Cleanse the Land

There are twelve distinct things I find in II Kings 23 in reference to the removal of idols – it is a very thorough destruction that magnifies the tenacity and commitment of this king to bring his nation back to God. He left no stone left unturned. The following twelve points are taken from II Kings 23:4-20

1) Josiah commanded the priests to cleanse the temple – to remove all of the vessels of Baal, Asherah, and the host (stars/planets) of heaven. They burned all these things outside of Jerusalem and carried their ashes to Bethel (vs. 4). There are several things mentioned here, but I want to focus on Baal and Asherah. We know from a general reading that these are foreign idols. Baal and Asherah are mentioned many times in the Old Testament. According to Vine’s Dictionary of the Bible, the word “baal” is used 84 times in the Old Testament, 50 of those times in reference to a deity.3 Baal and Asherah were both a god and goddess of fertility. Following is what the Unger’s Bible Dictionary has to say about these gods:

He (Baal) is also designated as “the son of Dagon”, an ancient Canaanite and Mesopotamian deity associated with agriculture. Baal was thus a farm god who gave increase to family and field, flock and herds. . . The cult included animal sacrifice, ritualistic meals, and licentious dances. . . High places had chambers for sacred prostitution by male prostitutes and sacred harlots.

Asherah was only one manifestation of a chief goddess of western Asia, regarded now as the wife, then as the sister, of the principal Canaanite god El. . . Frequently represented as a nude woman bestride a lion, with a lily in one hand and a serpent in the other, and called Qudshu “the Holiness,” that is, “the Holy One” in a perverted moral sense, she was a divine courtesan. In the same sense the male prostitutes consecrated to the cult of the Qudshu and prostituting themselves to her honor were called “sodomites”. Characteristically Canaanite, the lily symbolizes grace and sex appeal and the serpent fertility. . . She and her colleagues specialized in sex and war.

These were gods of fertility and sex. The acts associated with these gods are always sexual in nature and driven by lust. The vessels of these gods were in the temple! They had to be removed. This was what Josiah commanded first, that the priests remove all these detestable idols from the house of God.

2) Josiah deposed all the idolatrous priests that the kings had ordained to burn incense in the cities of Judah (vs. 5). We see here the organizational shift Josiah is making. He cannot just remove all the paraphernalia of the idols from the temple. He has to deal with all the priests that have been commissioned by royal command to perform all the idolatrous worship. Years and years of government sanctioned rebellion has to be removed.

Consider the story of Elijah and the prophets of Baal. Elijah challenges the people as to whom they will follow, Baal or the Lord God. I Kings 18:19 says, “Now therefore send and gather all Israel to me at Mount Carmel, and the 450 prophets of Baal and the 400 prophets of Asherah, who eat at Jezebel's table.” We know how the story ends with fire from heaven and all the people turning back to God, “And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces and said, ‘The Lord, he is God; the Lord, he is God.’” And at this point the prophets of Baal are seized and killed. It is a great illustration of what Josiah also did. He had to remove the idolatrous priests to remove idolatry from Judah. This was not optional. The idolatrous priests and prophets had to be removed.

3) Josiah burned the Asherah from the temple, beat it to dust, and cast it upon the graves of the common people (vs. 6). This not only is a total destruction of idol worship, but also a sign for the people. The words “the common people” could be misunderstood as one might cast dust over some “common” graves. But this is not the intended meaning. Josiah was very purposeful. If we look in the parallel account in II Chronicles, we find what is meant by the term “common people”. Chapter 34:4 says, “And he broke in pieces the Asherim and the carved and the metal images, and he made dust of them and scattered it over the graves of those who had sacrificed to them.” Josiah made a point of throwing the ashes and dust over the graves of those who had worshiped the idols. This would be a great and terrible sign for those who were still alive! In reference to II Kings 23:6, John Gill has this to say:

the common people . . . or rather on the graves of the worshippers of idols, as it seems from (2 Chronicles 34:4) . . . this was done partly in contempt of the idol, groves being, according to law, impure; and partly to the reproach of the deceased, and the memory of them, for their idolatry, and to deter from it those that survived them.

