SERIES N --- THE EXILE --- LESSON 17
JOSIAH’S IMPACT
KING JOSIAH’S GREAT PASSOVER
From 2 Kings 23:21-23, 28-30; 2 Chronicles 35:1-27
During King Josiah’s eighteenth year as king, he arranged for a great Passover feast to be held on the fourteenth day of the first month, which was the first day of April. The lambs for the Passover were killed on the evening before the fourteenth. The king appointed the priests to their proper places and encouraged them to serve in the temple again. Josiah gave the following orders to the teaching Levites who were dedicated to Adonai, [Since you do not have the responsibility of carrying the Ark on your shoulders, for it is permanently placed in Solomon’s temple, you should organize yourselves by divisions, according to the directions of King David and King Solomon. Stand in the holy place according to the clans of Israel so that you may help the people as they bring their Passover lambs. Kill the lambs, sanctify yourselves, and prepare to help the people who come, according to the Word of Adonai which He gave through Moses.] King Josiah himself gave thirty thousand lambs and young goats for the Passover, and his officials also gave generously. The temple officials, Hilkiah, Zechariah, and Jehiel, gave twenty-six hundred sheep and goats to the priests as well as three hundred oxen. The Levite chiefs, Conaniah, Shemaiah, Nethanel, Jeiel, Jozabad, and Hashabiah, gave five thousand sheep and goats and five hundred oxen to the Levites as Passover offerings. When all of the preparations for the Passover feast had been completed and the priests and Levites were all in their proper places as King Josiah had commanded, the Levites killed the Passover lambs, and when they had prepared the animals in the proper manner, the priests sprinkled the blood upon the altar. The Levites kept the animals for burnt offerings in separate places according to the different clans, so that each clan might offer its own sacrifices to Adonai, as required by the Law of Moses. They also followed the Law of Moses in roasting the Passover lambs over the fire and boiling the other consecrated offerings in pots, kettles, and pans, which they brought quickly to the people to eat. After the people had eaten, the Levites prepared the Passover meal for themselves and the priests, the descendants of Aaron, for the priests had been busy from morning till late afternoon with the burnt offerings and fat offerings. The singers, who had descended from Asaph, sang in their proper places as King David, Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun the prophet had specified hundreds of years earlier. Since the Levites took care of the offerings for the gatekeepers, they did not need to leave their stations at the gates. The Passover feast was completed by the end of the day. Every burnt offering had been presented according to King Josiah’s instructions. The people who took part in the Passover stayed seven more days to celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread. There had never been such a Passover celebration since the time of Samuel the prophet, for not one of the kings of Judah had planned one this great, with so many priests and Levites and people from all over the land taking part. All this took place in the eighteenth year of King Josiah’s reign. As time passed, Pharaoh Necho of Egypt went to war against the Assyrians at Carchemish on the Euphrates River. Josiah sided with Assyria and went to fight against Egypt. Pharaoh Necho, however, sent messengers to Josiah with this warning, [What are we doing, fighting each other? I do not want to fight you, but only the king of Assyria. Adonai has Commanded me to hurry. Stop interfering with Adonai’s plans, or He may destroy you.] Josiah would not retreat and go home; he did not believe that Adonai had truly sent Pharaoh Necho. Instead, he disguised himself and went to fight in the plain of Megiddo, thinking that he would not be recognized when he put aside his royal robes. Nevertheless, Egyptian archers mortally wounded Josiah. [Take me away from the battle, for I am wounded,] he told his men. The men removed him from his battle chariot and carried him to Jerusalem in another chariot. Soon after arriving at Jerusalem, King Josiah died and was buried in the royal tombs. A great funeral was held in his honour, for all the people mourned for him, including Jeremiah the prophet and the temple singers. Jeremiah composed a special lamentation for Josiah, and the men and women singers did likewise. These lamentations were preserved and were often used in Israel at special times of mourning in the years that followed. The rest of King Josiah’s life, including the many good deeds which he did and the ways he followed the Law of Adonai, is recorded in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel and Judah. After his death, his son Jehoahaz ruled in his place over Judah.
