Huldah’s story, like all our stories, begins hundreds of years before she was born. She and the king who called upon her were products of their ancestors who had systematically erased God’s word and worship from their land and people. Huldah and Josiah were born into a corrupt and violent world following the pagan habits of their neighboring nations. King and Prophetess – their roles called them to remember covenant relationship with God and call their people back to faithfulness.
The fullness of the Law is summed in the Great Commandment, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.”1 Jesus later explicitly joins the Great Commandment with Leviticus 19:18, “You shall love you neighbor as yourself; I am the Lord.”2 In other words, the Torah irrevocably links love for the Lord and love for neighbor. Whenever God’s people abandon him, they also abandon one another, a pattern summed in Judges 21:25, “All the people did what was right in their own eyes.”
While they are not culpable for the sins of the past, Huldah and Josiah both occupy positions of power that, if occupied with integrity, will work to repair the harm of former kings and false prophets. Harm that is borne from rejecting, even abusing their relationship with God. When God’s people are faithful to him, we will also care for our neighbor. Love for one cannot be removed from the other.
Huldah and King Josiah prophesied and ruled, respectively, in the southern kingdom of Judah many years after the united nation of Israel split into two kingdoms. King David was the only king to successfully unite the twelve tribes of Israel under one monarch. In addition to uniting the kingdom he also established the capital at Jerusalem and laid the groundwork for the construction of the Jerusalem temple. David’s son Solomon continued his father’s legacy by both building the temple and leading the nation into a period of faithful thriving. However, Solomon had one significant failing – he formed alliances with other nations by marrying foreign royalty and kept a harem of hundreds of concubines.3In addition, he formed an army of horses and chariots.4 These are all practices forbidden in the Law.5 Pagan wives brought their pagan gods with them, meaning that Solomon’s violation of God’s Law paved the way for pagan worship practices to infiltrate the highest level of the nation intended to be a theocracy loyal to the Lord alone.
After Solomon’s death, Rehoboam briefly ruled over united Israel until fragile unity between the north and the south fractured in c. 931 with Rehoboam ruling Judah and Jeroboam ruling Israel. The northern kingdom of Israel included the ten tribes Reuben, Simeon, Manasseh, Issachar, Zebulun, Ephraim, Dan, Asher, Naphtali and Gad. The southern kingdom of Judah included the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, respectively the greatest and the least of the twelve tribes.6
Both nations followed a similar pattern of sin, idolatry, repentance, and return. Essentially, the nation would abandon their covenant relationship with God from the highest office down. The king would abandon the laws of God and the limits of the throne, the priests would mix pagan sacrifice and worship rites with Yahweh worship, the people would worship false idols and integrate pagan images and practices into their households. God would remove his presence and protection should the people abandon their relationship with him, the people would suffer then cry out, a righteous king would return the people to God attempting to cleanse the pagan practices. However, as the cycle repeats the pagan practices became more systemic thus harder to reform. God intended for his people to follow his laws that embodied love for God and love for neighbor, building a system of righteousness and mercy. Instead, both nations spiraled deeper into perversion over time as the revivals occurred less frequently and the returns to God were more and more brief.
Israel and Judah’s rejection of their covenant relationship with God meant that they rejected the covenant benefits of a relationship with God. Namely, his protection and their thriving, which left them vulnerable to a warmongering world. In 744, Assyria fully conquered Israel and took most of its people into captivity. Then in 586, Babylon conquered Judah destroying the temple, razing the entire city of Jerusalem, and carrying any person of perceived value or status into exile.7
The 150-year difference is largely owed to two righteous, Judean kings, Hezekiah and his great-grandson Josiah, who appealed to God’s mercy, delaying the disintegration and suffering of their people.8 While Hezekiah and Josiah’s rules were not sufficient to alter Judah’s determined course, they did preserve their generations.
Josiah’s grandfather, Manasseh, and father, Amon, were both evil kings, leading their people into idolatry and depravity. When Josiah was only eight years old, Amon’s servants planned a coup and assassinated the king. Priests of the Lord raised and mentored Josiah directing him to follow in the footsteps of the righteous King Hezekiah rather than his grandfather and father.
