Josiah’s Advisors: Shaphan & Hilkiah

Transcript

So, tonight, when I do studies, I like to study things that I don't know anything about, because then I'll learn more. And so, if the title was just Shaphan and Hilkiah, I would venture to say, if I asked the people, you know, what the class was going to be about, they wouldn't really know who Shaphan and Hilkiah were, because that would be my response. You know, if somebody said, who is Shaphan and Hilkiah? And I would have said, I really don't know. But when you see that it's Josiah's advisors, then you know, okay, well, I don't really know a lot about these two men, but I do know about King Josiah. So, what I want to do tonight is kind of give you a background of these two men. We're going to explore these two faithful men, Shaphan and Hilkiah, who are advisors to King Josiah, and the reason for the study is that most of us don't know really much about these two men, except, you know, it passes by, you know, every year when we do our daily readings in Kings and in the Chronicles. And the reason that I think it's nice to do studies of people that we don't know about minor characters in the Old Testament and the New Testament is that just because they're minor characters doesn't mean that they can't have really, aren't really good examples for each of us to learn about and to use in our daily lives. You know, it's nice to have the major, you know, characters in the Bible to learn from, but it's also nice to learn about some of these minor characters as well. And in learning about, you know, what they did in their examples can make us better disciples of Christ. And so I hope that in this study tonight, you're going to find out that the lives of these two men and their families really embody what a faithful servant and a faithful parent should be. So we just we just read this, Bush just read this for us in Second Kings 22. I use the ESV, so the quotes you have up on the screen will be in the ESV. So at the beginning of this chapter, we read Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign and he reigned 31 years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Jedideh, the daughter of Adeah of Boscath. And he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord and walked in all the way of David, his father, and he did not turn aside to the right or to the left. So you'll see that there are three things of note that come from these verses. So the first thing is, obviously, he was very young when he began to reign.

Now, Diane and I have four and two thirds grandchildren right now, four and two thirds because in three months, number five is due to arrive. So so our oldest grandson, who many of you know, is Elijah. Now, Elijah is going to turn eight next month. So when I read Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign, I look at Elijah and I say, there's no way, you know, how can an eight year old, you know, be a king of, you know, of Judah? How is this even possible? And the second thing we learned about was that his mother was named Jedideh. So so it's important that his mother was named. All right. And the third thing is he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord. So he's this, you know, little kid when he starts his reign, we know who his mother was and we know that he ended up being one of the most more faithful of all of all the kings of Judah. So the assumptions that we can make from this verse that since he was so young when he took the throne, he must have needed a lot of help, obviously, you know, an eight year old can't, you know, can't be in charge of anything except maybe a younger brother or sister. He just can't be in charge of anything. And Diane's waving her hand at me, even even can't be in charge of a younger sibling either because she can't be trusted. Now, the second thing is, since his mother was named, she we have to assume that she must have provided much of that help. You know, there's there's a lot of kings of Judah and Israel. There's a number of them whose mothers are named and they're named for a reason, I think there has to be a reason they were named. Number one is most of them who are named were named because their their their son became a faithful king, one who did right in the eyes of the Lord. And so since the mother was named, the mother must have been the driving force, one of the driving forces in shaping his characters that he became a faithful king. There are examples of mothers who are evil and had evil sons as

