The Old Testament is full of stories of God’s people rebelling against God in sinful unbelief. Perhaps the most awful of these stories is the account of the final twenty-seven years of the nation of Judah, leading up to the destruction of the temple and the Babylonian exile. The biblical account of these final years before the exile is found in 2 Kings 23–25, 2 Chronicles 36, and the book of Jeremiah and is full of the wickedness of God’s people, political intrigue involving the surrounding nations, and heavy judgement from the hand of God. But in the midst of the darkness of sin, there are glimmers of God’s grace through the remnant of his faithful people. Among them is one family that you may have never noticed.
Background: The Reign of Josiah and the Finding of the Law
Before the final death spiral of the nation of Judah, God gave them one more good king. Josiah became king at the age of eight when his father died. His father Amon and his grandfather Manasseh were wicked kings, Manasseh being the worst of the worst and the reason God would not turn away his anger from Judah (2 Kings 23:26). In spite of this heritage, God graciously worked in Josiah’s life so that when he was sixteen, he began to follow God wholeheartedly (2 Chronicles 34:1–3). Perhaps God removed his father’s influence when Josiah was so young for this very reason. Four years later, when Josiah was twenty, he began a campaign to remove the idols from Judah (v. 3), and six years after that he invested in the repair of the temple, which had been neglected for many years (v. 8).
It was during the temple renovations that Hilkiah, the high priest, made a monumental discovery: the Book of the Law (2 Kings 22:8). That’s how bad things had gotten: the high priest didn’t even know where their Bible was! Hilkiah reported the discovery to a man named Shaphan, who had come to supervise the ongoing work on behalf of the king. This man, Shaphan, was King Josiah’s secretary, a bit player in the story. He’s not a character that you learn about in Sunday school. He’s not in the hall of faith in Hebrews 11. And yet God used him in incredible ways in the coming decades of Judah.
It may seem minor, but it’s worth stating that Shaphan didn’t have to care that Hilkiah had found God’s law in the temple. He could have said, “That’s nice, Hilkiah, but I’m here to make sure the construction is going well and everyone is getting paid.” Instead, Shaphan received the scroll from Hilkiah and read it right there (v. 8). Having read it, he recognized its importance and brought it to Josiah. He gave Josiah a brief update on the progress of the temple renovations (v. 9) before getting to the important news: “Hilkiah the priest has given me a book” (v. 10). He read the book to King Josiah, which kicked Josiah’s reforms into high gear. Though he had been seeking the Lord for a decade, when he heard the word of God read to him, he tore his clothes in grief over sin. This led to a new stage in his reform efforts, as he brought the people of Judah together to renew the covenant they had neglected for generations. Shaphan was an integral part of this covenant renewal for Judah. In fact, before Josiah jumped to action, he sent a delegation to speak to a prophet of the LORD about what they should do. Two of the men he trusted for this task were Shaphan and his son Ahikam. (Remember that name; he is going to come back into the story.)
Things Go Downhill: The Reign of Jehoiakim
Sadly, after a long reign of thirty-one years (2 Kings 21:1), Josiah foolishly picked a fight with Egypt and was killed in battle (2 Chronicles 35:20–24). After his death, Judah quickly reverted back to wickedness and turned from God back to idols. All of Josiah’s efforts for reform came to nothing in the long run. Jeremiah, who began his ministry during the years of Josiah’s reforms, gives us a hint of what may have gone wrong. While there aren’t many dates or historical markers given in the early chapters of Jeremiah’s book, Jeremiah 11–12 are likely from the time of Josiah’s reforms. We would expect a prophet of the LORD to be involved in the efforts to bring God’s people back to covenant faithfulness, and these chapters of Jeremiah speak directly to that topic. And yet, as Jeremiah was out spreading this message, God warned him that the people were not accepting it (11:9–10), and Jeremiah lamented to God that the people were conspiring to murder him because of his message (vv. 18–20). If these chapters from Jeremiah are indeed from the time of Josiah’s reforms, they show that the reforms did not take effect in the hearts of the people, which explains why things went badly so soon after Josiah’s death.
