2 Kings 23:25
“Before him there was no king like him who turned to the LORD with all his heart, all his soul, and all his might, in conformity to all the Law of Moses; nor did any like him arise after him.”
This is about Josiah, the great grandson of Hezekiah. He made an about face from what his father, Amon, and his grandfather, Manasseh, had done. Hezekiah was a good, godly king. Not his sons. Manasseh was compared to Ahab and the evil that he did and brought to the people. Amon carried on the evil his father had done. Then comes Josiah. He began to dismantle the evil of the two previous kings.
During his reign, the lost copy of the Law was found. This brought to light more evil that was being done in ignorance. Josiah stripped the land of all the idols. This is the context of todays verse. Simply amazing.
It’s quite common to see the description of a good king who honored God, but it’ll say that they did not take down the high places. The general description was good, except these few things. Then comes Josiah who did much of the cleansing prior to the discovery of the Law. Then after that, he takes it all literally and removes centuries of institutionalized idolatry.
It’s grieving to hear the extent of evil that Manasseh had incorporated. This was directly after his father. Hezekiah was a good king who gave his son a good example. Manasseh was 12 when he became king. That’s very young. His mothers name was included. Could she have influenced him at tis young age? It seem odd that Hezekiah would have had an evil wife. Could it have been Manasseh’s friends and the culture of the day that influenced him. He was into worshipping the stars. That may have been the faddish thing to do. Whatever the case, he brought the nation into great evil.
Amon, Manasseh’s son, succeeded him. He did the same as his father. Then comes Josiah. God must have put a special heart in him. It almost makes no sense that he would be so different than his fathers.
The question arrises, how much of our faith was granted by God and how much was it our choice. Did he put a sensitive heart in us? I don’t know. There has to be some self determination, as there is punishment for rejecting God. I choose to be thankful to be in His family.
Jesus says, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven”, (Matthew 5:3). This is recognizing our needy state. We are sinners, we are lost without Him, we need His redemption, His insight, His blessing and so on.
We are subject to our rulers. There were some godly individuals living under Manasseh’s rule. We are attempting to be god fearing in our present circumstances. It’s very sad to see the flood of evil in our day. Many are swept up in it. God have mercy on us. Help us to be Your lights to our dark generation.