Josiah defiled the graves of these idol worshipers and thereby ensured that idolatry was not going to be tolerated in any form under his leadership. This being the strongest of actions and statements to make, and therefore it ripped this black sin out of the heart of Judah.

4) Josiah broke down the houses of the male prostitutes that were in the temple (vs. 7). The first thing I notice here is that this was going on in or near the temple! The second idea is that the king tore down their houses. Does this mean their personal residence or the “houses” near the temple? Merrill Unger refers to verse 7 in this way: “They destroyed the houses of the sodomites (male temple prostitutes dedicated to the foul worship of the Canaanites; cf. I Kings 14:24; 15:12; Hos. 4:14).” In the extensive commentary on the Old Testament by C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, it says that the “houses” of the cult prostitutes were probably tents or huts which were in the court of the temple. I dare not even ask what these houses were doing in the court of the temple. But apparently they were erected in the court as a temporary dwelling for the male prostitutes. In any case there is no question about verse 7 referring to male homosexual practices as part of idol worship.

To cleanse Judah from its gross idol worship, Josiah removed these “dens of iniquity”. It should be noted that even though this is the fourth thing Josiah did, he is still involved in cleansing the temple. And as we move on to the other acts of Josiah, I want you to remember the first four reforms, being most important, are all about cleansing the house of God – a key point for us to remember today.

5) He defiled all the high places from Geba to Beersheba. (vs. 8). The text does not say exactly how Josiah defiled these places of idol worship, but we can use our imagination at this point considering all that this king is doing. Gills says the king defiled these places by, “casting dead carcasses, or the bones of dead men, or dung, or anything that was unclean, into them, by way of contempt:” The other point we should assess is that the verse says all the high places and it tells us geographical where this happened. This included all the places of worship in all the land of Judah. Geba and Beersheba were the northernmost and southernmost point in the kingdom. The statement represents all of Judah and the enormity of what this would mean cannot be overstated. The kingdom of Josiah in its entirety was purged of idol worship.

6) He defiled Topheth so that no one would sacrifice (burn) his son or daughter as an offering to Molech (vs. 10). I will not go into all the details of this practice, the point is Josiah puts an end to this practice of child sacrifice. Topheth was the hellish location where these sacrifices took place. Just as Josiah defiled the graves and high places, he defiled Topheth.

7) He removed the horses that the kings of Judah had dedicated to the sun (at the entrance of the temple), and he burned the chariots with fire (vs. 11). A cursory reading of this verse leaves one wondering. It looks like the king took some horses and burned some chariots. But the reality is this verse is talking about the worship of the sun. Gill explains, “these were not images of horses, as some have thought, but real living ones; and the kings that gave them for the service of the sun, and for sacrifice to it, very probably were Manasseh and Amon.” It may seem strange to us but many ancient cultures thought horses were sacred to the sun and were used for processions of worship. Again Josiah removes and eradicates the worship of idols, including heavenly bodies such as the sun. He removes the sacred “gifts” and burns the mode of processional worship.

8) Broke to pieces the altars of Ahaz and Manasseh (vs. 12). There is an important transition in the reforms of Josiah. By now we are used to his forceful destruction of idolatry as we see him continue to demolish the vile practices one step at a time. However, we have been talking about cleansing the temple, defilement of the high places and so forth, but here we see Josiah destroy altars that were set up by kings before him. Verse 12 tells us that Ahaz had an altar on the roof of the upper chamber. While there may be some debate where the upper chamber was, it seems clear this was the palace or the king’s residence. Both Wesley and Gill agree this was the case. Wesley states, “Upon the roof of the king's house. They were so mad upon their idols, that they were not content with all their publick high places and altars, but made others upon their house-tops, for the worship of the heavenly bodies.” And we see that Josiah’s reformation has entered into the royal residence. This should be noticed and applauded, for as the king worships, so will the people. This is an important transition in Josiah’s mission, and shows that he would not leave anything untouched – a total cleansing of the house of Judah.

