This is Spoken Gospel.

We’re dedicated to seeing 
Jesus in all of scripture.

In each episode, we see what’s 
happening in a Biblical text

and how it sheds light
on Jesus and his gospel.

Let’s jump in.

Manasseh replaces Hezekiah
as Judah’s king, and he’s the worst.

He rebuilds the shrines Hezekiah tore down, erects
altars to Baal and Asherah inside God’s temple, 

burns his son on their altars, consults
with necromancers, murders the innocent,  

and reverts Israel to a state worse 
than when they first entered the land.

Fittingly, Manasseh’s name means “forgetful.” Israel has
forgotten the God who saved them—and everything
God saved them to be.

So, God “forgets” his previous grace and determines 
to exile Judah and end His relationship with her.

But Manasseh’s grandson Josiah 
is nothing like his grandfather.

He is the only man in Scripture said to fulfill 
God’s law with his whole heart, soul, and might.

He repairs the temple
his grandfather desolated.

And when he discovers
a lost copy of God’s Word,  

he realizes the extent of 
Judah’s sins and grieves.

Beginning with the temple, Josiah undoes 
the idolatry of Judah and Israel’s past.

He dismantles the golden calves
Jeroboam used to divide the kingdom

and burns the bones of the false prophets
and priests who facilitated the cult.

The only bones he leaves undisturbed belong
to the unnamed prophet who predicted his reign.

And then, for the first time since Joshua 
reigned, Israel celebrates the Passover.

Israel has never had a king like Josiah.

But it’s not enough.

Unprecedented obedience by one king does not 
undo the atrocities of another, let alone centuries of
violence and harm caused by Judah’s forgetfulness.

Josiah is unceremoniously 
killed in battle against Egypt.

His son is crowned but
three months later deposed.

And Egypt installs a puppet-king who’s willing to extort
his own people to pay the costs of another kingdom.

[music]

Josiah shows us that obedience to God’s law cannot 
reverse generations of forgetfulness and idolatry.

God’s law is impotent to save God’s people from
her prophesied destruction.

The apostle Paul says that the law confined people
to disobedience to make them hope for a Final Savior.  

God’s law couldn’t save, but it could 
teach Israel what they truly needed.

God’s people would not be saved by Josiah’s 
obedience to the law, but by faith in King Jesus.

Josiah’s obedience delayed Judah’s destruction, 
but that abatement only lasted as long as he lived.

A faithful king can only 
save if he’s on the throne.

But unlike Josiah, who rose from his throne to die,
Jesus rose from the dead to rule.

When we trust Jesus, we are 
trusting a King who can never die.

And so, the destruction of
God’s people is eternally delayed!

There is never an exile for those in King Jesus.
God has not forgotten his people.

Rather, in Jesus, he forgets our forgetfulness.
God remembers our sins no more.

And right now, he is making us into a 
people unable to forget his grace and law.

If you are a Manasseh, he 
wants to make you a Josiah.

He promises to fill you with himself, allowing you
to love God with all your heart, soul, mind, strength.

So, I pray that the Holy Spirit opens your
eyes to the God who judges our forgetfulness.

And may you see Jesus as our unforgetful King 
who nevertheless remembers our sins no more.