways of David his father, and declined neither to the right hand, nor to the left.” — (2 Chron. 34: 2). This is the character given him, not by himself or by a fellow-creature, but by the Lord who knows the heart. There were other good kings in Judah, but none like unto Josiah, either before or after him. He was made good, and then he did good. “He did that which is good in the sight of the Lord.” It is taken notice of that he declined neither to the right hand, nor to the left. He followed the Lord in the straight way of His commandments. “The ways of the Lord are right, and the just shall walk in them.” — (Hos. 14: 9). It is not in man that walketh to direct his steps, but the Lord led him, and kept him. Josiah was born into the world like other men, a sinner, but he was “born again” when young. Many of those whom the Lord makes eminently useful in the church and kingdom are converted in their youth. Indeed, the most of those saved in any generation are effectually called before they are old. Comparatively few are brought into the kingdom of grace when they attain to old age, though the door of mercy is open, so far as we know, till death. Josiah began to reign when he was eight years of age, and whatever secret strivings he may have experienced in his boyhood, not till he was sixteen years do we see any indication of a saving change. At that age we are told that “he began to seek after the God of David his father”. Though the son of a wicked father, who set a bad example before him, the Spirit of God found access to his soul, and began a good work in him. The Spirit works by the use of means and instruments. Although the book of the law was lost, it is probable that there were extracts of it among the people whereby the young prince might acquire as much knowledge of his lost condition and the way of salvation as was blessed to him. Besides, there were at least two eminent prophets in the land — Jeremiah and Zephaniah — whose teaching he may have heard. “Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.” One thing we may be sure of that the Word of the Lord was used in his conversion. There was oral teaching by the prophets, besides what was written in the book of the law. The prophets spake by the inspiration of the Spirit. The first indication of the work of the Spirit in Josiah was that he, like Saul of Tarsus, began to pray. “Behold, he prayeth.” There were many others in the land of Judah who prayed to gods who could neither hear nor help them, but this young king prayed to “the God of David his father.” He not only prayed to Him for mercy, like the publican, but he sought after Him, sought to know Him as his covenant God, to love and obey Him. The secret of his success afterwards lay in his unfeigned piety, his knowledge of God, and his love to Him. He was made good before he was used to do good. Those whom the Lord makes instruments for good to others, whether they are kings or ministers of the gospel, He prepares them by His grace. Kings need grace for their work as well as prophets. “He that ruleth over men must be just, ruling in the fear of the Lord.” (2 Sam. 23: 3). Josiah began to rule over men, and he ruled in the fear of the Lord. He is a good example for all young people to follow, whatever station in society they occupy, whether they be kings or subjects. And it was a great privilege to the Church and the State that a God-fearing king was set over then. The cause of the Lord in a nation is very much according to the people composing the nation, and a great deal depends upon the rulers of the people. When there was a good king in Israel and Judah the cause prospered, but when there was a bad king it declined. And so it is still. Rulers have a great influence over the people either for good or evil. When the glorious days, or rather years, of the millennium shall come, kings shall be nursing fathers, and queens nursing mothers to the Church.
Josiah was not only a man of eminent piety, but he was a man who gave himself wholly to the work to which he was called. All he did, he did it “with all his heart”, his heart was in the work as well as his hand. “And with all his soul,” his whole soul was in what he did. “And with all his might,” he spared not himself, but exerted all the spiritual and natural energy that the Lord bestowed upon him. He was willing to spend, and be spent for the cause of truth and righteousness. The rule by which he did everything was the will of God made known to him in His Word. So it is recorded of him that “he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord”. He was not actuated by public opinion, but by “thus saith the Lord”. Many do some good actions — good as to the matter of them — that they may receive the applause of their fellow-men, but Josiah acted so as to receive the approval of God. He acted in his responsible calling as one who had to give an account of his stewardship. “We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ”.
