Josiah

Here's the reason why.

Because in the seventh century BCE, a man came to power named Josiah, and it seems like Josiah had this ambitious political vision as king.

We can't be exactly sure of his motives, but it looks like he wanted to consolidate power on a massive scale to ensure that he and his family held all the cards in this area.

And the best tool he could use to do that was religion.

See, up to that point, there had been shrines in virtually every city, so religion was localized, and religious leadership was democratized.

But Josiah, wanting to put all the power in one place, declared there was only one temple, and it was in Jerusalem, where he worked.

And there was only one god, a male and a king, like Josiah, and that was Yahweh.

And every other shrine was to be torn down, all the other idols destroyed, all worshipers of anyone but Yahweh condemned.

We're in 2 Kings 24.

And we talked a bit about Jehoiakim, who is one of the sons of Josiah, as you know, an evil man, reigned for 11 years.

Jeremiah actually prophesied against him.

He was very, very rude and evil to Jeremiah, but God dealt with him.

The Bible says in verse number seven, right? Actually, verse number six, 2 Kings 24 and verse six.

So Jehoiakim slept with his fathers and Jehoiakim, his son, reigned in his stead.

So this is the grandson now of Josiah, the son of Jehoiakim.

And it says that in verse number seven, the king of Egypt came not again anymore out of his land for the king of Babylon had taken from the river of Egypt, had taken from the river of Egypt, that would be the Nile, obviously, onto the river Euphrates, all that pertained to the king of Egypt.

Arriving there just as Jeroboam was approaching the altar to burn incense.

Verse two, "Then at the Lord's command he shouted, 'Oh, altar, altar, this is what the Lord says: A child named Josiah will be born into the dynasty of David.

On you he will sacrifice the priests from the pagan shrines who come here to burn incense, and human bones will be burned on you.' That same day, the man of God gave a sign to prove his message.

He said, 'The Lord has promised to give this sign.

Of the 22 men who reigned over the southern kingdom of Judah, and 22 includes the first three kings, Saul, David, and Solomon, who reigned over the entire nation.

Of the 22, some were godly kings like David, Josiah, and Hezekiah.

Many others were wicked kings like Manasseh, Ahaz, and Ahaziah.

In the books of 1 and 2 Kings and 1 and 2 Chronicles, God gives us a general summary of each king's spiritual success.

Obedience comes from hearing, listening, reading God's instructions, and following them, which is, again, going to be an issue in Zephaniah.

The timing of Zephaniah is very, very cool because it's just before Josiah's reforms, during which they rediscover the Word of God.

And so it's this amazing thing where there is an expectation, but because of the neglect that's happened so far during that time period, it's one of these things where it's like, hey, go and read your Bible.

And it's this awkward moment where the priests are like, I think I left it over here somewhere.

Turn back to Matthew, please, if you weren't there already.

Verse 7, Solomon was the father of Rehoboam, Rehoboam the father of Abijah, and Abijah the father of Asa, and Asa the father of Jehoshaphat, Jehoshaphat the father of Jerom, and Jerom the father of Uzziah, Uzziah the father of Jotham, Jotham the father of Ahaz, Ahaz the father of Hezekiah, Hezekiah the father of Manasseh, Manasseh the father of Ammon, Ammon the father of Josiah, Josiah became the father of Jeconiah and his brothers at the time of the deportation to Babylon.

The one that sticks out to me there is Manasseh.

Manasseh.