Josiah Sets Out To Serve The Lord

Amon had reigned just two years when he was murdered at the age of twenty four.  His son, Josiah was only eight when his father died and he became king.  Unlike his father, Josiah sought to please the Lord, as II Kings 22:1-2 tells us.  “Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned thirty and one years in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Jedidah, the daughter of Adaiah of Boscath.   And he did that which was right in the sight of the LORD, and walked in all the way of David his father, and turned not aside to the right hand or to the left.”

Josiah’s grandfather, Manasseh had originally been a wicked king, completely uninterested in serving God, but later in life turned fully to God.  Josiah was only eight when he became king, but he chose to follow the example his grandfather set for him, rather than his father’s.  As he grew, he understood more of it meant to serve God, and when he turned sixteen, he began to actively lead the people in worshipping God, as II Chronicles 34:3-7 tells us.  "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.” 

Israel had been conquered and the Israelites relocated by the Assyrians in Hezekiah”s day, about ninety years before.  The Assyrians had replaced the Jews with other races, who had adopted many of the jewish beliefs and practices.  Josiah was able to go even into some of those areas and eliminate the various idols and altars.   Ten years after he began to turn the people back to worshipping God, Josiah gave orders to repair and rebuild the temple, as described in 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.”

A bad leader can destroy years of hard work in a very short time.  It took Josiah eighteen years to rebuild what his father had destroyed in just two years.   The choice of our leaders is of critical importance for the church, and should be carefully considered.  The qualifications paul lists in I Timothy 3 and Titus 1 are designed to determine whether a man is spiritually and morally capable of leading the church properly.  If the man cannot meet those requirements himself, how can he teach others to do so?