Working Notes
by
Sylvia Dooling
This lesson was disappointing to me. Not because of the scripture that was
chosen, but because the points it attempts to make are not made in the text
itself. Here we have a superb example of what happens when a text is used as
a pretext.
The text is ostensibly the story of Josiah’s reform a wonderfully
instructive narrative. But, the lesson’s author incorrectly suggests that
the ‘key” idea in the story is that ‘a woman’s validation of scripture
leads to national religious reform.” This is wrong on two counts:
1. First, it completely ignores the points made in the text; and
2. Second, it distorts the import of the prophet’s words.
In a sentence, the text (2 Kings 22: 1 23:30) tells the story of the
religious reform accomplished by Josiah the King when an ancient copy of
Deuteronomy is discovered in the Temple. Josiah reads the document, and he
is moved to begin important reforms in his own life and in the life of the
nation.
The role that Huldah plays in the story is told in seven short verses. In
them she prophesies (i.e. speaks a word from God) to Josiah that says that
God will judge Judah for her past unfaithfulness, but that Josiah will be
‘gathered to his ancestors” before the judgment falls.
The lesson’s author, however, wants Huldah to play a larger role than that
given to her in Scripture. As a matter of fact, she wants Huldah to become
the ‘validator” of Scripture rather than merely the agent through whom God
speaks his word.
This is what is most disturbing for me in the lesson the author’s position
on the authority and interpretation of Scripture. For example, turn to page
44 and read the five questions that she poses. These questions imply that
Scripture is on a par with an old letter or a diary from your past. How
different this is from the high view of Scripture that is found in the
confessional standards of the PC(USA) which uniformly say that the
scriptures are a Word from God himself. Furthermore, the questions suggest
that the authority of a particular scripture is something for each of us to
decide on the basis of our own subjective criteria, rather than being an
authority that stands over against our own personal convictions and ideas in
judgment of them.
It is for all of these reasons that I recommend that you close your Horizons
lesson book and allow the Scriptures to speak for themselves, for in them
you will be taught about:
1. the authority of God’s Wordwritten and spoken;
2. the character of God;
3. the need for repentance; and
4. the shape of reform when God’s people have strayed far from his
commandments.
First we see that 2 Kings introduces us to a young boy of eight years old
who becomes king of the Southern Kingdom, Judah. It is the pattern of the
writer of 1 and 2 Kings to introduce each king by age, the length of his
reign, his mother’s name, and whether he was a good or evil king. Most of
them were considered to be evil because they had incorporated the gods of
the surrounding nations pushing the God of Israel out of the ‘center” of
the community’s worship to an irrelevant place on the sidelines.
Just before we are introduced to Josiah, we read about one of Judah’s most
evil kingsManasseh. It is the contrast between these two kings that sets the
stage for our text.
Josiah, at the age of 26, is aware that the temple has fallen into
disrepair. He sends his secretary, Shaphan, to the high priest Hilkiah to
begin to collect offerings that will enable the necessary repairs. During
the course of their conversation, Hilkiah reports to Shaphan that he has
‘found the book of the law in the house of the Lord.” (Most biblical
scholars are in agreement that this was the book of Deuteronomy). Shaphan
brings the scroll back to Josiah and reads it aloud to the king.
Then, verse 11 says ‘When the king heard the words of the book of the law,
he tore his clothes.” Here we are struck by a Middle Eastern practice that
shows great grief. Josiah’s grief was a ‘godly grief” (2 Corinthians 7:10)
that drove him both to repentance and to action.
He instructs Hilkiah, Shaphan, and several others to ‘inquire of the LORD
for me, for the people, and for all Judah, concerning the words of this book
that has been found; for great is the wrath of the LORD that is kindled
against us, because our ancestors did not obey the words of this book, to do
according to all that is written concerning us.”
· Note that Josiah is aware not only of his own personal sin, but of the
corporate sin of the entire nation.
· Note also that as he ‘hears” the Word of God, he is overwhelmed with
grief as he is struck by the fearsome consequences that God’s wrath will
have both for himself and for his people.
The text tells us that in order to do what Josiah asks, these men go
directly to the prophetess Huldah, ‘the wife of Shallum son of Tikvah, son
of Harhas, keeper of the wardrobe; she resided in Jerusalem in the Second
Quarter.”
· Note that according to Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching
and Preaching by Richard Nelson on First and Second Kings, ‘Huldah’s
careful identification undergirds the authenticity of the message she
delivers. It emphasizes that she was a real person in real time. The
original readers would have known her neighborhood, if not her husband’s
family. It is to be noted that the narrative makes absolutely nothing of
her being a woman. Her status as a prophet of God is not affected by her
sex. We get the impression that women prophets were not so uncommon as
to require special comment.”
Huldah declares two messages to Josiah’s men.
1. They are to tell the king ‘Thus says the LORD, I will indeed bring
disaster on this place and on its inhabitantsall the words of the book
that the king of Judah has read. Because they have abandoned me and have
made offerings to other gods, so that they have provoked me to anger
with all the work of their hands, therefore my wrath will be kindled
against this place, and it will not be quenched.”
