1. Kings under vicissitudes of the history
We keep reading the second Kings and today¡Çs given passage is the chapter 22. The portion tells about the last religious reformation in Judah by Josiah. During the reign of Hezekiah, Judah had hardly avoided the Assyrian invasion and maintained the independence. But in the time of Manasseh, a son of Hezekiah, Assyrian military power gat stronger and Judah was made one of its satellite-nations. As a result, Manasseh must introduce again Assyrian religious rites which had been abolished by his father. ; - Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king,… . He did the hateful things the other nations had done—the nations that the Lord had forced out of the land ahead of the Israelites. Manasseh’s father, Hezekiah, had destroyed the places where gods were worshiped, but Manasseh rebuilt them. He built altars for Baal, and he made an Asherah idol as Ahab king of Israel had done. (2 Kings 21:1-4 )

The Book severely accused Manasseh for doing more evil than other kings, and because of his conducts God had made Judah perish. (see2 Kings 21:11-13)

However, despite that bad estimation, Manasseh seems rather competent as a secular king. He was on the throne for 55 years, which is the most long ruling time in the history of Judah. If he was really stupid, he couldn¡Çt stay in charge of the nation so long. During the reign of Manasseh, Assyria became more powerful and formed a great empire, including Egypt too. Under such circumstances, Judah had no choice but to obey Assyria for survival. And obeying Assyria meant respecting Assyrian religious rites. Manasseh couldn¡Çt take the same politics as his father Hezekiah. As a result, pro-Assyrian functions became more and more influential and persecuted prophets of God, like Isaiah. ; - Manasseh also killed many innocent people, filling Jerusalem from one end to the other with their blood. This was besides the sin he led Judah to do; he led Judah to do what the Lord said was wrong.(2 Kings 21:16)

According to the tradition, Isaiah was killed under rule of Manasseh. And , as I said before, the writers of Kings believed that his disobedience to God was the cause of Judah¡Çs collapse.

After the death of Manasseh, Amon one of his sons succeeded to the throne. But Amon was killed in the palace 2 years later. It is said that the people who opposed Manasseh¡Çs religious policy plotted the murder. Then Josiah, only 8 years old, was chosen as the next king.

2. Direct reign of Josiah and the discovery of Deuteronomy
The child king Josiah was educated by priests. When he grew up to manhood, he started his reformation courageously. His act was highly praised by the authors of the books of Kings and Chronicles. ; - In his eighth year as king while he was still young, Josiah began to obey the God of his ancestor David. In his twelfth year as king, Josiah began to remove from Judah and Jerusalem the gods, the places for worshiping gods, the Asherah idols, and the wooden and metal idols.(2 Chronicles 34:3)

Josiah took office in 632 BC, just after the reign of Ashurbanipal*1, the king of Assyria. He was 16 years old. The death of Ashurbanipal triggered breakups inside Assyria. Babylon and Media took advantage of the situation and started invasions into Assyria in about 628 BC, the 12th year of Josiah¡Çs rule. Josiah, 20 years old then, launched the religious reformation along with the decline of Assyrian. The fact suggests that he had the secular aim too, the independence from Assyria. In ancient eras, political domination linked inevitably with religious control. Therefore the restoration of belief in God must be the core of the independence movement. Besides, in the 18th year of Josiah¡Çs rule, a book of teachings was found. Renovation work of the Temple led on to the discovery. ; - In Josiah’s eighteenth year as king, he sent Shaphan to the Temple of the Lord and mede him say,¡É Go up to Hilkiah the high priest, and have him empty out the money the gatekeepers have gathered from the people. …Have him give the money to the supervisors of the work on the Temple of the Lord. They must pay the workers who repair the Temple of the Lord—(see 2 Kings 22:3-5)

In the first stage of labor, the high priest Hilkiah sent a message to the king. ; - Hilkiah the high priest said to Shaphan the royal secretary, “I’ve found the Book of the Teachings in the Temple of the Lord.” He gave it to Shaphan, who read it.Then Shaphan… went to the king and reported to Josiah, “Your officers have paid out the money that was in the Temple of the Lord…. Then Shaphan… told the king, “Hilkiah the priest has given me a book.” And Shaphan read from the book to the king.(2 Kings 22:8-10)

Scholars think that the contents of the book formed the base of Deuteronomy*2. They made this hypothesis:
— It might be written short time after the reign of Manasseh. Under the rule of Manasseh, the people of Judah must practice the idolatry. Though trying to banish that, Isaiah failed and was executed. Afterwards, in order to restore the faith in God, priests compiled that book of the teachings. However they had no occasion to put it in public. The book found by Hilkiah should be that compilation.—

Josiah was extremely upset by its contents ; - When the king heard the words of the Book of the Teachings, he tore his clothes to show how upset he was. He gave orders to Hilkiah the priest,…Shaphan the royal secretary, and Asaiah the king’s servant. These were the orders: “Go and ask the Lord about the words in the book that was found. Ask for me, for all the people, and for all Judah. The Lord’s anger is burning against us, because our ancestors did not obey the words of this book; they did not do all the things written for us to do.¡É(2 Kings 22:11-13)

The king knew how his ancestors had been unfaithful. He was terrified of the punishment by God, which must be the destruction of Judah. Because it was written there, ; - But if you do not obey the Lord your God and carefully follow all his commands and laws I am giving you today, all these curses will come upon you and stay:Deuteronomy 28:15) And ; - The Lord will send you curses, confusion, and punishment in everything you do. You will be destroyed and suddenly ruined because you did wrong when you left him.(Deuteronomy 28:20)

Josiah should physically feel the wrath of God behind behind the teachings.