as kings as well. But in this case, since his mother was named, she must have had a great influence on on Josiah. And so it says because he was a faithful told he was a faithful king, you know, besides his mother, he must have had some really good influences at his upbringing because we know his father, Ammon, you know, was no good at all. He was an evil king and his grandfather, Manasseh, who, you know, ruled forever and ever and ever was was an evil king for the for the majority of his reign. So it it seems like he wouldn't Josiah could not have looked to his father or his grandfather as an example, you know, as a role model. You know, I taught I taught middle school in in Hartford for for 12 years. And I saw so many kids in my classes who didn't have, you know, a male influence in their in their life. They had no male role model to look up to. And a lot of those kids were a mess because of it. So it's, you know, so another amazing thing about Josiah, that his his role models in his own family were kind of a mess. And yet he became a faithful king. So he must have had some really good influences in his life. So so we look at the positive role model, so the mentors in his life. And so they most likely included his mother that we've already that we've already mentioned his mother, Judida, whose name means beloved and whose father, Adai, his name means pleasing to Yah. So, you know, a lot of times in scripture we look at, you know, we look at characters and we look at what their names mean and it tells them tells us something about the type of person they are. So we see what is, you know, what is the influence was. And so she was so she was a good influence in his life. And so we can also be sure that though the two men who are subject to our study, Shaphan and Helkiah, they were also keys to his becoming a faithful king and a faithful follower of God. So if we look at, you know, some parallel accounts of Josiah in in Second Chronicles, we read in Second Chronicles thirty four, verse three, for in the eighth year of his reign, while he was yet a boy, he began to seek the God of David, his father. And in the twelfth year, he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem of the high places, the ashram and the carved and metal images. So this is this kind of this verse kind of tells us the progression of King Josiah's faith for his younger years. So it says in the eighth year of his reign, so so he was 16 years old, he began to seek after God, so likely influenced by his members, mentors. And you think about age 16, and I've got that as a note there, it's equivalent to a CYC (Youth Group) age. And we see that a lot of times in our in our CYC kids, you know, they get they get to, you know, mid teens and some of them really begin to seek after God. You know, we've seen so many young brothers and sisters in the last few years in New England, you know, taking on the saving name of Jesus Christ. And you see that, you know, they they they, you know, they're influenced by their mentors, they're influenced by their parents or influenced by, you know, their, you know, that they're the brothers and sisters in their Ecclesia, they're influenced by their

peers and they begin to seek after God and they're baptized. So this is this is King Josiah. He's beginning to seek after God as a teenager. So then in the 12th year of his reign, so now he's age 20, he begins to purge the idols from the land. And again, it's likely because of the knowledge that he gained from from his mentors concerning the worship of the Lord. And and so Josiah began began to take on a leadership role at age 20 in removing the idols from the land. So then we go back to to the to the chapter that we read earlier in the in the Second Kings, chapter 22, verse three, in the 18th year of King Josiah, the king sent Shaphan, the son of Azaliah, son of Meshulam, the secretary to the house of the Lord, saying, go up to Hilkiah, the high priest, that he may count the money that has been brought into the house of the Lord, which the keepers of the threshold have collected from the people, and let it be given into the hand of the workmen who have the oversight of the house of the Lord, and let them give it to the workmen who are in the house of the Lord repairing the house. So these were two key trusted figures in King Josiah's court. We've got Shaphan, who's a scribe, court secretary for King Josiah, and the word scribe means one who writes. And you've got Hilkiah, who was the high priest during King Josiah's reign. So these two men that are the subject of our study tonight are key figures in

his court, in the court that was ruling the land in Judah at that time. So verse eight of this same chapter. And Hilkiah the high priest said to Shaphan the secretary, I have found the book of the law in the house of the Lord, and Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan, and he read it. Then Shaphan the secretary told the king, Hilkiah the priest has given me a book, and Shaphan read it before the king. So this was an event of importance, because it's mentioned here, and it occurred in the 18th year of King Josiah's reign, so now he's 26 years old. So it says that during cleansing and repairing the temple, the book of the law, possibly the book of Deuteronomy, was discovered. So you can kind of see how the spiritual state of the land was in those days, because you're cleaning out the temple, and all of a sudden you discover the

book of the law. It's like cleaning out a house and oh, we discovered there's a Bible on the shelf that we never knew about. So it was discovered, so it's read by Shaphan, and it caused the king to tremble with fear. So you can imagine, he's probably, you know, he hasn't probably heard this before, he hasn't read it before, and then he realizes, you know, what's going on in the land and how

