No character among the sons of men is free from imperfection. The best pictures have their shade. Of none but he who is the brightness of his Father's glory, and fairer than the children of men, could it ever be said that in his mouth was found no guile. None but thee, thou blessed Jesus, was altogether holy, harmless, undefiled; separate from sinners, and higher than the heavens! Josiah, we see in this instance, lost his confidence in the Lord. What though Pharaoh went up against the king of Assyria, what was that to Josiah? Was he afraid that in so doing, he might come too nigh to Judah? And if so, why did he not consult the Lord? Beside, as we read in the parallel history, (2 Chronicles 35:20-21) the king of Egypt told him that he was acting under the authority of God, Yet Josiah slighted all these things, and the consequence was fatal. Alas! what is man in his highest attainments! Oh! dearest Lord Jesus, how glorious to the view is it, in my soul's esteem, that thy righteousness is complete, by which the poor sinner is justified.
Related Commentaries of 2 Kings 23:28
2 Kings 23:28-30
28 Now the rest of the acts of Josiah, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?
29 In his days Pharaohnechoh king of Egypt went up against the king of Assyria to the river Euphrates: and king Josiah went against him; and he slew him at Megiddo, when he had seen him.
30 And his servants carried him in a chariot dead from Megiddo, and brought him to Jerusalem, and buried him in his own sepulchre. And the people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of Josiah, and anointed him, and made him king in his father's stead.