The Pulpit Commentary — 2 Kings — Section 396

Bhaphan the scribe came to the king, and brought the king word again. , •. And Bhaphllon the scribe showed the king, saying, Hilkiah the priest bath delivered me a book. AD<l Shaphan read it before the king. And it came to pass, when the king had heard the words of the book of the Law, that he rent his clothes," What book was this? Old time buries the choicest books; volumes that once moved the intellects and fired the hearts of men are sunk in the black waves of oblivion, In all probability the book here was the Pentateuch, the five books of Moses. A copy of this, it seems, having been laid beside the ark in the most holy place (Deut. xx.xi. 25, 26), had been lost, and now, during the repairing of the temple, it was discovered. Was this a Divine book? If so, why should its Author have suffered it to have been lost, perhaps for generations? A human author, had he the power to prevent it, would not suffer his productions to meet with suth a fate, But the thoughts of God are independent of books; they are not only written on the pages of nature, but in imperishable characters on the souls of men. But how did Josiah act towards this discovered book? Did he reject it, or was he indifferent to it? No. "It came to pass, when the king had heard the words of the book of the Law, that he rent his clothes." Herein how unlike is this man, not only to ordinary mortals, but also to ordinary kings! How many kings have been ready to receive new light? Are they not for the most part so mailed in traditions and prejudices as to render the admission of a new truth well-nigh impossible? If the modem occupants of thrones would but universally open their eyes to those old truths of eternal right which come flashing from their graves, all oppressions would cease, and kingdoms would march on to freedom and light. "Be wise now therefore, 0 ye kings: be instructed, ye judges of the earth." 3. Tend11rness of heart. See how the discovery of the book affected him. " He rent his clothes." It is also said, in ver. 19, "Thine heart was tender." Sensibility of heart gives life, worth, and power to intellect. Where sensibility and intellect are not in their due proportion, the character is defective. Where the sensibility is stronger than the intellect, the man is likely to become a morbid pietist or a reckless fanatic. Where the intellect is stronger in proportion to the sensibility, the man is likely to become a cold theorist, living in the frigid abstractions of bis own brain. But where both are properly combined, you have a man fit for great things. A man who, if he be a friend, will give counsels that will tell alike on your understanding and heart. Sensibility feathers the arrows of argument, gives poetry and power to thought. 4. Actualization. of conviction. When this discovered document came under Josiah's attention, and its import was realized, he was seized with a conviction that he, his fathers, and his people, had disregarded, and even outraged, the written precepts of Heaven. He exclaims, "Great is the wrath of the Lord that is kindled against us, because our fathers have not hearkened unto the words of this book, to do according unto all that which is written concerning us." With this new conviction burning within him, what does he do? Does he strive to quench it? or does he allow it to burn itself out without any effort on his part? No; be nt once commands his servants to make an effort on behalf of himself and his people. 11 Go ye, inquire of the Lord for me, and for the people, and for all Judah, concerning the words of this book that is found." The new emotions that rushed into hie tender heart prompted him to seek immediate counsel bow to avert the curses under which his kingdom lay. They obeyed his behests. "So Hil- kiah the priest, aud Ahikam, and Achbor, and Shaphan, and Asahiah, went unto Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum the son of Tikvah, the son of Harhas, keeper of the wardrobe (now she dwelt in Jerusalem in the college); and they com- muned with her, And she said unto them, 'fbus saith the Lord God of Israel, Tell the man that sent you to me, Thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will bring evil upon this place, and upon the inhabitants thereof, even nil the words of the book which the King of Judah hath read: because they have forsaken me," etc. (vers. 14-18). Here the prophetess spoke the universal sentiment of mankind, viz. that where wrong is, suffering must follow. All experience, all history, attests the truth of the sentiment. But the noteworthy point here is that this tender-hearted man translated his emotions into actioos. He did not allow his new feelings to 1111ss a,yay ns th!l morning cloud, nor did he expend thera in sentimental sighs and groans. Well would it be for all men if they ncted thus; for this, in truth, is the only method of spiritual progress. It is only as men embody true thoughts and feelings in actions that they rise to true manhood. II. A GoD OF nETRJDUTIVE • JUSTICE. Such a God t-be prophet841! here n,veals. 