Josiah and the Prophet

Zephaniah delivered prophecy during the days of Josiah, king of Judah. During those days Israel was under the Assyrian captivity, and their worship had deteriorated into a hodgepodge of fearing the Lord, and of serving the gods of other nations (2Kings 17:23-41). As Zephaniah prophesied end time prophecies, Josiah's life struggles agreed together with Zephaniah's prophecies: the record of Josiah's life lent interpretation to Zephaniah's prophecies, and it helped create end time understanding. Lessons learned from their works include: impressing upon believers the importance of God's covenant, and noting that zealous works are required to clean up religion.    

During the twelfth year of Josiah, king of Judah, Josiah and the elders of Judah went out to purge Judah and Jerusalem of perversion within the high places of Israel. They broke down their altars, cut down their images, and destroyed their groves. They even burned the bones of Israel's priests upon their altars before they returned to Jerusalem (2Chronicles 34:3-7).

Zephaniah prophesied that indignation and reproach would come against our places of worship in the latter days. "It is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of wastedness. and desolation... a day of the trumpet and alarm against the fenced cities, and against the high towers... because they have sinned against the Lord... the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousy (Zephaniah 1:15-18)."

Six years after the cleansing Israel's temples, Josiah sent his servants to collect money and make repairs to the temples that he and the elders of Judah had destroyed (2Chronicles 34:8-11).

Zephaniah prophesied that there would be a regathering of the faithful, during the latter days. “I will gather them that are sorrowful for the solemn assembly, who are of thee, to whom the reproach of it was a burden… and gather her that was driven out (Zephaniah 3:18-19).”

When the repairers came to Hilkiah the high priest, he gave them a book to give to Josiah. This book was the book of the law which God had given Israel through the prophet Moses. It had been silently stored and left forgotten in the ark of the covenant (Deuteronomy 31:26; 2Chronicles 35:3). This book was more than just a book of the law, but it was a covenant which God had given unto the people for the purpose of administering understanding. Within the words of the covenant God declared how he had chosen and washed Israel, and how he had made them his people. The covenant revealed that God would be jealous over his children (Deuteronomy 5:9; 27:9). This covenant promised blessings upon the people if they would remember to keep the words of it, and do them; but it also warned that cursings would increasingly plague the people if they failed God, and forsook the covenant. Ultimately, the words of the covenant prophesied that when Israel provoked God to jealousy by not keeping her covenant, she would be delivered into the hands of her enemies (Deuteronomy chapters 27-32). King Josiah knew that both Israel and Judah had failed to keep the words of the covenant. He rent his clothes and wept before the Lord. He commanded his servants, “Go, inquire of the Lord for me, and for them that are left in Israel and in Judah, concerning the words of this book that is found: for great is the wrath of the Lord that is poured out upon us, because our fathers have not kept the word of the Lord, to do after all that which is written in this book (2Chronicles 34:21).”

Zephaniah prophesied that God's jealousy would burn against his people in the latter days. “My determination is to gather the nations, that I may assemble the kingdoms to pour upon them mine indignation, even my fierce anger: for the earth shall be devoured with the fire of my jealousy (Zephaniah 3:8).” It is implied by these things, that once again God's people have forsaken and broken their covenant, which is why God's jealousy will burn against them in the latter days.

Through a prophetess' message to Josiah, God confirmed that his determination was to fulfill his word: “I will bring evil upon this place, and upon the inhabitants thereof, even all the curses that are written in the book which they have read before the king of Judah: Because they have forsaken me… therefore my wrath shall be poured out upon this place, and shall not be quenched (2Chronicels 34:24-25).”

Zephaniah prophesied the inevitably of God fulfilling his word, and pouring his wrath of upon men in the latter days. “I will utterly consume all from off the land… I will consume man and beast; I will consume the fowls of the heaven, and the fish of the sea, and the stumbling blocks of the wicked (Zephaniah 1:2-3).”

Through the afore mentioned prophetess, God spoke grace and peace to Josiah: “Because thou hast humbled thyself before the Lord when thou heardest what I spake against this place… I also have heard thee… I will gather thee to thy fathers, thou shalt be gathered to thy grave in peace (2Kings 22:19-20).”

Zephaniah prophesied that grace would shelter the obedient in the latter days. “Seek ye the Lord, all ye meek of the earth, which have wrought his judgment; seek righteousness, seek meekness: it may be you shall be hid in the day of the Lord’s anger (Zephaniah 2:3).”

Josiah made a decision to read and profess the covenant before the people in order to sanctify them, and cause them to do God's will. “Then the king sent and gathered together all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem. The king went up into the house of the Lord, and all the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the priests, the Levites, all the people, great and small: and he read in their ears all the words of the book of the covenant that was found in the house of the Lord. Then the king stood in his place, and made a covenant before the Lord, to walk after the Lord… and he caused all that were present in Jerusalem and Benjamin to stand to it (2Chronicels 34:29-32).”

Zephaniah prophesied that God's people would be corrected and turned to a pure language in the latter days. “All the earth shall be devoured with the fire of my jealousy. For then will I turn to the people a pure language, that they may all call upon the name of the Lord, to serve him with one consent (Zephaniah 3:9).”

