Hilkiah

And then he returned to Jerusalem." So he did it at home, and he did it up north as well.

"Now, in the 18th year of his reign, when he had cleansed the land and the house, he sent Shaphan the son of Azaliah, and Maaseiah the governor of the city, and Joah the son of Jeho- uh, Joahaz, the recorder, to repair the house of the Lord his God." Now it's time to get the temple into good condition, right? So he begins to tell these guys, "Listen, we're gonna get the temple cleaned out and pr- repaired." "And they came to Hilkiah the high priest and gave him the money that had been brought into the house of God, which the Levites, the keepers of the threshold, had collected from Manasseh and Ephraim, and from the remnant of Israel and from all Judah and Benjamin, and from the inhabitants of Jerusalem." So it speaks of some of that, the remnant of people still living up north even after the Assyrians conquered them.

And they gave too for the repair of the temple.

And it says in verse 10 that, "They gave it to the workmen who were working in the house of the Lord, and the workmen who were working in the house of the Lord gave it for repairing and restoring the house.

Check this out.

Look at verse 14.

"While they were bringing out the money that had been brought into the house of the Lord, Hilkiah the priest found the Book of the Law of the Lord," given through Moses.

"Then Hilkiah answered and said to Shaphan the secretary, 'I've found the Book of the Law in the house of the Lord.' And Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan.

This was after King Jeconiah and the queen mother, the eunuchs and the officials of Judah and Jerusalem, the craftsmen and the metal workers had departed from Jerusalem.

The letter was sent by the hand of Elasa, the son of Safan and Gemariah, the son of Hilkiah, whom Zedekiah, king of Judah, sent to Babylon to Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon.

It said, this is the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon.

Build houses and live in them.

You will be thrown down from your position.

At that time, I will summon my servant, Eliakim, son of Hilkiah.

I will put your robe on him, tie your belt around him and transfer your authority to him.

He will become a protector of the residents of Jerusalem and of the people of Judah.

Look at verse 24, "Moreover, the workers with familiar spirits, wizards, im- a- and the images, the idols, all the abominations that were spied in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem did Josiah put away." He got rid of them, r- rid of them all.

"That he might perform the words of the law which were written in the book that Hilkiah the priest found in the house of the Lord." So Josiah's reformation was twofold.

Yes, we need to seek the Lord and obey all the things that the Lord has asked us to do, and do it from the heart.

But in order to do that effectively, we must also say no to and root out all of the ensnaring elements.

Verse three, the letter was sent by the hand, this is the verse that's gonna trip me out.

The letter was sent by the hand of Elisha, the son of Shaphan, and that sounds like Japan, but Shaphan, and Jeremiah, the son of Hilkiah, whom Zedekiah, I know that name, the king of Judah, sent to Babylon to Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon.

So he sends this letter, It's gone from Jerusalem to the exiles in Babylon.

So this is the kind of the setting.

He is not the prophet.

The prophet Jeremiah is the son of Hilkiah from Anathoth.

These are two different men who happen to share a name, the way any two men in any town might.

Jaazaniah appears to be a leading figure of the clan, and Jeremiah gathers him and his brothers and all his sons, and then the whole house of the Rechabites, all of them, the entire extended family, and asks them to come with him.