Huldah the Heavenly Minded
By Bill Valine
Have you ever had a day when you were trying your best to live for Jesus – I mean really, really trying your best – and nothing seemed to go right?
You make a mistake at work, you find out something is wrong with your bank account, you stub your toe so bad that you’re sure you broke it.
To top it all off, that crass, vile, coworker who always mocks you for believing in Jesus just got the promotion you were hoping for!
If you have had days like that, then you are not alone. Asaph had just such a day.
The Prosperity of the Wicked
Asaph was a musician who wrote several of the psalms so obviously, he was a servant of God. Yet, in Psalm 73 he tells about how he struggled, understanding why he was having all these troubles while the wicked people around him seemed to have no problems at all.
“They are not in trouble like other men, they plagued like other men… Behold, these are the ungodly, who are always at ease; they increase in riches” (v. 5, 12).
He was so vexed by their success in spite of their pride and mocking of God that he found himself envying them and wondering if it was even worth serving God.
“For I was envious of the boastful, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked… Surely I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocence” (v. 3, 13).
The thought of the wicked prospering was too painful for him “until I went into the sanctuary of God; then I understood their end” (v. 17).
Here, God revealed to him that this life is not the whole story. When he took his eyes off his earthly circumstances and set them on heaven, he understood that the wicked do not win; in fact, in the end, they lose everything (v. 18, 19).
Evil Times
Huldah the Prophetess knew just how Asaph felt. She lived in the time of King Josiah, but to understand just how wicked Judah had become, we need to go back to King Manasseh.
Hezekiah, Manasseh’s father, did much to rid Judah of widespread idolatry and perversion. But Hezekiah reigned for only 29 years.
Manasseh reigned for 55 years. He was a wicked king. He brought back the idolatry that his father worked so hard to eliminate, and he filled Jerusalem and Judah with violence and blood.
Like Hezekiah, Manasseh’s grandson Josiah stamped out idolatry once more, but the extent of his efforts revealed how corrupt the people had become.
In Josiah’s time there were shrines on the high places throughout Samaria; the pagan altar that Jeroboam had erected at Bethel was still there; there were high places throughout the cities of Judah where incense was burned to Baal, to the sun, to the moon, to the constellations, and to all the host of heaven; the high places that Solomon had built outside the city of Jerusalem for Ashtoreth, Chemosh, and Milcom were still there; outside of Jerusalem, in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, children were passed through the fire to Molech; and there were high places at some of the gates of Jerusalem.
Within Jerusalem itself, rooftops – even the rooftops of the king’s house – were used as places where incense was burned to all the host of heaven, and where drink offerings were poured out to other gods (See Jeremiah 19:13).
What made things even more shameful was that some of the priests of the Temple were involved in this idolatrous worship, “For both prophet and priest are profane; yes, in My house I have found their wickedness, says the Lord” (Jeremiah 23:11) (See also: Zephaniah 3:4).
The Temple itself was defiled by idols. Horses dedicated to the sun by the kings of Judah were kept at the entrance of the Temple. There were pagan altars in the two courts of the Temple, placed there by King Manasseh.
Items made for Baal, Asherah, and all the host of heaven were stored in the Temple. In the Temple was a carved wooden image of Asherah that Manasseh had set up. Booths had been set up in the Temple for those who were involved in the perverted worship of those gods, and in which women wove hangings for the wooden image. In a vision from God, Ezekiel saw women at the north gate of the Temple weeping for Tammuz, and men were in the Temple, but they had turned their backs on God and were worshiping the sun towards the East (Ezekiel 8:14, 16).
God Insulted
Assyriologist Francois Lenormant said of the Canaanite religion, “No other people ever rivaled them in the mixture of bloodshed and debauchery with which they thought to honor the deity.” W.F. Albright said, “Comparison of the cult objects and mythological texts of the Canaanites with those of the Egyptians and Mesopotamians forces one conclusion: that Canaanite religion was much more completely centered on sex and its manifestations. In no other country has so relatively great a number of figurines of the naked goddess of fertility, some distinctly obscene, been found. Nowhere does the cult of serpents appear so strongly.”
