You can find this week’s Scripture passage at –
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2+Kings+22%3A14-20&version=NRSV

VI.
First, let’s reread this week’s Scripture in 2 Kings 22:14-20.

Now let’s take a few minutes to read some of 2 Kings 23 and notice what happens when King Josiah’s delegation returns from Huldah.

How seriously did Josiah take what had been read to him from the “the book of the covenant” and what Huldah had told his delegation?

Then the king directed that all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem should be gathered to him. The king went up to the house of the Lord, and with him went all the people of Judah, all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the priests, the prophets, and all the people, both small and great; he read in their hearing all the words of the book of the covenant that had been found in the house of the Lord. The king stood by the pillar and made a covenant before the Lord, to follow the Lord, keeping his commandments, his decrees, and his statutes, with all his heart and all his soul, to perform the words of this covenant that were written in this book. All the people joined in the covenant. (2 Kings 23:1-3)

I get the impression he took it very seriously and wanted “all the elders … the priests, the prophets, and all the people, both great and small…” to join in the covenant he was making with God.

And it seems to be taking hold of everyone, “All the people joined in the covenant.”

Next, he adds some actions to his words .

The king commanded the high priest Hilkiah, the priests of the second order, and the guardians of the threshold, to bring out of the temple of the Lord all the vessels made for Baal, for Asherah, and for all the host of heaven; he burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of the Kidron, and carried their ashes to Bethel. He deposed the idolatrous priests whom the kings of Judah had ordained to make offerings in the high places at the cities of Judah and around Jerusalem; those also who made offerings to Baal, to the sun, the moon, the constellations, and all the host of the heavens. (2 Kings 23:4-5)

He institutes a “cleansing of the Temple” which includes not just the vessels in the Temple but also any “idolatrous priests” in the land that do not hold to the covenant.
Then there is the return to the celebration of the passover,

The king commanded all the people, “Keep the passover to the Lord your God as prescribed in this book of the covenant.” No such passover had been kept since the days of the judges who judged Israel, even during all the days of the kings of Israel and of the kings of Judah; but in the eighteenth year of King Josiah this passover was kept to the Lord in Jerusalem. (2 Kings 23:21-23)

And just so we don’t miss anything, the writer of 2 Kings summarizes all this .

Moreover Josiah put away the mediums, wizards, teraphim, idols, and all the abominations that were seen in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, so that he established the words of the law that were written in the book that the priest Hilkiah had found in the house of the Lord. Before him there was no king like him, who turned to the Lord with all his heart, with all his soul, and with all his might, according to all the law of Moses; nor did any like him arise after him. (2 Kings 23:24-25)

So where does that leave us?

The King and the nation renew the covenant. The Temple is renewed for proper worship. The passover celebration begins anew. It seems this renewal attempts to touch all the “land of Judah.”

So are we ready for a “happy” ending of this story? With such a return to the covenant, the nation will find a reprieve from the “disaster” Huldah spoke of?

Maybe not …

Still the Lord did not turn from the fierceness of his great wrath, by which his anger was kindled against Judah, because of all the provocations with which Manasseh had provoked him. The Lord said, “I will remove Judah also out of my sight, as I have removed Israel; and I will reject this city that I have chosen, Jerusalem, and the house of which I said, My name shall be there.” (2 Kings 23:26-27)

There is a lot here to process.

How do you take in and attempt to make sense of Huldah’s words, Josiah’s words and actions, and, “Still the Lord did not turn from the fierceness of his great wrath….”?

charles
{ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est}