far short, you know, his subject people are falling from the law of the Lord that's been set down for them to follow. So he's trembling, you know, he's afraid that things are out of control, really. So verse 11, When the king heard the words of the book of the law, he tore his clothes. And the king commanded Hilkiah the priest and Ahicham the son of Shaphan and Achbor the son of Micaiah and Shaphan the secretary and Asiah the king's servant, saying, Go inquire of the Lord for me and for the people and for all Judah concerning the words of this book that has been found. So Hilkiah the priest and Ahicham and Achbor and Shaphan and Asiah went to Huldah the prophetess. So note the people that are included in the delegation sent to Huldah the prophetess. We've got Hilkiah, Shaphan, and Ahicham, who is Shaphan's son. So these are his faithful advisors, you know, those who taught him about the Lord and supported him in his kingship. And I have to think that Shaphan's son, Ahicham, was probably more the age of the king, where you've got Hilkiah and Shaphan being the elders, you know, they're much older than Josiah, who've gotten him, you know, through his youth as a king and now into his adulthood as a And now Shaphan's son, Ahicham, is also playing a role in Josiah's leadership of the kingdom of Judah. So verse 15, So because of this message that came from Huldah by way of the delegation, including Shaphan and Hilkiah, Josiah initiated a reformation in the land. So you know, this was really, you know, a big thing. It was, I mean, that's, you know, one of the reasons why Josiah is considered to be, you know, one of the best kings of Judah that we have recorded for us. There's so many kings of Judah that, you know, fall short of, you know, of following God's and of course all the ones of Israel did, that Josiah kind of stands out, you know, as one of the bright lights. And we're told this, basically, in 2 Kings 23, verse 25. Before him there was no king like him who turned to the Lord with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his might, according to all the law of Moses, nor did any like him arise after him. And so, even though, you know, he knew the nation as a whole was doomed by the prophecy and he was not, because he'd been told that he was faithful, he was still inspired to try to redeem his nation with the help of his close advisors and I think that really speaks to his character. You know, he could have said, well, you know, I'm good, you know, I'm good with God and, you know, there's no hope for this nation, so, you know, basically they're on their own because I got, you know, I'm all set, I got my ticket punched, I'm all set, but he didn't do that. And so his faithful reign comes to an end as well as the good works of Shaphan and Hilkiah and so Jehoah has his son takes over the reign and history moves on. And so if you're doing a study of Josiah and his advisors, Shaphan and Hilkiah, you could say, okay, I'm done, this study is done, you know, I'm all set, you know, my work's done. I remember a class that Butch gave, and I think it was in January, talking about how it seems like, you know, you're on for exhorting and you're on for, you know, you're on for midweek Bible class and you're on for Sunday school and you're on all at once and you're done, you're done and you say, I'm all done now, now I can relax and not do anything for a while. So if you're doing a study of Shaphan and Hilkiah, you could say, okay, I'm all done with this, now I can move on and do something else. But the story of Shaphan and Hilkiah is way more than what we just read, because it involves

their family. It involves, you know, what they kind of what they left as a legacy to their family to follow. And so if you do a little more digging, which we're going to do right now, you're going to find out that the spirit and the faithfulness of Shaphan and Hilkiah continues for a couple more generations. And we're going to find that it ends up with some real well-known major characters in the Old Testament that are connected to them. And so our study continues. So we're going to see that there's much more to the story to the men and these families included in Scripture. Additional examples that we can gain from these two men and their families are found, I like to say hiding in plain sight in the pages of the Old Testament, outside really of these two chapters in 2 Kings 22 and 2 Chronicles 34. And so, I mean, I think, you know, that's one of the things when I do Bible classes and studies, I find that there's almost always things hiding in plain sight. You know, and what I mean by that is that we read over them in our daily readings every year and we just slide, you know, glance at them and go right through them, right across the top of them and never notice what's hidden underneath because we don't dig down. But if we dig down, we find out, wow, all of these gems in Scripture are hidden in plain sight. We just have to go looking for them. So a lot of what we know about Shaphan's family comes from the book of Jeremiah because Jeremiah was contemporary with King Josiah and with Shaphan. So Shaphan had three sons that we know of, Ahicham, Elissa, and Gemariah. So Shaphan's son Ahicham, we already talked about him. He's first introduced in 2 Kings 22 as being part of the delegation that was sent to Huldah. So he's one of Josiah's trusted advisors. So since Josiah is only 26 at the time, we might assume that we've already mentioned that he's his contemporary, making his father Shaphan an older trusted advisor to Josiah. So when I see this, I think back to the account of King Rehoboam. And remember Rehoboam?

