2 Chronicles 35:8
His officials also contributed willingly to the people and priests and Levites. Hilkiah, Zechariah, and Jehiel, the administrators of the house of God, gave the priests 2,600 Passover offerings and 300 bulls.
Sermons
The Great Passover of JosiahT. Whitelaw 2 Chronicles 35:1-19
The Service of the LordW. Clarkson 2 Chronicles 35:6-16














From this account of Josiah's great Passover we may learn -

I. THAT RELIGIOUS LIFE INCLUDES A FEW GREAT OCCASIONS. The religious life of Israel included some special occasions, of which this was one. Provision was made in the Law for one event of surpassing solemnity in every year (Leviticus 16.). And the very checkered course the nation ran provided a few extraordinary scenes which were great and sacred opportunities. Thus is it with individual lives. During a life of ordinary length and interest there will occur some few events which are signal, striking, critical. Much may depend on them; much use should be made of them. But, after all, it is not by them that our life will be sustained, and it is not upon them that any wise man will rely. It is the regular worship; it is the daily devotion; it is the habitual recognition of God and appeal to him that determines our spiritual position, that makes us to "live before" him and in him.

II. THAT THE SERVICE OF GOD PROVIDES A VERY WIDE OPPORTUNITY. How many men, how many classes or orders of men, contributed to this one service! The king inspired and directed it (vers. 1, 2); the Levites "killed the Passover" (vers. 6-11); the priests "sprinkled the blood" (ver. 11). The heads of the orders, from the king downwards, contributed generously of their flocks to supply the people's need (vers. 7-9). The singers sang (ver. 15); the porters "waited at every gate" (ver. 15). So "all the service of the Lord' was rendered, every one taking his place and doing his best thereat (ver. 16). The Church of Christ is one Body with many members, and all the members have not the same office; very various indeed are the offices which are rendered by the disciples of the one Lord. And as, year by year, Christian life, as well as civilized life, becomes more complex and intricate, it becomes more decisively and imperatively our duty to recognize the fact that, while our own particular function has its importance, it is only one among many others, and that every one of us is beholden to his fellows for valuable services which it is not in his own power to render. And it is well also to mark that, in a state so complicated, with so many posts to be filled, there is the less excuse for any idle member.

III. THAT THE SERVICE OF OTHERS SHOULD PRECEDE PROVISION FOR OURSELVES. "Afterward they made ready for themselves" (ver. 14). In the kingdom of Christ we are not to stand upon our official rights; we are to claim the supreme honour of serving others, after the manner of our Divine Leader. He was "among us as one that serveth;" he was here "not to be ministered unto, but to minister;" and we never stand nearer to him than when we abnegate any right we might officially claim, and prefer to wait upon others' wants; to minister to their necessities; to make them glad, or to do them good. Of ourselves we may think and for ourselves we may care, but afterward, not first.

IV. THAT WE MAY RENDER AN EXCELLENT SERVICE BY A REVIVAL OF THE FORGOTTEN. It does not follow that old usages, though they once had the sanction of Christian custom, should be revived. Possibly they are better left alone. "The old order changeth," etc. On the other hand, the time may come for their revival, if not in the same form, in a different one. That usage, in some form, deserves to be restored which promotes devotion, humility, charity. - C.

His servants therefore took him out of that chariot.
I. THE NATURE AND QUALITY OF THE LAMENTATION.

1. Extensively. All Judah and Jerusalem.

2. Intensively. Bitter lamentation.

3. Protensively. Of long duration, "an ordinance in Israel."

II. THE CAUSE AND GROUND OF IT. The loss of a good leader whose life had been useful.

III. DOCTRINE. That faithful, active, and public-spirited men in the Church of God should not be laid in their graves without great lamentations. In replication I will show —

1. Negatively. On what account the death of good men is not to be lamented.

2. Positively. The true grounds and causes of such lamentation.(1) Because so much of the Spirit of God as dwelt in them, when amongst us, is now recalled and gathered up from this lower world. As it is a real loss to a company when any merchant withdraws a great stock he had running in trade, out of the bank; so certainly it is a great loss to the Church of God, when the precious gifts and graces of the Spirit, dwelling in the saints, are drawn out by death.(2) Because thereby a breach is made to let in the judgments of God upon the remnant that is left.(3) The beauty and ornaments of the places they lived in are defaced and removed by their death.(4) Because the propagation of religion is obstructed in the places from whence they are removed.(5) The consideration of the time in which good men die aggravates the loss, if it falls out, —

(a)In a declining state of religion.

(b)When the numbers of the godly are thinned and lessened.

(c)When the spring and succession of good men is obstructed.(6) When we consider what influence our sins and provocations have had upon those judgments and calamities. I look upon every good man, as a good book, lent by its owners for another to read, and transcribe the excellent notions and golden passages that are in it for his own benefit, that they may return with him when the owner shall call for his book again. But in case this excellent book shall be thrown into a corner, and no use made of it, it justly provokes the owner to take it away in displeasure.Application. This reproves —

1. The worst of men, such as secretly rejoice at the removal of such men.

2. The insensibleness of good men, who are apt too slightly to pass over such tremendous strokes of. God (Isaiah 57:1).

3. The very best of men, who though they do bewail and lament the loss of such men, yet they do not lament it in the due manner.

( John Flavel..)

