2 Kings 23:1

2 Kings 23:1 says, And the king sent, and they gathered unto him all the elders of Judah and of Jerusalem.  After Josiah received word from God of the coming defeat of Jerusalem, Matthew Henry says he didn't sit down in despair but instead did what he could and left the rest up to God.  He had been told that he would be spared, but this didn't keep him from being concerned about the rest of the people.  As followers of Jesus Christ, we know that we are forever spared from the coming destruction of those who do not put their faith in Him, but this should make us more concerned about reaching them with the gospel and not have us looking down on them as though they are going to get what they deserve.  Josiah gathered all the elders of Jerusalem to share with them the news.  We as Christians need to be sharing the gospel with everyone that we can.  Verse two adds, And the king went up into the house of the Lord, and all the men of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem with him, and the priests, and the prophets, and all the people, both small and great: and he read in their ears all the words of the book of the covenant which was found in the house of the Lord.  Josiah had God's word found in the book that had been found in the Temple read to all the people.  Josiah didn't propose any new laws, but simply read God's word.  If we are going to have a reformation today, it has to come from obedience to God's word and not from any manmade law, and all the Christian leaders and ordinary Christians as well must be obedient to following God's law.  Verse three continues, And the king stood by a pillar, and made a covenant before the Lord, to walk after the Lord, and to keep his commandments and his testimonies and his statutes with all their heart and all their soul, to perform the words of this covenant that were written in this book. And all the people stood to the covenant.  Josiah stood by a pillar and made a covenant with God that he would follow all His commandments, testimonies, and statutes with all his heart, and all the people at least physically stood there with him.  We must individually accept Jesus Christ as our personally Savior and Lord to be saved and follow God's commandments with all our heart once we are saved, and we also must share the gospel with others whenever we can.  Verse four concludes, And the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest, and the priests of the second order, and the keepers of the door, to bring forth out of the temple of the Lord all the vessels that were made for Baal, and for the grove, and for all the host of heaven: and he burned them without Jerusalem in the fields of Kidron, and carried the ashes of them unto Bethel.  Josiah then ordered Hilkiah the high priest to remove all the vessels made to worship Baal and any other god out of the Temple and destroy them.  I have to wonder why these things were allowed in the Temple to begin with and why the high priest hadn't already removed them if he found them there without being commanded to do so by the king.  The high priest was God's representative more than the king was.  It would be a shame today if the government had to tell us to remove ungodly things from the church.