Tim Johnson Apr. 4, 2026
I trust y’all have had a wonderful Pesach so far. And now in this week of Matzot, or Unleavened Bread, we come to the weekly Shabbat. As far as I know, the Parashah for today is called Pesach Sheva, which means the seventh day of Passover, or Matzot. However, in my readings this week, I came across the Haftarah for the second day of Pesach. As I read it, I immediately knew that this needed to be the text of today’s drash. And lo, and behold, today turns out to indeed be the second day of Passover. So this is completely appropriate, I’m on the right page! (Which for me is not necessarily normal…) The first day of Passover, the High Day, started on Thursday night after sunset, and went all through Friday. Now today, Saturday, is the second day. As I said, the Haftarah for this day is marked in my Tanach, and comes from the book of II Kings, chapter 23.
This is the story of King Josiah. To those of you who remember him, Josiah is a wonderful king of Judah. His reign, though, is almost at the final end of Judah. After he is gone there isn’t much time left until they are all carried away to Babylon. On the previous side of this story, Josiah’s grandfather was king Manasseh. Manasseh was the very worst king in the history of Judah.
The first thing I want to talk about, though, is to give a brief summary of the kings of Judah. According to my count, there are twenty-three kings who reigned over Judah. That’s from beginning to end: We begin with Saul, then David, then Solomon, and continue on from there. Of all twenty-three, ten of them were called evil, or not right in the Bible. For context, though, of those ten, seven of the last nine kings of Judah were evil. So, before that, Judah did pretty well. The kings of Israel, on the other hand, were awful. Almost all except for a couple of them were evil.
So, summing up, Judah had a history that was not great, but much, much better than that of Israel the northern kingdom. Then along came King Manasseh. M’na-sseh. His reign over Judah began about a hundred and ten years before the end came, and they were carried off to Babylon. But the thing is that Manasseh reigned for fully half of that time. He reigned for fifty-five years. And the whole time, it was bad. Real bad.
There’s a wonderful bright spot, though, after him, in his grandson Josiah, who is our subject for today. But first we need to understand Manasseh. Now, I’m going to read all the horrid details from the Bible about him. And I must confess, this is not pleasant reading; especially in Hebrew, because it’s so rich with meaning. When I came to it this time, it felt like it was just sickening. All the disgusting and evil things he does, I was just wishing they were not in the Bible. But they are in the Bible, and he did do them. We need to understand the true depravity that took place in Judah before God had to cast His people out of their land. So that is important to see, even if it is unpleasant, and that’s why it’s in there. Thankfully, God does not spend a lot of time on it… just enough.
And after the good king, King Josiah, the rest of the book of Second Kings, with the carrying away to Babylon is no fun to read either. But it’s important. We all need to see and remember that there are consequences… righteous consequences for sins. Thankfully, for you and me, our Savior Yeshua has saved us from those consequences… (mostly). But it wasn’t free for him. Yeshua had to pay a terrible price. A price that was literally on each of our own heads, that was due to us. He paid the price so we would not need to.
Okay, on to II Kings. We are starting in chapter 21:
Scripture quotations are from the NJV Bible (New Jerusalem Version).
Copyright © 2022 by Hineni Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
II Kings 21
1 Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hephzibah. 2 He did what was evil in the sight of YHVH, after the abominations of the nations whom YHVH cast out before the sons of Israel. 3 For he rebuilt the high places which Hezekiah his father had destroyed; and he raised up altars for Baal and made an Asherah, as Ahab king of Israel did, (Remember, Ahab was the evil king of Israel who was married to Jezebel.) and worshiped all the host of the heavens, and served them. 4 And he built altars in the house of YHVH, of which YHVH said, “I will put my name in Jerusalem.” (Note: These are altars to other gods..) 5 And he built altars for all the host of the heavens in the two courts of the house of YHVH. 6 And he made his son to pass through the fire, (passing through the fire would kill the child) practiced sorcery, used enchantments, and dealt with those who had familiar spirits, and with wizards. He did much evil in the sight of YHVH, to provoke him to anger. (What he did, those things he embraced, much of this is in the world all around us, and is seen as normal, and accepted by many in our culture.) 7 And he set the engraved image of Asherah that he had made in the house of which YHVH said to David and to Solomon his son, “In this house, and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I will put my name forever; 8 And I will not cause the feet of Israel to wander anymore out of the land which I have their fathers, if only they will observe to do according to all that I have commanded them, and according to all the Torah that my servant Moses commanded them.” 9 But they did not listen, and Manasseh seduced them to do that which is evil more than the nations did whom YHVH destroyed before the sons of Israel.