If the people of God knew that they were to have a ruler who feared God for such a time, it would be a source of great comfort to them. They would be pleased that a long reign was before him. When he was only eight years on the throne he began to seek the God of David his father. It was a beautiful sight to see the youthful king praying at the age of sixteen, not to idols, but to the Lord God of his fathers. The Word of God gives no good report of those that do not seek God whether they are old or young. Its command, and the example of such as Josiah, have this message, however, to convey — “Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near.” This godly king at the age of sixteen was an example to old and young alike. It would cheer and comfort his heart to hear of others, whether old or young, that were seeking the Lord. Such was the mind of John when he said that he had no greater joy than to know that his children walked in the truth. He ought to be an example, not only to people in general, but also to rulers. Most of them, however, fail to profit from his example. They prefer in our times to lead the people to all kinds of vanity and folly. This was not the course Josiah pursued. He was not alone concerned for his own personal salvation. He was concerned about his example and its influence. He prayed as Saul of Tar-sus prayed for himself, but this did not satisfy him. In the calling in which he was called, he put the matter thus to himself — “I must act according to my opportunities. They are many, and I am responsible for the use I make of them. I will put them to the best advantage. I must rule in the fear of God.” His godliness broke out in the calling in which he was called. He began to be concerned for his people that they too should fear God. He looked to see how they were, and he found the whole land full of idolatry. The love of Christ works like itself in all ages. When it sets a soul aflame he begins to ask himself, “How are my friends? How are my neighbours? How is my country?” Before you were converted your thought corresponded with Cain’s words, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” but now you look to see how godliness fares in the town or country in which you live.
When he looked out and saw the state of the land he had cause to rend his clothes and weep. In the days of Manasseh or Amon, the king might look to see if the people had theatres, public parks, and places of amusement. Josiah’s interest, however, was in other things. He came out among his people to see how the cause of God prospered among them. When he did look, he saw, like Paul at Athens, many altars, but they were not to the God of Israel. If you read the twenty-third chapter of Second Kings you will see in what a terrible state the land was. Its state, however, did not check his reforming good. He did not begin to say, “I must not begin to meddle with matters as they are, or I shall displease men everywhere.” He said rather, “I must break down every altar and abomination within my kingdom.”
When he undertook the task of reforming his kingdom his work was two-fold. On the one hand it was destructive, on the other hand it was constructive. Some might be disposed to say to him — “You may set up the worship of God without pulling down these idols.” His reply would be — “What concord is there between Christ and Belial, between the temple of God and idols?” Had this course been adopted idolatry would soon be set up again, for so it was in the reigns that went before. You see the altar of Jeroboam at Bethel had not been pulled down during all the preceding reigns. Idolatry is like a tree. Its branches may be whipped off, but unless it will be uprooted it will still live and grow.
Josiah did not send other people to do this work and stay himself idly at home. No, he did not trust this work to his servants. He burned the bones of the priests on their altar, and you may see he himself was present by the account of his coming to the grave of the prophet that came from the land of Judah. He told them to let this grave alone. As surely as it is the duty of fathers to see the promotion of the fear of God in their families, so surely is it the duty of kings to attend to the cause of Christ in their kingdoms. But if Josiah had lived in our days he would get many a minister to say to him — “You have no right as a civil magistrate to take anything to do with the house of God. You have as much right to keep up the Papacy or Mohammedanism as the cause of Christ.” Josiah was not a disestablisher. Any argument will satisfy those who have not the cause of Christ at heart. Cain said — “Am I my brother’s keeper?” as though he had required that to be told to him. “No one,” he said, “said to me that I was my brother’s keeper,” and so he slew him. Josiah was thorough-going in his reform. When Manasseh repented, he threw out of the city the idols and altars which he had made in the days of his ignorance, but Josiah beat them into small dust, and went with it to Bethel, as though he said — “It was here idolatry began, and I am not throwing the dust of your idolatry in your face.” There are places in this land that were centres of declension from God, and from generation to generation you scarcely hear of a soul converted in these places. Why? The wrath of God rests upon them. Take you good care that forsaking God will not begin at your house lest His wrath settle down upon your house and family.
