Reference links:
Old Testament
The author of Chronicles seems to be trying to set things up so that the reforms of Josiah are much less impressive. In this version of Judah’s history, it seems as if the law has not yet been lost. But at this point there are only two more kings between Hezekiah and Josiah. Now, they are (or were in Chronicles, at least) pretty terrible kings, but still, 57 years is short enough that the law would have at just barely fallen out of living memory, if it even had.
Plus, one of the big things that was supposed to make Josiah awesome was his reinstitution of the Passover celebration. 2 Kings 23:21-22:
King Josiah then issued this order to all the people: “You must celebrate the Passover to the Lord your God, as required in this Book of the Covenant.” There had not been a Passover celebration like that since the time when the judges ruled in Israel, nor throughout all the years of the kings of Israel and Judah.
But if we try to reconcile that with today’s reading where Hezekiah celebrates an impressive, then the impact of the passage above becomes “Josiah celebrated an even bigger Passover than Hezekiah”.
Also, it seems surprising that the author of the books of Kings did not even mention Hezekiah’s Passover when mentioning the rest of Hezekiah’s reforms and accomplishments. Hezekiah’s reign received a pretty thorough going over in Kings, but such an important Passover was not, apparently, worth mentioning.
I look forward to seeing how the author of Chronicles treats Josiah.
New Testament
I have nothing interesting to say about today’s reading. For no particular reason that I can pinpoint, I found it incredibly dull.
Psalms and Proverbs
The buyer haggles over the price, saying, “It’s worthless,”
then brags about getting a bargain!
This is another one of those proverbs where I am uncertain if the author is giving advice, expressing disapproval, or just stating how things are.