2 Chronicles 34:27

Rend the heart therefore, not the garments. We are here directed when we are under convictions of sin, and apprehensions of divine wrath, to enquire of the Lord; so Josiah did,

And good people are here taught to be so far from fearing death as to welcome it rather when it takes them away from the evil to come. See how the property of it is altered by making it the matter of a promise: Thou shalt be gathered to thy grave in peace, housed in that ark, as Noah, when a deluge is coming.

JOSIAH was very earnestly engaged in a devout work for God—he was cleansing, beautifying, and repairing the Temple at Jerusalem. While this was being done, a copy of the Book of the Law being found, it was carried to the king, and the king at once diligently perused it. While reading it he discovered certain terrible penalties threatened to idolaters and other offenders, and knowing that his subjects had for successive years been guilty of the offenses thus condemned, he felt persuaded that the righteous judgments of God would come upon them.

JOSIAH was very earnestly engaged in a devout work for God—he was cleansing, beautifying, and repairing the Temple at Jerusalem. While this was being done, a copy of the Book of the Law being found, it was carried to the king, and the king at once diligently perused it. While reading it he discovered certain terrible penalties threatened to idolaters and other offenders, and knowing that his subjects had for successive years been guilty of the offenses thus condemned, he felt persuaded that the righteous judgments of God would come upon them. Greatly alarmed, though himself personally innocent of the guilt, he tore his clothes, wept, and humbled himself before the Most High. Now, it seemed a strange thing, did it not, that so good a man, personally clear from blame, engaged in one of the holiest of works with a sincere heart devoting himself to the cause of his God, should meet with so sad and depressive a discovery just in the very midst of his prosperous labors? Was there not another time that the Law could have been sent to him with its condemning power? Were there not other offenders far more grossly erring than he who might have been humbled? Why need this king, with his large, royal, tender heart all consecrated to God, to be set a weeping and to be made to go softly in the bitterness of his soul just in the very moment of enthusiastic and successful labor? I take it that the reason was this—God had much love towards Josiah, and, having honored him to rebuild the Temple, He knew the natural tendency of the human heart to pride, and therefore, with a holy jealousy for one whom He loved so well, He sent him this discovery of the Book of the Law to keep him humble at the time when otherwise he might have been exposed to peril by the lifting up of his heart. You remember, beloved Friends, the case of Hezekiah, when God raised him up from the sick bed.