446 THE SECOND DOOK OF THE KINGS, [an. xxn.1-20, ------------------------------- " Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Tell the m11n that sent yon to me, Thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will bring evil upon this place, and upon the inhabitants thereof, even all the words of the book which the King of Judah hath read." The government over us, and to which we are boun<'I with chains stronger than adamant, is retributive; it never allows evil to go unpunished. It links in indissoluble bonds sufforings to sin. Sorrows follow sin by a law as immutable and resistless as the waves follow the moon, " Whatsoever II man soweth, that shall he also rea.p." In this retribution (1) the wicked are treated with severity, and (2) the good are treated with favour. In the name of God this prophetess declares concerning Josiah, "As touching the words which thou hast hea.rd; because thine heart was tender, and thou hast humbled thyself before the Lord, when thou heardest what I spa'ke against this place, and against the inhabitants thereof, that they should become a desolation and a curse, and hast rent thy clothes, and wept before me; I also have heard thee, saith the Lord. Behold therefore, I will gather thee unto thy fathers, and thou shalt be gathered into thy grave in peace; and thine eyes shall not see all the evil which I will bring upon this place." '!'hough righteons judgments were soon to descend upon his country on account of its manifold and heinons sins, he, Josiah, who had proved faithful amongst the faithless, would be spa.red the terrible storm. He should neither feel it nor see it ; his body would be sfeeping in the quiet grave, and his spirit be gathered to his "fathers," with all the true men of past times. We a.re prone to think of death a.s a.n evil ; it is an event that often appals us with the ghastly aspects that it assumes before our imagination. There are circumstances that make it a.pl){'a.r especially sad. For example: when a man like Josiah, of immense influence for good, dies in the zenith of life, and in the midst of usefulness, we deem it an occasion of special sadness. But it is not so, either to the man himself or to his generation. He is ta.ken a.way from the evil that is coming, and the circumstance of his death, and the loss ea.used by his departure, tend to rouse his contemporaries to serious and salutary thought. Death is no respecter of persons. The Divine government of the world is like a. stream that rolls under us; men a.re only as bubbles that rise to its surface; some a.re brighter and la.rger, and sparkle longer in the snn than others : but all must break, whilst the mighty current rolls on in its wonted majesty. We a.re shadows, and following shadows. There is nothing real but God.-D. T. Ver&. 1-7.--.Josiah: the temple again repaired. The reign of Josiah affords another example of the la.w of 8.(,,t;ion and reaction in national life. Dr. R. Payne Smith says, " The nation itself had gradually swung round, as nations now do, and had begun to be as dissatisfied with Baal and Moloch as their fathers had been with Jehovah" ('Introduction to Jeremiah'); . and Dean Stanley remarks, "The pop~ar e!ect:~n wh!ch plactd Josiah on the throne, of itself marks some strong change of public feelmg ( Jewish Church,' vol. ii. p. 435). It is safer, however, to infer this change in public feeling from the support afterwards given to Josiah in his measures of reform, than from the mere fact of his accession; for as yet bis disposition was quite uncertain. The craving for a change of some kind, with a secret weariness of the policy and extreme doings of the pagan party, had perhaps more to do with the young king's popularity than any real desire to serve Jehovah. I. THnEE BEGINNINGS. 1. The beginning of a rei,gn. Josiah was but a boy of eight years old when he was placed upon the throne. At this age he was in danger, like his grandfather Manasseh, of being a mere puppet in the hands of the godless aristo- rrnev. But God's providence l'eerns to have watched over Josiah, and to have caused so1ne Cll,I'e to be ta.ken to g~de the young king right. The queen-mother, Jedidah (" the beloved of God"), daughter of Adaiah (" the honoured of God"), "may perhaps have deserved her lofty name, and given her boy the priceless benefit of a godly mother's example and counsels" (Geikie). She may even have acted as regent during his minority, aud in that capacity have gathered around her the worthy persons who a.ft.erwards figure in the na.rrati ve, Shaphan the scribe, etc. 2. The beginning of grace. Josiah from the first must have shown good dispositions, a~d a willingness to be guided and taught by godly counsellors. But it is to_ the eighth year of his reign, that is, his sixteenth year, that the Book of Ohromclee attributes the firet decided evidence of his determination to seek Jehovah, "For orr. xxn. 1-20.] THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS. 447