2 Chronicles 34 – Josiah is eight when he becomes king,
and his reign lasts 31 years. It is a time of renewal and reform. “He did what
was pleasing in the Lord’s sight and followed the example of his ancestor
David. He did not turn away from doing what was right” (34:1). When he is 16 it
say he began to seek God, and when he was 20 he “began to purify Judah and
Jerusalem, destroying all the pagan shrines, the Asherah poles, and the carved
idols and cast images. He ordered that the altars of Baal be demolished and
that the incense altars which stood above them be broken down” (34:3-4). He does the same in other towns too – the
towns of Manasseh, Ephraim and Simeon.
Then he
restores the Temple. He gets money from all the surrounding countries for
Hilkiah, the high priest, to restore it. One day, while they were bringing out
the money that had been donated to the workers and overseers, the Hilkiah finds
“the Book of the Law of the Lord that was written by Moses” (34:14). He gives
the book to Shaphan, the king’s secretary, Shaphan reads it to Josiah.
When the
king hears it, he tears his clothes and commands Hilkiah and others to go and “speak
to the Lord for me and for all the remnant of Israel and Judah. Inquire about
the words written in the scroll that has been found. For the Lord’s great anger
has been poured out on us because our ancestors have not obeyed the word of the
Lord” (34:21).
They take the scroll to Huldah, a
prophetess who is the wife of Shallum, keeper of the Tempe wardrobe. Huldah tells them that “All the curses
written in the scroll . . . will come true” (34:24). But, she also says that
because the king’s heart was penitent and he has humbled himself before God,
the Lord has heard him (34:27). He will gather the king to his grave in peace.
His eyes shall not see the disaster prepared for Jerusalem and its inhabitants.
When the
king hears this, he gathers all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem together,
they go up to the temple and there in
the hearing of the people “he read. . .all the words of the book of the
covenant that had been found in the house of the Lord” (34:30). The king
“made a covenant before the Lord, to follow the Lord, keeping his commandments,
his decrees, and his statutes, with all his heart and all his soul, to perform
the words of the covenant that were written in this book” (34:31). He “required
everyone in Jerusalem and the people of Benjamin to make a similar pledge”
(34:32). They do, and “throughout the rest of his lifetime, they did not turn
away from the Lord, the God of their ancestors” (34:33).
2 Chronicles 35 – Josiah announces that the Passover of
the Lord would be celebrated in Jerusalem. They slaughter the Passover lamb,
appoint priests to their offices and encourage them in the service of the Temple.
He tells them to put the Ark in the house of the Lord, to serve the Lord and
his people. The “no longer need to carry it back and forth” (35:3).
He contributes
30,000 lambs and young goats from his flocks along with 3,000 bulls. The chiefs
of the Levites also contribute many offerings. They conduct the sacrifices and
all the various servers conduct their parts according to the requirements of
the Law. “No Passover like it had been
kept in Israel since the days of the prophet Samuel; none of the kings of
Israel had kept such a Passover as was kept by Josiah, by the priests and the
Levites, by all Judah and Israel who were present, and by the inhabitants of
Jerusalem” (35:18).
After all
this, King Neco of Egypt leads his army up from Egypt to fight at Carchemish on
the Euphrates and Josiah marches out against him. Neco sends to him tell him he is not coming against him, and that it is
God who has told him to make war. Josiah will not be dissuaded from
fighting him, however (35:22). He disguises himself and joins the battle
against the Egyptians in the plain of Megiddo. Archers shoot him and he is
carried back to Jerusalem, where he dies. All Judah and Jerusalem mourn him.
And Jeremiah too utters “a lament for Josiah” (35:25).
Augustine’s Treatise
on the Profit of Believing
35 - But any
habits whatever have so great power to hold possession of men's minds, that even what [habits]
in them are evil, which usually takes place through excess of lusts, we
can sooner disapprove of and hate, than desert or change.
Do you think that little has been done for the benefit of
man, that not some few very learned men maintain by argument, but also an
unlearned crowd of males and females in so many and different nations both
believe and set forth, that we are to
worship as God nothing of earth, nothing of fire, nothing, lastly, which comes
into contact with the senses of the body, but that we are to seek to approach
Him by the understanding only? That abstinence is extended even unto the
slenderest food of bread and water, and fastings not only for the day, but also
continued through several days together; that
chastity is carried even unto the contempt of marriage and family; that
patience even unto the setting light by crosses and flames; that liberality
even unto the distribution of estates unto the poor; that, lastly, the contempt of this whole world even unto the desire of death?
I may be wrong but he seems to be saying that these are all
good and amazing fruits of the spread of Catholic Christianity. There are
places where he seems inconsistent with what he’s said elsewhere, however:
approaching God by “the understanding only” (??); “contempt of this whole
world”.
