2 Chronicles 34:1-7 - Homilies By T. Whitelaw

Josiah the good.

I. HIS EARLY ACCESSION . "Josiah ['Whom Jehovah heals'] was eight years old when he began to reign" ( 2 Chronicles 34:1 ). Manasseh, Uzziah, and Joash had been twelve, sixteen, and seven respectively when they ascended the throne. Generally speaking, it is perilous to have greatness thrust upon one at too early an age; sometimes premature responsibility calls forth capacities that might otherwise have continued latent. Edward VI ; who assumed the crown of England in his tenth year, Charles IX ; who was of the same age when he was raised to the throne of France, and Kang Hi, who became Emperor of China in his seventh year, were examples of the truth here stated.

II. HIS FERVENT RELIGION . Josiah's piety was:

1 . Ancestral . If his father Amen was not a good man, but the opposite—an insensate idolater and a hardened trangressor ( 2 Chronicles 33:22 , 2 Chronicles 33:23 )—his mother Jedidah, "Beloved," the daughter of Adaiah of Boscath ( 2 Kings 22:1 ), may have been a good woman, who, like Eunice of later times ( 2 Timothy 1:5 ), nurtured her son in the fear of Jehovah. Besides, as that son was six years of age before Manasseh died, he may have received from his aged grandfather such instructions as disposed him to the choice of the true religion of Jehovah. In any case, in him was reproduced the piety of the best sovereigns that had preceded him—in particular of Hezekiah, Jotham, Jehoshaphat, and David.

2 . Early. "In the eighth year of his reign, while he was yet young, he began to seek after the God of David his father" (verse 3). Youthful piety, of which Scripture furnishes numerous examples—Samuel ( 1 Samuel 2:26 ), Abijah ( 1 Kings 14:13 ), Obadiah ( 1 Kings 18:12 ), John ( Luke 1:80 ), Jesus ( Luke 2:52 ), Timothy ( 2 Timothy 1:5 )—while beautiful in all, is specially attractive in princes. King Edward VI ; besides being a good linguist, "had a particular regard for the Holy Scriptures" (Bishop Burnet). That religion which begins in youth is most likely to be permanent, and certain to be most useful. Christ commends religion to the young ( Matthew 6:33 ).

3 . Sincere.

III. HIS ZEALOUS REFORMATION . I. The period of it. Beginning in his twelfth year of reign, i.e. the twentieth of his life, and terminating in his eighteenth year of reign, or the twenty-sixth of his life, it occupied six years in all (verses 3, 8).

2 . The scene of it.

3 . The manner of it. With "The violence—probably hinted at in the phrase, with their axes". "The reformation executed by the king was earnestly intended; it was thorough, it was comprehensive; but it was above everything violent" (Ewald, 'History of Israel,' 4:237). This appears more distinctly from 2 Kings ( 2 Kings 23:4-20 ). But the extirpation of religious, no more than of political abuses, can be carried out without a degree of harshness. Privileged iniquity in Church or in state is always difficult to dislodge.

4 . The extent of it. Judah, Jerusalem, and the Israelitish cities already mentioned were purged from high places, Asherim, images and altars (verses 3-7). Particularly

LESSONS .

1 . The beauty of early piety.

2 . The excellence of Christian zeal.

3 . The difficulty of executing reformations.—W.