The Pulpit Commentary — 2 Kings — Section 420

or tendenciea, we discover in ourselves. Let high thougb ts be mercilessly brought low, and proud imaginations abased (2 Cor. x. 5). Wherever sin is dEtected let it be judged. Thus it was with the Corinthians, "For behold this sclfsaino thi~g, that ye sorrowed after a godly B?rt! wh3:t ca.refulness it wrought in you, yea, what clellring of yourselves, yea., what md1gnat10n, yea., what fea.r, yea, what vehement desire, yea, what zeal, yea, what revenge!" 2. From what it did not accomplish. This reformation of Jo~iah wrou~ht, after all, only on the exterior of the nation's life. It lacked power to reach the heart.. Therefore it failed to regenerate or save the nation. We are thus pointed to the need of a better covenant, that which Jeremiah predicts in eh. xxxi. 3 l-34' of his prophecies, "Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah.••• I will put my Law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts," etc.-J. 0. Vers. 15-20.-The altar at Bethel. From Judah Josiah passed on to Israel continuing his \'\"Ork of idol-demolition. Everywhere he went he proved himself ~ ,·eritable "hammer of God "-levelling, defacing, dishonouring, destroying. I. A.N ANCIENT PROPHECY FULFILLED. 1. Iconodasm at Bethel. Bethel had been the chief scene of Israel's idolatry-the head and front of its offending (cf. Hos. iv. 15; x. 4-9, etc.). On it Josia.h's zeal first expended itself. Hosea had prophesied its dcsola.tion, the destruction of its high places, the carrying away of its calf, the cessation of its mirth a.nd feasts, its abandonment to thorns and nettles (Hos. ii.. 11; ix. 6; x. 8, etc.). But an older voice had foretold the end from the beginnin"'. Scarcely had the schismatic altar, with its calf, been set up, when a prophet out ;f Judah denounced Jeroboam's sin to his face, and proclaimed that a future king would stain the altar-stones with the blood of the priests, and defile it by burning dead men's bones npon it. A. sign had been given in confirmation of the truth of the prediction (1 Kings xiii. 1-10). That oracle stood at the head of the way of transgression, warning men away from it; but its voice had been unheeded. Now, centuries afJ;er, the prediction "·as fulfilled. Idolatry in some form still held its ground on the ancient i;pot, but Josiah put an end to it. 'l'he altar and high place he broke down, and burned the high place, and reduced it to powder, and burned the .Asherah. The idolatry at Bethel had wrought out its effects in the ruin of the state. That evil was irremedial,le, but Josiah could show at least his detestation of the sin, and hie determination that no more evil shonld be wrought, by totally demolishing tbe sane tuary. Specia.l regard should be paid to the removal of centres of wickedness. It is useless to capture outworks, if strongholds are left standing. We should not rest content till the very name and memory of sin has perished in places that were con~ spicuous for it. 2. The sepulchre invaded. Josiah would have no half-measures. It was part of his settled policy, not simply to break down the high places, but to defile them, and unfit them for future use. lo looking round him at Bethel for means to accomplish this end, he spied the sepulchres that were in the mount, and sent and took booes out of the sepulchres, aud polluted the altar by burning them upon it. His immediate design was to defile the altar, but in taking the bones to bum, he dishonoured also the ashes of the dead. In his consuming zeal against idolatry he felt that no respect was due to the bones of those who, by their sins, had brought death upon the nation. It is easy to blame the act, and to compare it with the ruthless Yiolations of the sanctity of the grave of which persecutors have often been guilty. It seems a paltry and vindictive proceeding to wreak one's vengeance on the dead. To Josiah, however, no i;anctity attached to these graves, but only a curse. His very object Wil.6 to do deeds which would make men feel, as they had never felt before, the hateful nature of idolatry, and the certainty of a Nemesis attending it. In having their bones dragged out and burned upon the altar, the dead idolaters were, in a sense, making atonement to God's insulted majesty (cf. Jer. viii. 1-3). The feeling, nevertheless, is one which might easily go too far, and be mixed up with mean and purely spiteful motives. However it might be under Jewish law, it can hardly be right now, None the less is it the case that a curse rests upon the very bones of the wicked dead. Death to them is the penal stroke of God's displeasure, and, when they rise, it is to the resurrection of damnation (John v. 29). ll. 'l'w: BONES OF THE PBOP.HET REBPEOTJW, 1. A monument in a wicleed place to ~ on. xxm. 1-37.] 'l'HE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS. 471