2. She prophesies a personal message to Josiah, ‘But as to the king of
Judah, who sent you to inquire of the LORD, thus shall you say to him,
‘Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Regarding the words that you
have heard, because your heart was penitent and you humbled yourself
before the LORD, when you heard how I spoke against this place, and
against its inhabitants, that they should become a desolation and a
curse, and because you have torn your clothes and wept before me, I also
have heard you, says the LORD. Therefore, I will gather you to your
ancestors, and you shall be gathered to your grave in peace; your eyes
shall not see all the disaster that I will bring on this place.” I’m
reminded of Paul’s words in Romans ll:22 ‘Note then the kindness and the
severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God’s
kindness toward you, provided you continue in his kindness..”
· Note that the marks of a ‘false” prophet are taught in Deuteronomy 18:
21-22 ‘You may say to yourself, How can we recognize a word that the
LORD has not spoken?’ If a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD but
the thing does not take place or prove true, it is a word that the LORD
has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously; do not be
frightened by it.”
· Note also that these men, led by the high priest, knew of Huldah’s
reputation as a true prophet of God. Moreover, Scripture records in
later passages that all she said proved true.
When Huldah was through prophesying, the men took her message back to the
king. Immediately he ‘directed that all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem
should be gathered to him.” In addition, many of the people of the kingdom
also met with him in the temple. There the king reads the scroll that was
read to him.
Next, he makes a covenant ‘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.”
And so begins a comprehensive reform throughout the kingdom of Judah.
1. Josiah cleansed the temple of idols, destroyed the idols and removed
the idolatrous priests. Next, he cleansed the whole land of any sign of
idols, pagan temples, and pagan priests.
2. Josiah commanded the people to observe the Passover, which had not
been kept since the days of the judges.
The writer of 2 Kings closes this section of Scripture with these words
concerning King Josiah ‘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.”
The words that are used here to describe Josiah’s relationship to God were
quoted from Deuteronomy 6:5. Then Josiah dies at the hands of Pharaoh Neco
king of Egypt just as the LORD had spoken through the mouth of his servant
Huldah, and does not live to see the day of God’s judgment upon Judah.
The writer of 2 Kings goes on to say that ‘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.”
*We learn from this lesson that the thrice-holy God does not pass over sin
lightly, but that he is merciful to those who fear him.*
What a magnificent lesson we have heard today!!
An important sidebar note concerning Scripture and its authority
· Scripture has this to say about itself: ‘All scripture is inspired by
God, and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for
training in righteousness, so that everyone who belongs to God may be
proficient, equipped for every good work.” 2 Timothy 3:16
We certainly see this overarching authority of Scripture worked out in the
story of Josiah and the reform that was brought about in Judah as he and the
people ‘heard” the Word of God.
What do our Confessions say about the authority of scripture?
· The Scots Confession ( Chapter XIX) says this: ‘As we believe and
confess the Scriptures of God sufficient to instruct and make perfect
the man of God, so do we affirm and avow their authority to be from God,
and not to depend on men or angels. We affirm, therefore, that those who
say the Scriptures have no other authority save that which they have
received from the Kirk are blasphemous against God and injurious to the
true Kirk, which always hears and obeys the voice of her own Spouse and
Pastor, but takes not upon her to be mistress over the same.”
· The Second Helvetic Confession (Chapter I) says this: ‘CANONICAL
SCRIPTURE. We believe and confess the canonical Scriptures of the holy
prophets and apostles of both Testaments to be the true Word of God, and
to have sufficient authority of themselves, not of men. For God himself
spoke to the fathers, prophets, apostles, and still speaks to us through
the Holy Scriptures.And in this Holy Scripture, the universal Church of
Christ has the most complete exposition of all that pertains to a saving
faith, and also to the framing of a life acceptable to God; and in this
respect it is expressly commanded by God that nothing be either added to
or taken from the same.”
· The Westminster Confession of Faith (Chapter 1) says this: ‘The
authority of the Holy Scripture, for which it ought to be believed and
obeyed, dependeth not upon the testimony of any man or church, but
wholly upon God (who is truth itself), the author thereof; and therefore
it is to be received, because it is the Word of God.”
Suggested Alternate Questions for Lesson 5
1. Josiah shows ‘godly grief” that leads to repentance. What does it
mean to repent? What is the relationship between repentance and
behavior? How does what Josiah does show that he is repentant?
2. Huldah was an obedient servant of God empowered by God to be his
prophet. Today we have the whole witness of Scripture. Biblical prophets
are no longer necessary. So, in ways that are unique to our day and
time, how can we live as obedient servants sharing God’s Word with
friends and family?
3. King Josiah was God’s instrument for reform during a specific period
of time in Judah’s history. What does ‘reform” mean? What were the
steps that led to Judah’s reform? Is reform needed today in the church
of Jesus Christ? If so, what do you think reform should look like in our
day?