What the Bible says about Josiah's Purging of Idolatry
(From Forerunner Commentary)

Jeremiah 19:12 In this passage, God tells the prophet Jeremiah what to proclaim to the Jews after he performs the sign of the broken flask, which is the subject of the chapter. Jeremiah is to take a clay flask to the Potsherd Gate, or the east gate, which opened out into the Valley of Hinnom, the very place that Jesus later used as an illustration of the judgment of the Lake of Fire, Gehenna. He is also to gather some of the elders and priests of Judah and proclaim God's message of judgment upon them and the city of Jerusalem. Then, he is to break the flask before them, saying, "Thus says the LORD of hosts: 'Even so I will break this people and this city, as one breaks a potter's vessel, which cannot be made whole again; and they shall bury them in Tophet till there is no place to bury'" (Jeremiah 19:11). Clearly, this is a sign of utter destruction of a sinful people and nation, and the details of what God promises to bring upon them are gruesome and horrifying to an extreme. What was Tophet? According to the McClintock and Strong Encyclopedia, the word itself means "spittle," of all things, or "filth," signifying something abominable, but it could also mean "place of burning," hinting at the abomination that occurred there. Tophet itself was a small hill within the Valley of Hinnom that had once been part of a grove that Solomon had had planted, where his singers had given concerts to the people of Jerusalem. Perhaps Solomon had chosen that spot, not just for its fertility and closeness to Siloam, but also to help Israel forget that the Canaanites before them had made their children pass through the fire to Molech—in other words, it was a place of vile child sacrifice (see Psalm 106:38; Jeremiah 7:31). However, it was not long before the Israelites and Jews again "filled this place with the blood of the innocents" (Jeremiah 19:4). During his reign not long before Jeremiah's prophecy, King Josiah had defiled Tophet as part of his purge of idolatry (II Kings 23:10). He did so by overthrowing the altars and then using the place as the city dump, and the filthier the trash the better. But just as soon as Josiah died, the Jews returned to Tophet. In Jesus' day, it was once again the city's garbage dump, where a fire was always burning to consume anything thrown on the pile (Mark 9:43-48). And of course, the worm did not die there, meaning that there were always new maggots going through their life-cycles, feeding on the trash. It was also a place where, down through the centuries, many have been buried. Thus, the Valley of Hinnom is a fitting picture of the resurrection of condemnation (John 5:29). So what did God do to Judah because of their heinous sin? I will cause them to fall by the sword before their enemies and by the hands of those who seek their lives; their corpses I will give as meat for the birds of the heaven and for the beasts of the earth. . . . And I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and everyone shall eat the flesh of his friend in the siege and in the desperation with which their enemies and those who seek their lives shall drive them to despair. (Jeremiah 19:7, 9) Sounds like justice. Richard T. Ritenbaugh Related Topics: Abomination | Child Sacrifice | Gehenna | Josiah's Purging of Idolatry | Justice | Lake of Fire | Valley of Hinnom

Jeremiah 22:15-16 God is saying, "Do you think you are ruling because you have the trappings of royalty, because you have money, power, and prestige, because you are the sons of David, the literal sons of Josiah?" To put it more plainly, He says, "Your right to reign does not rest on your wealth or position." It relied on God Himself. His statement probably infuriated them. "Did not your father eat and drink, and do justice and righteousness?" may sound a bit odd, but He is painting a word picture. Just as Josiah, their father, ate and drank, it was also a normal part of his life to do justice and righteousness. To him, those godly acts were like eating and drinking. They are supposed to be innate to us too, as natural as eating and drinking to do righteousness and justice! Josiah was a child when he came to the throne, and by the time he was sixteen, he had begun to purge Judah of idolatry. He did a splendid job of putting Judah back on track, as much as any man could do. Then God says, "Then it was well with him." That is the way it works. That is how blessings come. Verse 16 continues the thought: "'He judged the cause of the poor and needy; then it was well. Was not this knowing Me?' says the LORD." Here is a critical point. We should not think that just judging the cause of the poor and the needy is involved in knowing God. It is certainly part of knowing God. The thought stems from the earlier mention that Josiah performed justice and righteousness naturally, as part of his everyday behavior, and it manifested in defending the cause of the poor and needy. Through this process, he came to know God. Knowing God was the ultimate result of thinking through the good works he was doing, considering how they would work out, weighing the various ways he might work through the various situations, and then carrying them through to its end. Why is this? Because God does things the same way! He does this all the time! He is constantly thinking, working the problem, and projecting how things will work out if He does this or that. If His choices seem equally good, He will figure out which one will work the best to bring about His ultimate aim. When we begin to do things as He does, we come to know Him. The mind of God starts to form in us. We learn to judge situations—people's actions, situations, everything—as He does. As a result of our imitation of God, our relationship grows because we are becoming like each other. We enjoy each other's company because we see ourselves in each other. Richard T. Ritenbaugh "If I Have Not Charity" Related Topics: Charity | If I Have Not Charity | Josiah | Josiah's Purging of Idolatry | Judging | Justice

 

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