COMMENTARY
THE PASSOVER
One of the most ancient Israelite customs was the Passover, which came to be the major feast of the year. It was a day set aside to mark the Israelites’ deliverance from Egyptian bondage. Twenty-four hours long, it began on the night of the full moon in the first month of the year, during spring. At twilight, the father killed a lamb and sprinkled its blood on the doorpost of his house. Then roasted, the lamb was eaten with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. Wearing clothes for a journey, the family ate quickly. Food left unfinished was burned; nothing remained for the next day. But the meal was a ritual, and it was conducted and explained in the following way. When all were assembled, the youngest son asked the father the meaning of the Passover meal. The story of the Israelites’ exodus from Egypt was the reply, and it gave meaning to the elements of the feast. The blood stood for the lamb’s blood on the doorposts of the Israelite homes in Egypt. Adonai’s Angel of Death spared the firstborn sons only from homes marked in that way. The bitter herbs served as a reminder of the bitter life Israelites led as slaves in Egypt. Unleavened bread reflected the lack of time to let bread rise before the Exodus. Travel dress and haste also represented the Hebrews’ rapid exit from Egypt. The Feast of Unleavened Bread began the day after Passover. For seven days only unleavened bread was eaten with meals. This too commemorated the escape from Egypt. Eventually Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread became one. The entire festival season was called Passover, or [Pesach.] King Josiah brought about major changes in the celebration. The Passover meal had been a family feast, celebrated in the home, while the Feast of Unleavened Bread had been a pilgrim feast -- families and whole villages travelled to a sanctuary to celebrate and worship together. Josiah ruled that the Passover sacrifice be offered at the altar of the Jerusalem temple, and Passover became a pilgrim feast as well. The two feasts may have been combined at that time. The celebration at Jerusalem also brought other changes to the Passover ritual. Among them, the lamb’s blood was sprinkled upon the altar by temple priests. The centuries after Josiah brought many changes to the Passover feast. Today, the Passover feast -- changed even more, but once again celebrated in the home -- is called the [seder.] The entire festival lasts seven or eight days, during which time observant Jews eat the unleavened bread called [matzos.] The Passover has kept its meaning as a remembrance of Adonai’s actions in Israel’s past.
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I think we will be very surprised at what we will see in the Millennial Era with Messiah reigning personally from Jerusalem.
https://soilfromstone.blogspot.....com/2017/05/13-surp
SERIES N --- THE EXILE --- LESSON 16
COVENANT RENEWED
KING JOSIAH’S GREAT REFORM
From 2 Kings 23:1-29; 2 Chronicles 34:29-33
When the men whom King Josiah had sent to the prophetess Huldah brought her message to him, he summoned the people to a great convocation at the temple. The leaders of Judah and Jerusalem, priests and prophets, and people both great and small were present. The king read to them the entire Book of YHVH’s Law which had been found in the temple. Then, as he stood beside the pillar of the temple, King Josiah made a Covenant with Adonai to follow Him and to keep His Commandments, testimonies, and statutes with all his heart and soul, and to fulfil the Covenant which was written in the scroll. After that the king commanded everyone in Jerusalem and Benjamin to make this same Covenant with Adonai, according to the Covenant which was written in the scroll, and they did so. King Josiah also ordered Hilkiah the high priest and the other priests and doorkeepers of the temple to remove from the temple of Adonai all the vessels made for Baal and Asherah and for the worship of the sun, moon, and stars. He burned these vessels in the fields by the Kidron Valley outside of Jerusalem and carried the ashes to Bethel. Josiah removed the priests whom the previous kings of Judah had appointed to burn incense in the high places of Judah and Jerusalem, and who had also burned incense to Baal and to the gods of the sun, moon, and stars. He took the Asherah idol from the temple to the Kidron Brook, and there he burned it and ground it to powder and threw the powder on the graves of the common people. He also tore down the houses of the male prostitutes near the temple, where women wove robes for the Asherah idol. Josiah ordered the priests who had lived in other cities of Judah to return to Jerusalem, and he destroyed the high places where they had burned incense, as far away as Geba and Beersheba. These priests were permitted to eat with the other priests, but they were not allowed to take part in the worship at Adonai’s altar at the temple. The king also destroyed shrines by the entrance to the palace of Joshua, the previous mayor of Jerusalem, which was on the left side of the gate as one goes into the city. He destroyed the altar of Topheth in the Valley of Hinnom, so that no one ever again would burn his son or daughter on it as a sacrifice to