Josiah's First Reforms: The Tabernacle Cleansed And Restored To YAHWEH
In 628 the king was twenty. It is quite probable that this year saw his first great reform for the cleansing of the Tabernacle: this was the removal of the idols (doubly hateful because in addition to their spiritual significance they had also a political one), abolition of the offensive cults established in different parts of the tabernacle, and the return of the Tabernacle to YAHWEH and HIS servants.
It is clear that Josiah was following in the footsteps of his great-grandfather Hezekiah; he was very like him in many ways, particularly by his overriding vocation as a reformer. These two kings stand out as convinced Yahwists and men of action determined to adopt measures which would guide the People of YAHWEH back to the straight path. All the same, it should be emphasized that Josiah emerges as far greater and nobler than his ancestor.
Like Hezekiah in his day, Josiah decided to throw the Assyrian deities out of the Tabernacle where they had once more taken possession. The high kohen Hilkiah, his subordinates and the 'guardians of the threshold' received orders to throw out of the tabernacle all the cult objects made for Baal and the whole array of heaven (this referred to the astral cult, a favourite in Mesopotamian religions). These objects were taken to the fields of Kidron and burned. The king ordered the houses of the sacred prostitutes established within the Tabernacle precincts, near the place where women wove the garments for Asherah, to be pulled down. The kohens who had offered sacrifices to Baal, to the Sun and Moon were to be deprived of their offices.
In the lesser buildings of the tabernacle the chariot of the Sun was kept together with the sacred horses during the ceremonies organized in honour of the gods of the zodiac. Josiah slaughtered the horses and burned the chariots.
On the terrace of the Tabernacle previous kings of Yahudah had built small altars in honour of the gods of the sky. Manasseh had also put up sacrificial altars in the two Tabernacle courts. All these 'abominations' were pulled down and the rubble flung into the Kidron valley.
The city of Yerusalem itself and the immediate neighbourhood had to be purified in their turn.
At the gate of Yahshua Ben Nun (called after a governor of the city) stood the shrine of the goats (probably demons with the appearance of satyrs); it was pulled down.
It was also necessary to destroy as soon as possible the loathsome Tophet, the furnace where impious Yisraelites continued to burn their new born as sacrificial victims for Molech. Josiah desecrated this place by establishing on its site the refuse dump for the city.
On the other side of the Kidron, on the western slope of the Mount of Olives there stood the spiritual buildings put up by Solomon for his pagan wives; there was a tabernacle for Ashtoreth of the Sidonians, another for Shemesh of the Moabites and for Milcom of the Ammonites. All these were pulled down.
To desecrate the altars of the foreign gods the bones of their former priests were burned on them. Then the sacrificial objects were destroyed; the stone statues were hammered to pieces, the bronze effigies were broken up and the fragments scattered on the tombs of those who had formerly taken part in these loathsome rites.
The same methods were adopted on the 'high places' situated at the summits of the wooded hills where the primitive Canaanites worshipped their gods. After the conquest of the Promised Land the Yahwists had indeed organized ceremonies for the worship of YAHWEH in these same places but usually had kept the statues of the old gods. This was nothing else than a shameful syncretism in which YAHWEH was invoked at the same time as the sexual deities.
Josiah was determined to abolish for ever curious shrines
Josiah and the kohens of Yerusalem intended to abolish for ever these curious shrines which were an insult to orthodox theology. One after the other systematic measures of desecration and destruction were applied to them. The steles were thrown down, the sacred poles sawn up. Human bones were scattered on the ground to desecrate these sites.
Josiah did not confine his activities to the territory of Yahudah; the increasing relaxation of Assyrian vigilance enabled him to extend his campaign of spiritual restoration to the former kingdom of Samaria. His envoys traversed the cities belonging to the tribes of Manasseh, Naphtali and Simeon, where there were still a few small pockets of Yisraelites. The spiritual reformers then carried out a thoroughgoing destruction on the high places. The Scriptural writer even tells us that the kohens of these shrines were sacrificed on their own altars.
The kohens of the high places of Yahudah were treated more humanely. After the destruction of their local shrines, they were summoned to Yerusalem and concentrated round the Tabernacle. It was thought, probably, that it would be dangerous to leave centres of resistance in existence in the remote regions of the country. It was preferable to have these men in Yerusalem. Their board and lodging was provided at the expense of the spiritual community. But they were not given the privilege of serving in the Tabernacle nor, of course, of taking part in the sacred rites.
The restoration of authentic Yahwist worship, rid at last of the Assyrian, Canaanite and other rites, was obviously the aim of the circle of prophets centred on Yerusalem.
But Josiah, who was the devoted servant of YAHWEH now restored to HIM the ancient purity, had another, national aim in view. The centralization of worship in Yerusalem implied centralization of the government of Yahudah-Yisrael, now practically restored. Very shortly, the City of David would become once more, it could be hoped, the sole capital of the land occupied by the People of YAHWEH. At this time the prophet Zephaniah was joyfully announcing the coming deliverance, the return to social peace and unity restored at last:
Shout for joy, daughter of Zion
Yisrael shout aloud!
…
YAHWEH your Sovereign Ruler is in your midst,
a victorious warrior.
HE will exult with joy over you,
HE will renew you by HIS love;
HE will dance with shouts of joy for you
as on a day of festival. TzephanYah-(Zephaniah) 3:14-17
The Scriptural writers, both of the second Book of Melechim and of Divre
Hayamim, are full of admiration for Josiah's reforms. He did what is pleasing
to YAHWEH, and in every respect followed the example of his ancestor David, not
deviating from it right or left (2 Melechim 22:2; 2 Divre Hayamim34:2).
Even if the task of purification had gone no further, Josiah would have deserved praises of his historians, but after an entirely unexpected occurrence, the movement for renewal was to take on a new form and new life.
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