Year 2, Week 10, Day 4 Bible Reading Observations

Year 2, Week 10, Day 4

I have a brief observation for today’s reading of 2 Chronicles 35; Zephaniah 1-2.

Today’s reading keeps us in the Chronicles. 2 Chronicles 35 describes the Passover that Josiah led Judah to observe: “Josiah kept a Passover to the LORD in Jerusalem. And they slaughtered the Passover lamb on the fourteenth day of the first month…No Passover like it had been kept in Israel since the days of Samuel the prophet. None of the kings of Israel had kept such a Passover as was kept by Josiah, and the priests and the Levites, and all Judah and Israel who were present, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem” (2 Chronicles 35:1,18). 2 Kings 23 briefly mentions the Passover that Josiah coordinated, but today’s corresponding reading provides a much fuller account. Also like 2 Kings 23, 2 Chronicles 35 notes the death of Josiah, at the hands of the Egyptians. But the Chronicler adds the great sadness that was felt over the death of Josiah: “All Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah. Jeremiah also uttered a lament for Josiah; and all the singing men and singing women have spoken of Josiah in their laments to this day” (2 Chronicles 35:24b-25a). Today’s reading also takes us to the prophet Zephaniah: “The word of the LORD that came to Zephaniah the son of Cushi, son of Gedaliah, son of Amariah, son of Hezekiah, in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah” (Zephaniah 1:1). Zephaniah announces the coming judgment: “Be silent before the Lord GOD! For the day of the LORD is near; the LORD has prepared a sacrifice and consecrated his guests” (Zephaniah 1:7); and therefore calls for Judah to repent: “Seek the LORD, all you humble of the land, who do his just commands; seek righteousness; seek humility; perhaps you may be hidden on the day of the anger of the LORD” (Zephaniah 2:3).

One of the things that struck me from today’s reading was the climatic point of Josiah’s leadership as king: “And the people of Israel who were present kept the Passover at that time, and the Feast of Unleavened Bread seven days” (2 Chronicles 35:17). Hezekiah’s efforts to reestablish the Passover was noted as the greatest of moments going all the way back to Solomon’s day: “So there was great joy in Jerusalem, for since the time of Solomon the son of David king of Israel there had been nothing like this in Jerusalem” (2 Chronicles 30:26). But Josiah’s efforts was assessed as a moment greater than any during the era of the Davidic kings: “For no such Passover had been kept since the days of the judges who judged Israel, or during all the days of the kings of Israel or of the kings of Judah” (2 Kings 23:22).  And yet, while this chapter does discuss the actual celebration of the Passover and Feast of the Unleavened Bread, nevertheless, careful attention is also given to the extensive preparations that Josiah oversaw to reestablish these celebrations: "So all the service of the LORD was prepared that day, to keep the Passover and to offer burnt offerings on the altar of the LORD, according to the command of King Josiah” (2 Chronicles 35:16).

As Josiah sought to reestablish the observance of the Passover, it is important to see how he went about doing that: “Prepare yourselves according to your fathers’ houses by your divisions, as prescribed in the writing of David king of Israel and the document of Solomon his son. And stand in the Holy Place according to the groupings of the fathers’ houses of your brothers the lay people, and according to the division of the Levites by fathers’ household. And slaughter the Passover lamb, and consecrate yourselves, and prepare for your brothers, to do according to the word of the LORD by Moses” (2 Chronicles 35:4-6). Josiah’s efforts were rooted and grounded in the patterns established through Moses and applied by David. Josiah’s focus was not innovation. Not only in the preparations by in the actually ceremony itself, Josiah did that which God spoke through Moses: “And they set aside the burnt offerings that they might distribute them according to the groupings of the fathers’ houses of the lay people, to offer to the LORD, as it is written in the Book of Moses. And so they did with the bulls. And they roasted the Passover lamb with fire according to the rule; and they boiled the holy offerings in pots, in cauldrons, and in pans, and carried them quickly to all the lay people” (2 Chronicles 35:12-13). Furthermore, as David was directed by the LORD to add more components in light of a permanent Temple, Josiah re-instituted those matters as well: “The singers, the sons of Asaph, were in their place according to the command of David, and Asaph, and Heman, and Jeduthun the king’s seer; and the gatekeepers were at each gate. They did not need to depart from their service, for their brothers the Levites prepared for them” (2 Chronicles 35:15). Thus, all that Josiah commanded was actually only what the LORD commanded: “So all the service of the LORD was prepared that day, to keep the Passover and to offer burnt offerings on the altar of the LORD, according to the command of King Josiah” (2 Chronicles 35:16). 

The Passover commemorated the LORD’s mighty act of delivering the Hebrew people from Egyptian captivity. The LORD defeated the Egyptians by taking the lives of the firstborns since Egypt had oppressed Israel, the LORD’s firstborn (see Exodus 4:22). The LORD spared or passed-over the house any who has painted the blood of a lamb on their doorposts; but those who did not take heed to these instructions received a visit: “For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the LORD” (Exodus 12:12). Through this act of judgment, Israel was asked to leave Egypt and given provisions for their journey. The LORD had freed His people and this was something that they were to remember. But through the years, Israel had forgotten to remember. The best of the godly kings of Judah sought to lead the LORD’s people to remember.

What struck you in today’s reading? What questions were prompted from today’s reading?

Pastor Joe