Josiah went out again to cleanse the temple, except this time he cleansed Judah first. He put down Judah's idolatrous priests, and commanded the high priest to bring out the vessels which they had made for Baal. Josiah burned those vessels without Jerusalem, and carried their ashes with him unto Bethel. In Bethel he slew their priests upon their altars (2Kings 23:20): he then turned and spied the sepulchers in the mount. He took the bones of the kings of Israel out of their sepulchres, and he burned their bones upon Bethel’s altars. Josiah did all these things in Judah and in the houses of Samaria for the purpose of cleansing the land, because he wanted to bring God's people back unto the Lord (Leviticus 26:30-32; 2Kings chapter 23).

The actions of Josiah were a spontaneous response to the love and conviction that he had for God's people. During his passion, Josiah must have rehearsed the prophet’s words which were prophesied in the ears of Israel so many years before he was even born: “There came a man of God… unto Bethel, and stood by the altar to burn incense. 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 (1Kings 13:1-2).”

God had purposed that the altar of incense would be an altar most holy, requiring that whosoever touched it must be holy (Exodus 30:28-29). He impressed this fact upon the priesthood by requiring them to physically wash their hands before even approaching the altar, lest they die (Leviticus 22:3; 22:9). God even made an example for the edification of priests on the day that he slew Aaron’s sons which were forgetting God and proceeding to do their own works upon the altar (Exodus 30:21; Leviticus 10:3). The prophet which prophesied of Josiah's burning bones upon the altar of incense, was delivering God's warning against every priest which stood before Bethel's altar. The altar was God's witness against Bethel's priests, because they had polluted his name (2Chronicles 11:15). As Josiah was defiling the altar by burning men's bones upon it, his actions were not only a fulfillment of prophesy, but they were divulging evidence that God, has, and will, watch over every corrupt and perverted word that any priest utters before his people. God is the avenger, and he will never forget any of their works (Leviticus 26:25; Jeremiah chapter 8; Revelation 1:6).

Zephaniah prophesied that punishments would come upon priests and elders in the latter days. “It shall come to pass in the day of the Lord's sacrifice, that I will punish the princes, and the king's children, and all such as are clothed in strange apparel (Zephaniah 1:8).”

Josiah worked to encourage all of the people to do God's will. “The king commanded all the people, saying, Keep the Passover unto the Lord your God, as it is written in the book of this covenant (2Kings 23:21).” “Sanctify yourselves, and prepare your brethren, that they may do according to the word of the Lord by the hand of Moses (2Chronicels 35:6).”

Zephaniah prophesied that believers would encourage one another to do God's will in the latter days.“In that day it shall be said to Jerusalem, Fear thou not: and to Zion, Let not thy hands be slack. The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love, and will joy over thee with singing (Zephaniah 3:16-17).”

Josiah coordinated a Passover feast to sanctify and prepare the people, and he caused priests to prepare themselves for that day. “The service was prepared, the priests stood in their place, and the Levites in their courses, according to the king’s commandment. They killed the Passover, and the priests sprinkled the blood from their hands (2Chronicels 35:10-11).”

Zephaniah eluded to the need for priests to rise up in the latter days to sanctify themselves as well as the people, and to cause many to be ready against that day. “It shall come to pass at that time, I will search Jerusalem with candles, and punish the men that are settled on their lees: that say in their heart, The Lord will not do good, neither will he do evil (Zephaniah 1:12).” "Gather yourselves together... before the decree to bring forth, before the day pass as chaff, before the fierce anger of the Lord come upon you (Zephaniah 2:1-2)."

Josiah defiled Topheth in the valley of the children of Hinnom (2Kings 23:10). Hinnom was Judah’s inheritance, whose name represents the priesthood (Joshua 15:8; Psalm 60:7). Topheth is a parable city name which represents the mindset of rebellious persons that God intends to punish with his wrath. “Tophet is ordained of old; yea, for the king it is prepared; he hath made it deep and large: the pile thereof is fire and much wood (Isaiah 30:33).” So, by confessing that Josiah had defiled Topheth, the implication is that Josiah had disrupted the inheritance of the rebellious. In other words, because Josiah had caused many priests to cleanse themselves, there were many believers that escaped the prophesied punishments of God's wrath.

Zephaniah warned that the day of God's wrath is against the worship leaders, as well as those persons within their congregations, who refuse to be corrected. “Woe to her that is filthy and polluted, to the oppressing city! She obeyed not the voice, she received not correction; she trusted not in the Lord; she drew not near to her God (Zephaniah 3:1-3).”

Josiah worked feverishly to cut off the false religious practices which had caused Israel and Judah to stumble in their walk with the Lord. “The high places… Solomon the king of Israel built for Ashtoreth the abomination of the Zidonians, and for Chemosh the abomination of the Moabites, and for Milcom the Abomination of the children of Ammon, did the king defile (2Kings 23:13).”

Zephaniah prophesied that false religious practices would be cut off in the latter days. “The Lord will be terrible unto them, for he will famish all the gods of earth; and men shall worship him (Zephaniah 2:11).” "I will consume... the stumbling blocks with the wicked... and I will cut off the remnant of Baal from this place (Zephaniah 1:3-4)."

Tragically, Josiah’s life ended because he meddled in a battle that wasn't his. Egypt fought against Assyria in the valley of Megiddo, and Josiah went out to battle against them (2Kings 23:29). The king of Egypt warned Josiah: “Forbear thee from meddling with God, who is with me, that he destroy thee not (2Chronicels 35:21),” but Josiah choose to disregard his warning. Could Josiah's fate have been Christianity's warning against meddling in the religious affairs of Islam (Proverbs 26:17; Nehemiah 9:11)?