BRAGADAYJAH 1130
King Josiah Wept and Tore his clothes.
When King Josiah heard the words of the law read to him, his reaction
was to weep and to tear his clothes. Some may find Josiah’s reaction strange if
not unbelievable. At the time when he heard the words of the law, he was a
grown man at least twenty six years of age. He was a king and leader of a
nation, and it is said grown men do not cry, much less a king and ruler. But
having regard to the state of things in Judah it does not take much imagination
or an intimate knowledge of Jewish history, to fathom the reason for the king’s
reaction. One can image that the part of the book of the law read to the king
was the words written in Exodus chapter twenty beginning at verse 2 “I am the
LORD thy God which brought you up out of Egypt out of the house of bondage.”
Verse 3 “Thou shall have no other God before me. Josiah would have been well
aware of the apostasy and idolatry that was being practiced in the country and
how such practices would have wounded the Lord God. Then verses 4 and five
dealing with making and worshiping idols. Idolatry was the order of the day in
Israel not long before taken away, and also right there in Judah. So knowing
what was going on all around him the King cried and tore his clothes to show
deep sorrow in his heart. [To be continued]
No comments:
Post a Comment