(Menasseh put that Asherah in the temple in Jerusalem. He was causing Judah to do worse things than the nations that were there previously, that God was driving out from before Israel. That’s how bad Menasseh was. By the way, I looked up the prophets to figure out, if possible, who was prophesying to Menasseh. The main one in his time was Nahum. Zephaniah was during Josiah. Jeremiah and Habakkuk were around from the time of Josiah to the carrying away.)
II Kings 21
10 YHVH spoke by his servants the prophets, saying, 11 “Because Manasseh king of Judah has done these abominations, and has done wickedly above all that the Amorites did, who were before him, and has also made Judah to sin with his idols; 12 therefore this is what YHVH, the God of Israel, says: ‘Behold, I bring such evil on Jerusalem and Judah that whoever hears of it, both his ears will tingle. 13 I will stretch over Jerusalem the line of Samaria and the plummet of Ahab’s house; and I will wipe Jerusalem as a man wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down. 14 And I will cast off the remnant of my inheritance and deliver them into the hands of their enemies. And they will become a prey and a plunder to all their enemies, 15 because they have done that which is evil in my sight, and have provoked me to anger, since the day their fathers came out of Egypt, even to this day.’”
16 Moreover, Manasseh shed innocent blood very much, (In the Hebrew, it says: V’gam dam naqi shafach Menasseh harbeh meod… And also innocent blood shed Menasseh a lot, very much…) until he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another; in addition to his sin with which he made Judah to sin, in doing that which was evil in the sight of YHVH. 17 Now the rest of the acts of Manasseh, and all that he did, and his sin that he sinned, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?
(By the way, I’m not so sure this is talking about the book we call Chronicles. Most likely, this is a more ancient book chronicling all the kings of Judah only. But I also wonder if this is partly where the book of Chronicles was taken from. Just a thought…)
18 And Manasseh slept with his fathers, and was buried in the garden of Uzza; and Amon his son reigned in his place.
So, mercifully, we have the end of the narrative of Menasseh. It’s not that long, but you see how bad he was. Worse than the original inhabitants that God was driving out.
At this point, we have in chapter 21 the account of Manasseh’s son king Amon. He was evil too. We will skip his story except for verse 23: “The servants of Amon conspired against him, and put the king to death in his own house.” He was only king for two years, and was just a bad as Manasseh his father. Now we come to Josiah.
II Kings 22
1 Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Jedidah the daughter of Adaiah of Bozkath. 2 He did that which was right in the eyes of YHVH, and walked in all the way of David his father, and did not turn aside to the right hand or to the left. (Yay!!)
3 And it was in the eighteenth year of King Josiah, that the king sent Shaphan, the son of Azaliah the son of Meshullam, the scribe to the house of YHVH, saying, 4 “Go up to Hilkiah the kohen gadol, that he may count the money which is brought into the house of YHVH, which the keepers of the threshold have gathered of the people. 5 Let them deliver it into the hand of the workmen who have the oversight of the house of YHVH, and let them give it to the workmen who are in the house of YHVH, to repair the damage to the house, 6 to the carpenters, and to the builders, and to the masons, and for buying timber and cut stone to repair the house. 7 However there was no accounting made with them of the money that was delivered into their hand; for they dealt faithfully.”