Few do these things, yet fewer do them well and wisely: but
whole nations approve, nations hear, nations favor, nations, lastly, love.
Nations accuse their own weakness that they cannot do these things, and that
not without the mind being carried forward unto God, nor without certain sparks
of virtue. This has been brought to pass
by the Divine Providence, through the prophecies of the Prophets, through the
manhood and teaching of Christ, through the journeys of the Apostles, through
the insults, crosses, blood, of the Martyrs, through the praiseworthy life of
the Saints, and, in all these, according as times were seasonable, through
miracles worthy of so great matters and virtues. The
blossoming of the Church has come about through all these things.
When therefore we see
so great help of God, so great progress and fruit, shall we doubt to hide
ourselves in the bosom of that Church, which even unto the confession of
the human race from [the] apostolic chair through successions of Bishops, (heretics in vain lurking around her and
being condemned, partly by the judgment
of the very people, partly by the weight
of councils, partly also by the majesty
of miracles,) has held the summit of authority. These
are the signs to Augustine of God’s favor.
To be unwilling to
grant to her the first place, is either surely the height of impiety, or is
headlong arrogance. For, if there be no sure way unto wisdom and health of
souls, unless where faith prepare them for reason, what else is it to be
ungrateful for the Divine help and aid, than to wish to resist authority
furnished with so great labor? And if every system of teaching, however mean
and easy, requires, in order to its being received, a teacher or master, what
more full of rash pride, than, in the case of books of divine mysteries, both
to be unwilling to learn from such as interpret them, and to wish to condemn them
unlearned?
36 - Wherefore,
if either our reasoning or our discourse has in any way moved you, and if you have, as I believe, a true care for
yourself, I would you would listen to me, and with pious faith, lively hope,
and simple charity, entrust yourself to good teachers of Catholic Christianity;
and cease not to pray unto God Himself, by Whose goodness alone we were
created, and suffer punishment by His justice, and are set free by His mercy.
Thus there will be wanting to you neither precepts and treatises
of most learned and truly Christian men, nor books, nor calm thoughts
themselves, whereby you may easily find what you are seeking. For do you
abandon utterly those wordy and wretched men, (for what other milder name can I
use?) who, while they seek to excess whence is evil, find nothing but evil. And
on this question they often rouse their hearers to inquire; but after that they
have been roused, they teach them such lessons as that it were preferable even
to sleep for ever, than thus to be awake.
For in place of lethargic they make them frantic, between
which diseases, both being usually fatal, there is still this difference, that
lethargic persons die without doing violence to others; but the frantic person
many who are sound, and specially they who wish to help him, have reason to
fear. For neither is God the author of evil, nor has it ever repented Him that
He has done anything, nor is He troubled by storm of any passion of soul, nor
is a small part of earth His Kingdom: He neither approves nor commands any sins
or wickedness, He never lies. For these and such like used to move us, when
they used them to make great and threatening assaults, and charged this as being the system of teaching of the Old Testament,
which is most false. Thus then I allow that they do right in censuring
these. What then have I learned? What think you, save that, when these are
censured, the Catholic system of teaching is not censured. Thus what I had learned among them that is true, I hold, what is false
that I had thought I reject.
But the Catholic Church has taught me many other things
also, which those men of bloodless bodies, but coarse minds, cannot aspire
unto; that is to say, that God is not
corporeal, that no part of Him can be perceived by corporeal eyes, that nothing
of His Substance or Nature can any way suffer violence or change, or is
compounded or formed; and if you grant me these, (for we may not think
otherwise concerning God,) all their
devices are overthrown.
But how it is, that neither God begot or created evil, nor
yet is there, or has there been ever, any nature and substance, which God
either begot not or created not, and yet that He sets us free from evil, is
proved by reasons so necessary, that it cannot at all be matter of doubt;
especially to you and such as you; that is, if to a good disposition there be
added piety and a certain peace of mind, without which nothing at all can be
understood concerning so great matters. And here there is no rumor concerning
smoke, and I know not what Persian vain fable, unto which it is enough to lend
an ear, and soul not subtle, but absolutely childish.
Far altogether, far otherwise is the truth, than as the
Manichees dote. But since this discourse of ours has gone much further than I thought, here let us end the book; in
which I wish you to remember, that I have not yet begun to refute the
Manichees, and that I have not yet assailed that nonsense; and that neither
have I unfolded any thing great concerning the Catholic Church itself, but that I have only wished to root out of you,
if I could, a false notion concerning true Christians that was maliciously or
ignorantly suggested to us, and to arouse you to learn certain great and divine
things. Wherefore let this volume be as it is; but when your soul becomes more
calmed, I shall perhaps be more ready in what remains.
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