Dusting Off the Bible for the 21St Century

Dusting Off the Bible for the 21st Century

Mennonite Church Canada Assembly, July 2012

Sheila Klassen-Wiebe

Discovering God’s Word Anew

A Bible Study on 2 Kings 22:1 – 23:30

Introduction

My parents live in Southern Alberta, and last summer when we visited them, I dug through a box of old papers and mementos that they’d kept from when their parents were alive. Among those treasures I found some of my grandfather’s old record books. Although I didn’t uncover any skeletons in the closet, it was fascinating to turn those yellowed pages and glimpse something of my family history in them. Those old papers were a small reminder that I am part of a much bigger story and that who I am today is shaped by events and people that existed even before I was born.

This is also true of the Bible. What’s inside these covers are not just dead words on a page but windows into our past. Granted, the stories in these pages took place a long, long time ago in a culture very foreign to our own. But the Bible is our memory book; it reminds us of who we are as God’s people and how we got to where we are. The biblical story is our story.

When I told a Lutheran friend that the theme for our assembly is “Dusting Off the Bible for the 21st Century,” he wondered, “Do Mennonites need their Bibles dusted off?” I don’t know, do we? Part of me wants to say “no,” the Bible is our authority for faith and practice, and we regularly read our Bibles both in worship services and in personal devotions. At the same time, I know that youth today are much less familiar with their Bibles than the youth of a generation ago. And adult education classes that discuss a hot topic or current issue are more popular than “boring” old Bible studies. Do we really think of the Bible as our story, a window into our past, as much as a grandparent’s old diary?

Our Bible study for today is literally about “dusting off the Bible”. It’s a story about how our ancestors in faith discovered anew that the Scriptures were their story and spoke a fresh and challenging word for their time. Perhaps we’ll find the same to be true today as we dust off this story for our time.

Historical and Literary Context

In order to understand what’s going on in this text, and before we can ask how it speaks to us today, we need to considerwhere it appears in the Bible and what was going on in history at the time.

Our story appears at the end of a long section of Scripture called the Deuteronomistic History. The Deuteronomistic History extends from Joshua to the end of 2 Kings. It begins with the people of Israel entering the land of Canaan and ends with them going into exile in Babylon. It begins with God making a covenant with them and giving them landand ends with God taking away the land, because of their failure to keep the covenant. The Deuteronomistic History is history with an agenda, history seen through a particular theological lens. It was probably put together during the exile, and the people writing this history were asking a question: How is it that welost the land that God gave to us as a gift? How did we end up here in exile? Has God forgotten the covenant God made with us? The answer that the Deuteronomistic History gives is no, God is faithful; it’s God’s people who have failed to live according to the covenant.

On what basis do the writers of this history arrive at this conclusion? They are reading their history through the lens of Deuteronomy.After delivering Israel from slavery in EgyptGod made a covenant with them, promising to be their God and formingthem into a people. The laws outlined in the book of Deuteronomy describe the people’s part in the covenant relationship. Keeping the law is their“yes” to God’s gracious acts on their behalf.The covenant laws recognize the seductive allure of idolatry and the temptation to slide into unjust treatment of neighbour, and so also prescribe consequencesfor failure to keep the covenant. The book of Deuteronomy, then, is governed by a theology of blessing and curse. If the people obey the commandments of God, they will experience blessing. If they turn from the way God laid out in the covenant, they will experience disaster. It’s this theological perspective that shapes how the whole history from Joshua to 2 Kings is told. Although the rest of the Bible nuances this rewards and punishment theology, Deuteronomy’s answer to the question of why Israel lost the land and went into exile is that they were unfaithful to God’s covenant.

In 2 Kings 22 and 23, Josiah is ruling over the southern kingdom of Judah. Josiah apparently became king when he was 8 years old and reigned for 31 years in all, from 640 to 609 BCE. The Old Testament is really only interested in what happened in the 18th year of his reign, in the year 622. About 100 years before this the northern kingdom of Israel had been destroyed by the mighty Assyrian empire. By the time Josiah became king, Assyria’s power had weakened and another empire, Babylon,was gaining strength. That new empire would conquer the nation of Judah in 587, a mere 22 years after Josiah died. In that year Jerusalem and the temple were destroyed, all the brightest and best leaders were carted off to Babylon, and the Israelites were left without temple and land, wondering what had happened to the covenant God had made with them. Although this still lies in the future at the time of our text, that reality impinges on it.

