I. The striking feature of this story is the picture it gives us of the quiet manner in which God's servants are sometimes allowed to pass away when they have finished their work. The history of the death of Josiah, as compared with that of his life, puts things in their right order: his life active, hard-working, zealous; his death quiet, unexciting, what we should call inglorious. The history seems fitted to check that tendency which exists in men's minds to lay too much stress upon the circumstances of a man's death, to be fond of exciting deathbed scenes, to delight in religious books which describe very vividly the last moments of departing souls. He who will stand least reprovable at the last day will be he who has worked here the most earnestly and vigorously in the cause of holiness and of Christ when all the temptations of the world and the strength of Satan have been opposed to him.
II. The moral we may draw from the text is that he who does his work in the proper time, who does not put off till old age the work of youth, nor to the hour of death the labour of life, may be quiet and unconcerned for the way in which God may be pleased to call him. If he is called by some sudden providence when engaged in his work or summoned by some speedy sickness, he may be of good cheer and of a quiet mind, knowing that God will do all things well.
Bishop Harvey Goodwin, Parish Sermons,3rd series, p. 93.
References: 2 Kings 23 Parker, vol. viii., p. 302. 2 Kings 24 Ibid.,p. 305. 2 Kings 25:30. Spurgeon, Morning by Morning,p. 45.