One Fatal Decision (2 Chronicles 35)

If even the best of us can make wrong decisions, how can we consistently do the right thing? Let’s look at 2 Chronicles 35.

How did Josiah organize the Passover that year? Did they find a home for the ark of the covenant?

Then Josiah celebrated the Lord’s Passover in Jerusalem. They slaughtered the Passover lambs on the fourteenth day of the first month. He assigned the priests to their posts, encouraging them to fulfill their responsibilities in the Lord’s temple. Next Josiah ordered the Levites, who were holy to the Lord and who instructed all Israel: “Put the holy chest in the temple built by Israel’s King Solomon, David’s son. You don’t need to carry it around on your shoulders anymore. Now serve the Lord your God and his people Israel. Organize yourselves by families according to your divisions, as directed by Israel’s King David and his son Solomon. Stand in the sanctuary, according to the family divisions of your relatives the laypeople, so that there can be Levites for each family division. Slaughter the Passover lambs and prepare the holy sacrifices for your relatives in order to celebrate according to the Lord’s word through Moses.” (2 Chr 35:1-6 CEB)

How generous was Josiah in donating to everyone’s Passover meal?

Josiah donated 30,000 sheep and goats, and 3,000 bulls from his own flocks and herds for the people to offer as sacrifices. Josiah's officials also voluntarily gave some of their animals to the people, the priests, and the Levites as sacrifices. Hilkiah, Zechariah, and Jehiel, who were the officials in charge of the temple, gave the priests 2,600 sheep and lambs and 300 bulls to sacrifice during the Passover celebration. Conaniah, his two brothers Shemaiah and Nethanel, as well as Hashabiah, Jeiel, and Jozabad were leaders of the Levites, and they gave the other Levites 5,000 sheep and goats, and 500 bulls to offer as sacrifices. (2 Chr 35:7-9 CEV)

How did they organize the Passover to be distributed for everyone?

When the service had been prepared for, the priests stood in their place, and the Levites in their divisions according to the king's command. And they slaughtered the Passover lamb, and the priests threw the blood that they received from them while the Levites flayed the sacrifices. And they set aside the burnt offerings that they might distribute them according to the groupings of the fathers' houses of the lay people, to offer to the Lord, as it is written in the Book of Moses. And so they did with the bulls. And they roasted the Passover lamb with fire according to the rule; and they boiled the holy offerings in pots, in cauldrons, and in pans, and carried them quickly to all the lay people. And afterward they prepared for themselves and for the priests, because the priests, the sons of Aaron, were offering the burnt offerings and the fat parts until night; so the Levites prepared for themselves and for the priests, the sons of Aaron. (2 Chr 35:10-14 ESV)

Was this quite an historic Passover and Days of Unleavened Bread?

The singers, the descendants of Asaph, were at their stations according to the command of David, Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun the king’s seer. Also, the gatekeepers were at each gate. None of them left their tasks because their Levite brothers had made preparations for them. So all the service of the Lord was established that day for observing the Passover and for offering burnt offerings on the altar of the Lord, according to the command of King Josiah. The Israelites who were present in Judah also observed the Passover at that time and the Festival of Unleavened Bread for seven days. No Passover had been observed like it in Israel since the days of Samuel the prophet. None of the kings of Israel ever observed a Passover like the one that Josiah observed with the priests, the Levites, all Judah, the Israelites who were present in Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. In the eighteenth year of Josiah’s reign, this Passover was observed. (2 Chr 35:15-19 HCSB)

Can the word of the Lord even come from an untrusted source? Should we self-righteously meddle in other people’s fights?

Some time after all of this, after Josiah had finished preparing the Temple, King Neco of Egypt invaded Carchemish on the Euphrates River, and Josiah went out to fight him. But he sent messengers to him, who asked him, “What do we have in common, King of Judah? I am not here today opposing you. I am fighting the dynasty that is fighting me, and God has ordered me to hurry. For your own good, stop interfering with God, who is with me, and he won’t destroy you!” But Josiah wouldn’t turn around. In fact, he put on a disguise so he could fight Neco. He wouldn’t listen to what God told him through what Neco had to say, and as a result, Josiah came to attack Neco on the Megiddo plain. Some archers shot King Josiah, and the king told his servants, “Take me away, because I’m badly wounded.” So his servants removed him from the chariot he was in and carried him away in a backup chariot that he had and took him back to Jerusalem, where he died and was buried in the tombs of his ancestors. All of Judah and Jerusalem went into mourning for Josiah. (2 Chr 35:20-24 ISV)