King Josiah, the Prophesied Faithful Reformer

As King Josiah listened to the horrifying words of coming judgment, he tore his clothing in an outward sign of humbling himself before God (2 Chronicles 34:19).

The scribe had been reading from “the Book of the Law” discovered during the renovation of the temple. This incident occurred when the king was just 26 years old.

He had already determined to remain faithful to the God of Israel and to repair the temple. More than that, he had set out to revive worship of the true God throughout the kingdom.

What was this lost book that Josiah’s scribe read to him? One possibility is that it was the book of Deuteronomy, particularly chapter 28, which lists national blessings for obedience and national curses for disobedience.

The land had drifted away from God during the reigns of the two previous kings, Josiah’s grandfather Manasseh and his father Amon. These men “did evil in the sight of the LORD” (2 Kings 21:20). They abandoned the true worship of God and drove the people into the pagan practices of the surrounding countries.

Huldah’s message to King Josiah

After hearing the words of the book, King Josiah sent his officials to Huldah the prophetess so they could “inquire of the LORD” on his behalf (2 Chronicles 34:21-22). It’s clear from her response that King Josiah wanted to know whether he could do anything to avert disaster.

Huldah told these men that God would “bring calamity on this place and on its inhabitants, all the curses that are written in the book” (verse 24). This was extremely bad news.

But then she added some hopeful words. Huldah said that God would not bring these calamities upon the nation while King Josiah lived (verse 28).

Having received this mixed response, King Josiah redoubled his efforts at reform. He was intent on reversing the trend his father and grandfather had followed, regardless of whatever opposition there might be. Judging from what happened after his death, we can infer that there was some underlying resistance.

Even so, King Josiah moved forward in faith, gathering all the leaders of the land, both political and religious, at the temple in Jerusalem. They were there to hear the words of “the Book of the Covenant” (verse 30), undoubtedly the same book called “the Book of the Law” in verse 15.

Then King Josiah publicly committed himself to keep God’s commandments (verse 31). He also insisted that all the leaders present “take a stand” (verse 32).

However, this pledge was not the beginning of King Josiah’s determination to serve God, or even of his reforms. This public moment was a renewal of both.

Josiah’s reforms

King Josiah was only 8 years old when he became king (2 Kings 22:1). (Was Josiah the youngest king in the Bible? No, according to 2 Kings 11:21, Jehoash became king at age 7.)

Josiah undoubtedly had help and guidance from godly men when he was young. In fact, it’s likely there was “a regency, controlled by supporters of the dynasty who welcomed relief from its misgovernment” under Josiah’s father Amon and grandfather Manasseh (Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible, Vol. 3, p. 710).

It may be that the prophet Zephaniah, who preached in the days of Josiah (Zephaniah 1:1), was among those who influenced the young King Josiah. Whether or not this was the case, it seems clear from Scripture that, even from the beginning of his reign, King Josiah “did what was right in the sight of the LORD” (2 Kings 22:2).

King Josiah fulfilled the prophecy exactly as the man of God had asserted three centuries before. The account in 2 Chronicles provides a little more detail about King Josiah’s early years than the account in 2 Kings, which jumps straight to the 18th year of his reign. A decade prior to that, during “the eighth year of his reign, while he was still young, he began to seek the God of his father David” (2 Chronicles 34:3). Four years later, he began his early reforms.

These reforms included the destruction of pagan altars and idols (verse 4) and the desecration of these sites by burning the bones of pagan priests on them (verse 5). King Josiah did not restrict his reforms to the boundaries of his kingdom of Judah, but he also carried out the same activities in what had been the northern kingdom of Israel (verses 6-7).

King Josiah in prophecy

During Josiah’s time, the Assyrian Empire was in decline, even as a new power began its ascent. Babylon was that power, threatening the now considerably weaker Assyrians. Locked in a struggle for its very existence, Assyria exerted little power in the territory that had once been the northern kingdom of Israel, a territory the empire had conquered a century earlier.

So, when King Josiah expanded his reforms to include the northern territory, he met no formal armed resistance. Of course, it still took faith for him to move into an area the Assyrians still considered theirs. King Josiah set aside any fears, purging the idols from much of the land that Israel had once controlled.

Bethel was a significant part of that purge. King Jeroboam had set up a golden calf there centuries earlier. It was part of his attempt to keep the northern tribes from going back to Jerusalem to worship God (1 Kings 12:28-29).