9) He defiled the high places that were east of Jerusalem and to the south of the mount of corruption which Solomon had built (vs. 13). Now I know this seems just like number 5, but it really isn’t. It really lends itself to our previous point of how Josiah transitioned to cleaning up the palace. Consider it for a moment. When you or I think about the kings of Israel or Judah, who comes first to mind. We all know that we identify David and Solomon first and then there is all the other kings. Solomon is known as a great and wise leader to us, not to mention the Jews in Josiah’s day. Well, Josiah is progressing and we can see he is gaining a lot of momentum on his mission. He would not stop for anyone including Solomon. Remember Solomon turned his heart away from God, fell into idol worship and built altars to many foreign gods. Merrill Unger says this of verse 13, “He cleansed the mount of corruption, a name given to the southern summit of the Mount of Olives because of the gross idolatry practiced there (I Kings 11:5-7).” The verses Unger references in I Kings state this:

For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites. So Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and did not wholly follow the Lord, as David his father had done. Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and for Molech the abomination of the Ammonites, on the mountain east of Jerusalem. I Kings 11:5-7

And Josiah staying true to God and his mission to cleanse his nation, defiled the high places at the mount of corruption. A place built by Solomon, but a place renamed for it terrible black sin. Can you feel the momentum of Josiah? Can you sense the climax coming? The next few points will show the climatic events of Josiah’s reformation.

10) He filled the broken altars with the bones of men (vs. 14). It sounds so strange. Why would he put the bones of men where the altar once stood? Josiah defiled the place so no one would continue the rebellious and sinful act of idolatry there. Gill notes on the term bones of men, “idolatrous priests and worshippers, buried in parts adjacent; these he dug up and scattered in the high places and groves to defile them, bones of the dead being by law unclean.” Now we would all consider the bones of dead priest unclean, certainly if someone just dug them out of a grave. The book of Numbers states, “Whoever in the open field touches someone who was killed with a sword or who died naturally, or touches a human bone or a grave, shall be unclean seven days.” (Numbers 19:16) And this is the point; the most heinous defilement for the people would be to touch dead men’s bones. Ironically, this is not the end of Josiah defilement, but we can see why he would be successful in removing idol worship from the land. All of the idol destruction has been building for this moment when at last we see Josiah forcefully ensure the people will not worship idols any longer.

11) Josiah pulled down the altar at Bethel. He also took the priests’ bones from nearby tombs and burned them on the altar (vs. 15-16). And here we have the fulfillment of the 300 year old prophecy. I Kings 13 tells us as I have already stated that Josiah would come and burn the bones of the priests on the altar. It is important to notice that Bethel is where this started. That is where Jeroboam instituted his own religion with idol worship. It is also where the man of God prophesied that Josiah would come. It is also significant that Bethel is not in Judah. Bethel was in Israel (not under Josiah’s rule), however that did not stop Josiah from purging the land of Judah and Israel.

12) Josiah did in all the cities of Samaria (Israel) what he had done in Bethel. He killed all the priests that were on the high places and burned the bones of men on the altars. Then, he returned to Jerusalem (vs. 19-20). And so Josiah continued to purge Israel like he had purged Judah and Bethel. And now we see the greatness of what Josiah has done. As he moved step by step destroying all aspects of idolatry and forcefully removing this black stain from Judah. And here we see something unexpected. His great mission moves beyond his kingdom into Israel. Thereby purging all the land and getting the people ready for true worship and reformation.

Josiah’s removal of idolatry gives us a picture of what is required for restoration. We are a people in need of restoration. We live in an age and culture that is plagued with very dark and pervasive sin. And although it may be easy to think that Josiah has little to do with us today, he actually gives us the first step toward our own restoration. We must at all costs remove our idols. This is the required first step for us as a nation. Restoration will never come until we do just that. Reformation can come to a person, the church, or a nation, but it requires us to burn away the idols in our lives. We can’t skip to the Passover feast blessing. We must start by removing the “images” in our lives. Burn down the high places in your soul, grind it to powder. We must do this first before we can ever repair and restore God’s house.