He discounted the advice of his father Solomon and the senior advisors and because he discounted the advice of the senior advisors and took the advice of the people that were his own age, he failed miserably as a result. But Josiah didn't do that. He took the advice of the elders. Now we read in Jeremiah 26, 24, but the hand of Ahicham the son of Shaphan was with Jeremiah so that he was not given over to the people to be put to death.

So Ahicham that we'd already read about at the time of Josiah pops up again in relation to Josiah's son, King Jehoiakim. So King Jehoiakim, which this is what I find amazing. King Jehoiakim, his dad was King Josiah, one of the best kings ever. And yet here's his son searching out and trying to put to death any prophets who had prophesied against Judah. Same family, one generation later, and he's gone completely off the rails. But that's not the case with the son of Shaphan. So following in the footsteps of his father Shaphan, who had mentored Josiah, one of the most faithful kings of Judah, Ahicham protected Jeremiah, one of God's most faithful prophets from death. So here you've got the king and the new king, the king's son, and the king's son has totally gone against everything that Josiah stood for. But then you've got Shaphan's son, who is still right on board with with with his faithful father Shaphan. So father and son both provided strength and support to a faithful man of God, one to King Josiah, one to Jeremiah. Second Kings 25 verse 22, And over the people who remained in the land of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had left, he appointed Gedaliah, the son of Ahicham, son of Shaphan, governor. So now we go one more generation. Now we go to the grandson of Shaphan. So after, and this is after Judah is taken into captivity by King Nebuchadnezzar. So Ahicham's son, Shaphan's grandson Gedaliah, was given the prominent position of governor over the Jews, who had remained in the land after Judah was taken captive by Babylon. Jeremiah 39. So Nebuchadnezzar and the captain of the guard and all the chief officers of the king of Babylon sent and took Jeremiah from the court of the guard. They entrusted to him Gedaliah, the son of Ahicham, son of Shaphan, that he should take him home so he lived among the people. So it's kind of interesting here that following in the footsteps of his father Ahicham, who had protected Jeremiah from death, Gedaliah also provided protection and watched over Jeremiah after he was released from captivity. And unfortunately, sadly, we remember from the account that Gedaliah was murdered shortly after this by Ishmael, a man in whom he put his trust. But it's kind of interesting that consistency with the family of Shaphan, you know, you can see that Shaphan worked strongly, worked very closely with

Josiah and influenced Josiah to become a faithful king. Ahicham, you know, protects Jeremiah.