*1 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashurbanipal
*2 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deuteronomist#Deuteronomy_and_King_Josiah

3. Deuteronomy is still vital
Josiah put forward the reformation by following the newly found Book of Teachings, Deuteronomy. And writers of the Kings payed homage to him for faithful conduct. ; - There was no king like Josiah before or after him. He obeyed the Lord with all his heart, soul, and strength, following all the Teachings of Moses.(2 Kings 23:25 )

But Josiah Josiah was involved in the war between Babylon and Egypt and killed in 609 BC. Two superpowers were seeking to acquire the hegemony after declined Assyria. Thus the reformation of Josiah seemingly fell short. Furthermore, 10 years after his death, Judah was seized by Babylon (the first Babylonian captivity in 598 BC). Moreover, 10 years later in 587 BC, the similar incident took place again, which resulted in the capture of Jerusalem. The Temple and palace were destructed. Thus Judah perished. The book of Kings explained the cause of the catastrophe: ; - Even so, the Lord did not stop his strong and terrible anger. His anger burned against Judah because of all Manasseh had done to make him angry.(2 Kings 23:26 )

The writer meant that the sin of Manasseh was so serious that the repentance of Josiah couldn¡Çt redeem and save the nation. Now we must reflect on the fact. Why did God keep silence then whereas He had saved Judah previously for the sake of faithful Hezekiah?

Jeremiah, who received the calling in the living time of Josiah, gave the answer. ; - The Lord has spoken his word to me again and again for these past twenty-three years. I have been a prophet since the thirteenth year of Josiah son of Amon king of Judah. I have spoken messages from the Lord to you from that time until today, but you have not listened. The Lord has sent all his servants the prophets to you over and over again, but you have not listened or paid any attention to them.(Jeremiah 25:3-4)

The prophet said that it was because the people, without repentance, ignored the reformation of Josiah. And the entire nation remained faithless. ; - So this is what the Lord All-Powerful says: “Since you have not listened to my messages, I will send for all the peoples of the north,” says the Lord, “along with my servant Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. I will bring them all against Judah, those who live there, and all the nations around you, too. I will completely destroy all those countries and leave them in ruins forever. (Jeremiah 25:8-9)

The discovery of the book of Deuteronomy and Josiah¡Çs reformation seemed worthless. Efforts of the compilers of the book were apparently nothing. But, at that very moment, God started to act. God always raises a new life from total ruins. For that reason, the Bible tells that Jehoiachin, the captured king, was set free by the king of Babylon after 37 years¡Ç of imprisonment. In addition, Jehoiachin was allowed to join the table of the Babylonian king.; - Jehoiachin king of Judah was held in Babylon for thirty-seven years. In the thirty-seventh year Evil-Merodach became king of Babylon, and he let Jehoiachin out of prison on the twenty-seventh day of the twelfth month.(2 Kings 25:27)

The writers saw hopeful future inside the happy event, so do we. Because Matthew wrote that Jesus was a descendent of that Jehoiachin (or Jeconiah) ; - After they were taken to Babylon: Jehoiachin was the father of Shealtiel. Shealtiel was the grandfather of Zerubbabel. Zerubbabel …. Matthan was the father of Jacob. Jacob was the father of Joseph. Joseph was the husband of Mary, and Mary was the mother of Jesus. Jesus is called the Christ.(Matthew 1:12-16)

Matthew shows through the family tree of Jesus that God gave birth to what was once destroyed.

Today¡Çs invocation verses are Matthew 22:35-38 ; - One Pharisee, who was an expert on the law of Moses, asked Jesus this question to test him:"Teacher, which command in the law is the most important?"Jesus answered, ” ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and most important command.

We can find the similar teaching in Deuteronomy 6:4-5. As I explained previously, Deuteronomy was a sort of a reformation program written by priests secretly. They tried to restore the faith in God which had been disrupted during the reign of Manasseh. Then Josiah, one of grands son of Manasseh discovered the Book. It impressed Josiah so strongly that he started by himself reformation to save the people from the idolatry. He wanted to raise a new nation based on the faith in God.

Nonetheless Josiah was killed in the war without achieving the goal. And Judah perished 20 years later. It seemed that the discovery of the Book of Teachings and Josiah¡Çs motivation were meaningless. But, 600 years after the failure of Josiah¡Çs attempt, Jesus came on the earth . And Jesus lived the essence of the Deuteronomy. He gave the most important teaching by quoting verses from it, ¡ÈLove the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.¡É

Moreover, at the time of Temptation in the desert*1, Jesus rejected the offers of the devil by quoting verses in Deuteronomy. When the devil said to Jesus, ¡ÈIf you are the Son of God, tell these rocks to become bread,¡É he answered ; - ¡ÈA person does not live on bread alone, but by everything the Lord says.(Deuteronomy 8:3) Then, to the second temptation, ¡ÈJump down from the roof of the Temple, God will put his angels in charge of you,¡É Jesus said, ; - ¡ÈIt also says in the Scriptures, ¡ÆDo not test the Lord your God.¡É(Deuteronomy 6:16) And the last one, ¡ÈIf you will bow down and worship me, I will give you all these things,¡É was thrown out with this expression, ; - ¡ÈRespect the Lord your God. You must worship him and make your promises only in his name.(Deuteronomy 6:13)

We might say that Jesus gave contemporary interpretations to Deuteronomy which had been written 600 years before his time. Though its compilation seemed producing no fruits at that time, Jesus gave it a new life. The fact justifies perfectly the wisdom of the prophet Isaiah, ; - The grass dies and the flowers fall, but the word of our God will live forever.¡É(Isaiah 40:8)

And we will keep forming the church in accordance with that saying.

*1 Temptation of Christ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temptation_of_Christ