When Josiah grew into an adult king, he set about destroying Asherah poles,9 carved idols, high places, and all cast images throughout Judah and Jerusalem.10 A few years later, he turned his attention toward the temple suffering disrepair from years of neglect since Manasseh’s reign. When Hilkiah the high priest was cleaning the treasure room, he discovered the book of the Law, which was likely what we now call the book of Deuteronomy.11 When Josiah read the book he tore his clothes, displaying his distress and grief by tearing his clothes. The book of Deuteronomy describes the way of life of a people devoted to the Lord and to neighbor, a way of life certainly not emblematic of his current context nor the majority of the Judean kings.
Josiah would have been able to see the difference between the covenant community described in the book and the state of Judah. The source of Josiah’s distress was likely what we know as chapter 28. Here God describes the blessings that accompany faithfulness to a relationship with him then he describes the suffering that will come if (when) God’s people abandon the relationships.
Josiah not only needed an interpreter for the book, but also a prophetic word to direct his next steps. What should Josiah do with this book and what will happen to God’s people?
While prophets advising kings is common in the Hebrew Scriptures, they are still rarely received warmly. In this case, the king and his secretary of state seek Huldah and readily receive her word. We do not know how she and her gifting are known to Josiah or his government officials. We only know that her husband had position in the temple, so they were likely upper-class.
Huldah’s primary role, like her fellow prophets, is interpreting God’s word and applying it to her current context. Then, like other divinely inspired prophets, she predicts future events.
Huldah first offers a prophetic word, dealing with the pagan and syncretistic worship.12 Judah has set its course – the nation, the people, will not be faithful to their covenant with the Lord. Their enemies will conquer them, the land will become desolate, and the people will experience oppression and suffering. God is longsuffering and slow to anger, but he will not remain among people who despise him.
Next, Huldah prophesies to Josiah. Josiah’s heart is tender, the antithesis to the “hardhearted” descriptor often handed down to God’s people and their leaders. When Josiah discovered the book, he was penitent and willing to do the hard work of repentance and repair. Huldah prophesies that God will not require Josiah to witness the downfall of Judah nor the suffering of his people. Babylon will not conquer Judah until Josiah has died.13
Huldah’s prophecies set in motion a swift, decisive response. In keeping with the repentance of past generations,14 Josiah stands before all of the people, reads the book, and covenants that he and his people will return to the Lord, walking in his way alone. Not only was Josiah determined to cleanse pagan worship from public worship in the temple, but also to reform private worship by cleansing all pagan gods from individual homes.15
The biblical author(s) describe Josiah as more devoted to the Lord than any other king. He turned toward the Lord with all his heart, soul, and might as commanded in the Law of Moses.16 Josiah is unmatched in both his fervent dedication to God and his work to restore right worship in Jerusalem and throughout the kingdom, going so far as to execute pagan priests offering perverted sacrifices at the high places.
Huldah is counted among the ten women specifically named prophets in the Hebrew Scripture and New Testament.17 Huldah’s status along with prophesying directly to a king has been used to advocate for other women’s place in government and society. For example, John Calvin advocated for female government officials based on both Huldah and Deborah lives and work.18 Elizabeth Cady Stanton also used Huldah as an example for women’s equality,19 and may other have pointed to Huldah as an early women preacher.
The rarity of named female prophets in the Scripture along with some of Paul’s controversial statements on women result in resistance to Huldah and women like her. However, the Scripture itself do not present any female prophet, deacon, teacher, or Apostle with surprise.20 The women are named as a part of God’s people and gifted with the Spirit as ordinarily as any other person. No biblical figure, not even a king and his head government officials, are depicted as hesitating to seek a woman’s expertise and divine gifting. Where God is with a woman, she is received.