1. That the best of men may err in judgment and in act.

2. The danger of undertaking any work without asking counsel of the Lord.

3. How universal is the reign of death.

4. That we should be cautious how we attribute sudden and violent death to the vengeance of the Most High.

5. That it is not wrong to mourn for the dead.

(J. S. Wilkins, B.A.)

I. WHAT THE PEOPLE OF GOD DID UPON THE DEATH OF JOSIAH.

1. There was a general mourning for him.

2. The prophet Jeremiah made a particular office for it.

3. This office was used among others upon the day of lamentation.

4. This use was established by a law upon Israel, which was observed till the end of the Babylonian Captivity.

II. THE REASONS OF THEIR DOING IT.

1. Because it was caused by their sins.

2. Because it was a punishment for their sins.

(Bishop W. Lloyd.)

Homilist.
Why does the Jewish nation now weep over Josiah? The reasons are:

I. THE GREAT NATIONAL LOSS WHICH THE EVENT INVOLVED. Josiah was a prince —

1. Of a reflective nature. His mind was in the quest of the highest truth.

2. Of a tender spirit.

3. Of reformative disposition.

II. THE SAD MEMORY OF THE MORAL CAUSE OF THE CALAMITY.

III. THE TERRIBLY DISTRESSING MYSTERY ASSOCIATED WITH THE DISPENSATION. Josiah was the most useful man of his age; yet he dies at thirty-nine. Mystery though it be, it teaches us —

1. That Heaven's government is no respecter of persons.

2. The irresistibility of death.

3. That there is nothing on this fleeting earth on which we should set our hearts.

4. That there must be an after life.

(Homilist.).

People
Aaron, Asaph, Charchemish, Conaniah, David, Hashabiah, Heman, Hilkiah, Jeduthun, Jehiel, Jeiel, Jeremiah, Josiah, Jozabad, Levites, Necho, Nethaneel, Samuel, Shemaiah, Solomon
Places
Carchemish, Egypt, Euphrates River, Holy Place, Jerusalem, Megiddo
Topics
Administrators, 300, 600, Captains, Cattle, Chief, Contributed, Flocks, Freely, Freewill, Freewill-offering, God's, Heads, Heave-offering, Hilkiah, Hilki'ah, Hilkijah, Hundred, Jehiel, Jehi'el, Kids, Lambs, Leaders, Levites, Lifted, Livestock, Offering, Offerings, Officers, Officials, Oxen, Passover, Passover-offerings, Priests, Princes, Rulers, Six, Temple, Thousand, Twenty-six, Voluntarily, Voluntary, Willingly, Willing-offering, Zechariah, Zechari'ah
Outline
1. Josiah keeps a most solemn Passover
20. He provoking Pharaoh Neco, is slain at Megiddo
25. Lamentations for Josiah

Dictionary of Bible Themes
2 Chronicles 35:1-19

     7245   Judah, kingdom of
     8466   reformation

2 Chronicles 35:7-9

     8436   giving, of possessions

Library
Cheer Up, My Comrades!
The first thing is to get every man into his proper place; the next thing is for every man to have a good spirit in his present place, so as to occupy it worthily. I will suppose, dear friends, that in the providence of God you are in your place, and that by the direction of God's Spirit you have also sought and found the precise form of usefulness in which you ought to exercise yourself. To-night it shall not be my business to arrange you; but assuming that it is well for you to keep where you are,
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 26: 1880

The New Temple and Its Worship
'And the elders of the Jews builded, and they prospered through the prophesying of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Iddo: and they builded, and finished it, according to the commandment of the God of Israel, and according to the commandment of Cyrus, and Darius, and Artaxerxes king of Persia. 15. And this house was finished on the third day of the month Adar, which was in the sixth year of the reign of Darius the king. 16. And the children of Israel, the priests, and the Levites, and the
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

Importance in Luke's History of the Story of the Birth of Christ
IT needs no proof that Luke attached the highest importance to this part of his narrative. That Jesus was indicated from the beginning as the Messiah -- though not a necessary part of his life and work, and wholly omitted by Mark and only briefly indicated in mystical language by John -- was a highly interesting and important fact in itself, and could not fail to impress the historian. The elaboration and detail of the first two chapters of the Gospel form a sufficient proof that Luke recognized
Sir William Mitchell Ramsay—Was Christ Born in Bethlehem?

Josiah, a Pattern for the Ignorant.
"Because thine heart was tender, and thou hast humbled thyself before the Lord, when thou heardest what I spake against this place, and against the inhabitants thereof, that they should become a desolation and a curse, and hast rent thy clothes, and wept before Me; I also have heard thee, saith the Lord. Behold therefore, I will gather thee unto thy fathers, and thou shalt be gathered into thy grave in peace; and thine eyes shall not see all the evil which I will bring upon this place."--2 Kings
John Henry Newman—Parochial and Plain Sermons, Vol. VIII

Chronicles
The comparative indifference with which Chronicles is regarded in modern times by all but professional scholars seems to have been shared by the ancient Jewish church. Though written by the same hand as wrote Ezra-Nehemiah, and forming, together with these books, a continuous history of Judah, it is placed after them in the Hebrew Bible, of which it forms the concluding book; and this no doubt points to the fact that it attained canonical distinction later than they. Nor is this unnatural. The book
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament

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