You'll recall that the prophetess Huldah said that the Lord would bring judgment on Judah but not during the lifetime of Josiah. At this news, Josiah immediately read the Book of the Law to the people and professed his intention to live by it and urged them to do the same, with large numbers of the people committing themselves to living by the Lord's laws. We talked about how we didn't know whether Josiah hoped such a wide-scale revival would break out that the Lord would never have to bring the prophecy to pass or whether he only sought to delay it coming to pass for as long as possible. We will soon see that a delay is all that was achieved but that's no small thing, considering how rampant idolatry was during the reigns of Josiah's father and grandfather. Spiritual conditions were better in Judah during Josiah's reign because he was a godly king but spiritual conditions will begin to deteriorate immediately after his death. This is why the author of 2 Kings says what he says in the text below.
"Nevertheless, the Lord did not turn away from the heat of His fierce anger, which burned against Judah because of all that Manasseh had done to arouse His anger. So the Lord said, 'I will remove Judah also from My presence as I removed Israel, and I will reject Jerusalem, the city I chose, and this temple, about which I said, 'My name shall be there.'" (2 Kings 23:26-27) Some of the people in the land responded correctly to Josiah's call to repent but some of them are still clinging to the idolatrous practices that were introduced and encouraged by King Manasseh. Right now they can't openly serve pagan gods but at the first opportunity they will---and that opportunity isn't far away because Josiah's successors will do evil in the eyes of the Lord. Because the Lord knows all things, He can judge things that are going to happen in the future. He is angry with what Manasseh did and with what some of the people are still doing and He is angry about what will be done in the future. This is why He can state that judgment will certainly fall.
We are not told much about the remainder of Josiah's reign. He held the first Passover in his eighteenth year as king and we were previously told that he reigned for thirty-one years. The authors of 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles both skip ahead now to his death. The author of 2 Kings doesn't provide many details about this event, saying only, "While Josiah was king, Pharaoh Necho king of Egypt went up to the Euphrates River to help the king of Assyria. King Josiah marched out to meet him in battle, but Necho faced him and killed him at Megiddo." (2 Kings 23:29)
In the spring of 609 BC the king of Egypt, Necho II, led an army out to come to the aid of the Assyrians, with whom he had allied himself against Babylon. The Babylonian forces, combined with the army of the Medes, had attacked and destroyed the Assyrian capital of Nineveh and killed the king of Assyria. The now-dead king's successor was forced to flee to Carchemish where he set up a government in exile. On his way to Carchemish, Necho will meet up with King Josiah who marches out with his forces in an attempt to stop his progress. Josiah attempts to stop him because, since the days when Josiah's great-grandfather Hezekiah made an alliance with the Babylonians, the kings of Judah have apparently remained in an alliance with the kings of Babylon against their common enemy of Assyria. But Josiah's attempt to stop the forces of Egypt will result in his death.
When Necho hears that Josiah is coming out in battle array against him, he tries to dissuade him. "But Necho sent messengers to him, saying, 'What quarrel is there, king of Judah, between you and me? It is not you I am attacking at this time, but the house with which I am at war. God has told me to hurry; so stop opposing God, who is with me, or He will destroy you.'" (2 Chronicles 35:21) Did the Lord really speak to this idolatrous king? Later in today's text the author affirms this to be so. We should not be surprised by that because we know that the Lord does speak to sinners. If He did not, then there would be no hope for anyone to be saved.
The Lord promised that Judah would not fall during Josiah's lifetime but Josiah's life is about to end because he does not stop to consult the Lord to make certain whether or not he should press the attack against the Egyptian forces. "Josiah, however, would not turn away from him, but disguised himself to engage him in battle. He would not listen to what Necho had said at God's command but went to fight him on the plain of Megiddo. Archers shot King Josiah, and he told his officers, 'Take me away; I am badly wounded.' So they took him out of his chariot, put him in his other chariot and brought him to Jerusalem, where he died. He was buried in the tombs of his ancestors, and all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for him." (2 Chronicles 35:22-24) The men remove him from his war chariot, the small type of chariot in which there was room only for two men (the driver and the archer) to stand up in, and transfer him into what may have been his royal chariot which afforded him enough room to lie down in. He is mortally wounded and dies upon his arrival back in Jerusalem.
"Jeremiah composed laments for Josiah, and to this day all the male and female singers commemorate Josiah in the laments. These became a tradition in Israel and are written in the laments. The other events of Josiah's reign and his acts of devotion in accordance with what is written in the Law of the Lord---all the events, from beginning to end, are written in the books of the kings of Israel and Judah." (2 Chronicles 35:25-27) These books of the annals of the kings have been lost to time, as we've noted before. We no longer possess these additional records of the days of the kings.
If Josiah had listened to Necho and had not pressed the attack, he might have lived much longer and the nation of Judah might have endured much longer. But the prophecies about the fall of Judah will soon come to pass now that Josiah is dead. Necho and his ally, the king of Assyria, will not be successful against the army of Babylon. Babylon will become the dominant superpower of the era and the prophecy Isaiah spoke to King Hezekiah of Judah will come true. Isaiah warned him that the Babylonians will come and take away all the treasures that Hezekiah showed the officials of the king of Babylon of his day. The Babylonians will take away the descendants of King Hezekiah, along with thousands upon thousands of the citizens of Judah. This prophecy will come true because the Lord said that if Judah persisted in idolatry He would allow the nation to fall just as He allowed the northern kingdom of Israel to fall. If Josiah had not been a godly man who encouraged so many of his subjects to repent, the Lord might have already allowed the Babylonians to gain enough power to overthrow Assyria and then begin attacking other nations such as Judah. But now Josiah is dead and his son and his grandson will be evil and idolatrous kings. The people of Judah will participate in more and more idolatry. The end of the nation is near.
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