Jeremiah in the Days of King Josiah

The Historical Context

When King Hezekiah died, his son Manasseh took the throne. He ruled between 697 and 642 BC, reigning for fifty-five years (the longest-running king in both Israel and Judah), but he was one of the most wicked kings Judah ever experienced. The scriptures tell us that Manasseh made God want to throw up, for he did not follow the ways of his father Hezekiah but the ways of his grandfather Ahaz. He entirely reversed all of Hezekiah’s reformations, totally ignoring Isaiah’s warnings (legend has it that Manasseh even sawed Isaiah in half while the ninety-year-old prophet was still alive!). Manasseh restored the offensive cult objects that Hezekiah had removed, erected altars throughout the land to the pagan gods of the Baal cult, put an Asherah pole in the Temple, thus “marrying” Yahweh to the fertility goddess and turning the Temple into a pagan shrine, and worshipped the Ammonite god Moloch by sacrificing his own children in the Valley of Hinnom. He approved of pagan worship and divination and ordered that all those who opposed his pagan reformations be slain. He did as much as he could to rid the land of the worship of any gods besides those of the Baal-Melqart cult, even going so far as to destroy the Books of the Law (except for one, which was hidden). God’s great anger and disgust with Manasseh mounted, and eventually God unleashed divine judgment: the Assyrians led him captive to the city of Babylon; the captor was either Sennacherib’s son Esarhaddon or his grandson Ashurbanipal; both of these rulers led campaigns into Egypt during Manasseh’s reign and meddled with Palestine. In Babylon, Manasseh came face-to-face with his sin and repented. God relented—wow!—and Manasseh returned to Judah. He started a reformation like that of his father, but was unable to finish it before he died.

His son Amon had no desire to continue his father’s holy reformation. He reversed Manasseh’s later reforms. His servants, perhaps disgusted by King Amon’s actions, banded together and killed him in his own house. Amon sat on the throne for a mere two years.

Amon’s son Josiah took the throne at age eight, and though young, he would prove to be one of Judah’s most capable rulers. The three decades of his reign are characterized by peace, prosperity, and reform. Josiah had ‘free reign’ in his kingdom, for the former Assyrian threat was falling apart: Ashurbanipal’s latter years experienced little to no military activity, and the following leaders were weak. Assyria’s great strength continued to dwindle and dwindle throughout Josiah’s reign, until eventually Babylon took Nineveh in 612 BC and all but wiped-out the Assyrian nation (Babylon would finish the job in 605 BC, four years after Josiah’s tragic death). At age sixteen, Josiah began seeking after God. At age twenty, he began cleansing Jerusalem and Judah of pagan objects. At age twenty-six, a monumental discovery was made that led to a monumental reformation: a copy of the Pentateuch, one that Manasseh and Amon had not been able to destroy, was discovered. Josiah read the book and saw how far Judah had come from following the ways of God; he consulted a prophetess named Huldah, asking, ‘What should I do?’ She told him, ‘Unless Judah returns to following the ways of God, she will be punished.’ She then added, ‘But, relax: this punishment will not come in your lifetime. You are commendable before God.’ Josiah’s reformation became even deeper: he removed all foreign cultic objects from the land, exiled the idolatrous priests, destroyed the houses of religious prostitution, abolished child sacrifice in the Valley of Hinnom, and removed from the front of the Temple the horses dedicated to the sun and burned their chariots with fire. He even took the reform up into the remnants of Israel; Assyria did not hinder this, for she was too weak to protest. At Bethel, long the center of the golden calf worship invented by Jeroboam, he burned the bones of the former priests upon the pagan altar, then destroyed the altar, and finally destroyed the entire shrine. 