Gedaliah protects him as well. It's very consistent with this family of Shaphan. It's very consistent in their faithfulness. Jeremiah 36 verse 9. In the fifth year of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, in the hearing of all the people, Barak read the words of Jeremiah from the scroll, in the house of the Lord, in the chamber of Gemariah, the son of Shaphan the secretary. When Micaiah, the son of Gemariah, the son of Shaphan, heard all the words of the Lord from the scroll, he went down to the king's house in the secretary's chamber and all the officials were sitting there. So in the fifth year of the reign of King Jehoiakim, another member of Shaphan's family had a role to play. So apparently, Gemariah and his son Micaiah had continued in the footsteps of Shaphan as scribes in the king's house. Although Shaphan was a scribe in a faithful king's house, and now Gemariah and his son Micaiah were scribes in the house of an unfaithful king, Jehoiakim. So how did that affect them? So if we look at Jeremiah 36 verse 22, it was the ninth month and the king was sitting in the winter house and there was a fire burning in the fire pot before him. As Jehoiakim read three or four columns, the king would cut them off with a knife and throw them into the fire in the fire pot until the entire scroll was consumed in the fire that was in the fire pot. So in this, you know, very unfortunate episode, this is kind of like every time I read this, I remember it. You know, it's like this is kind of an incident that you just remember. You can't forget it when you read it in your daily readings. You just don't forget this. You think about it. He's reading, you know, the word of God, and he's cutting it off in peace and throwing it in the fire. It'd be like us doing our daily readings in front of a fireplace. And you read, okay, you know, Matthew chapter one, okay, that off, throw that in the fire. Matthew two, take that off, throw that in the fire. It's just, it's amazing, you know, the, like you're in your face, kind of disregard for the word of God. And King Jehoiakim, so no regard whatsoever for the written word that is farther each other. This is, you know, Josiah, you know, quaked when they found the, you know, the book of the law, you know, when they were cleaning out, you know, the temple, he quaked when he found it. His reaction to the written word of God was just the opposite of his son. Jehoiakim didn't, not only did he not quake, he just said, I have no use for this whatsoever and threw it in the fireplace. So we have to ask ourselves, did Gemariah and Micaiah have a part in this atrocity? You know, they were there. What did they say? What happened? Jeremiah 36, 24, yet neither the king nor any of his servants who heard all these words was afraid, nor did they tear their garments. Even when Nel-Nathan and Deliah and Gemariah urged the king not to burn the scroll, he would not listen to them. So the answer to the question is clearly no. The house of Shaphan was faithful to the Lord in spite of what the king was doing. You know, they stayed faithful even though the king was totally off the rails. And so, you know, very sadly Josiah's son Jehoiakim had not kept the faith in God shown by his father while Shaphan's son Gemariah had. Jeremiah 29, these are the words of the letter that Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem to the surviving elders of the exiles and to the priests, the prophets, and all the people whom Nebuchadnezzar had taken into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. The letter was sent by the hand of Elassah the son of Shaphan and Gemariah the son of Hilkiah, whom Zedekiah king of Judah sent to Babylon to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. So now we have another member of Shaphan's family, his son Elassah, who had also continued in the role of scribe or court secretary that his father had held. But in this case, as with Gemariah, it was for another unfaithful king, and this time it was King Zedekiah. So Elassah was sent as an emissary to Babylon by King Zedekiah in a similar way as his father had been sent to Huldah by King Josiah. So if you look at what we've just looked at, here's the house of Shaphan. You've got Shaphan, I mean he may have had more sons, but the sons that we know about were Ahicham, Gemariah, and Elassah. And we also know about two of his grandsons, Gedaliah, who was the son of Ahicham, and Micaiah, who was the son of Gemariah. And we know, you know, that all of these, this whole family here, these five people, father, the three sons, and the two grandsons, were all faithful and all stayed faithful in spite of the kings that they were associated with. You know, Shaphan was associated and had a great influence on faithful King Josiah, and these other five, his sons and his grandsons, you know, they had a tough job. They were working under totally unfaithful kings, and yet they came out as faithful men who continued to keep the, keep the commandments of God in spite of the guy they were working for, to put it bluntly. So the history of Shaphan's sons and grandsons, as recorded by the prophet Jeremiah, illustrate that the faithful scribe had ruled his own house well, and it resulted in three generations of faithful scribes. So I think, you know, Shaphan is an example for all of us to learn by. 1 Timothy 3 verse 1, the saying is trustworthy. If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he seeks a noble task. He must manage his own household well, with all dignity, keeping his children submissive. For if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God's ecclesia? And I think, you know, that Shaphan lives up to those words. So the information about Hilkiah's family is a bit harder to

ascertain or to come by than it is with Shaphan. So Hilkiah had at least one son that we know of. His name was Azariah. And most of our information about Hilkiah, his son Azariah, and future generations comes from the genealogies of the priests in First Chronicles. And I know, you know, that, you know, genealogies are tough to read, you know, through once we get to them in our daily readings. But I always like the genealogies because there's always hidden gems in the genealogies. And we can always find out who's related to who and what happened here and there. And if you keep, and if you keep,