The Amorites were so bad that God told Abraham that his descendents would have to sojourn in Egypt until after the wickedness of the Amorites had reached its peak (Gen 15:13 - 16).
Yet in 2 Kings 21:11-12, God said that Manasseh had acted more wickedly than all of the Amorites who were before him “and he has also made Judah sin with his idols; therefore thus says the Lord God of Israel: ‘Behold, I am bringing such calamity upon Jerusalem and Judah that whoever hears of it, both his ears will tingle.”
By Josiah’s time, perversion was out in the open. God compared them to Sodom, saying, “They declare their sin as Sodom; they do not hide it” (Isaiah 3:9).
The people flaunted their sin before God. Like Zimri and Cozbi, they knew exactly what they were doing, and how it insulted God and defiled the very place that He had set His name upon (See Numbers 25:14-15, Jeremiah 7:30).
In 2 Kings 22:16,17, God says, “I will bring calamity on this place and on its inhabitants – all the words of the book which the king of Judah has read – because they have forsaken Me and burned incense to other gods, that they might provoke Me to anger with all the works of their hands. Therefore My wrath shall be aroused against this place and shall not be quenched.”
Huldah, Our Example
These were the conditions in which Huldah lived. Day after day, she watched as the Temple was desecrated in pagan worship, yet she stayed faithful to God. How?
Huldah strove to honor God. Unlike Anna, who lived in the Temple when Jesus was dedicated (Luke 2:36), Huldah lived in what was called the Second Quarter.
The Levites had removed the Ark of the Covenant from the Temple (See 2 Chronicles 35:3), and Huldah either could not or would not stay there.
The word for Second Quarter often means to double, as in Genesis 43:12, 15. It has also been used to mean second, as in second born (See 1 Samuel 8:2). But it also means next to the top, as in next in line or next in importance, as in Genesis 41:43, 2 Kings 22:4.
God points out that Huldah lived as close to the First Quarter, the Temple, as she could. More than that, though, in Deuteronomy 17:18, the same word is translated as duplicate or copy. This shows that Huldah lived among people who were faithful to God and who made an effort to duplicate and keep alive the worship of Him as it was originally handed down to them.
She was the wife of Shallum, who was the keeper of the wardrobe. It was his duty to serve the priests by maintaining their priestly garments, as laid out in Exodus 28:2-4).
Like Shallum, Huldah willingly served in obscurity. She is only mentioned twice in the Bible, but when she was called upon, she was ready to give a message for God.
She was a woman of good reputation. To speak for God, she had to be a woman of prayer, and one who worked to keep herself untainted by the evil around her.
When King Josiah sent Hilkiah the priest to inquire of God, Hilkiah knew just who to ask.
Lastly, Huldah was heavenly minded. Her name was a constant reminder of how fleeting this life is: it was derived from a word translated as age in Psalm 39:5, “Indeed, You have made my days as handbreadths, and my age is as nothing before You.”
That same word is translated as a short time in Psalm 89:47a, “Remember how short my time is.”
She understood, as Asaph did, that life is fleeting; it may appear as if the wicked are triumphing, but it won’t be long before they will stand before God. And with her mind stayed on God, she had His perfect peace because she trusted in Him (Isaiah 26:3).
Huldah was not famous. But God was able to use her in those wicked times because she lived a life that was an example to all who knew her.
From her own sources – who she was and her relationship with God – she was able to encourage even the king.
If we will emulate her life – associating strongly and often with the people of God; faithfully worshiping; praying daily; living holy as an example for our children, our families, our friends, and all those around us; actively ministering for God and serving people, even in obscurity; and keeping our minds on Jesus, not on our circumstances – God will be able to use us to influence our generation, as well.