2 Chronicles 34:1 - Meaning and Application

Here we are told several things about Josiah. He came to the throne when he was only eight years old, yet even as a child he had a lawful right to reign, and he ruled for thirty-one years (2 Chronicles 34:1). Still, it seems likely that the early years of his reign were much like his father’s, because as a child he would have left much of the governing to others. So the reforms did not begin until his twelfth year, which means he did not do what Hezekiah had done and set to work at once.

Josiah ruled well (2 Chronicles 34:2). He pleased God, followed David’s example, and did not turn aside to either the right or the left, because there are mistakes on both sides. While he was still young, about sixteen years old, he began to seek after God (2 Chronicles 34:3). We have reason to think he did not have as good an upbringing as Manasseh, and it would not be surprising if those around him tried to corrupt him. Even so, he sought God while he was young.

This is the duty and the advantage of young people, and especially of young men of rank, as soon as they can understand these things, to begin seeking God. Those who seek him early will find him. In the twelfth year of his reign, when he likely took full control of the government, he began to clear his kingdom of the last remains of idol worship. He destroyed the high places, the sacred groves, the images, the altars, and all the tools used for idolatry (2 Chronicles 34:3-4). He did not merely remove them, as Manasseh had done, but broke them into pieces and ground them to dust.

This work of destroying idolatry is here placed in his twelfth year, though in 2 Kings 23:23 it is placed in his eighteenth year. Most likely, some of the work began in his twelfth year, but it met resistance and was not fully completed until six years later, after the book of the law was found. Here, however, the whole matter is gathered into a brief account, while Kings gives a fuller and more detailed record. Josiah’s zeal extended not only through Judah and Jerusalem, but also to the cities of Israel, as far as his authority reached.