Huldah and Josiah — A Unique Combination in all Scripture

2 Kings 22 and 2 Chronicles 34 tell us their story.

The Situation

By the time Josiah came to the throne the northern kingdom of Israel had already been in exile for around 100 years. Within 25 years of Josiah’s death the southern kingdom of Judah would be in Babylonian exile, and the temple destroyed. These were dark times made even darker by the contrasting purity of Josiah’s heart.

Solomon’s temple looked something like the picture above, but it was in a sorry state of repair. Josiah decided to fix it up (2 Kings 22.3–7). He did something good for God and got an unexpected Brucie Bonus — a book.

The Book

What book was found in the temple? The law books (Torah) are Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. The ‘book of the law’ referred to here is probably Deuteronomy. Why is this the case? Josiah is concerned because,

‘…our ancestors did not obey the words of this book, to do according to all that is written concerning us.”” 2 Kings 22:13. Deuteronomy is the book with the clearest sets of blessings and curses.

“See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse: the blessing, if you obey the commandments of the LORD your God that I am commanding you today; and the curse, if you do not obey the commandments of the LORD your God, but turn from the way that I am commanding you today, to follow other gods that you have not known.” (Deuteronomy 11:26–28 NRSV)

Huldah

Huldah is one of a few women called prophets in the Old Testament. The others are Miriam, Deborah, and Isaiah’s wife (Exod 15:20; Judg 4:4; 2 Kgs 22:14; Isa 8:3). She is unusual as a prophet, but by no means unique. Indeed, there is no record to say that a woman as a prophet was either a bad thing, or something lesser than a male prophet.

There is, however, something truly unique about her. Not her status as a prophet, but her identifying Scripture as….Scripture. She ‘holds a unique place in history. It was she who, for the first time, designated a written document as Holy Scripture. She began the process that culminated more than millennium later in the canonisation of the Bible.’ ( https://www.baslibrary.org/bible-review/6/2/5 — A Woman Was the First to Declare Scripture Holy)

Some questions for reflection

• Why did Josiah react the way he did? What does it tell us about him? Why do you think he sent for Huldah?
• What does Huldah’s response tell us about her?
• What do we learn about God?
• What do you think motivated Josiah’s actions after he received the response from Huldah? Why did he do what he did?
• What can we learn from Huldah which could be useful for us?
• What can we learn from Josiah which could be useful for us?
• Where is Jesus in the story?
• What might our idols be?

Malcolm