When Good Kings Make Bad Moves Text: 2 Kings 23:28-30
Introduction: The Sovereignty of God in Stupid Decisions
We come now to the end of one of the most remarkable reigns in the history of Judah. Josiah was a thunderclap of reformation in a long, dark night of apostasy. He was a good king, one of the best. He rediscovered the law, tore down the high places, purged the land of its idols, and reinstituted the Passover with a zeal not seen since the days of Samuel. By all accounts, he was a man whose heart was tender toward God. And yet, the story ends abruptly, with what appears to be a shocking and senseless death on the battlefield of Megiddo.
This is the kind of story that troubles modern evangelicals. We like our narratives to be neat and tidy. We want the good guys to win and the bad guys to lose, and we want the final score to be obvious. But the Bible is not a collection of simplistic fables for children. It is the unvarnished history of God's dealings with a rebellious and stiff-necked people, and it is a history that is frequently messy. The death of Josiah forces us to confront a number of hard truths: the sovereignty of God over the political machinations of empires, the consequences of a nation's long-term sin, and the fact that even the best of men can make profoundly foolish decisions.
We must understand that God's providence is not a safety net that protects godly men from the consequences of their own bad judgment. God is sovereign, which means He ordains whatsoever comes to pass. But His sovereignty does not negate our responsibility. God's decree establishes our choices; it does not erase them. Josiah's death was not an accident. It was not a tragic slip-up in the cosmic plan. It was ordained by God, and yet it was also the direct result of Josiah's own choice to meddle in a conflict that was not his. Here at Megiddo, we see the intersection of divine sovereignty and human folly, and it serves as a stark warning to us all.
The story of Josiah's end is not just a historical footnote. It is a lesson in the nature of God's rule, the limits of human wisdom, and the unyielding reality of covenant consequences. The seeds of Judah's destruction had been sown long before Josiah, and not even his righteous reign could ultimately avert the judgment that was coming.
The Text
Now the rest of the acts of Josiah and all that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? In his days Pharaoh Neco king of Egypt went up to the king of Assyria to the river Euphrates. And King Josiah went to meet him, and when Pharaoh Neco saw him he put him to death at Megiddo. And his servants drove his body in a chariot from Megiddo and brought him to Jerusalem and buried him in his own tomb. Then the people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of Josiah and anointed him and made him king in place of his father.
(2 Kings 23:28-30 LSB)
The Standard Summary (v. 28)
The text begins with the customary closing formula for a king's reign.
"Now the rest of the acts of Josiah and all that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah?" (2 Kings 23:28 LSB)
This is the Bible's way of saying, "For more details, check the official court records." It points us to a historical source, reminding us that these are not myths or legends. These were real kings, real nations, and real events. The author of Kings is a historian, but he is a theological historian. He is not interested in giving us every last detail of Josiah's public works projects or his tax policies. He is selecting the events that are theologically significant, the events that reveal the covenant faithfulness, or unfaithfulness, of the king and the people.
And what were "the acts of Josiah"? They were glorious. He found the Book of the Law and humbled himself before God. He cleansed the Temple. He tore down the altars of Baal and the Asherah poles. He even went into the northern kingdom and desecrated Jeroboam's altar at Bethel, fulfilling a prophecy made centuries earlier (1 Kings 13:2). He was a whirlwind of reform. And yet, all of this righteousness is now summarized in this one verse, because the historian is moving on to the final, fatal act of his reign. This verse is the closing of a chapter, both for Josiah and for Judah. The brief light of his reformation is about to be extinguished.
A Foolish Intervention (v. 29)
Verse 29 sets the geopolitical stage and describes Josiah's fatal decision.
"In his days Pharaoh Neco king of Egypt went up to the king of Assyria to the river Euphrates. And King Josiah went to meet him, and when Pharaoh Neco saw him he put him to death at Megiddo." (2 Kings 23:29 LSB)
The great empires of the day were in flux. The Assyrian empire, which had terrorized the region for centuries, was crumbling. The rising power was Babylon. Pharaoh Neco of Egypt was marching north to help the last vestiges of the Assyrian army against the Babylonians at Carchemish. This was a clash of titans, a struggle for world dominion. And Josiah, the king of the small nation of Judah, decided to get involved.