Josiah’s son Jehoiakim reigned in Judah for eleven years after his father’s death (and following a very brief reign by his brother Jehoahaz—see 2 Kings 23:31–36). He did not continue to enforce his father’s reforms and in fact led the people in wickedness once again. Because of this, Jeremiah’s role as a prophet changed. Where previously he had the privilege of supporting the king’s efforts at reform, now he had the less enviable duty of calling not only the people but the king himself to turn his heart to the LORD.
Jeremiah 26 recounts a blistering sermon that Jeremiah preached in the temple courtyard, calling the people to repent. He knew that doing so would put his life in danger. Another prophet named Uriah had been relentlessly pursued and executed for giving the same message as Jeremiah (vv. 20–23). But in God’s grace, Jeremiah was spared that same fate because some of the officials and elders spoke up for him (vv. 16–19). One of those people who was instrumental in saving Jeremiah’s life was none other than Ahikam son of Shaphan (v. 24). At least thirteen years after Shaphan brought the book of God’s law to Josiah, his son is protecting God’s prophet from Jehoiakim.
A Scroll Burned
One of the most famous stories in the book of Jeremiah is the story of Jeremiah’s scroll that King Jehoiakim burned. In Jeremiah 36, we read that God called Jeremiah to write the messages God had given him on a scroll so that the people of Judah could read it. This scroll was the first draft of what became the book of Jeremiah.
Jeremiah dictated the message to his servant Baruch, who then went to the temple courts to read it for Jeremiah, who had been banned from the temple (vv. 4–5). Now, if Jeremiah was not allowed in the temple, we can assume that his servant reading Jeremiah’s words would not be received well either. But when Baruch arrived at the temple, he was permitted to have a public room to read the scroll for all who would hear. That act of welcoming Baruch and providing him a room was a risky act in and of itself. Now not only Baruch’s life was in danger, but so was the life of the one who welcomed him and gave him a venue. And we are told who it was who put their life on the line in support of Jeremiah and Baruch: “Gemariah son of Shaphan the secretary” (v. 10) and brother of Ahikam. Another member of this godly family quietly serving God and taking risks for the sake of God’s prophet and the message that God had for his people. Gemariah and Micaiah his son (grandson of Shaphan) then brought the scroll to other royal officials, who then brought it to King Jehoiakim.
The bravery it took to bring this scroll to their wicked king is notable enough. But they did not simply bring him the scroll and then slink away to hide. When Jehoiakim responded by cutting sections off the scroll and burning them, Gemariah and the other officials boldly aligned themselves with Jeremiah and with God and “urged the king not to burn the scroll” (v. 25).
After the Fall
There were two more kings after Jehoiakim’s reign, just as wicked as he was. Then, finally in 586 BC, God sent Babylon to Jerusalem and delivered his rebellious people into the hands of their enemies (2 Chronicles 36:15–19). King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon took most of the people into captivity but left behind a small number to live in the land. He appointed a governor, “Gedaliah son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, to be over the people he had left behind in Judah” (2 Kings 25:22). If you’re keeping score, Gedaliah is the fifth member of this family who has had a role in the story of the final decades of Judah, along with his father and grandfather, his uncle Gemariah, and his cousin Micaiah. And not only was Gedaliah given this task, but Gedaliah was given custody over Jeremiah, whom he took into his home and cared for—the LORD’s prophet who had been faithful for years through persecution, imprisonment, and slander.
Gedaliah, like his father, uncle, cousin, and grandfather, sought to serve God faithfully with the days he was given. Jeremiah 40 shows how he worked to care for the remaining people of Judah and pointed them to God’s message that they were to submit to Babylon (vv. 9–10). In the end, he was assassinated for his efforts and faithfulness. It’s a sad story, but we knew that. The story of the fall of Judah is awful. And yet we know it is not the end of the story—this all leads us to Jesus and the redemption he has brought. But much of the life of God’s people involves waiting faithfully in the midst of sin and darkness. And during these dark decades of the nation of Judah, there were those who remained faithful to the Lord. We know about Josiah and Jeremiah, but it’s easy to miss this family who, for at least three generations, served in the background, put themselves at risk, and were used by God in significant ways during a dark time. May God raise up many more families like the family of Shaphan the secretary!