(I love that: they dealt faithfully, so there was no accounting of the money. They were trusted because they were worthy of trust.)
8 Then Hilkiah the kohen gadol said to Shaphan the scribe, “I have found the scroll of the Torah in the house of YHVH. Hilkiah delivered the book to Shaphan, and he read it. 9 Shaphan the scribe came to the king, and brought the king word again and said, “Your servants have emptied out the money that was found in the house, and have delivered it into the hands of the workmen who have the oversight of the house of YHVH. 10 Then Shaphan the scribe told the king, saying, “Hilkiah the kohen has delivered a book to me.” Then Shaphan read it before the king.
11 And it came to pass, when the king had heard the words of the scroll of the Torah, that he tore his garments.
(The word for “ and he tore” in Hebrew is v’yikra, just like the parasha, “and he called”… except that in this case, there is an ayin at the end of the word instead of an aleph. To me it sounds like it is saying …he tore his clothes with a scream. This is obviously an ancient way of expressing complete woe. He is expressing sorrow, anguish, remorse, mourning, grief, and despair. He has finally heard the Torah for the first time in his life, and he realizes that he and his entire kingdom are in big trouble.)
12 The king commanded Hilkiah the kohen, Ahikam the son of Shaphan, Achbor the son of Micaiah, Shaphan the scribe, and Asaiah the king’s servant, saying, 13 “Go inquire of YHVH for me, and for the people, and for all Judah, concerning the words of this book that is found; for great is the wrath of YHVH that is kindled against us, because our fathers have not listened to the words of this book, to do according to all that which is written concerning us.
(By the way, I believe that the book they found was Deuteronomy, which is fairly clear from the context as we read on. Remember that it is in Deuteronomy where we find the Blessing and the Curse. It contains very strong words that God speaks regarding faithfully keeping His Torah, including what happens if you don’t… which is the curse.)
14 So Hilkiah the kohen, Ahikam, Achbor, Shaphan, and Asaiah went to Juldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum the son of Tikvah, the son of Harhas, keeper of the wardrobe (now she lived in Jerusalem in the second quarter); and they talked with her. 15 She said to them, “This is what YHVH, the God of Israel, says: Tell the man who sent you to me, 16 This is what YHVH says, Behold, I will bring evil on this place, and on its inhabitants, even all the words of the book which the king of Judah has read. (See that? Deuteronomy. The curse.) 17 Because they have forsaken me, and have burned incense to other gods, that they might provoke me to anger with all the work of their hands, therefore my wrath shall be kindled against this place, and it will not be quenched. 18 But to the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of YHVH, tell him, This is what YHVH, the God of Israel, says: Concerning the words that you have heard, 19 because your heart was tender, and you humbled yourself before YHVH, when you heard what I spoke against this place, and against its inhabitants, that they should become a desolation and a curse, and have torn your garments, and wept before me; I also have heard you, says YHVH. Therefore, behold, I will gather you to your grave in peace. Your eyes will not see all the evil which I will bring on this place.’” So they brought this message back to the king.
Josiah is a great example to us as to how we should act when we find we are in trouble with God. Let’s let our hearts be tender. Let us humble ourselves before YHVH our God. Proverbs 29:23 “A man’s pride brings him low, but one of lowly spirit gains honor.” Let us turn (shuv) and return to God’s ways instead of our own. Let us mourn our wrongdoing, but then let the joy come in the morning because we have been forgiven. That is how a faithful son or daughter does before their loving Heavenly Father.
II Kings 23
1 The king sent, and they gathered to him all the elders of Judah and of Jerusalem. 2 The king went up to the house of YHVH, and all the men of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem with him, with the kohanim, the prophets, and all the people, both small and great; and he read in their hearing all the words of the book of the covenant which was found in the house of YHVH.
(So now, Josiah is having this book of the Torah read before all these people in Jerusalem, so they can see what he sees.)
