So, I have a confession to make. When we, the Pretty & Wise team, began talking about the idea of writing about women of the Bible I was not feeling super enthusiastic about the assignment. I mean…writing about women of the Bible…
All. Year. Long.
Hasn’t this been done? Entire books have been dedicated to this. Don’t we know enough already?
The answer to that last question is a resounding NO! Let me tell you. I’ve been participating in and teaching women’s bible studies for many many years now…I’m 64…do the math. The problem is I think I thought I knew more than I actually know. Imagine that. And while I think I did know a lot, maybe a tad bit more than the average Christian woman, I didn’t know what I didn’t know and what I did know was not all there was to know. Someone has said that studying the Bible is like peeling an onion. As you remove each layer another layer is revealed. Its aroma becomes more pronounced and you may even tear up a bit.
After writing about Esther, Ruth, the woman with the alabaster jar, and Phoebe, I’m finding that each time I revisit these familiar stories God is opening my eyes to new insights and challenges. I’m learning to peel back the layers. Now, with each woman of the Bible that I set out to discover anew, God is showing me things no one has ever taught me. And I have a bible college degree for crying out loud. But because of this God is lighting a fire in my bones to bring to light what He is showing me in His Word about these women. I believe somehow, through the years, so many of us have missed the boat in not realizing the importance of women and their calling to advance God’s kingdom here on earth.
One such woman, a prophet, is written about in one of my favorite accounts in the Old Testament. You can read the full account in two passages, as they both recount the story of Josiah the King and Huldah, the prophetess: 2 Kings 22: 1-20 and 2 Chronicles 34. Go ahead and read it now.
Josiah is one of my favorite Kings. Why? Because he had such a heart for God from an early age. He became king at age 8, he was 16 when he began seeking the Lord, and when he was 20 he began purging the land of all the forms of idol worship…tearing down the altars of Baal (false gods), destroying the images, the Asherah poles, and all other forms of Idol worship.
So where did this passion come from? Certainly not his father or even his grandfather. 2 Kings 21:6 tells us that his grandfather Manasseh, “sacrificed his own son in the fire, practiced sorcery and divination, and consulted mediums and spirits. He did much evil in the eyes of the LORD, provoking Him to anger.” Furthermore, we read this of his Josiah’s own father in verses 21-22: “He walked in all the ways of his father; he worshipped the idols his father had worshipped, and bowed down to them. He forsook the LORD, the God of his fathers, and did not walk in the way of the LORD.”
We’re not really told in these passages where Josiah got his passion for the LORD. I wonder if perhaps it was his mother? It can be speculated from a cross reference to Zephaniah 1:1 that he heard and was moved by Zephaniah’s prophecies of judgement against Judah and Jerusalem. In this reference we read that… ”the Word of the LORD came to Zephaniah…in the days of Josiah, son of Amon, king of Judah.” Zephaniah 2:1-3 tells us that he is calling the people to seek the LORD before the day of the LORD comes upon them.
In any case, Josiah was a man who sought after the heart of God. So, when Josiah was 26 years old he began implementing repairs to the temple of Jerusalem because it had obviously been neglected for many years.
As they were repairing the temple, the workers discovered a scroll and brought it to Hilkiah who was the high priest serving in the temple. Hilkiah told Shaphan, the king’s secretary: “I have found the book of the law in the house of the LORD” (2 Kings 22:8). Shaphan read the book and then took it back to the King and read the scroll to him.
When Josiah heard the words from the book of the Law he tore his robes in despair and remorse because he realized that his nation had fallen far from God’s laws. He then sends a delegation of 5 of his most trusted men …Hilkiah, the high priest, Ahikam, son of Shaphan, Achbor, son of Micaiah(a prophet), Shaphan, the secretary of state, and Asaiah(the king’s officer) with this charge: “...inquire of the LORD for me and for the people and for all Judah what is written in this book that has been found.” He needed to determine whether or not the scroll was authentic.