When the Spirit searches out sins He goes to the root. He goes to the garden of Eden where sin began. “By one man’s disobedience many were made sinners.” By the sin of one many have fallen. Some might merely say, “How wicked the land is.” Another might add, “I remember when there were only two idols in it,” but Josiah went behind present appearances to the sin of Jeroboam, who made Israel to sin all these sins. If that was a fountain poisoned, and you saw some who drank from its streams and were poisoned, you would not halt at the streams, you would trace the poison to the fountain. So he who first set up idolatry was the fountain of the nation’s idolatry. However small the sin may be in its beginning, the Lord will bring back the ashes of idolatry to that place. When did such declension begin in this land? When men began to introduce uninspired hymns into the worship of God. We would seek to bring the ashes and cast them upon those that began the sin. Josiah would carry his own share of the ashes, and so do you. Young men, young women, old men, old women, and say to those who would lead you astray, “Do not come any nearer me”.
Josiah, however, did not stop at the idols. He went on to the teachers of the people. When the displeasure of God is shown to a people, unfaithful teachers are placed over their heads. In Josiah’s time religious leaders were unfaithful. Before his time there had been such also. There were the living and the dead, and they were each dealt with after their own fashion. In times of declension any sort of teachers will do, men that will not be too hard on us or rebuke us. I heard of a certain minister who conciliated the young men of his congregation by appearing among them on the first Saturday afternoon he was among them to join in their silly sports. This conduct would suit Manasseh and Amon very well.
Do you ask, however, “What shall we do when we have no godly ministers in our midst?” Why, keep to the praying men. Have nothing to do with men who will suffer you to trample on the Lord’s day. This is full of instruction alike for speakers and hearers. Some who were not of the tribe of Levi had been put into the priesthood. What did Josiah do with them? He killed them, and burned them upon the altars. God commanded him to do this, but this is not now to be done literally. Only God will burn such offenders eternally. In reforming the Church, it is right to condemn not only those who are still alive who had a hand in corrupting it, but also those who are dead. We are not, indeed, to raise their bones out of the grave and burn them literally, as this king did, but to raise them from their graves by bringing to the remembrance of our hearers the evil they had done to the cause of God, and burning their bones by the fire of God’s Word. “Is not my word like as a fire” — (Jer. 23: 29). What did he do with the sons of Levi? He put them out of their office, but showed his mercy in this that he ordered them to be fed while they lived. They were in office only for their back and belly, and what they wanted they got, but they got no authority to put their finger to the cause of Christ. If he lived today he would find many ministers and elders he might put out of office. Many are in office that they may get a piece of bread, and if they get their bread they are content. If a Josiah were to rise up in our land, many, if they got their living, would be content to give up their office. When people call such men to be their pastors, they virtually say, “We ask you to keep us from escaping from the devil’s camp. We ask you to come to keep up from Christ, and to make sure that we will be lost forever.”
But were not some of these deceivers dead? Yes. So the next question arose, “Where are their graves?” Perhaps some old man led Josiah to their graves. Their bones were raised up. “Where now are the altars where they sacrificed?” They are in yonder town. The bones must be brought there and burned on their altars. There was one grave undisturbed, that of the prophet from Judah who had prophesied about the altar. “He cried against the altar in the word of the Lord, and said, O altar, altar, thus saith the Lord; Behold, a child shall be born unto the house of David, Josiah by name; and upon thee shall he offer the priests of the high places that burn incense upon thee, and men’s bones shall be burnt upon thee.” — (1 Kings 13: 2). The wicked king tried to kill him, but was prevented. Three hundred and fifty years had now passed since the time that God told by his prophet that Josiah should arise and do these things. In the meanwhile there had been several small re formations in the land of Judah, but none so thorough as this one.
