Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible
2 Chronicles Ch.34 / 36 Ch.s
2CH:34
* Josiah's good reign in Judah.
- As the years of infancy cannot be useful to our
fellow-creatures, our earliest youth should be dedicated to God,
that we may not waste any of the remaining short space of life.
Happy and wise are those who seek the Lord and prepare for
usefulness at an early age, when others are pursuing sinful
pleasures, contracting bad habits, and forming ruinous
connexions. Who can express the anguish prevented by early
piety, and its blessed effects? Diligent self-examination and
watchfulness will convince us of the deceitfulness and
wickedness of our own hearts, and the sinfulness of our lives.
We are here encouraged to humble ourselves before God, and to
seek unto him, as Josiah did. And believers are here taught, not
to fear death, but to welcome it, when it takes them away from
the evil to come. Nothing hastens the ruin of a people, nor
ripens them for it, more than their disregard of the attempts
made for their reformation. Be not deceived, God is not mocked.
The current and tide of affections only turns at the command of
Him who raises up those that are dead in trespasses and sins. We
behold peculiar loveliness, in the grace the Lord bestows on
those, who in tender years seek to know and to love the Saviour.
Hath Jesus, the Day-spring from on high, visited you? Can you
trace your knowledge of this light and life of man, like Josiah,
from your youth? Oh the unspeakable happiness of becoming
acquainted with Jesus from our earliest years!