2 Kings 22:1-13 - Homiletics

A righteous branch from a wicked root.

Josiah is the most astonishing instance that is contained in Scripture of goodness springing up, and attaining high perfection under the most extraordinarily unfavorable circumstances. Josiah was—

I. THE SON OF AN EXTRAORDINARILY WICKED FATHER . Amon, Josiah's father, did evil in the sight of the Lord to an extent scarcely equaled even by any of the Israelite monarchs. "He forsook the Lord God of his fathers" ( 2 Kings 21:22 ), and gave himself wholly up to idolatry. And he did this notwithstanding the example of his father's fall, punishment, and repentance. As the writer of Chronicles says ( 2 Chronicles 33:23 ), "he trespassed more and more." Every idolatry of every neighboring country was adopted by him and reintroduced into Judah; the temple was defiled afresh; the fires of Tophet were relighted; sodomites polluted the temple precincts ( 2 Kings 23:7 ). Wickedness of every kind was encouraged, not only idolatry and debauchery, but " violence and deceit" ( Zephaniah 1:9 ), profane swearing ( Zephaniah 1:5 ), luxury in apparel ( Zephaniah 1:8 ), covetousness ( Zephaniah 1:18 ), oppression ( Zephaniah 3:1 ), injustice ( Zephaniah 3:2 ), treachery ( Zephaniah 3:3 ), and utter shamelessness ( Zephaniah 3:5 ).

II. THE GRANDSON OF A STILL MORE WICKED GRANDFATHER . Manasseh was worse than Amon in that he set at naught all the restraints of his bringing up, the example of his saintly father, and the instruction of Isaiah, whom he is said to have executed. He was worse, again, as the original introducer of many most corrupting idolatries which, but for his example, Amon might never have thought of. And he was worse as enforcing his false and impure religion on those who were reluctant to adopt it by means of persecution, and so "filling Jerusalem with innocent blood from one end to another" ( 2 Kings 21:16 )—a sin which is never laid to the charge of Amon. If heredity be indeed the strong predisposing cause which modern biologists assert it to be, what depths of depravity might not a prince have been expected to sound, who had such a father as Amon, such a grandfather as Manasseh!

III. BROUGHT UP IN A CORRUPT COURT . Manasseh's court, even after his repentance, was probably but half-purified. Amon's must have been a sink of corruption. Childish innocence is soon lost in an atmosphere of profligacy; and Josiah, ere he was eight years of age, had probably been made to witness many of the worst forms of human depravity. "Nil dictu foedum facture haec liming tangat intra quae puer est" was a maxim not likely to obtain much observance in a palace where the rites of the Syrian goddess were approved and practiced.

IV. WITHOUT , SO FAR AS WE KNOW , ANY RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTOR . Isaiah had been martyred in the earlier portion of Manasseh's reign. Micah had gone to his rest even earlier. Jeremiah did not receive his call until Josiah's thirteenth year ( Jeremiah 1:2 ). Habakkuk and Zephaniah lived, perhaps, under Amon, but are not likely to have been allowed access to his court, much less opportunity for influencing the heir to the throne. Josiah's official tutors and instructors under Amon must undoubtedly have been persons devoted to the court religion, which was the syncretic idolatry conceived by Manasseh and maintained by his successor. It is not quite easy to see how the young prince would come into contact with any of the professors of true religion, or obtain any knowledge of the Jehovistic worship. Such, however, was the natural purity and strength of character by God's grace implanted in the young prince from the first, that to none of the evil influences within him or without him did he succumb. It is declared of him in the infallible Word, that "he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, and walked in all the way of David his father, and turned not aside to the right hand or to the left (verse 2). As soon as he had any power to show what his inclinations were, as soon (that is) as he was free from the trammels which confined a Jewish prince during his minority, he courageously set himself to undo the ill that his father and grandfather had done, to abolish the strange rites, to drive out the foul idolatries, and to restore the worship of Jehovah. And he earned the praise that "Like unto him was there 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 ). We may learn from this history not to assign too much weight to a man's surroundings, but to hold firm to the belief that there is in each man a sufficient force of personality and will to enable him, if his heart be set on well-doing, to resist any amount of external circumstances, and to mould his life and character for himself, even in the exact opposite shape to that whereto all the external circumstances pointed, and which they might have seemed to have rendered necessary.