One other important thing to note before we turn to 2 Kings 22 is that throughout the Deuteronomistic History, the kings are evaluated on the basis of how well they lead the nation in covenant-keeping. Unfortunately, almost every king fails miserably, with only two kings after David receiving high praise (Hezekiah and Josiah). The kings that ruled right before Josiah wereespecially atrocious. Worst of all the Davidic kings was Manasseh, Josiah’s grandfather, who ruled for a long time (55 years). Because of all the wicked things Manasseh did, God says, “I am bringingupon Jerusalem and Judah such evil that the ears of everyone who hears of it will tingle. . . . I will wipe Jerusalem as one wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down.” (2 Kg 21:11ff) What was so terrible about Manasseh? He led the nation away from worship of the one true God and into worship of Canaanite deities. He built up the high places, that is, the worship sitesfor the foreign gods, and he set up altars to Baal, as well as images and sacred poles.

Baal was one of the main gods in the Canaanite pantheon and one of the chief rivals of Yahweh, the Israelite God. Because Baal was the storm god, responsible for sending rain, he was also the god of fertility. Sometimes sacred prostitution was practiced at the Canaanite sacred placesto encourage the gods to bring fertility to the land. Because the Israelites were living among the Canaanites in a land that depended on scarce rains for survival, the pull to worship Baal would have been strong. So it was that kings like Manasseh led the people of Israel further and further away from the covenant obligations outlined in Deuteronomy, and especially the commandment “you shall have no other gods before me” (Deut. 5:6-9).

This is the situation when Josiah becomes king in 2 Kings 22.

Structure of text

Although we’ve heard the story already, let’s review it in outline form.

1. Verses 1 and 2 introduce Josiah as a righteous king like his ancestor David.
2. In 22:3-7 Josiah orders money from the temple treasury to be given to workers for repairs of the temple.
3. The book of the law is then found and read, first by Hilkiah, the high priest, then by Shaphan, and finally Josiah, the king (22:8-13).
4. In 22:14-20 the prophetess Huldah is consulted. First she speaks a word from God about Jerusalem and then about King Josiah.
5. Chapter 23 begins with Josiah gathering the nation for a renewal of the covenant (vv. 1-3).
6. Most of ch. 23 consists of Josiah’s actions against the idolatry of the nation (23:4-20).
7. Josiah then leads the nation in the observance of the Passover in vv. 21-23.
8. The chapter winds down with another positive evaluation of Josiah and with another pronouncement of divine judgment on Judah (vv. 24-27).
9. It ends with the sudden death of Josiah (vv. 28-30).

We’ll be looking at each section of the text in turn, so you may want to open your Bibles to 2 Kings 22 and 23 if you haven’t already. There are also a few photocopies on each table, with the text arranged according to this outline.

Studying the Text

Introduction of Josiah (22:1-2)

Our text begins by identifying Josiah – his age, the length of his reign, his mother’s name. This is a typical way for the book of Kings to introduce each new king. We may wonder how someone can be king at the tender age of 8. We may wonder why the king’s mother is named, especially in such a patriarchal society. But these are not the questions this text wants to answer. The most important thing about this introduction is how Josiah is characterized in v. 2. Josiah is another David, who “did what was right in the sight of the Lord.” The language of not turning aside to the right or leftappears throughout Deuteronomy and is explicitly directed tothe king in Deut. 17. A glowing assessmentof Josiah appears also at the end of our text and thus functions as bookends framing the whole narrative.

Josiah orders money from the temple treasury to be given to workers for repairs of the temple (22:3-7)

In the 18th year of Josiah’s reign he initiated a renovation project in the temple. We all know how that goes; when you start renovating your house, one thing always leads to another and before you know it everything is turned upside down. That’s kind of what happens with Josiah.

Now, we should note that this project in and of itself is not so remarkable. About 200 years earlier another king by the name of Jehoash also ordered repairs on the temple. In fact, 2 Kings 12 describes that renovation project in words very similar to those in our own text. Maybe suchpublic works projects were just something kings did occasionally. On the other hand, in light of the narrator’s characterization of Josiah as one who did “what was right in the sight of the Lord,” the fact that he undertook this temple renovation adds to his image as a God-fearing king. We don’t hear any concrete details about the repairs themselves, though, and find out quite quickly that they are only a backdrop for what is really important, the discovery of a scroll.

The book of the law is found and read (22:8-13)

In this section we meet two other significant characters in the story. Hilkiah is the high priest in the temple, and Shaphan is a prominent royal official. The NRSV calls Shaphan a “secretary” but that really doesn’t get at the significance of his role unless you think of a modern day “secretary of state.” Contrary to the previous section, where the details of the temple repair are just skipped over, here we get a blow by blow account of how Josiah learns about the discovery of a scroll and how it affects him. First Hilkiah tells Shaphan that he has found a book of the law in the house of the Lord. At this point we are not told anything about the contents of the book but most scholars think that it contained part or all of Deuteronomy.Shaphan receives the book from Hilkiah and reads it. He then goes to report to the king. But he doesn’t even tell him about the discovery right away. First he reports that the temple money has been delivered to the construction workers for the temple repair work. Finally he says, “The priest Hilkiah has given me a book.” Notice that he doesn’t tell him what the book is or what’s in it. He simply reads it aloud to the king. Do you see how time slows down in this section of the text, creating more drama, more suspense? The dramatic delay gives the response of the king added impact: “When the king heard the words of the book of the law, he tore his clothes” (v. 11). Josiah’s immediate “reaction is physical not verbal”[1] and it’sstrong compared to the rather flat responses of Hilkiah and Shaphan. Tearing one’s robes in the ancient world was a dramatic act of repentance. At this point we as readers still don’t know what the book of the law said, but we do know, on the basis of Josiah’s actions, that it is deeply unsettling.

