2Ch35v18 Josiah vs Darby I
2 Chr. 35:18 KJV And there was no passover like to that kept in Israel from the days of Samuel the prophet; neither did all the kings of Israel keep such a passover as Josiah kept, and the priests, and the Levites, and all Judah and Israel that were present, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
1
Cor. 5:6-8 KJV ¶ Your glorying is
not good. Know ye not that a little
leaven leaveneth the whole lump? 7 Purge out therefore the old
leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even
Christ our passover is sacrificed for us: 8 Therefore let us keep the
feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and
wickedness; but with the unleavened bread
of sincerity and truth.
1
Cor. 11:23-26 KJV ¶ For I have
received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, That the
Lord Jesus the same night
in which he was betrayed took bread: 24 And when he had given thanks,
he brake it,
and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this
do in remembrance of me. 25 After the same manner also he
took the cup, when he had supped,
saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft
as ye drink it,
in remembrance of me. 26 For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink
this cup, ye do shew the Lord's death till he come.
1
Cor. 10:2-4 KJV And were all baptized
unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea; 3 And did all eat the same
spiritual meat; 4 And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for
they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock
was Christ.
1
Cor. 11:7 KJV For a man indeed ought
not to cover his head,
forasmuch as he is the image and glory of God: but the woman is the
glory of the man.
1
Cor. 14:31 KJV For ye may all prophesy one by one, that all may
learn, and all may be comforted.
1
Cor. 14:35 KJV And if they will learn any thing, let them ask
their husbands at home: for it is a shame for women to speak in the
church.
1
Cor. 11:19 KJV For there must be also heresies among you, that
they which are approved may be made manifest among you.
1
Cor. 11:27 KJV ¶ Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread, and
drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the
body and blood of the Lord.
_
The historic parallel between Josiah's passover and the re-discovery
of the proper biblical ordering of the Lord's supper in Dublin around
1840 is striking once it is, through the grace of God, stumbled upon.
Stay tuned. More later. Lord willing.
[Reflections
on 2 Chronicles 35]
touchstonemag.com
[/ by ]Patrick Henry Reardon [/] [Look for “Saturday, November 35
(sic, - for 14)” at:] http://j.mp/0Reflect
[/] or http://touchstonemag.com/daily_reflections/
Saturday,
November 35 [sic. /] 2 Chronicles 35: Although 2 Kings
23:21-23 tells of the Passover observed in Jerusalem in the year that
the scroll was discovered, the account of that same celebration here
in Chronicles is far more ample and detailed. Indeed, verses 2-18 of
the present chapter are peculiar to the Chronicler.
Josiah
entrusted the organization and preparation for this feast to the
ever-reliable Levites, who were especially charged with the actual
slaying of the paschal lambs (verses 3-5). At each part of the ritual
the Levites performed their sundry duties as assistants, musicians,
and doorkeepers (verses 10-15).
So
great was Josiah’s celebration of Passover that the Chronicler’s
mind was forced back to the time of Samuel to find its equal (verse
18). For two reasons this high estimate is unexpected. First, it
makes Josiah’s celebration of Passover eclipse notable Passover
celebrations of David, Solomon, and Hezekiah. Second, it suggests a
liturgical standard in the pre-monarchical period, a time about
which, as we have seen, the Chronicler had fairly little to say at
the beginning of the book. These considerations render the
Chronicler’s assessment very surprising.
The
Chronicler is careful to note that this Passover celebration involved
“all Judah and Israel” (verse 18). Josiah’s ability to bring
together the entire Chosen People, all the descendents of those who
celebrated that first Passover on the night before the Exodus,
indicates the recent political changes in the Fertile Crescent.
Obviously no one was any longer afraid of what the Assyrians might
think.
It
is very significant of Josiah’s thinking, moreover, that the
remnants of the northern tribes were invited to the feast, as
Hezekiah had done in the previous century. The Passover was not just
any feast. It was the feast in which Israel was separated from all
other peoples of the earth. It was the feast that rendered Israel
God’s Chosen People. Therefore, it was preeminently the feast of
the unity of the People of God.