He now comes to the temple. What did he find there? Men were worshipping the sun, moon and stars. There were prophets in Judah, Jeremiah, &c, but see how low a land may come in a short time. Leave Skye for a hundred years without a Bible, and you would find it at the end of that period like a heathen land. What should this teach you and me? “Hold fast that which thou hast that no man take thy crown.” But Josiah turned all idols out of the house of God, for “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” What did they find in the house? The book of the law of God. The Highlands of Scotland were long without the Scriptures, and how were they then? In utter darkness. This was not like the ark. It was lost among the Philistines, but the book of the law was lost in the house of God. It is a fearful thing when the law of God is lost in the Church. Until this happened idolatry could not be set up in the temple. When the rule was lost, the worship went astray. Had the law been kept these things could not take place.
Here is teaching for us. In a sense the Bible is lost in our days. People may say we have the Bible, we did not take a part of Isaiah or the Song of Songs away. They might say the same thing. The law was in the temple, but at the same time it was lost there. It was lost under the rubbish that was heaped over it. It is hid from the eyes of many in our time, but the Lord be praised, not from the eyes of all. You may ask who have lost it? The higher critics have. More also have lost it who misinterpret its teaching about man’s fall, and his hopeless ruin in an undone eternity and other fundamental doctrines. We don’t know how the book of the law was lost. Some think it was hid to preserve it, others that it was thrown away. I believe the latter to be the true explanation. Though it was lost, it was not lost irrecoverably, for the Word of the Lord endures for ever. So it was found again. By whom? By Hilkiah, a godly man, who found it, and was delighted with what he found. Who will recover the Bible when it is lost? The very class of men by whom it was lost. The Almighty, as it were, says to Satan, “If your ministers lost my word, I will find it by my ministers.” Luther was one of those that found the lost Bible. Hilkiah found the book, and not the men that were removing the rubbish. If ministers were the means of losing the book, other ministers found it. When was it found? Not in the days of Manasseh, not in the days of Amon, not till they began to clear the rubbish out of the temple. It will be found again in Scotland and England when men will begin to cleanse the house of God.
If the Lord will have mercy on your soul, it will be with you as it was with Hilkiah. You will have to say, “I have found the word of God.” This book was brought before the king, and he rent his clothes. If you found this word, you did like Josiah, you looked back upon your way in the valley and rent your clothes. Josiah then gathered the elders, and they decided that all the people, small and great, should be gathered into the purified temple. Why was this decided on? In order that the king might read it to the people. How beautiful! Had there been plenty copies of it, he would have handed one to all the young. But is this what our rulers have done to the young? Alas, no. They have taken the Scriptures out of their educational code. Is it not tolerated in the schools? Yes. But it has no fixed standing place in our public training system. A minister told us that once at the end of an examination he proceeded to conclude with prayer, but the inspector tried to stop him. He shook him off, and prayed.
When he was done, the inspector asked him, “What have you now done? You have made me break the law.” The late Dr. Wylie, who was a keen observer of how the nation was forsaking the Lord, mentions in his writings that a certain statesman said that there was a large tree with three branches which would require to be cut down before any good could come to the nation. The tree was “Protestant ascendancy,” and two of its branches were, (first) the place the Bible had in the schools and (second), the establishment of the Protestant religion. These branches were to be cut down, not simultaneously, but one at a time. So the first was attacked, and the Bible was put out of the schools. This branch was cut off. Is this from God or from Satan? The Bible is only tolerated or suffered to be in a corner — will the Lord not take vengeance on such a nation as this? Men are now busy sawing at the second branch, but have not sawn it yet. When the first branch was being hewn off, ministers of the gospel went hand in hand with the ungodly. “If you cannot tear the Bible out of the children’s hands we will help you.” I knew a godly minister who had a hand in this work. When after the change, he went to examine a school and found ignorance, where once on a time he would find intelligent acquaintance with the Scriptures, he sat down and wept at the fruit of the policy he had supported.
