Josiah Chooses To Serve God

Like his great grandfather Hezekiah, Josiah decided not to follow his father’s lifestyle.  He was just eight when he began to reign, and was only sixteen when he turned to God.  II Chronicles 34:1-7 describes his efforts to restore the worship of God.  “Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned in Jerusalem one and thirty years.  And he did that which was right in the sight of the LORD, and walked in the ways of David his father, and declined neither to the right hand, nor to the left.  For in the eighth year of his reign, while he was yet young, he began to seek after the God of David his father: and in the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem from the high places, and the groves, and the carved images, and the molten images.

And they brake down the altars of Baalim in his presence; and the images, that were on high above them, he cut down; and the groves, and the carved images, and the molten images, he brake in pieces, and made dust of them, and strowed it upon the graves of them that had sacrificed unto them.  And he burnt the bones of the priests upon their altars, and cleansed Judah and Jerusalem.  And so did he in the cities of Manasseh, and Ephraim, and Simeon, even unto Naphtali, with their mattocks round about.  And when he had broken down the altars and the groves, and had beaten the graven images into powder, and cut down all the idols throughout all the land of Israel, he returned to Jerusalem.”

Like Hezekiah, Josiah removed the idols and places of worship, from the surrounding area, going even beyond what Hezekiah had done.  They even went into parts of Israel that were Assyrian possessions, destroying the idols and places of worship.  In the process, he fulfilled the prophecy of the prophet to jeroboam three hundred fifty years before, in I Kings 13:2.  “And he cried against the altar in the word of the LORD, and said, O altar, altar, thus saith the LORD; Behold, a child shall be born unto the house of David, Josiah by name; and upon thee shall he offer the priests of the high places that burn incense upon thee, and men's bones shall be burnt upon thee.”

In his efforts to please God, Josiah set about rebuilding the Temple, as II Chronicles 34:8-13.  “Now in the eighteenth year of his reign, when he had purged the land, and the house, he sent Shaphan the son of Azaliah, and Maaseiah the governor of the city, and Joah the son of Joahaz the recorder, to repair the house of the LORD his God.

And when they came to Hilkiah the high priest, they delivered the money that was brought into the house of God, which the Levites that kept the doors had gathered of the hand of Manasseh and Ephraim, and of all the remnant of Israel, and of all Judah and Benjamin; and they returned to Jerusalem.  And they put it in the hand of the workmen that had the oversight of the house of the LORD, and they gave it to the workmen that wrought in the house of the LORD, to repair and amend the house:  Even to the artificers and builders gave they it, to buy hewn stone, and timber for couplings, and to floor the houses which the kings of Judah had destroyed.

And the men did the work faithfully: and the overseers of them were Jahath and Obadiah, the Levites, of the sons of Merari; and Zechariah and Meshullam, of the sons of the Kohathites, to set it forward; and other of the Levites, all that could skill of instruments of music.  Also they were over the bearers of burdens, and were overseers of all that wrought the work in any manner of service: and of the Levites there were scribes, and officers, and porters.”

Though the most of the Kings of Judah worshipped God, it had been kind of half-hearted, with only a few truly devoted to him.  As a result, they had allowed the Temple to gradually deteriorate, along with their teaching of God’s law.   Like Jehoram and Hezekiah, Josiah wanted to demonstrate his love for God by fixing up the Temple.   Those who truly love God tend to want to fix the place of worship up for his sake. 

The Scripture is very clear that each person will have to give an account of their own choices and actions.  As we have seen, sons of very godly kings have chosen not to serve God, while sons of wicked kings have made the choice to serve Him.  While family exercises considerable influence, each individual ultimately decides what they are going to do.   Our own decisions largely determine what our life will be like.