In Second Kings, chapter twenty-three, verse four, Josiah’s reforms follow the scriptural principle that repentance for specific sins is essential to true revival. The reformation naturally began with the purging of the temple, so the renewal under Jehoiada, as in Second Kings eleven, verse eighteen, and that of Manasseh in Second Chronicles thirty-three, verse fifteen, was put into action.
It appears, therefore, that although Josiah had suppressed the worship of idols, the provisions made for that worship were carefully preserved by some persons in power, even in the temple itself, to use again whenever the present restraint plan was up for dismissal. However, even the image of the grove, probably Ashtaroth or Venus, was kept standing in the temple. How Josiah could suffer all this till the eighteenth year of his reign is unclear.
However, allowing these images to remain in the temple took place without his knowledge. He now orders all these images of idolatry to the fields adjoining the brook Kidron and burnt. And that the ashes of these images should be carried out of his kingdom to Beth-el: in token of his disgust of every species of idolatry, and to pollute and disgrace that place which had been dwelling in the house of God.
What abundance of wickedness in Judah and Jerusalem! One would not have believed it possible that in Judah, where God is well-known in Israel, where his name was great, in Salem, in Zion, where his dwelling place was, such abominations should be present in the sanctuary.
Whenever genuine repentance occurs, identifying specific sins will occur, false believers expelled, worldly practices forsaken, and godly standards restored. Any talk of the need for revival and repentance in the churches without specifying what must be changed indicates that the commandment to real change in people’s hearts and lifestyles is lacking.