King Josiah led the people to renew the covenant with the Lord following his rediscovery of the Book of the Covenant in the temple. He then ordered the removal of all items allusive to Baal, Asherah and star, sun and moon worship, and burned them all outside Jerusalem. He also did away with all the pagan priests and tore down the quarters of the male shrine-prostitutes. He desecrated the place where child sacrifice was practiced so as to impede this and he removed the horses that had been dedicated to the sun. Josiah then commanded the celebration of the Passover which had long been forgotten. Josiah also got rid of all the spiritists and mediums, and the household gods and idols. Neither before or after was there king like Josiah who turned to the Lord with all his heart, soul and strength. Nevertheless God remained angry with Judah because of all that Manasseh and others had done. Josiah went out to battle with Egypt and Assyria united and he was killed. His son Jehoahaz replaced him as king.
Jehoahaz came to the throne of Judah aged 23 and he only reigned for 3 months. The king of Egypt carried him off to Egypt where he died and Jehoiakim his brother took his place. Judah was now totally under the thumb of Egypt and Jehoiakim taxed the people in order to pay a large levy in silver and gold to Egypt. His reign started when he was 25 and he reigned for 11 years, but as mostly happened he did evil before God.
No comments:
Post a Comment