Why did he do this? The text here doesn't say, but it seems to have been a political miscalculation. Perhaps he was allied with Babylon, or perhaps he saw an opportunity to assert Judah's independence by thwarting Egypt. Whatever his reasoning, it was carnal reasoning. He was thinking like a pagan king, playing the great game of thrones, instead of thinking like the covenant king of Yahweh. He was not commanded by God to do this. He was not defending his own land from invasion. He was marching out to pick a fight that was not his.
The parallel account in 2 Chronicles 35 gives us a crucial detail. Pharaoh Neco sends messengers to Josiah, saying, "What have I to do with you, king of Judah? I am not coming against you this day, but against the house with which I am at war. And God has commanded me to hurry. Cease opposing God, who is with me, lest he destroy you" (2 Chron. 35:21). Now, we must be careful. We do not take our theology from pagan kings. But God is entirely capable of speaking a true word through a pagan king. Balaam's donkey is a case in point. Neco's warning had the ring of truth to it. It was a pragmatic, sensible warning: "This is not your fight." But Josiah, in his pride, would not listen. He disguised himself and went into battle anyway.
This was not just a strategic blunder; it was a spiritual one. Sin is not only wicked; it is profoundly stupid. Josiah, the great reformer who listened to the word of God found in the Temple, refused to listen to the word of God from the mouth of a pagan. He had a zeal for God, but it was not according to knowledge. And the result was immediate and catastrophic: "he put him to death at Megiddo." The end of this great king was not noble. It was swift, ignominious, and entirely avoidable.
A Kingdom in Crisis (v. 30)
The final verse of our text describes the immediate aftermath of this disaster.
"And his servants drove his body in a chariot from Megiddo and brought him to Jerusalem and buried him in his own tomb. Then the people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of Josiah and anointed him and made him king in place of his father." (2 Genesis 23:30 LSB)
The king who had driven the idols out of the land is now driven back to his capital, dead in a chariot. The great hope of Judah is gone. The lamentation for him was immense, as the prophet Jeremiah testifies. But the grief was not just for a beloved king. It was for the future of the nation. With Josiah's death, the reformation died. The brief pause in Judah's downward spiral was over, and the final, rapid descent into exile was about to begin.
Notice the response of "the people of the land." They act quickly to stabilize the situation. They take Josiah's son, Jehoahaz, and make him king. This was an assertion of their independence. They were trying to continue the line and maintain their autonomy in the face of Egyptian power. But it was a futile gesture. As the subsequent verses show, Pharaoh Neco would simply depose Jehoahaz after three months, install his own puppet king, and place Judah under heavy tribute. The game was up. Josiah's foolish decision at Megiddo had thrown open the doors to foreign domination.
This is a picture of the consequences of sin. One man's foolish pride resulted in the death of the king, the end of a revival, and the subjugation of his entire nation. We are never autonomous individuals. Our sins, and especially the sins of leaders, have far-reaching and devastating consequences for those under our care. Josiah's death was a judgment, not just on him, but on the nation that, despite his reforms, had not truly turned back to God in its heart.
Conclusion: The King Who Did Not Fail
The story of Josiah is both an inspiration and a warning. He shows us that a radical commitment to the Word of God can bring about tremendous reformation. But his end shows us that even the best of human kings are flawed. They are capable of great wisdom and great folly. They can be zealous for God one moment and driven by carnal pride the next. Josiah was a good king, but he was not a perfect king. He was a son of David, but he was not the Son of David.
Josiah's death at Megiddo, in the valley of Armageddon, is a picture of failure. He went into a battle that was not his and was struck down. But centuries later, another king, the true King, would go to a battle that was truly His. On a hill outside Jerusalem, Jesus Christ, the Son of David, confronted the ultimate pharaohs of this world: sin, death, and the devil. This was His fight, undertaken at the command of His Father.
Unlike Josiah, He did not miscalculate. Unlike Josiah, He was not struck down by surprise. He went to the cross deliberately, to absorb the full wrath of God against the accumulated sins of His people, the very sins that Josiah's reformation could not erase. He was put to death, not for His own folly, but for ours. His body was also taken down and buried in a tomb. But unlike Josiah, He did not stay there.
On the third day, He rose again, having won the decisive victory. He defeated not just a passing empire, but the empire of darkness itself. And because of His victory, we who are in Him are safe. Our hope is not in a flawed human king, no matter how righteous. Our hope is in the perfect King, Jesus Christ, whose reign will never end and whose judgment is always true. Josiah's story reminds us to be grateful that our salvation does not depend on our wisdom, but on His. Our security rests not in our ability to avoid foolish mistakes, but in His finished work on the cross.