The prophets’ messages regarding the Babylonian captivity did much to prepare the way for a reformation in the eighteenth year of Josiah’s reign. This reform movement came about unexpectedly through the discovery of a portion of Holy Scripture that had been misplaced and lost for many years.2TC 197.2

Nearly a century before, during Hezekiah’s first Passover celebration, provision had been made to read the book of the law publicly. Observing the statutes recorded in the book of the covenant (a part of Deuteronomy) had made Hezekiah’s reign prosperous. But during Manasseh’s reign the temple copy of the book had become lost.2TC 197.3

Hilkiah, the high priest, found the long-lost manuscript in the temple while the building was undergoing repairs. He handed the precious volume to Shaphan, a learned scribe, who took it to the king with the story of its discovery.2TC 198.1

Josiah was deeply stirred as he heard for the first time the warnings recorded in this ancient manuscript. Never before had he realized how Israel had been urged repeatedly to choose the way of life, that they might become a blessing to all nations. See Deuteronomy 31:6. The book held many assurances of God’s willingness to save those who would place their trust fully in Him. As He had worked in their deliverance from Egyptian slavery, so would He work mightily in placing them at the head of the nations of earth.2TC 198.2

As the king heard the inspired words, in the picture set before him he recognized conditions similar to those existing in his kingdom. In these prophetic descriptions of departure from God, he was startled to find plain statements that the day of disaster would follow and that there would be no remedy. He could not mistake the meaning of the words. And at the close of the volume, in telling of future events, Moses had declared:2TC 198.3

“[Israel] forsook God who made him,
And scornfully esteemed the Rock of his salvation. ...
They sacrificed to demons, not to God. ...
Of the Rock who begot you, you are unmindful,
And have forgotten the God who fathered you.
And when the Lord saw it, He spurned them, Because of the provocation of His sons and His daughters.
And He said: ‘I will hide My face from them,
I will see what their end will be,
For they are a perverse generation,
Children in whom is no faith.’”
“How could one chase a thousand,
And two put ten thousand to flight,
Unless their Rock had sold them,
And the Lord had surrendered them?”
“Vengeance is Mine, and recompense;
Their foot shall slip in due time;
For the day of their calamity is at hand,
And the things to come hasten upon them.” Deuteronomy 32:15-20, 30, 352TC 198.4

Young Josiah Does All He Can Do

As King Josiah read the prophecies of swift judgment, he trembled for the future. The sins of Judah had been great. What would be the result of their continued apostasy?2TC 199.1

“In the eighth year of his reign, while he was still young,” he had consecrated himself fully to the service of God. At the age of twenty he had removed “the high places, the wooden images, the carved images, and the molded images.” “They broke down the altars of the Baals in his presence, and the incense altars ... and the wooden images ... he broke in pieces, and made dust of them and scattered it on the graves of those who had sacrificed to them. He also burned the bones of the priests on their altars, and cleansed Judah and Jerusalem.” 2 Chronicles 34:3-5.2TC 199.2

The youthful ruler extended his efforts to the portions of Palestine formerly occupied by the ten tribes of Israel, only a feeble remnant of which now remained. “So he did,” the record reads, “in the cities of Manasseh, Ephraim, and Simeon, as far as Naphtali.” Verse 6. Not until he had crossed the length and breadth of this region of ruined homes, and “had broken down the altars and the wooden images, had beaten the graven images into powder, and cut down all the incense altars throughout all the land of Israel,” did he return to Jerusalem. Verse 7.2TC 199.3

Thus Josiah had tried as king to exalt God’s holy law. And now, while Shaphan the scribe was reading to him out of the book of the law, the king recognized that this volume was a powerful ally in the work of reform he so much desired to see. He resolved to do all in his power to acquaint his people with its teachings and to lead them, if possible, to reverence and love the law of heaven.2TC 199.4

The King Consults the Lord’s Prophetess

But was it possible to bring about the needed reform? Israel had almost reached the limit of God’s patience. Overwhelmed with sorrow and dismay, Josiah bowed before God in agony of spirit, seeking pardon for the sins of an unrepentant nation.2TC 200.1

At that time the prophetess Huldah was living in Jerusalem near the temple. The king determined to inquire of the Lord through her whether there was anything he could do to save erring Judah, now on the verge of ruin.2TC 200.2

He held the prophetess in high respect, so he chose the leaders of the kingdom as his messengers to her: “Go, inquire of the Lord for me, for the people and for all Judah, concerning the words of this book that has been found.” 2 Kings 22:13.2TC 200.3

Through Huldah the Lord sent Josiah word that he could not prevent Jerusalem’s ruin. The people could not escape their punishment. Their senses had been deadened by wrongdoing for so long that, if judgment did not come, they would soon return to the same sinful course. “Tell the man that sent you to me,” the prophetess declared,“Thus says the Lord,‘Behold, I will bring calamity on this place and on its inhabitants—all the words of the book which the king of Judah has read. ... My wrath shall be aroused against this place and shall not be quenched.’” Verses 15-17.2TC 200.4

But because the king had humbled his heart before God, he also received this message: “‘Because your heart was tender, and you humbled yourself before the Lord when you heard what I spoke 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, 20.2TC 200.5

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.2TC 200.6

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.2TC 201.1

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 3.2TC 201.2

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, 24.2TC 201.3

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 13:2.2TC 201.4

Three centuries had passed. Josiah the king found himself in Bethel, where this ancient altar stood. The prophecy spoken so many years before was now to be literally fulfilled.2TC 201.5

“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. ... 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.” 2 Kings 23:15, 16.2TC 201.6

On the southern slopes of Olivet, opposite the beautiful temple of Jehovah on Mount Moriah, Solomon had placed shrines and images to please his idol-worshiping wives. See 1 Kings 11:6-8. For upwards of three centuries the great, misshapen images had stood, silent witnesses to the apostasy of Israel’s wisest king. Josiah destroyed these, too.2TC 202.1

The king set about further to establish the faith of Judah by holding a great Passover in harmony with the instructions in the book of the law. “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.” 2 Kings 23:22. But the zeal of Josiah could not atone for the sins of past generations, nor could the piety of the king’s followers bring a change of heart in many who stubbornly refused to turn from idolatry to worship the true God.2TC 202.2

Josiah continued to reign for more than a decade following the Passover. At thirty-nine he was mortally wounded in battle with the forces of Egypt. “All Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah. Jeremiah also lamented” for him. 2 Chronicles 35:24, 25.2TC 202.3

The time was rapidly approaching when Jerusalem was to be completely destroyed and the inhabitants of the land carried captive to Babylon. There they would learn lessons they had refused to learn under more favorable circumstances.2TC 202.4

Manasseh and Josiah: the Worst and the Best

Jeremiah, the Man Who Felt God’s Anguish