The Tragic Death of Josiah and the Providence of God

Josiah became king at the age of eight and led a reform that no one before him had achieved. When the book of the covenant was found during the repair of the temple, he tore his clothes before it; he pulled down the idols and high places throughout the land, and with the people he kept the Passover. Yet this same king went out to war against the king of Egypt, was struck by an arrow, and died to no purpose.

Measured by the logic of reward and retribution, it is a death that cannot be understood. The Hebrew word ‘to know’, however, speaks not of grasping information but of a deep union in love. It was in this way that God knew Josiah, and the promise that he would go to his grave ‘in peace’ meant not a death free of suffering but wholeness and completion.

Josiah’s early death was a merciful removal, which delivered him from the terrible destruction at the hands of Babylon and the captivity that were soon to overtake Judah. As with Abraham, with Joseph, and with the cross of Jesus Christ, the work of God is always accomplished in ways that overturn our expectations.