3 The king stood by the pillar and made a covenant before YHVH, to walk after YHVH and keep his mitzvot and his testimonies and his statutes with all his heart and all his soul, to confirm the words of this covenant that were written in this book. And all the people agreed to the covenant.
4 Then the king commanded Hilkiah the kohen gadol and the kohanim of the second order and the keepers of the threshold, to bring out of the temple of YHVH all the vessels that were made for Baal, for the Asherah, and for all the host of the heavens, (It’s an abomination that they are in there at all.) and he burned them outside of Jerusalem in the fields of the Kidron, and carried their ashes to Bethel. (By the way, Bethel is always two words in the Hebrew: Beit El. House of God.) 5 He got rid of the idolatrous priests, whom the kings of Judah had ordained to burn incense in the high places in the cities of Judah, and in the places around Jerusalem; those also who burned incense to Baal, to the sun, and to the moon, and to the planets, and to all the host of the heavens. 6 And he brought out the Asherah from the house of YHVH, outside of Jerusalem, to the brook Kidron, and beat it to dust, and cast its dust on the graves of the common people.
(Every other good king in the history of Judah was recognized for the way they did well. But after each of them the Bible states that they did not remove the high places and so forth. Josiah is cleaning house from top to bottom. More than anyone has ever done before him. He is doing everything he can to remove the established, entrenched wickedness and idolatry from Jerusalem and Judea.)
7 And he broke down the houses of the male prostitutes that were in the house of YHVH, where the women wove hangings for the Asherah. (This was in the house of YHVH?) 8 He brought all the priests out of the cities of Judah, and defiled the high places where the priests had burned incense, from Geba to Beer-sheba;
(Geba is about ten miles north of Jerusalem, and Beer-sheba is way down south. This sounds like these are actually kohanim of the house of Aaron who were in these cities’ high places burning incense. They are not supposed to be doing this. Josiah is putting a stop to all of this.)
and he broke down the high places of the gates that were at the entrance of the gate of Joshua the governor of the city, which were on a man’s left hand at the gate of the city. (Again, this is obviously institutionalized idolatry in Jerusalem.) 9 Nevertheless the priests of the high places did not come up to the altar of YHVH in Jerusalem, but they ate matzah among their brothers. 10 He defiled Topheth, which is in the valley of the children of Hinnom, that no man might make his son or his daughter to pass through the fire to Molech. (Finally, an end to that in Judea!) 11 And he took away the horses that the kings of Judah had given to the sun, at the entrance of the house of YHVH, by the room of Nathan Melech the officer, who was in the court; and he burned the chariots of the sun with fire. (Lots and lots of idolatry… everywhere.) 12 The king broke down the altars that were on the roof of the upper room of Ahaz, (Ahaz was king of Judah before Hezekiah.) which the kings of Judah had made, and the altars which Manasseh (His grandfather) had made in the two courts of the house of YHVH, and beat them down from there, and cast their dust into the brook Kidron. 13 The king defiled the high places that were before Jerusalem, which were on the right hand of the mountain of corruption, which Solomon the king of Israel had built for Ashtoreth the abomination of the Sidonians, and for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and for Milcom the abomination of the children of Ammon. 14 And he broke in pieces the pillars, cut down the Asherah poles, and filled their places with men’s bones.
(This way of life of idolatry has been in place ever since King Solomon. This was a whole lot of terrible things that he embraced, and left there for his posterity. That was a long, long time ago now. About four hundred years. And this has been normal in Jerusalem for all that time. It’s no wonder God was getting tired of all this terrible sin and idolatry. He put up with it for a long time, and it was getting worse and worse.)
15 Moreover the altar that was at Bethel, and the high place which Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin, had made, even that altar and the high place he broke down; and he burned the Asherah. 16 And as Josiah turned himself, he spied the tombs that were there in 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 YHVH which the man of God proclaimed, who foretold these things.
