On Arresting Decline

As someone who has studied history for most of my life, written one book on the topic (you can find it here) and who has an especial interest in what causes societies and civilisations to collapse and fall, I find 2 Chronicles to be particularly sobering, especially the passages about Hezekiah and Josiah. These two men were good men, very good men, but their godly leadership was not enough to arrest the decline of Judah.

We read of Hezekiah,

“Hezekiah became king when he was twenty-five years old, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Abijah the daughter of Zechariah. 2 And he did what was right in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his father David had done. 

3 In the first year of his reign, in the first month, he opened the doors of the house of the Lord and repaired them. 4 Then he brought in the priests and the Levites, and gathered them in the East Square, 5 and said to them: “Hear me, Levites! Now [k]sanctify yourselves, sanctify the house of the Lord God of your fathers, and carry out the rubbish from the holy place. 6 For our fathers have trespassed and done evil in the eyes of the Lord our God; they have forsaken Him, have turned their faces away from the [l]dwelling place of the Lord, and turned their backs on Him. 7 They have also shut up the doors of the vestibule, put out the lamps, and have not burned incense or offered burnt offerings in the holy place to the God of Israel.

8 “Therefore the wrath of the Lord fell upon Judah and Jerusalem, and He has given them up to trouble, to desolation, and to jeering, as you see with your eyes. 9 For indeed, because of this our fathers have fallen by the sword; and our sons, our daughters, and our wives are in captivity.

10 “Now it is in my heart to make a covenant with the Lord God of Israel, that His fierce wrath may turn away from us. 11 My sons, do not be negligent now, for the Lord has chosen you to stand before Him, to serve Him, and that you should minister to Him and burn incense.”

2 Chronicles 29:1-10

Hezekiah followed through on this as well. He restored proper worship back to Judah, he renewed the covenant with God, he reinstituted the Passover, relied on the Lord when Assyria struck, and even had God turn up for him in a miraculous healing, as we know. He was not perfect, what man is right? But he did everything that a man in his position could do. We read about his reign at just over the halfway point in his account in 2 Chronicles,

“Thus Hezekiah did throughout all Judah, and he did what was good and right and true before the Lord his God. 21 And in every work that he began in the service of the house of God, in the law and in the commandment, to seek his God, he did it with all his heart. So he prospered.”

2 Chronicles 31:20-21

This man would have been an answer to prayer for the righteous people of Judah. To see the evil their nation fell into would have tormented their souls. Just as it torments ours when we see it today in our own nation. 2 Chronicles tells us that he fell into pride later on in his reign, but he repented of this. This can happen to any godly man, but many men do not repent like Hezekiah did. God told him destruction would come to his kingdom, but not in his days.

His great-grandson, Josiah, was even better. We read of Josiah, “Josiah was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem. 2 And he did what was right in the sight of the Lord, and walked in the ways of his father David; he did not turn aside to the right hand or to the left” (2 Chron. 34:1-2).

Josiah also restored back right worship in Judah. He lifted up the law of the Lord again, and he went on a crusade against idolatry in his land (2 Chron. 34:3-7). He even did this to a degree Hezekiah did not. “Thus Josiah removed all the abominations from all the country that belonged to the children of Israel, and made all who were present in Israel diligently serve the Lord their God. All his days they did not depart from following the Lord God of their fathers” (2 Chron. 34:33). This man was a good ruler, and God promised him that he would not see the end of the kingdom of Judah.

Like his great-grandfather Josiah reconstituted the covenant, he reinstituted the Passover and achieved much greatness in his kingdom. He was so beloved by the righteous in his land that at his untimely death, we read this,

“And the archers shot King Josiah; and the king said to his servants, “Take me away, for I am severely wounded.” 24 His servants therefore took him out of that chariot and put him in the second chariot that he had, and they brought him to Jerusalem. So he died, and was buried in one of the tombs of his fathers. And all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah. 25 Jeremiah also lamented for Josiah. And to this day all the singing men and the singing women speak of Josiah in their lamentations. They made it a custom in Israel; and indeed they are written in the Laments. 26 Now the rest of the acts of Josiah and his goodness, according to what was written in the Law of the Lord, 27 and his deeds from first to last, indeed they are written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah.”

2 Chronicles 35:23-27

Jeremiah must have been devastated when he saw Josiah die, because he knew what was coming for his kingdom.

What I find remarkable about this is how good these men were, but this was still not enough to save Judah. These were good leaders, great men, godly men, men who understood the covenant Moses made with God and how obeying it would bring good to their people. They both did everything they could to save their people, and it was not enough; the nation still fell.

I cannot help but observe that this is a common trend in history. Once decline is set in, then there is not really much that even the best leaders can do to stop it. At best, they can delay the collapse.

This might sound like I am blackpilling, but I am not. Israel did not end with the exile. The Judean people went into exile and came back out the other side refined. They learnt from their mistakes, and their society lasted for many centuries after the return from exile. This teaches us some important things.

God obviously wants nations to repent and turn back to him. He is gracious, and even though Judah deserved to be judged way sooner, he gave them a lot of chances, and some good kings stemmed the tide of decline. But eventually, God will allow the collapse to happen, and this process refines a nation. Australia has never been through this process, nor has the US, which means it is in our futures. We can learn from God’s word about how to delay the decline, how to ride it out and how to come through it as stronger, more godly people.

Once societies decline and fall, they never get back to their former glory. But this is not a bad thing. A nation’s greatness is not determined by how many nations it can dominate. A nation’s greatness is found in how well it can steward its people in faith towards God and in maintaining its dignity as a nation. Sometimes peoples have to learn this the hard way.