By Reinder Bruinsma
A Comment on the Sabbath School Lesson for September 14–20, 2002, on 2 Chronicles 33, 34, and 2 Kings 21, 23, "Manasseh and the Early Days of Josiah"
This week’s Bible study focuses on three kings of Judah: Manasseh, Amon, and Josiah. Manasseh’s reign lasted more than half a century (B.C. 696–641). There are a few problems with the dating of his reign, which can only be solved by assuming he was coregent with his father Hizkia for some time. He reestablished the high places, erected an altar to Baal, and made a cult object to Asjerah. Shedding innocent blood became routine, and he persecuted true followers of JHWH.
Amon, who succeeded Manasseh, followed in the steps of his father during his short two-year reign (B.C. 641–639). His life ended in a palace revolution, which brought Josiah to the throne when only a boy of eight. He ruled Judah for thirty-one years (B.C. 639–608). Josiah was the last God-fearing king of Judah before the Babylonian exile. Assyria’s power was rapidly declining, and Josiah had room for political maneuvering, which no doubt facilitated his reforms. Nonetheless, Josiah seems to have been genuine in his desire to restore the religion of JHWH. A most significant event during his reign was the discovery of "the book of the law."
Scholars do not agree as to whether this scroll with "the book of the law" contained the entire Pentateuch or only the book of Deuteronomy. Whatever the case, it is telling for the state of religious affairs in Judah in the early seventh century B.C. that God’s people had become totally estranged from divine revelations given to their ancestors, to the point that they were unaware of this book’s existence. With Josiah’s death on the battlefield, while fighting the Egyptians, Judah once again became a vassal of foreign powers. Unfortunately, the religious reforms did not have enough time to become deeply rooted, and were soon forgotten.
At least four issues stand out from the stories of these kings in 2 Kings (21–23) and 2 Chronicles (33–35).
The story of these and other kings of Judah and Israel is told from a particular perspective. Invariably, we hear that the king did either what was "good" or what was "evil" in the eyes of God.
We have many ways of categorizing people. We divide humans according to gender (male and female), and, nowadays, often according to sexual orientation (straight and gay). We divide by color (black and white) and by ethnicity (Serbs and Croats, Kurds and Turks, and so forth). We differentiate between those born in our own country and recent immigrants, between ethnic majorities and minorities. We use many other criteria, such as age, income, education, and religious affiliation.
However, in a very basic sense, there is only one way to categorize what finally matters: whether or not we are in God’s camp. This is the thread that runs through the annals of the Old Testament kings: What mattered to God was not primarily military acumen or political astuteness, but "goodness" or "evil"; that is, whether or not one followed divine instructions and worshipped the one and only true God rather than a host of other deities.
God still categorizes people the same way. The most important aspect of Christian eschatology is not that we can with certainty identify all the religio-political powers in the end-time scenario, but that there will ultimately be only two kinds of people: those with God and those against him.
How do we deal with religious traditions entrusted to us? We can cherish them without differentiating between form and content and become anachronistic by not only protecting the core teachings handed down to us, but also maintaining the very words, worship modes, and cultural dressings of times past. However, we have a sacred duty to contextualize the biblical message so that the unchanging truths remain relevant in a constantly changing world.
Unfortunately, not all Christians take this approach. We see in our day repetition of a phenomenon popular in Manasseh’s days: a consumer mentality. With this attitude we look at the broad gamut of religious products and fill our own private basket with a choice of goodies that happen to suit our personal tastes. The key question is no longer whether something is true, but whether it appeals to us and "works" for us.
King Manasseh was quite happy to see a colorful amalgamation between elements of JHWH’s religion and the cults and practices of the original inhabitants of Canaan, with their sexual excitements and fascination for the occult.
So it is today. Much of the new religiosity, which we often cluster together as the "New Age Movement," is a hodgepodge of Christian ideas, ancient Gnosticism, Buddhism, Hinduism, nature religions, the theories of Swedenborg, and so forth—with a solid dose of occultism. Today’s youth (together with quite a few of their parents and grandparents) take their spiritual cue from Harry Potter rather than Jesus Christ.
Things went well for Judah when in Josiah’s days "the book of the law" was rediscovered. Here we are confronted with something that, once again, Christians (and in particular Seventh-day Adventist Christians) should consider.
We used to be known as the people of the Book. Unfortunately, this has changed. In spite of some (largely cosmetic) changes in the Sabbath School Lesson Quarterly many Adventists no longer have (or take) the time, or no longer feel the need to study the Bible on a daily basis. When they do, study is often reduced to reading a few Bible texts—out of context—together with some comments from "the prophet" or from some other carefully selected author who is deemed "kosher."
When did most of us read ten or more pages from the Bible in one session? What we may need most as we seek new depth is a fresh reading of the Bible. "A prerequisite to any serious exegesis is the recognition that one does not already know ahead of time what the text is going to say:" writes Fritz Guy, "and no Adventist should be embarrassed if a fresh, careful listening to Scripture discloses something different from what it said to Ellen White a hundred years ago."1
Being in God’s camp does not protect us from misfortune and, sometimes, even untimely death. Why? Why would God allow Josiah, one of the few "good" kings, to die in battle in his early forties? Why did he not give Josiah the chance to pursue further reforms? Why do bad things happen to good people? in the words of Harald S. Kusher.
We can only live with that unanswered question if we come to trust God absolutely and are willing to be disciples of our Lord in spite of the fact that now we know only "in part" (1 Cor. 13:12).
1. Fritz Guy, Thinking Theologically; Adventist Christianity and the Interpretation of Faith (Berrien Springs, Mich.: Andrews University Press, 1999), 124.
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