True Worship and Impending Judgment

2 Kings 23:1-27

    1 Now the king sent them to gather all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem to him. 2 The king went up to the house of the LORD with all the men of Judah, and with him all the inhabitants of Jerusalem—the priests and the prophets and all the people, both small and great. And he read in their hearing all the words of the Book of the Covenant which had been found in the house of the LORD.
    3 Then the king stood by a pillar and made a covenant before the LORD, to follow the LORD and to keep His commandments and His testimonies and His statutes, with all his heart and all his soul, to perform the words of this covenant that were written in this book. And all the people took a stand for the covenant. 4 And the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest, the priests of the second order, and the doorkeepers, to bring out of the temple of the LORD all the articles that were made for Baal, for Asherah, and for all the host of heaven; and he burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of Kidron, and carried their ashes to Bethel. 5 Then he removed the idolatrous priests whom the kings of Judah had ordained to burn incense on the high places in the cities of Judah and in the places all around Jerusalem, and those who burned incense to Baal, to the sun, to the moon, to the constellations, and to all the host of heaven. 6 And he brought out the wooden image from the house of the LORD, to the Brook Kidron outside Jerusalem, burned it at the Brook Kidron and ground it to ashes, and threw its ashes on the graves of the common people. 7 Then he tore down the ritual booths of the perverted persons that were in the house of the LORD, where the women wove hangings for the wooden image. 8 And he brought all the priests from the cities of Judah, and defiled the high places where the priests had burned incense, from Geba to Beersheba; also he broke down the high places at the gates which were at the entrance of the Gate of Joshua the governor of the city, which were to the left of the city gate. 9 Nevertheless the priests of the high places did not come up to the altar of the LORD in Jerusalem, but they ate unleavened bread among their brethren.
    10 And he defiled Topheth, which is in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, that no man might make his son or his daughter pass through the fire to Molech. 11 Then he removed the horses that the kings of Judah had dedicated to the sun, at the entrance to the house of the LORD, by the chamber of Nathan-Melech, the officer who was in the court; and he burned the chariots of the sun with fire. 12 The altars that were on the roof, the upper chamber of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and the altars which Manasseh had made in the two courts of the house of the LORD, the king broke down and pulverized there, and threw their dust into the Brook Kidron. 13 Then the king defiled the high places that were east of Jerusalem, which were on the south of the Mount of Corruption, which Solomon king of Israel had built for Ashtoreth the abomination of the Sidonians, for Chemosh the abomination of the Moabites, and for Milcom the abomination of the people of Ammon. 14 And he broke in pieces the sacred pillars and cut down the wooden images, and filled their places with the bones of men.
    15 Moreover the altar that was at Bethel, and the high place which Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel sin, had made, both that altar and the high place he broke down; and he burned the high place and crushed it to powder, and burned the wooden image. 16 As Josiah turned, he saw the tombs that were there on the mountain. And he sent and took the bones out of the tombs and burned them on the altar, and defiled it according to the word of the LORD which the man of God proclaimed, who proclaimed these words. 17 Then he said, "What gravestone is this that I see?"  So the men of the city told him, "It is the tomb of the man of God who came from Judah and proclaimed these things which you have done against the altar of Bethel."  18 And he said, "Let him alone; let no one move his bones." So they let his bones alone, with the bones of the prophet who came from Samaria.
    19 Now Josiah also took away all the shrines of the high places that were in the cities of Samaria, which the kings of Israel had made to provoke the LORD to anger; and he did to them according to all the deeds he had done in Bethel. 20 He executed all the priests of the high places who were there, on the altars, and burned men's bones on them; and he returned to Jerusalem.
    21 Then the king commanded all the people, saying, "Keep the Passover to the LORD your God, as it is written in this Book of the Covenant." 22 Such a Passover surely had never been held since the days of the judges who judged Israel, nor in all the days of the kings of Israel and the kings of Judah. 23 But in the eighteenth year of King Josiah this Passover was held before the LORD in Jerusalem. 24 Moreover Josiah put away those who consulted mediums and spiritists, the household gods and idols, all the abominations that were seen in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, that he might perform the words of the law which were written in the book that Hilkiah the priest found in the house of the LORD. 25 Now before him 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.
    26 Nevertheless the LORD did not turn from the fierceness of His great wrath, with which His anger was aroused against Judah, because of all the provocations with which Manasseh had provoked Him. 27 And the LORD said, "I will also remove Judah from My sight, as I have removed Israel, and will cast off this city Jerusalem which I have chosen, and the house of which I said, My name shall be there.'"

King Josiah, the one with a heart for God, sought to reinstate true worship among the people of Judah, knowing that the LORD had already pronounced impending judgment on them for continuing sin in rejecting Him and serving what are not real gods.  He read the Book of the Covenant which was found in the house of the LORD to all the people, not just the priests or leaders.  He then went further to seal the intent by making a covenant with the LORD to follow Him and keep His commandments, His testimonies, and His statutes with all his heart and all his soul.  He committed himself to perform the words of the LORD’s covenant as written in God’s book.  The people nodded in agreement by taking a stand for the covenant.  Josiah then cleaned house, burning the idols, taking down the pagan high places of false worship, destroying all the idolatrous altars and shrines made by previous kings who misled the people to turn their hearts away from their LORD who chose and called and delivered them from sin’s bondage.  He also eliminated the mediums, conjurers, male homosexual prostitution, and more, just as all these were banned by God in His word from the beginning (Leviticus 20:6-7) but had been done willingly in defiance to the LORD and His word and encouraged by evil leaders doing the same (Jeremiah 50:6).  They were to set themselves apart for God and to seek to be holy because He is and they were called to be likewise, and His word now reminded them of God’s original covenant with them which they had grossly broken before His face time and again.  They kept the Passover once more in a wholehearted manner not seen since the Judges, before the kings of Israel and Judah lost their obedience in worship from a willing and subservient heart.  They were apparently convicted and repentance, seeking to reestablish their relationship with their Sovereign and only King ruling them.  As it is written here, “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.”  Yet the die was cast for promised judgment on the nation because of their past rejection with tears as Esau which we find pointed out to us in Hebrews 12:16-17.  God hates sin and offers certain judgment to those who reject Him (Hebrews 10:26-31), but grace and forgiveness to those believing and committing themselves to His grace and righteousness apart from their vain attempts to prove worthy to earn deliverance from it.  The certainty of accountability in the judgment day for those rejecting Christ the Messiah is as certain as the judgment on God’s people after Josiah died.  There was a remnant of those who kept faithful then, and the remnant of those who hear the gospel, the ones who truly believe by exercising the faith gifted to them (Ephesians 2:8, John 1:12), are the ones delivered from the wrath to come upon the entire human race.  Are we counted in that number (2 Peter 1:10) of true worship (John 4:23-24, Philippians 3:3)?