Molech. Josiah destroyed the statues of horses and chariots beside the temple entrance, which previous kings of Judah had dedicated to the sun. These were next to the apartment of Nathan-melech the eunuch. He also destroyed the altars which previous kings of Judah had built on the roof of the upper chamber of Ahaz, as well as the altars which Manasseh had made in the two courts of the temple, grinding them to powder and scattering them in the Kidron Valley. After that King Josiah destroyed the high places east of Jerusalem, south of the mount of corruption, which Solomon had built for the evil Sidonian goddess Ashtoreth, the abominable Moabite god Chemosh, and the abominable Ammonite god Milcom. He destroyed the pillars and the Asherim idols and scattered human bones over these places to defile them. He also destroyed the altar at Bethel which the first Jeroboam had set up when he led Israel into idolatry. He ground these stones into powder and burned the Asherah idol. While he was at Bethel, Josiah saw some tombs on the side of the mountain. He sent some of his men to take the bones from these tombs and burned them upon the altar at Bethel, thus defiling it, just as Adonai through His prophet had predicted many years before. [What is that monument I see over there?] Josiah asked. [That is the tomb of the prophet of Judah who predicted that these things would happen to the altar at Bethel,] his men replied. [Do not disturb that tomb,] Josiah commanded. The men obeyed, leaving the prophet’s tomb and the tomb of the prophet of Samaria undisturbed. Next Josiah destroyed the high places which the kings of Israel had made in the cities of Samaria, which had made Adonai angry. He ground these into powder, as he had done at Bethel. Josiah then executed the heathen priests of these high places upon their own altars and burned human bones on the altars to defile them. Having done this, King Josiah returned to Jerusalem. Josiah continued his reforms by eliminating the mediums, wizards, teraphim, idols, and other abominations throughout Jerusalem and Judah. He was trying with all his heart to follow the Book of the Law which Hilkiah had found in the temple. No other king before and no other king since followed Adonai so completely, seeking to be obedient to Him. Even so, Adonai did not withdraw His anger against Judah because of all the evils which King Manasseh had caused. Adonai had already said, [I will remove Judah from My sight as I removed Israel, and I will reject Jerusalem, My chosen city, and My temple, which I had set up as a memorial to My Name.]
COMMENTARY
THE HINNOM VALLEY
The Hinnom Valley was singled out during Josiah’s religious reforms because it was a haven for pagan cults. The deep valley lay immediately west and south of Jerusalem, its eastern end intersecting the Kidron Valley. Near that point was a sacred area, Topeth, devoted to the worship of foreign deities. At Topeth’s altars, priests offered sacrifices to Canaanite and Phoenician gods such as Baal and Molech. Its reputation as a place of utter evil grew from their practices, including the ritual of making children [pass through the fire.] Jeremiah warned that YHVH’s punishment for the sins practiced there would be so great, people would call the Hinnom Valley the [Valley of Slaughter.] Josiah destroyed the altars of Topeth and the site was eventually buried under centuries of refuse from Jerusalem. However, the Israelites’ horror of the sacrifices offered there and their dread of cremation lived on in the memory of the place. Topeth and the Hinnom Valley became a symbol of total desolation and misery. By New Testament times the name of the valley, [Ge-ben Hinnom,] had become [Gehenna,] and stood for the place of eternal punishment.
But the Levitical priests, the sons of Zadok, who kept the charge of my sanctuary when the people of Israel went astray from me, shall come near to me to minister to me. And they shall stand before me to offer me the fat and the blood, declares Adonai YHWH.
Ezekiel 44:15
It appears that the Cohanim (Levitical priests) will serve as priests under Yeshua's supervision in the millennial kingdom with all of the ritual and ceremony that this entails. "Zadok" means "righteous". This could literally refer to the sons of a man named Zadok, or it could mean "the Cohanim who have remained faithful." #torah #endtimes #yeshua #jesus
Happy two-day, everyone! Its very blustery here, but the sun is out and theres leaflings on most of the trees...very pretty. Today i am trying to quit being a glutton. it is my omer count goal. I have struggled with my weight for 18 years. I was once a perfect 10. I am reasonable in my weight loss goal. Id like to get down to 200. Im currently at 280. If you would pray for strength and determination for me, I would greatly appreciate it! Shalom and thank you.
An unqualified offering won't be accepted by God, so don't even bother trying. "He knows my heart" isn't good enough. He *does* know your heart, so don't think he won't recognize leftovers and indifference for what it is.
Ezekiel 44
On this date in history, 05/01/1778: The Battle of Crooked Billet, Pennsylvania. #otd #tdih https://www.historycarper.com/....category/battles/ame
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