We left Josiah in shock after discovering and reading “the book of the law,” finding his nation under God’s judgment. He leaps into action:

The king acted immediately, assembling all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem. Then the king proceeded to The Temple of GOD, bringing everyone in his train—priests and prophets and people ranging from the famous to the unknown. Then he read out publicly everything written in the Book of the Covenant that was found in The Temple of GOD. The king stood by the pillar and before GOD solemnly committed them all to the covenant: to follow GOD believingly and obediently; to follow his instructions, heart and soul, on what to believe and do; to put into practice the entire covenant, all that was written in the book. The people stood in affirmation; their commitment was unanimous. (2 Kings 23.1 – 3, MSG)

The commitment is eerily similar to the one Jehoida and young king Joash made:

Then the priest brought the prince into view, crowned him, handed him the scroll of God’s covenant, and made him king. As they anointed him, everyone applauded and shouted, “Long live the king!” …Jehoiada now made a covenant between GOD and the king and the people: They were GOD’s people. Another covenant was made between the king and the people. (2 Kings 11.12…17, MSG)

• Josiah cleans out the Temple (2 Kings 23.4 – 7)
• He demolishes the shrines to all the false gods in Judah AND Samaria (2 Kings 23.8 – 20)
• He celebrates the Passover (2 Kings 23.21 – 23)

Josiah was a welcome respite from bad kings…BUT it was a short-lived respite. His son Jehoahaz was his successor. Another son, Jehoiakim, was the king after him:

Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he began to rule…In GOD’s opinion, he was an evil king, reverting to the evil ways of his ancestors…Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he began to rule; he was king for eleven years in Jerusalem…In GOD’s opinion he was an evil king, picking up on the evil ways of his ancestors. (2 Kings 23.31, 32, 36, 37, MSG)

Revival under Joash didn’t last; revival under Hezekiah didn’t last; revival under Josiah didn’t last.

Russell Moore at CT wrote a fantastic column about elections, which ties in beautifully to these lessons from the Kings. Russell’s point was that we keep expecting a once-for-all victory. “We’ll finally put that other party out of business.” No you won’t. They’ll be back. There are people with differing views in this country, and those views are reflected in the two parties, whose positions even change from time to time. It’s exactly the lesson in 2 Kings. The enemy keeps re-arming and coming back. And when the enemy is Satan in the biggest battle of all, he keeps coming back, too.

And when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from him until an opportune time. (Luke 4.13, ESV)

Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. (Matthew 26.41, ESV)

PS If you’re following the reading program, you’ve finished 2 Kings. Our next book is Hebrews, which I inserted to give us a little break before we start 1 Chronicles.