How delightful are personal mercies, when the Lord separates between the precious and the vile; when the word of the gospel comes with distinguishing direction like a letter, to you is the word of this salvation sent. Josiah must have felt peculiar pleasure in this, to allay the grief, of his mind, in the prospect of the general evil coming upon his people. Reader! do not forget this one thing. As religion is a personal thing, until we have a conscious sense of a personal interest in it, and a personal enjoyment of it, the clearest views of divine things will bring no comfort. Balaam could, and did say concerning Christ, I shall see him; but then he adds that dreadful close to it, but not nigh. Oh! look to it that the word be an ingrafted word, for this alone will prove the salvation of the soul in Jesus. James 1:21.
2 Kings 22:18-20
18 But to the king of Judah which sent you to enquire of the LORD, thus shall ye say to him, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, As touching the words which thou hast heard;
19 Because thine heart was tender, and thou hast humbled thyself before the LORD, when thou heardest what I spake against this place, and against the inhabitants thereof, that they should become a desolation and a curse, and hast rent thy clothes, and wept before me; I also have heard thee, saith the LORD.
20 Behold therefore, I will gather thee unto thy fathers, and thou shalt be gathered into thy grave in peace; and thine eyes shall not see all the evil which I will bring upon this place. And they brought the king word again.