Being
restricted to Jerusalem, Josiah’s celebration of the feast, we
observe, corresponded to the prescription of Deuteronomy, which we
believe to have formed, at least in part, the scroll so recently
discovered. In that text it was commanded, “You may not offer the
Passover sacrifice within any of your towns that the Lord your God is
giving you, but at the place that the Lord your God will choose, to
make his name dwell in it, there you shall offer the Passover
sacrifice” (Deuteronomy 16:5-6 ESV).
Perhaps
more than any other feast in the liturgical calendar, Passover roots
Israel’s worship in the concrete, documented facts of history. The
annual feast itself is part of the historical continuity inaugurated
by the events remembered on that holiest of nights. Israel
represents, in this respect, a religious adherence profoundly
different from that of the religions of India, which involve various
efforts to escape from history into some kind of experience
transcendent to history. Israel’s worship does not endeavor to
escape the flow of history but to place the worshippers into the
People’s historical identity established by historical events.
Those who keep this feast become one with those who have always kept
it, including those who stood to eat the Passover on that first
night, protected by the sprinkled blood of the paschal lambs.
The
proper celebration of the Passover, however, is more than a “then
and now.” The “then and now” forms only the two extremes of the
greater continuity. The full continuity is also important, because
this feast is essentially an inherited feast, and the inheritance is
received, not simply from the distant past, but from the more
immediate past of the previous generation of worshippers.
What
was true of Israel’s celebration of the paschal feast is, of
course, likewise true of that new Pascha celebrated by Christians (in
the identical historical continuity, for those Israelites were our
own forefathers!). This is how we should understand the words of the
Apostle Paul, who wrote to the Corinthians at Passover season,
“Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. Therefore let us keep
the feast” (1 Corinthians 5:7-8).
The
closing verses (20-27) of this chapter bring us to the year 609, when
the final remnants 1 Cor. 5:6-8 KJV ¶ Your
glorying is not
good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump? 7
Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye
are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us: 8
Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with
the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread
of sincerity and truth. of the
Assyrian army were destroyed at the Battle of Carcemish. Nineveh, the
Assyrian capital, had fallen to the allied forces of the Medes and
Babylonians three years earlier in 612 (to the great joy of the
prophet Nahum, who made this the theme of his book). In 610 the
vestigial, refugee government of Assyria were driven out of Haran, at
the top of the Fertile Crescent. The Assyrian situation had become
desperate.
To
the new pharaoh who took the throne of Egypt that very year, Neco II
(610-594), this was not a good development. He felt certain that the
Babylonians, after they finished off the Assyrians, would begin to
cast its gaze down toward the southwestern border of the Fertile
Crescent. Deciding to cast in his lot with the remaining forces of
Assyria, Neco marched his army northwards along the coastal road
through the Carmel range, heading toward a rendezvous with the
Assyrians at Carchemish on Euphrates River, with the hope that with
joined forces they might stop the march of the Babylonians and the
Medes.
This
road lay, of course, right through the territory of Judah, and Josiah
was forced to make some determination about the matter. Perhaps
recalling that his great-grandfather Hezekiah had been friendly
toward Babylon (32:31), and certainly remembering all that the Holy
Land had suffered at the hands of the Assyrians, Josiah determined to
throw in his lot with Babylon and resolved to march counter to
Pharaoh Neco and stop him from reaching Carchemish. When their two
armies met at a crossroads on the plain beneath Armageddon, the “hill
of Megiddo,” King Josiah perished in the battle.
Whereas
in 2 Kings this story is told in two and a half verses (23:28-30a),
the Chronicler provides a longer, more detailed, more colorful
account. According to this account Pharaoh Neco tried to dissuade
Josiah from fighting him, claiming even the will, protection, and
providence of God for the side of the Egyptians (verse 21). What is
important here is not the nature of Neco’s claim, but the fact that
the Chronicler apparently agreed with it (verse 22). In the
narrator’s eyes, this was one more occasion when a king of Judah
refused to pay heed to a message from on high, with disastrous
results for the kingdom. He will summarize this theme in the next
chapter (36:15-16).
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