Ruskin said that God graciously bears with many things in our hearts, but not second place.
Hearing the two-pronged news, Josiah was not the least dissuaded from clearing the land of idolatry. Judgment may come, but he would do his part in driving back the spiritual darkness across the land. So first, “The king went up to the house of the Lord with all the men of Judah, and with him…the priests and the prophets and all the people, both small and great. And he read in their hearing all the words of the Book of the Covenant” (2 Ki 23:2). In response to what was read, “the king…made a covenant before the Lord, to follow the Lord and to keep His commandments and His testimonies and His statutes, with all his heart and all his soul…And all the people took a stand for the covenant” (v 3). Then the garbage disposal began. Marshalling the faithful priests, they removed and burned “all the articles that were made for Baal, for Asherah, and for all the host of heaven” (v 4). From door to door, high place to high place, false temple to false temple, they went—removing, destroying, burning, purging the land. There were shrines by the city gates, horses and chariots dedicated to the sun, and the horrendous Tophet in the Gehinnom valley (giving hell its nickname, Gehenna) where children had been offered to Moloch in the fire. Josiah didn’t just break down the altars, he “pulverized” them (v 12)! He then turned his attention eastward, to “the Mount of Corruption, which Solomon…had built for Ashtoreth the abomination of the Sidonians, for Chemosh the abomination of the Moabites, and for Milcom the abomination of the people of Ammon” (v 13). To seal the deal, “he…filled their places with the bones of men” (v 14) so no one would ever think of worshiping there again. A grave situation indeed! Lord, may we be as ruthless with our idols!