Josiah is now king of the Southern Kingdom of Judah and he reigned for thirty-one years, 640 B.C. to 609 B.C.
Shaphan was the father of Jeremiah’s friend Ahikam, Jeremiah 26:24, and the grandfather of Gedaliah, who was made governor of Judea by the Babylonians after the fall of Jerusalem, 2 Kings 25:22. Shaphan and Nathan-Melek’s, 2 Kings 23:11, names also appear on ancient records of those who lived during these times.
Hilkiah was the father, or grandfather of Seriah, Nehemiah 11:11, who was high priest at the time of the captivity, and an ancestor of Ezra the scribe. Hilkiah appears on the seal of Azariah who was a priest, and the grandfather of Ezra, 1 Chronicles 6:13-14 / 1 Chronicles 9:11 / Ezra 7:1. Hilkiah’s name appears also on the seal of another son named Hanan.
Josiah did what was right in God’s eyes and loved and obeyed God as David did, Acts 13:22. He wanted some repair work done on the temple, and so he set about raising the funds needed for the repairs, similar to the way Jehoash did many years ago, 2 Kings 12:9-15.
Hilkiah discovers ‘the Book of the Law’, 2 Chronicles 34:1-28 tells us that Josiah’s reforms had already been going forward for several years.
He began the purging of the temple and Jerusalem in his twelfth year, six full years before the events in 2 Kings 22:8, and the repairs on the temple mentioned in 2 Kings 22:9 were probably commenced at the same time.
Although each king was supposed to have a copy of the Book of the Law, Deuteronomy 17:18-20 / Deuteronomy 31:9-13, we have no idea how long they have been without the Law of Moses, that is the first five books of the Old Testament, but because only those portions that referred to the responsibilities of the king were immediately read before Josiah.
Remember nobody had seen the Book of the Law for years and so when Josiah heard the word of the Book of the Law, he tore his robes. In others words, God’s Word moved him to repentance, and as a result of his repentance, the whole of Israel was deeply moved toward God again.
The good news is that Josiah didn’t just go out of his way to get Israel to worship and obey God how they were supposed to in the first place, he actually went on to destroy anything which involved idolatry and the worshipping of false gods.
Hilkiah the priest and others went to speak to the prophet Huldah, who was Shallum’s wife. It should be noted that other prophets were now on the scene at this time, prophets like Zephaniah, Zephaniah 1:1, and Jeremiah, Jeremiah 22:15-16, who were both warning God’s people about their upcoming exile into Babylon.
It’s possible that they went to Huldah because she was closest to them, but they go to inquire of the Lord. It’s interesting because we don’t know what they asked but we do know didn’t enquire about the newly discovered Book of Law.
The Lord tells them that He will bring disaster upon the Southern Kingdom of Judah because of their apostasy but the disaster wouldn’t come anytime during the reign of Josiah. God delayed judgment on Josiah as he did with Ahab, who responded to a word of warning with a kind of repentance, 1 Kings 21:25-29.
Josiah has now received news about this upcoming disaster twice, once from God’s Word and now from God’s prophet. Although Josiah had religiously cleaned up Judah by the standards of God’s Word, sadly his descendants went back to idolatry and undone everything he had achieved.
"For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."