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Long-lost Law Book Discovered
181
against this place and against its inhabitants, that they would become
a desolation and a curse, and you tore your clothes and wept before
Me, I also have heard you,’ says the Lord. ‘Surely, therefore, I will
gather you to your fathers, and you shall be gathered to your grave
in peace; and your eyes shall not see all the calamity which I will
bring on this place.’”
Verses 19, 20
.
The king must leave the events of the future with God. But the
Lord had not withdrawn opportunity for repentance and reformation,
and Josiah determined to do all in his power to bring about definite
reforms. He arranged at once for a great gathering, to which he
invited the elders, magistrates, and common people.
To this vast assembly the king himself read “all the words of
the Book of the Covenant which had been found in the house of the
Lord.”
2 Kings 23:2
. The royal reader was deeply affected, and he
delivered his message with the pathos of a broken heart. His hearers
were profoundly moved. The intensity of feeling that the king’s
face revealed, the solemnity of the message itself, the warning of
impending judgments—all these had their effect. Many determined
to join the king in seeking forgiveness.
Josiah now proposed that those highest in authority unite with
the people in a solemn covenant before God to make major changes.
The response was greater than the king had dared hope for: “All the
people took a stand for the covenant.”
Verse 3
.
They had followed the customs of the surrounding nations for so
long in bowing down to images that it seemed almost beyond human
power to remove every trace of these evils. But Josiah persevered in
his effort to cleanse the land. See
verses 20, 24
.
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Three-Hundred-Year-Old Prophecy Fulfilled
Centuries before, in bold defiance of God, Jeroboam had set up
an unconsecrated altar at Bethel. During the dedication of this altar,
a man of God from Judea had suddenly appeared who “cried out
against the altar,” declaring: “O altar, altar! Thus says the Lord:
‘Behold, a child, Josiah by name, shall be born to the house of David;
and on you he shall sacrifice the priests of the high places who burn
incense on you, and men’s bones shall be burned on you.’”
1 Kings
13:2
.