The Pulpit Commentary — 2 Kings — Section 412

HOMILETICS. Vers. 1-3.-Standing to the covtmant. With a heart stirred up to intense zeal for God by the word,; which he had heard read out of the newly found book-the precious "book of the Law," thrust into temporary oblivion by his wicked grandfather and father-Josiah felt that a great act of national repentance and national profession of faith was called for; and summoning "the men of Judsh" by their representatives, and all the whole mass or the people of Jerusalem, he proceeded to_ call upon them to " stand to the covenant." 'l'he idea was well conceived and well carried out. After a national apostasy-an open, evident, and flagrant turning away from God, and adoption of idolatrous worships most abominable in his sight-it was only fitting, only decent, that there ehould be a sort of public reparation or the wrong done-a turning to God as open, evident, and manifest as the turning away had been. Accordingly, this was what Jusiah determined on; and the public act of reparation resolved itself into three pa1ts. L A PU11LIC RECITATION OF THE covENAl,...T. A,,,, the Law had been put out of sight, r.eglected, forgotten, during the space of two reigns, or the greater part of them, so now it was solemnly and publicly recited. proclaimed, declared to be tho basis of the national life, the la.w of the community. The utmost possible honour was done to it by the king reading it himself in the ears of the people-reading it from first to last, "all the words of it," while the priests and the prophets and "all the people" stood attent, listening to the words so long no.heard, so long forgotten, so long treated with contempt. lL A DECLARATION OF ASSENT AND CONSENT TO THE WORDS OF THE COVENANT BY THE KING. The king was the federal bead of the nation, ao.d, in pledging himself to the keeping of the covenant, performed not a mere personal, but a representative and federal act. He pledged the nation as a whole to the acceptance and performao.ce of the covenant, undertaking for them that they should " walk after the Lord, and keep his commandments ao.d his testimonies and his statutes with all their heart and all their soul" ll[. A DECLABATION OF A.BRENT AND CONSENT TO THE WORDS OF THE COVENANT BY THE PEOPLE THEMSELVES INDIVIDUALLY. Nations cannot be saved in the. lump. It is necessary that ea.eh individual come into personal relations with his Maker aud Redeemer and Saviour. So "all the people," ea.eh of them severally, with one accord and one acclaim, "stood to the covenant "-pledged themselves to keep all the word11 of it henceforth with all their Leart ao.d with all their soul. A great wave of religious feeling seems to have passed over the people, and with a sincerity that was for the moment quite real and ur,feigned, they declared their willing acceptance of the whole covtnaat, of its tei riblc threats as well as of its_gracious promises, of its Htern commands no less than of its comfortio.g assurances, They bound themselves individually to obser,·e all the words that were written in the book; so renewiug their federal relation witb. God, and again becomi11g-what they ha.d well-nigh ceased to be-his people. But a.omething more was wanting. It is in no case enough to make a resolution unlese cm. xxm. 1-37.] THE SECOND BOOK'. OF THE KINGS. 463