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.RR 144.1
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.RR 144.2
“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.RR 144.3
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.RR 144.4
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.RR 144.5
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.RR 144.6
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.RR 144.7