Inspite of the fact that Jeremiah and Zephaniah were well known prophets at the time, the delegation went directly to Huldah, the prophetess who lived in Jerusalem near the temple. She must have been highly respected because she was not sent for, as was customarily done with people who were subordinate to the king. It also seems that these men had no problem seeking the counsel of a woman prophet.
Huldah boldy proclaimed the Word of the LORD to these men…and probably whoever else was with them. Three times she pronounced, “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel says…” This proclamation shows that she knew that she was called to speak for God. She proclaimed that God was going to bring His judgement on the people of Judah because of their failure to obey his Word and because they worshipped false gods. But because Josiah had humbled himself before God she proclaimed that he, personally, would not see the disaster come upon the nation. (You can read her full prophecy here: 2 Chronicles 34:23-28).
Everything that Huldah prophecied aligns with the character of God, the nature of sin, and the extent to which the people of Judah had sinned against God. And her message confirmed that this document that had been found in the temple was indeed the Word of the LORD.
**Side note: Many believe this document to have been the book of Deuteronomy. Think about that. They had fallen so far from God that they had lost the book of Deuteronomy. The very book that carried the commands of God to His people.
The men delivered Huldah’s answer to the king. And Josiah accepted the message. He called all the people of Judah together to the temple of Jerusalam and he read to them the “Book of the Covenant” which had been found in the temple of the Lord. He renewed the covenant and had everyone in Jerusalem and Benjamin pledge themselves to it. And as the passage concludes, “As long as he lived, they did not fail to follow the Lord, the God of their ancestors.”
This is a remarkable story in the Old Testament that I would venture to guess many have never been taught. Have you ever heard the name of Huldah taught in Sunday School? Did you know that there was a time in history when God’s Word had been lost?
Deuteronomy 17:18, one of the many verses Josiah would have heard Shaphan read, tells us that when the king is established on his throne he is to write for himself a copy of the law on a scroll in the presence of the Levitical priests (insures accuracy). The next two verses are key:
“It shall be with him and he shall read it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the LORD his God, by carefully observing all the words of this law and these statutes, that his heart may not be lifted up above his countrymen and that he may not turn aside from the commandment, to the right or the left, so that he and his sons may continue long in his kingdom in the midst of Israel.”
It is obvious that this was news to Josiah. His father and grandfather before him both failed to follow God’s Word on this. It had been ignored for so long that it had gotten lost. LOST in the house of the LORD. How does this even happen?
But it did…and I fear it is happening today. Do we truly know who we are talking to when we call on the name of the LORD God almighty? Do we have a passion for His Word…enough passion to make us walk in obedience to it? To do away with the idols of this present world…to humbly step away from the siren call to self worship? Do you know others who proclaim Christ, but seem to be walking away from His path as fast as their feet can carry them?
If God is tugging at your heart to bring His message to this lost and dying world then it’s time to step up. Speak up. We have a privilege that those kings of the Old Testament did not have. They consulted the prophets in order to understand the Word of the LORD. We who are in Christ Jesus have the indwelling of God’s Spirit. We have a responsibility to come to God’s Word seeking wisdom from His Spirit as we read, study and apply it to ourselves and speak it to everyone within our sphere of influence. We have the very Word of God, Jesus Christ, dwelling within us. We are the temple. Has the Word been lost in the temple?
Huldah allowed herself to be used of God…to be a conduit for His very words. That is, after all, the role of the prophet. God used her to bring back His Word to the temple. Although it had been there the whole time and no one knew.
One of the mantles that God has placed on my life is to call people back to the heart of God…back into a right relationship with God. What about you? What is the calling God has placed on your life? How are you using what God has given you to effectively advance His kingdom?
My prayer is that God will continue to open our eyes to the treasures that can be found in His Word. That we peel back the layers to discover the great and unsearchable things that can only be revealed through God’s Word.
“Call to me, and I will answer and show you great and unsearchable things you do not know.” Jeremiah 33:3
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