“Never before had there been a king like Josiah, who turned to the Lord with all his heart and soul and strength, obeying all the laws of Moses. And there has never been a king like him since. Even so, the Lord was very angry with Judah because of all the wicked things Manasseh had done to provoke him.”
2 Kings 23:25-26 NLT
Josiah was a man after Gods own ways. He did everything right, from a young age to his untimely death. Yet, his legacy did not last and he was unceremoniously killed. Though God did not undo the judgment against the Jews despite Josiah’s complete measures of reform, we still find Josiah being true to God. He was reverent and aware of all the previous evils and blessings and chose to do right by them. Because of this, even though it was too late to escape the coming Exile, history records him as the mostly godly of kings. This was true throughout time. In this way, he has his own legacy. That legacy is built upon the combination of discernment of the past, using scripture as a guide for all actions, and an unrelenting fervor towards doing right by God, despite what destruction lay ahead. Where as Hezekiah’s reform was only about doing right in his lifetime, Josiah did right for the sake of its truth. He cared about the past, present and future. The result was an Israel ready to go into captivity that was equipped with a proper narrative for it. This gave them a sense of identity in God, rather than a territorial identity. It created the necessary ingredients for explicit heroes like Daniel and his companions. He may not have deserved judgment personally, but his willingness to prepare to be exiled in the best way possible, contributed greatly to the survival of Israel’s identity in exile. When we face coming judgment, do we prepare by making a straight path for a coming redemption or for we turn a blind eye because the damage has already been done?
JOSH McGARY. COM 