Day 217 (2 Kings 22-23, 2 Chronicles 34-35) - Year 8

**Tara-Leigh Cobble** (0:01)
Hey, Bible readers, I'm Tara-Leigh Cobble, and I'm your host for The Bible Recap.
We're continuing to wrap up the final days of the Southern Kingdom of Judah. We're not too far off from the days prophesied by Isaiah, where this kingdom will be overthrown by the Babylonians. But as for now, we've got eight-year-old King Josiah on the throne. Forgive me, but I can't help but picture a little half-sized throne made of legos. Josiah is a good king. Once he grows up a bit, he tells his servant Hilkiah to make financial arrangements for the house of God to be repaired. And at some point during the process of restoration, Hilkiah finds the Book of the Law, which is likely a reference to the Scroll of Deuteronomy. It's somewhere in the temple. We don't know exactly where he found it, but given the state of the temple, it's probably shoved behind some idol somewhere and covered in dust. It's been a long time since anyone has read or reflected on the words of the law. Most people have probably forgotten what it says or maybe even that it exists at all. It seems like no one was looking for it or felt distraught that it was missing. They were all just doing their own thing, living their lives and fighting their wars and making their decisions all without the guidance of God.
Hilkiah passes the Book along to the secretary who reads it, then brings it to Josiah and reads it to him, and Josiah is wrecked. He realizes just how far off track their hearts and lives are and how the kings before him have led the people astray for generations.
As it turns out, what you don't know can hurt you. When we forget that truth exists, when it gets covered in the dust of our busyness, our hearts can't help but go astray.
Josiah tells his leaders to seek God and see how they should proceed. So the priests and his team go to a local prophetess named Huldah. She tells them that God is going to bring disaster on Judah for its sin, but that God will spare King Josiah since his heart was repentant. He will die before the disaster comes. Josiah's heart is so burdened by the whole thing that he gathers all the elders and priests and prophets and people and has them come to the temple where he reads the Book of the Covenant to them. Then he makes a covenant before God to obey him with all his heart and soul, and the people join in. At some point during all this, he sets out like a man on a mission. He removes and destroys all the idols in the temple. He fires a bunch of wicked priests and gives the death penalty to some others and banishes the mediums and necromancers. By the way, we've been seeing that word a lot lately, and if you aren't familiar with it, it just means a wizard or a warlock or someone who practices a kind of magic that's specifically related to communicating with the dead.
Josiah also desecrates all the places of idolatry, and in my favorite move of all, he turns those places into graveyards. 2314 says, he broke in pieces the pillars and cut down the Asharim and filled their places with the bones of men. It feels so fitting that these places of idol worship are turned into places of death. This reminds me of when Jehu turned the house of Baal into a bathroom in 2 Kings 10
Josiah follows God with all his heart and mind and soul, according to 2325 He reestablishes the Passover feast, which has once again fallen by the wayside. You may recall that King Hezekiah celebrated the Passover too, but he did a makeshift Passover since it was the wrong time of year and the people were unclean. But for Josiah, it's all happening according to God's commands and schedule.
The people of Judah follow God for as long as Josiah is alive. He's the one good king we've read about so far who never has a phase where his heart turns away from God. He remains faithful. Unless you consider his final actions to be motivated by pride, which some do.
His death comes in a strange and unexpected way. Here's how it goes down. While the Egyptian Pharaoh, Nicco, is coming to join forces with Assyria and confront the Babylonians, Josiah decides he wants in on the action. The Pharaoh warns him to stay away, but Josiah disguises himself and goes up to the battle anyway, where Pharaoh Nicco fatally wounds him. More on that in a minute.
Josiah is the last good king Judah will have. After he dies, his son Jehoahaz replaces him on the throne. Jehoahaz is a wicked king, and he's eventually captured and taken back to Egypt by the same Pharaoh who killed his dad. He dies there in captivity.