A couple of interesting things to note about Josiah’s response. First of all, he’s immediately repentant. That is, he doesn’t wonder if he’s interpreting the scroll correctly; he doesn’t get defensive or resort to self-justification. The word of the Lord immediately grabs hold of him and convicts him, and he instinctively knows what the appropriate response is.The people have not been doing what the book says and as a result God’s anger has been kindled. One reason Josiah’s response is so interesting is that it’s such a drastic contrast to the actions of a later king, who is also presented with a scroll intended to elicit repentance. In Jeremiah 36 the king on the throne is Josiah’s son (Jehoiakim). The scribe Baruch reads a scroll containing words that God gave to the prophet Jeremiah, warning of impending disaster and urging the king to repent. Whereas Josiah responds to the scroll with remorse, king Jehoiakim responds to the scroll by defiantly tearing it up. As each portion of the scroll is read, he tears it off –the same word used for Josiah tearing his robes – and throws it into the fire. Two very different responses to the hearing of God’s word!

Josiah’s second reaction is to seek more information about the implications of these words, so he sends a delegation of five to “go inquire of the Lordfor me, for the people, and for all of Judah.” Notice thatthe king doesn’t ask just on his own behalf; he is a representative of the people, and this matter concerns the whole people of God. He also sends a group, not just one ambassador. We might expect the delegation to include the high priest and the secretary of state, but it also includes three others, Ahikam, Achbor, and Asaiah.The size of the committee is an indication of the gravity of the situation and the far-reaching implications of the scroll.

The prophetess Huldah is consulted (22:14-20)

The royal commission pays a visit to a prophet by the name of Huldah. Not much is known about Huldah apart from what we learn from this text. She is apparently married to a court official who is in charge of the wardrobe, and her husband’s lineage is properlynoted. She seems to be well connected, with a position of some authority, and yes, she is a female prophet. The Old Testament does name prophets who were women –Miriam, Deborah, Isaiah’s wife – but we don’t know all that much about the tradition of female prophets in ancient Israel.[2] The fact that Huldah is simply mentioned matter-of-factly suggests that it was not particularly unusual or noteworthy for the king’s delegation to consult a female prophet. Apparently women could also speak the word of the Lord in that patriarchal society!

Huldah’s words constitute a key part of this text, for it’s here that we finally learn more about what’s in the scroll and why Josiah reactedas he did. She begins in the typical manner of prophets: “thus says the Lord, the God of Israel. . . .” Her prophecy then falls into two main parts; the first concerns Jerusalem (vv. 15b-17), the second concerns the king (vv 18-20).Notice that the prophecy begins and ends with the word “disaster” (vv. 16, 20), framing and giving shape to the content in between. Another recurring phrase in Huldah’s prophecy is “this place” (note vv. 16, 17, 19, 20) and each time dire words are spoken against “this place”. “This place” refers to Jerusalem, with the temple, and beyond that, the whole land of Judah. When I was studying this text I was struck by the recurrence of that phrase. Maybe it’s because it seemed to make this prophecy so concrete and immediate. God’s words of impending disaster are not vague, generic prophecies. They come to specific communities in concrete physical places. Place is important in the Bible; land has profound theological significance. In the Old Testament the land is a physical sign of God’s covenant with the people; but it is a gift that can be lost through mismanagement and abuse. That’s why “this place” is emphasized in Huldah’s prophecy: disaster in this place, God’s wrath kindled against this place, God’s word spoken against this place. It sounds pretty grim.

The first half of Huldah’s speech concerns Jerusalem and Judah. It begins with articulating what is going to happen and then spells out why. Here we finally learnsomething of the contents of the scroll. The reason God is so angry and is going to bring disaster upon them is that they have abandoned worship of the one true God and have followed after other gods, making offerings to these gods and creating idols with their own hands. The charges are extremely serious. One of the reasons that scholars think the book discovered in the temple was Deuteronomy is that the basis of Deuteronomy’s many laws is precisely this – that Yahweh alone is God and that the people are to love the Lord their God with all their heart, soul, and mind. Deuteronomy 28 and 29outline the consequences of failure to keep God’s covenant. Readit sometime and you’ll see why Josiah tore his clothes when he heard those words.In this first part of Huldah’s prophecy there is no call for repentance, no escape clause; it seems judgment is a done deal.