Young King Josiah

King Josiah
Who was this young 8 year old, what would he do to make a difference. How many of you have children? In our minds an 8 year old is into soccer, football, video games, can you imagine how the mother of Josiah must have felt when he was told he would be king? How many 8 year olds do you know who be able to take on such a task, knowing he could be killed. Let’s look at what King Josiah would bring to the table.
Josiah lived in a palace in Jerusalem and was king of Judah. Josiah becomes the youngest king when he was crowned at the age of eight. He reigned for 31 years and was known for following the word of God and lived his life obedient to the Lord. 2 Kings 2:22 in the Old Testament tell us about King Josiah and his life.
Josiah's palace wasn't the most important building in Jerusalem. That was the Temple, where the people of Judah worshipped God. But when Josiah became king, the Temple was in a terrible state. Its walls were crumbling and its roof leaked. Josiah loved God. So, he ordered that the Temple be repaired. When all the money to repair the Temple was gathered in, carpenters and builders began the work. They hadn't been working for very long when they found something amazing. It was a book of God's rules, which had been lost for years and years. The Book was taken to Josiah. When God's rules were read out to him, Josiah became very upset and tore his clothes. He was upset because he now knew that he and everyone else in Judah had been doing things which were against God's rules. Josiah called a meeting of all the people of Judah. They met at the Temple, where Josiah read out to them all of God's rules. Before the people, Josiah made a promise to follow God and to keep His rules. Josiah made the people do the same. Then Josiah made some changes. Across the whole of Judah, he ordered that any statues and altars of other gods be smashed and beaten into dust. Everyone was to follow the one, true God. To celebrate these changes, Josiah invited everyone to a massive festival in Jerusalem, where they ate lots of food and sang hymns to God. The celebrations lasted seven days. It was the biggest and best festival that anyone could ever remember.
I am not sure how long the laws had been hidden in that great temple or how it would be that Josiah would be the one who could take them and put order back into a country that had went astray, worshipping false idols, building of false gods. This young 8 year old would go on to teach this country Gods way and putting the original laws back in effect, but note when you read this hysterical story, that people didn’t go against him, they admired this young man and began to destroy their own idols and start following the rules of the most chosen, Jesus Christ.
God’s word tells u to be likening the children in our hearts, young and innocent. Let us start today and follow the wisdom of this young king. King Josiah may have lost his youth, but he gained an eternal life.