um, and if you keep reading, and if you keep reading them, you're gonna, instead of being burdened by the number of names, I think there's lessons to be learned there. So Hilkiah is descended from Aaron through his son Eliezer. So in First Chronicles 6 verse 12, we read this. Ahatab fathered Zadok. Zadok fathered Shalom. Shalom fathered Hilkiah. Hilkiah fathered Azariah. Azariah fathered Zareah. Zareah fathered Jehozadeh. And Jehozadeh went into exile when the Lord sent Judah and Jerusalem into exile by the hand of Nebuchadnezzar. And then First Chronicles 9 verse 10. Of the priests, Jediah, Jehorab, Jacob, and Azariah, the son of Hilkiah, son of Misholim, son of Zadok, son of Moriah, son of Ahatab, chief officer of the house of God. So these accounts show that the faithful line of the high priest went through Hilkiah to his great-grandson Jehozadeh, who was high priest when Judah went into exile in Babylon. But Hilkiah's family had another well-known member. We read in Ezra 7 verse 1. Now after this, in the reign of Artaxerxes, king of Persia, Ezra, the son of Saraiah, the son of Azariah, son of Hilkiah, son of Shalom, son of Zadok, son of Ahatab. Pair that with First Chronicles 6 verse 12. Ahatab fathered Zadok. Zadok fathered Shalom. Shalom fathered Hilkiah. Hilkiah fathered Azariah. Fathered Saraiah. Saraiah fathered Jehozadeh. So from these two verses, we find that Ezra was the great-grandson of Hilkiah and apparently the brother of Jehozadeh, the high priest. So these are the kinds of things that you find looking at that long list of names in First Chronicles. These are the things that are, I say, hidden in plain sight. So there's someone that we've all heard of Ezra. Look, there he is. He's the great-grandson of Hilkiah, the faithful man that we've been looking at tonight. So the words used by Artaxerxes, king of Persia, to describe Ezra the man are a reflection, I think, of his family's legacy. Ezra the priest, the scribe, a man learned in matters of the commandments of the Lord and his statutes for Israel, and you, Ezra, according to the wisdom of your God that is in your hand, appoint magistrates and judges who may judge all the people in the province beyond the river. All such as know the laws of your God, and those who do not know them you shall teach. So Ezra had kept the faith in God shown in his family down through the generations from his great-grandfather, Hilkiah.

So here's the house of Hilkiah that we know about. Hilkiah, his son was Azariah, whose son was Saraiah, who had two sons that we know of, Jehozadak and Ezra. So there's some well-known names there in the house of Hilkiah. So as with Shaphan, the record of Hilkiah's descendants down through his great-grandsons illustrates that the faithful priest had ruled his own house well, and he'd instructed his children in God's laws, which resulted in generations of faithful priests and a faithful scribe in Ezra. So Hilkiah is an example, again, another example for all of us to learn by, 2 Timothy 3, 14. But as for you, continue on what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. And you can just plug his name in there, Hilkiah, his name in there in 2 Timothy 3, verse 14. But there's one more big name associated with these two families. So before we close the book on the house of Hilkiah, consider Jeremiah 1, verse 1. The words of Jeremiah the son of Hilkiah, one of the priests who were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin, to whom the word of the Lord came in the days of Josiah, the son of Ammon, king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign. So is it possible that Hilkiah the high priest was the father of Jeremiah? So it's a definite maybe and a probably since the time period in history is clearly correct. You could argue, you could say, well, Hilkiah was a common name in those days, in Judah, and the account refers to him as one of the priests, not the high priest. Although you can easily argue that at the time of Jeremiah's birth, he hadn't as yet attained the position of high priest. So it's an interesting speculation. I tend to think that

Jeremiah was the son of the Hilkiah that we've been speaking about tonight. Again, a reflection on the solidity or the steadfastness of the family, of the family of Hilkiah, that his son would become one of the major prophets of

the Old Testament. So, in conclusion, so we're first introduced to Shaphan and Hilkiah serving as Josiah's advisors, and later when the book of the law, likely the book of Deuteronomy, was found in the house of the Lord. And I think from everything we've looked at tonight, it's apparent that Shaphan and Hilkiah patterned their lives afterwards from this book, from Deuteronomy, which we read Deuteronomy 6 verse 6. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise. And you think about not just Shaphan and Hilkiah, but about all of their children, their sons, and their grandsons, and what their sons and grandsons made of their lives, and the steadfastness that they held to following God in nations that followed the king. And the kings were evil that followed Josiah, and yet the progeny of Shaphan and Hilkiah, they stuck to it. They stuck to the right way, and they patterned their lives after the words of the book of Deuteronomy. And so I think in conclusion, we can say that Shaphan and Hilkiah are wonderful examples for us of what a faithful servant and a faithful parent should be.