Huldah’s prophetic word educated and directed a king genuinely seeking to not only live but also rule in a way that honored God. The word of God can only take effect in a heart that is willing to receive it. Not only was Josiah tender, but Huldah had the courage to proclaim an interpretation and a prophecy that was painful to both deliver and receive. Generations of hardheartedness brought Huldah, Josiah, and the entire nation to a place of rampant covenantal betrayal so systemic it could not be reversed without successive generations following Huldah’s word and Josiah’s policies. Josiah did not have enact reformative policies; the fate of the nation was sealed. Huldah’s word warned that Babylon would destroy Judah no matter what. Huldah did not have to risk delivering such terrifying news; the truth would have remained whether she spoke it or not.
But despite the corruption in both the palace and the temple, the two of them were determined to go a different way. They were willing to take responsibility for the sins of their ancestors and go about the hard work of righting betrayals that they did not commit. They would honor God’s relationship with them and they with him, whether or not the past or future generations did.
Huldah and Josiah are both outliers in their offices and among their people. Josiah reigns among generations of corrupt and violent kings. His own reign was marked by violence and trauma, ascending the throne when his father was assassinated. Huldah speaks God’s true word among hordes of false prophets speaking lies in God’s name, some of which directly contributed to both Israel and Judah’s ultimate destruction.
Huldah and Josiah’s stories, like ours, do not exist in a vacuum. We carry with us the good and evil of what has come before. Claiming responsibility for the sins of our past that have created the systems of our present is not the same as accepting culpability for the sins we did not commit. It is the dedication to love the Lord and neighbor that works for justice and mercy, that seeks to undo our violent, cruel practices, whether or not that work is guaranteed to bring about a complete or permanent change.
Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and might. And love your neighbor as yourself. The Greatest Commandments is both uncomplicated and impossible to keep.
In two weeks, I’ll email a sermon titled “Only” on the massacre of the innocents in Matthew 2, and the use of “only” to minimize suffering. It’s sure to be a delight. Subscribe to have it delivered right to you!
Deuteronomy 6:5-6
Matthew 22:34-40.
I Kings 11:1-13.
I Kings 10:14-29.
See Deuteronomy 17:14-20 for the boundaries God set upon the kings. These are in contrast to the limitless rule and often near divine status of pagan kings.
Recall that all the tribes descended from Jacob’s twelve sons. These two tribes are connected – when Joseph’s brothers reunited with him in Egypt (Genesis 42), Joseph accused Benjamin of stealing a cup to test his brothers if his brothers had changed from the men who sold him into slavery. Judah is the brother who chose to stay behind imprisoned in his brother’s place. A far cry from being the one to first see the Ishmaelite caravan and suggest selling his brother (Genesis 37:18-36)!
Note that this is BC, so years count down toward zero while AD counts up from zero.
Huldah and Josiah’s story is found in II Kings 22-23. Hezekiah’s story is found in II Kings 18-20.
Asherah is a pagan mother goddess. Her places of worship were marked by trees or poles set into the ground. “High places” also denotes places of pagan worship. High places were usually on top of hills or mountains and were also marked by standing stones. These scattered places for pagan worship are in contract to God’s people who worshipped at his dwelling place, first the tabernacle then later the temple.
II Chronicles 34:3
II Kings 22:8; II Chron. 34:14.
Syncretistic is the mixing of pagan and Yahweh worship such as sacrifices made to pagan gods alongside Yahweh or carved images of pagan gods set up in the Temple.
II Chron. 35:20-27.
Covenant renewals occur many times through the Hebrew Scriptures. Joshua 8:30-35 and Deuteronomy 29 examples of such occasion.
While archaeological evidence does indicate that pagan worship locations were destroyed in this time period, it does not appear that the reforms extended as thoroughly to individual households and smaller villages.
II Kings 23:25.
Miriam (Exodus 15:20), Deborah (Judges 4:4), Huldah (II Kings 22:14), Noadiah (Nehemiah 6:14), Isaiah’s wife (Isaiah 8:3), Anna (Luke 2:36), Philip’s daughters (Acts 2:19).
Calvin was steadfastly misogynistic elsewhere, so this is no light stance for him.
Although it should be noted that Stanton, along with many other early suffragists and feminists, used racist language and tactics to oppose or delay suffrage for black voters, particularly black women.
Not even the Apostle Paul who names women as teachers, deacons, an Apostle, church planters, co-laborers, and even his surrogate mother.