From Splendor to Shadow

Young Josiah Does All He Can Do

As King Josiah read the prophecies of swift judgment, he trembled for the future. The perversity of Judah had been great; what was to be the outcome of their continued apostasy? SS 207.2

“In the eighth year of his reign, while he was yet young,” he had consecrated himself fully to the service of God. At the age of twenty he had removed “the high places, and the groves, and the carved images, and the molten images.” “They brake down the altars of Baalim in his presence; and the images ... and the groves ... he brake in pieces, and made dust of them, and strowed it upon the graves of them that had sacrificed unto them. And he burnt the bones of the priests upon the altars, and cleansed Judah and Jerusalem.” 2 Chronicles 34:3-5. SS 208.1

The youthful ruler extended his efforts to the portions of Palestine formerly occupied by the ten tribes of Israel, only a feeble remnant of which now remained. “So did he,” the record reads, “in the cities of Manasseh, and Ephraim, and Simeon, even unto Naphtali.” Verse 6. Not until he had traversed the length and breadth of this region of ruined homes, and “had broken down the altars and the groves, and had beaten the graven images into powder, and cut down all the idols throughout all the land of Israel,” did he return to Jerusalem. Verse 7. SS 208.2

Thus Josiah had endeavored as king to exalt God's holy law. And now, while Shaphan the scribe was reading to him out of the book of the law, the king discerned in this volume a powerful ally in the work of reform he so much desired to see. He resolved to do all in his power to acquaint his people with its teachings and to lead them, if possible, to reverence and love the law of heaven. SS 208.3