Now we will briefly visit this story in the book of First Kings:
I Kings 13
1 Behold, a man of God came out of Judah by the word of YHVH to Bethel; and Jeroboam (This is Jeroboam son of Nebat. The one who caused Israel to sin. Jeroboam) was standing by the altar to burn incense. (Then the man of God…) 2 He cried against the altar by the word of YHVH, and said, “Altar! Altar! This is what YHVH says: ‘Behold, a son will be born to David’s house, Josiah by name. On you he will sacrifice the kohanim of the high places who burn incense on you, and they will burn men’s bones on you.’”
(Amazing! This prophet identifies Josiah by name. And this is also about four hundred years before it happens. Jeroboam is right after Solomon.)
II Kings 23
17 Then he (Josiah) said, “What monument is that which I see?” The men of the city told him, “It is the tomb of the man of God, who came from Judah, and proclaimed these things that you have done against the altar of Bethel.” 18 He said, “Let him be! Let no one move his bones.” So they let his bones alone, with the bones of the prophet who came out of Samaria. 19 All the houses also of the high places that were in the cities of Samaria, which the kings of Israel had made to provoke YHVH to anger, Josiah took away, and did to them according to all the acts that he had done in Bethel. 20 He killed (v’yizbach) all the priests of the high places that were there, on the altars, and burned men’s bones on them; and he returned to Jerusalem.
(The English says “killed”, but the Hebrew says v’yizbach, which means he offered them like a sacrifice on the altar, which is what the man of God had prophesied.)
21 The king commanded all the people, saying, “Celebrate the Pesach to YHVH your God, as it is written in this book of the covenant.” (Now, here we are. Pesach!) 22 Surely there was not kept such a Pesach from the days of the Judges who judged Israel, nor in all the days of the kings of Israel, nor of the kings of Judah; 23 but in the eighteenth year of king Josiah, this Pesach was kept to YHVH in Jerusalem.
(This is so emphatic in the Hebrew. This event was so significant! And what a complete contrast to all the history we have read from the book of Judges all the way up to this point; also, what a complete contrast between the darkness we saw of Menasseh to the light we see here with Josiah.)
24 Moreover Josiah removed those who had familiar spirits, the wizards, and the teraphim, and the idols, and all the abominations that were seen in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, that he might confirm the words of the Torah which were written in the book that Hilkiah the kohen found in the house of YHVH. 25 And there was no king like him before him, who turned to YHVH with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his might, according to all the Torah of Moses; and there was none like him who arose after him.
(Josiah stands alone. Even David is included here. No one was like King Josiah. What an example to us! When God says in the Shema that we are to love him with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength, the word for strength is “meodecha”. Meod means much. All your “much-ness”. I think that if you want an explanation as to what that means, one need look no further than wonderful King Josiah.)
26 Nevertheless, YHVH did not turn from the fierceness of his great wrath, with which his anger burned against Judah, because of all the provocation with which Manasseh had provoked him. 27 And YHVH said, “I will also remove Judah out of my sight, as I have removed Israel, and I will cast off this city which I have chosen, even Jerusalem, and the house of which I said, ‘My name shall be there.’”
28 Now the rest of the acts of Josiah, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? 29 In his days Pharaoh Necoh king of Egypt went up against the king of Assyria to the river Euphrates; and King Josiah went against him; and Pharaoh Necoh killed him at Megiddo, when he had seen him. 30 And his servants carried him in a chariot dead from Megiddo, and brought him to Jerusalem, and buried him in his own tomb. The people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of Josiah, and anointed him, and made him king in his father’s place.
So there is the end of our story for today. It just strikes me as so impressive that he, Josiah, was the only king of Israel or Judah who ever followed through on the Torah of God to try to completely remove the idolatry and wickedness from the land. This took work.
In this week of Matzot, of unleavened bread, let us remember that this is a process that we, as beloved sons and daughters will never be done with. We must all be diligent to constantly be willing to find, confront, and remove all the chametz (or leaven), of sin, wickedness, and idolatry from our lives. Let us remember Josiah to see how this is to be done.
Shabbat Shalom