GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
2 CHRONICLES 34:23-28
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23 She said to them, “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘Tell the man who sent you to me, 24 This is what the LORD says: Look! I will bring disaster on this place and on its inhabitants– all the curses that are written in the scroll which was read before the king of Judah. 25 Because they have forsaken me and have burned incense to other gods, provoking me to anger with all the works of their hands, my wrath will be poured out on this place, and it will not be quenched.
The prophetess proclaimed God’s word without hesitation. Josiah was not addressed as “the king,” or even as “Josiah,” but simply “the man who sent you.” For the first part of the judgment, the identity of Josiah was irrelevant. How may times had Judah gone back and forth, sin and repentance, idolatry and sorrow over idolatry? It was every other generation, ever since Solomon chased after the idols and false gods of his many wives. A lot of the kings were just rotten and led the people astray. Joash had started well but then fell into sin. Manasseh had been just about the wickedest of them all but repented in the end. When the tabernacle had been nothing but a tent in the desert it fell into disuse. When the temple was built with its massive cedar columns and stone blocks, it served for a while and then got closed, then served for a while and got closed again. And they lost track of the Books of Moses! The hearts of the people too easily went astray. Well, now the Lord was done with the whole thing. Disaster was coming, and nothing could prevent it this time. The curses were going to be fulfilled. Some of those curses were:
1, “The Lord will send curses upon you: confusion and frustration in everything you try to do, until you are destroyed and perish suddenly on account of the evil you are doing, and because you have forsaken me” (Deuteronomy 28:20).
2, “The sky over your head will be like brass, and the ground beneath you like iron. The Lord will turn the rain of your country into dust and powder. It will fall down from the skies until you are destroyed” (Deuteronomy 28:23-24).
3, “The Lord will cause you to be defeated before your enemies. You will come against them one way but flee from them seven other ways. You will be a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth. Your dead bodies will be food for all of the birds of the air and for the beasts of the earth. And there will be no one to frighten them away” (Deuteronomy 28:25-26).
4, “The Lord will drive you and the king you set over yourselves to a nation that neither you nor your fathers have known, and there you will serve other gods, gods of wood and stone” (Deuteronomy 28:36).
5, “The Lord will bring a nation against you from far away, from the ends of the earth, as swift as an eagle diving down, a nation whose language you do not understand” (Deuteronomy 28:49).
And some of the curses were worse, far worse, than these. They were coming. The Lord had promised as far back as Moses, and we can even see the shadow of these curses in what was spoken to Adam in the Garden. But the brunt of the punishment upon Judah was now going to come in this very generation.
26 But to the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of the LORD, say this to him:
Now at last the prophetess addressed Josiah as king. The Lord had not ignored his repentance or his faith. The judgment was on the land; on the city of Jerusalem. The temple would not be spared. But the king was recognized as “the one who sent you to inquire of the LORD.”
This is what the LORD, the God of Israel says about the words which you have heard. 27 Because your heart was softened and you humbled yourself before God when you heard his words against this place and the people who live here, and you have humbled yourself before me, and have torn your clothes and wept before me, I also have heard you, says the LORD. 28 Behold, I will gather you to your fathers, and you shall be gathered to your grave in peace. Your eyes shall not see all the disaster which I will bring upon this place and the people who live here.’” And they brought back this message to the king.
Huldah’s words are careful. She says that “This is about the words you have heard.” The Lord does indeed know that Josiah’s heart had softened, and humbled himself before God. He saw the marks of the young man’s repentance, the clothes torn, the weeping, and the things that Josiah had said. For this reason, all of this destruction would not touch him. It was coming, that was certain. But not to him.
The term that Huldah used, “your heart was softened,” is a description of the part of repentance that is the response in the heart to the voice of the law of God. The heart is softened, it is sorry, and it feels fear and terror over the inevitable punishment that is on its way. But there is also a response in the heart to the voice of the gospel. This is faith. In our Augsburg Confession we agree, confess and teach: “Properly speaking, repentance consists of these two parts: one is contrition, that is, terror smiting the conscience with a knowledge of sin, and other is faith, which is born of the gospel, or of absolution, believes that sins are forgiven for Christ’s sake, comforts the conscience, and delivers it from terror” (Augsburg Confession, Article XII:3-5).
Josiah would be spared, even though the nation would not. The account of his death will come at the end of the next chapter, before everything falls apart.
So once again we are reminded through this true account of the Bible that while sin may have dreadful consequences in life, forgiveness covers our sins in eternity. We will not work out our sins after death, in hell, purgatory, or any other form of limbo prior to heaven. Our souls, as Solomon plainly says, are separated from our bodies at death. Our bodies will be buried to await the resurrection on Judgment Day, but the souls of believers will already enjoy the glories, pleasures, reunions, and the absolute comforting rest of heaven between the day of our death until the day of the resurrection. Then, with body and soul once more united in the resurrection, we will enter into heaven in the flesh, to be with Christ who is the very Truth of God, “the truth who lives in us and will be with us forever” (2 John 1:2).
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
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Archives at St Paul’s Lutheran Church https://splnewulm.org/daily-devotions/ and Wisconsin Lutheran Chapel: www.wlchapel.org/connect-grow/ministries/adults/daily-devotions/gwfy-archive/2025
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota
God’s Word for You – 2 Chronicles 34:23-28 The prophetess