Nov 06: 2Chr 35 | Hosea 3 | Acts 18-19
Updated: Nov 4, 2021
Reading 1 - 2Ch 35:24,25
"So they took him out of his chariot, put him in the other chariot he had and brought him to Jerusalem, where he died. He was buried in the tombs of his fathers, and all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for him. Jeremiah composed laments for Josiah, and to this day all the men and women singers commemorate Josiah in the laments" (2Ch 35:24,25).
Josiah was the most righteous and useful man of his age; yet he died at the age of thirty-nine, when -- had he remained alive -- he could have done so much good. This sort of thing can seem like such a mystery; yet it teaches us:
that the God of heaven is no respecter of persons;
that death is remorseless and irresistible;
that there is nothing and no one on this fleeting earth on which we should set our hearts, or put our trust; and
that there must be a resurrection and life eternal for God's faithful servants, for "God is not the God of the dead, but of the living."
And it teaches us one more thing besides: "The righteous perish, and no one ponders it in his heart; devout men are taken away, and no one understands that the righteous are taken away to be spared from evil" (Isa 57:1). Great evil and judgment was soon to fall upon the nation of Judah, but God's faithful servant Josiah was to be taken away before the worst of it arrived. And so we learn that death -- far from a punishment -- can in fact be a real blessing; and that we should trust in God alone and recognize that, in all things, He knows what is best, and He does what is best for us.