Late in King Josiah’s reign, Josiah attempted to interfere with world affairs, acting outside God’s will. Egypt saw Babylon’s growing power as a threat, and Pharaoh Necho II of Egypt wanted Egypt—not Babylon—to be the superpower of the known world. Babylon’s growing status became evident: in 614 and 612 BC Babylon spearheaded the overthrow of two of Assyria’s greatest cities, Assur and Nineveh (respectively). The remnants of the Assyrian Army fled to the city of Haran, and in 610 Haran fell to King Nabopolassar of Babylon. Such was the doom of Assyria. Necho II, seeing the developments as Babylon grew and grew, and wanting to have the power and authority and dominance formerly enjoyed by Assyria, marched northward to undermine Babylon and take her place as the rising star. Josiah—perhaps favoring Babylon—attempted to intervene, and Necho II’s armies clashed with Judah’s armies at Megiddo. Josiah was killed in battle and sent to Jerusalem for burial. Egypt won the battle and thus held authority over Judah. Jeremiah was active during Josiah’s reign, particularly when the king was purging the land. Assyria was in chaos, Babylon was rising, and Israel was quiet. The minor prophets Nahum and Zephaniah prophesied at this time, as well.

The Ministry of Jeremiah

In 627 BC, during the reign of King Josiah, Jeremiah was just a boy. Although he was just a boy, God had great plans for him. He called Jeremiah to be ‘a prophet unto the nations.’ (Jer 1) Jeremiah, just a young lad, didn’t want this responsibility. He cried out, ‘But I don’t want this!’ God replied, ‘Too bad. You’re going to do this.’ Jeremiah’s prophetic mission was clear: Jeremiah was ‘to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant.’ (Jer 1.10) God went on to give Jeremiah his preaching resume: two-thirds of it is negative, and most of his preaching will be negative.

Jeremiah begins his ministry as ‘a prophet in the wilderness.’ He walks the streets and exclaims, ‘Listen to the word of Yahweh!’ He skins and peels people with verbal abuse, raining down terrifying oracles mixed with harrowing fire-and-brimstone preaching. ‘Why did he use such vicious techniques?’ He was trying to get the people to turn to God! In chapters 2-5, Jeremiah compares Judah to a street-walking whore and a wild donkey in heat (*gulp*). He constantly preaches against the evil of Baalism which is alive-and-well in the land. He no doubt encouraged the reforms of Josiah that were going on in these days. In all of his fire-and-brimstone preaching, not once did he ever attack King Josiah; he probably held a great reverence and respect for the honorable king who had given himself over to God’s will.

In 622 BC, during Josiah’s purges, Josiah finds a copy of the Law. ‘Is this from God?’ he wonders. He approaches a prophetess named Huldah; she says, ‘Yes, this is from God.’ Why doesn’t he go to Jeremiah? There are possibly two reasons why Josiah did not approach Jeremiah: first, Jeremiah was a preacher of fire-and-brimstone (it is not what Josiah wants to hear!); second, were Jeremiah a false prophet, he would say ‘Yes’ because it fits with his doom-and-gloom message. Due to this discovery, religious revival accelerates… and Jeremiah is silent. Perhaps God was saving Jeremiah for later days. These days of Jeremiah were about revival and celebration; Jeremiah’s doom-and-gloom was on the horizon.

When King Josiah died in battle in 609 BC, Jeremiah appeared on the scene again. He fell to the ground and wept. God said to him, ‘Do not cry for Josiah! Cry for the evil kings who are coming!’ While the days of King Josiah’s reign were peaceful for Jeremiah—for the land was experiencing spiritual renewal, things were looking up, and Jeremiah was not met with much opposition—Jeremiah was entering into a new phase of his prophetic ministry: great days of oppression, mockery, humiliation, and imprisonment were coming. The death-knells of the end of Judah were resounding in the distance as Josiah was lain into his grave.

From 622 B.C. (from the date when Josiah discovered the scroll) to 609 B.C. (to the date of Josiah’s death), there are no known prophets. In the year 609 B.C., however, following Josiah’s death, several more prophets come onto the scene. Jeremiah returns, weeping for Josiah. Habakkuk comes up and shows his face, and the non-literary prophet Uriah begins preaching.