Not long after Jeroboam had established the golden calf in Bethel, an unnamed prophet, simply called “a man of God,” confronted the illegitimate priests. He declared that “a child, Josiah by name, shall be born to the house of David” (1 Kings 13:2). The man of God declared that Josiah would burn the bones of these priests on their own altar.

King Josiah fulfilled this prophecy exactly as the man of God had asserted three centuries before. The altar at Bethel had continued functioning even though the kingdom of Israel had already gone into captivity. Josiah “broke down” that altar and burned human bones from nearby tombs (2 Kings 23:15-16).

Josiah’s Passover

King Josiah’s reforms entailed more than destruction of pagan shrines and altars. He also called for all the people to celebrate the Passover. (Learn more about this first festival of God in our article “What Is the Passover, and Why Is It Important?”)

The Bible does not tell us whether anyone had kept the Passover during the reigns of Manasseh and Amon, the wicked kings who preceded Josiah. It does tell us that King Hezekiah, Josiah’s great-grandfather, had arranged for all the people to keep the Passover during his reign (2 Chronicles 30:1).

King Josiah’s Passover must have been exceptional, though, surpassing even what Hezekiah had celebrated. The biblical account clearly states that “there had been no Passover kept in Israel like that since the days of Samuel the prophet, and none of the kings of Israel had kept such a Passover as Josiah kept” (2 Chronicles 35:18).

The Bible also notes King Josiah’s great generosity. He personally gave 30,000 goats and 3,000 cattle to the people for this festival (verse 7). Other leaders followed his example, contributing from their flocks and herds (verses 8-9).

Why did King Josiah die?

King Josiah lived only another 13 years after his sweeping reforms prompted by the discovery of the “Book of the Law.” When he was just 39 years old, he died in battle against the Egyptian army. He was attempting to block them on their way to support the beleaguered Assyrian army in its struggle against the forces of Babylon (2 Kings 23:29).

Why?

We, too, need genuine humility when we approach the words of God, recorded in the Bible to guide us in our lives. It could have been that King Josiah didn’t want one traditional enemy, Egypt, to help another enemy, Assyria. And the Assyrian Empire desperately needed help to face a mortal threat from the rising Babylonian Empire.

There is no indication in the biblical record that King Josiah first consulted God to learn whether such an attempt was in line with God’s will. What the Bible does tell us is that Pharaoh Necho sent messengers telling King Josiah, “I have not come against you this day, but against the house with which I have war” (2 Chronicles 35:21).

The Egyptian leader also said that he was acting on God’s command. But Josiah “did not heed the words of Necho from the mouth of God” (verse 22).

The result affected the whole nation. King Josiah was wounded and taken from the battlefield. He died later, having failed to stop the Egyptians. Even so, Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonian king, crushed all resistance at the Battle of Carchemish in 605 B.C., four years after the death of King Josiah.

The prophet Jeremiah, still a young man himself, composed a lament for the beloved king. Singing that lament became “a custom in Israel” (verse 25).

Although he died at such a young age, Josiah accomplished God’s purpose for his life. He was a man of faith, fulfilling his role as a reformer, all the while believing in the faithfulness of the true God.

Scripture sums up his legacy this way: “There was no king like him, who turned to the LORD with all his heart, with all his soul, and with all his might, according to all the Law of Moses; nor after him did any arise like him” (2 Kings 23:25).

Lessons learned from King Josiah

Christians can learn a lot from King Josiah, but perhaps the most striking lesson from his life is the importance of humility. Upon hearing the words of the Book of the Law, the 26-year-old Josiah humbled himself before God, tearing his garments in anguish.

He could have reasoned that the judgment on the nation was not his fault. After all, it was Manasseh and Amon who had led the nation away from God. King Josiah, on the other hand, had begun seeking God “while he was still young” (2 Chronicles 34:3).

Yet, as king, Josiah took responsibility for the sins of the nation. He sent officials to Huldah the prophetess to determine what could be done. And when he learned that disaster would not befall the nation during his lifetime, he stepped out with renewed faith, zealously pursuing reform.

We, too, need genuine humility when we approach the words of God, recorded in the Bible to guide us in our lives. And, like King Josiah, we need to pursue reform—our own individual transformation—zealously.

Study more about this personal transformation in our short booklet Change Your Life.