From the Daily Office

2 Kings 23: 1-4

1 Then the king [Josiah] sent, and all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem were gathered to him.  2 And the king went up to the house of the Lord, and with him all the men of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and the priests and the prophets, all the people, both small and great; and he read in their hearing all the words of the book of the covenant which had been found in the house of the Lord.  3 And the king stood by the pillar and made a covenant before the Lord, to walk after the Lord and to keep his commandments and his testimonies and his statures, with all his heart and all his soul, to perform the words of this covenant that were written in this book; and all the people joined in the covenant.  4 And the king commanded Hilki'ah, the high priest, and the priests of the second order, and the keepers of the threshold, to bring out of the temple of the Lord all the vessels made for Ba'al, for Ashe'rah, and for all the host of heaven; he burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of the Kidron, and carried their ashes to Bethel.

2 Kings 23: 10

10 And he defiled To'pheth, which is in the valley of the sons of Hinnom, that no one might burn his son or his daughter as an offering to Molech.

2 Kings 23: 24-25

24 Moreover Josi'ah put away the mediums and the wizards and the teraphim and the idols and all the abominations that were seen in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, that he might establish the words of the law which were written in the book that Hilki'ah the priest found in the house of the Lord.  25 before him there was no king like him, who turned to the Lord with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his might, according to all the law of Moses; nor did any like him arise after him.


"Hear what our Lord Jesus Christ saith: 'Thou shalt love the Lord with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.  This is the first and great Commandment.  The second is like unto it: thou shalt love thy neighbors as thyself.  On these two Commandments hang all the law and the prophets."

Josiah was the last good king of Judah prior to its fall to the Babylonians in 586 BC.  He was one of only a handful of kings who are identified in 2 Kings as doing what is right in the eyes of God.  Josiah should be one of our heroes.  We should hold him up as an example of how we can turn away from the dumb idols, false prophets and heretical teachings of this world.  It should also serve as a reminder to us of how much a single person can do when one allows oneself to be lead by the Word of God.

Fr. Michael+