What a black cloud overhangs this nation, now that the Bible is out of the hands of the children! What has been given in its place? Vain songs instead of the psalms of David are sung by the children. But Josiah went into a covenant along with the whole of the people. We endeavoured to do the same in our day — we entered a bond that we would have nothing to do with anything but the Word of God. Many cried out against this and even ministers from the pulpits spoke of the evil. But what was the evil? Was it because, like Josiah and the people, we were going to follow the Lord according to His word, to keep His commandments and His testimonies, and His statutes, with all our heart, with all our soul, and with all our might?
Application.
Those people whom we have been considering, are long since in eternity. Several in everlasting happiness, others in everlasting misery. The kingdom of Judah has no existence among the nations of the world. To us the passage of Scripture we have been endeavouring to meditate upon speaks. It becomes us then to ask, — What is the state of our nation? What is the state of our Church? and what is the state of our souls? These are important questions, but they are questions which we must face now if we would, as responsible creatures, render our account with joy at the last day. And there is none of these questions but we are bound to consider whatever our station in society is.
(1) Then, what is the state of our nation?
We as a nation have been like Israel and Judah, highly favoured by the Lord. Has He not, delivered us from the heathen idolatry under which our forefathers had been before the light of the Gospel shone on our land? Our forefathers worshipped all the hosts of heaven before the Lord in His sovereign mercy sent us His Word, and servants to show us the way of salvation by Jesus Christ. Has not this nation been constituted, through the power of the Gospel, a Christian kingdom, whose laws have been founded on the Word of God? Have we not entered into a solemn covenant with God that we would keep His commandments, His testimonies, and His statutes? What are we now? Just like Israel and Judah — covenant breakers, and trampling upon the laws of the Holy One of Israel. This nation is guilty of making new laws to profane the holy Sabbath of God, and other commandments, which they vowed to keep. The surest way of pulling down a house is to undermine the foundation. The law of God is the foundation on which our kingdom has been established; and when we see the rulers of the nation doing all in their power to undermine that foundation, we may expect that the superstructure will fall. Unless we as a nation return to the law of the Lord, as sure as the kingdom of Israel and Judah fell, we shall fall. The Bible has been the means of making the British Empire so great and powerful. The same book will make it small and weak, if national repentance prevent not.
(2) What is the state of our Church?
I do not mean by the Church any one branch of the visible Church, but the visible Church as a whole, and especially the several branches of it in our own kingdom. We are interested in the cause of God throughout the world, but we must begin at home. Unless we are right at home little good can we do abroad. Then what is the state of the several branches of the Church in our nation? The state of any Church may be known by the place the fundamental doctrines of the Word of God have in its teaching. Now it is evident that in many denominations these important doctrines have not the same place in their teaching which they once had. Are the doctrines concerning the state of man by nature, as dead in trespasses and sins, the vicarious death of Christ in the room of His people, the work of the Holy Spirit in applying redemption, justification by faith through the righteousness of Christ alone, the final perseverance of the saints and the electing love of God from which all covenant blessings flow, are these doctrines held forth on the banner the Churches set up before the people? And what also of the infallibility and inspiration of the Scriptures as the word of the living God? On the contrary, these are denied, and men are following on almost every hand Popish and rationalistic doctrines and tenets. “Remove not the old landmark: and enter not into the fields of the fatherless: for their redeemer is mighty; he shall plead their cause with thee.” — (Prov. 23: 10, 11).
(3) What is the state of our souls?
“What shall it profit a man, if he gain the whole world and lose his soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul.” He that knew the value of the soul put this question to show how trifling all earthly things would appear when the soul is lost. Man’s soul by nature is full of corruption and idolatry, and requires to be inwardly purged and renewed by the Holy Ghost. Let us ask ourselves seriously and in the sight of God, has this change taken place in us. If so, all shall be well at last. If not, now is the accepted time, now is the day of salvation. “How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation?”