Josiah became king when he was eight years old, just a year older than Joash when he became king, and reigned for 31 years. His father Amon was assassinated for his gross idolatry. Josiah was the last of the godly kings. His grandfather Manasseh was an abominable idolator until God utterly broke him by taking him into captivity in Assyria for a season. Amon was just as idolatrous, but he did not repent. He was killed two years into his reign. Josiah would have just barely known his grandfather in his repentant state, and he would have seen the turmoil of his father. For the first years of his reign, just as with Joash, there would have been adults who directed the formal decisions and guided him, but eight years into his reign, when Josiah was 16, he made the choice to follow the Lord.
Josiah personally sought to seek and follow the Lord, which is a statement only given to Jehoshaphat, Uzziah, and Hezekiah before him. When one seeks the Lord, he will see the abominations and they will grieve him. As a teenager, Josiah went after all those high places. It took about ten years to go through the whole land to destroy the idols and the high places. He destroyed every idol, every high place, and every altar, everything associated with idol worship. Josiah got rid of it and destroyed it so no one could bring it back easily.
Then 18 years into his reign, with all the idols removed, Josiah turned his attention to the Temple to repair it. That was when the Book of the Law was found, and Josiah realized just how far Judah had fallen from walking in the ways God set when they entered the land. The majority of the coverage of Josiah’s reign is on this event and Josiah’s move to get back to God’s ways. God was so pleased with Josiah that he would not allow Judah to fall into captivity during his lifetime. But the sins of Manasseh and the generations before him were still standing, and the judgment still had to come.
I don’t know what triggered Josiah’s turn to the Lord, but he did have the advantage of being too young for the idolatrous ways of his father to be deeply rooted in him. He also had the advantage of being just old enough to see that what his father was doing was outright evil. There were no Biblical prophets at this time, as Jeremiah would begin his ministry during Josiah’s reign. There were prophets, but not one of the “big ones” from the start. Whoever guided and trained Josiah had to be godly. The prophetess Hulda ministered in Josiah’s 18th year and she is the one who reported Josiah’s utter grief over Judah breaking the Law. There was no actual copy of the Law that Josiah had access to until his 18th year. Otherwise, he would have heard it by then. He knew the Biblical principles that God did not like idolatry and he very likely knew the Shema prayer and the Ten Commandments. By the time they were twelve years old, Jewish boys were supposed to have the entire Pentateuch memorized, and it’s possible this was still being practiced traditionally through the idolatrous ages. But Josiah heard at least some of the law and knew of the True God and that truth took a firm grip on his heart.
Josiah can also be compared to Joash because both were very young kings. Joash had a very godly man raise him. Josiah had no known Godly input. Joash departed the faith once his anchor passed away; Josiah turned towards the Lord regardless of his input. As I have mentioned, each person was responsible for his own choices. While the background of his early youth reflected Amon’s full-blown idolatry, Josiah still chose to seek the Lord. We don’t know how Josiah operated in those first eight years as a kid, but when he turned 16, he decided to seek the Lord personally.
Josiah is the last king who would seek the Lord. God decided the judgment upon Judah during Manasseh’s reign, but God had a promise to uphold before he could let that happen. I mentioned above how Josiah got rid of the high places and idols. One of those idols was a golden calf, the one that Jeroboam made 300 years ago when he led the rebellion against Rehoboam. An unnamed prophet confronted Jeroboam and told him a future king named Josiah would destroy that idol and desecrate the priests serving that idol by burning their bones on their altars. When Assyria conquered Israel, they did not destroy nor take the idol they feared the gods of that land and didn’t want to bring a curse upon them. A curse was indeed put on them, so they sent some of Israel’s priests who served those idols to teach the new occupants how to worship those gods. So the golden calf was intact in Bethel when Josiah came upon it. He did precisely what was prophesied about him – he destroyed the idol and burned the bones of the first priests on the altar before destroying the altar itself. God was not going to let Judah fall until this took place.
In Josiah’s reign, we see the sovereignty of God and the foresight of God. We see God directing events to fulfill the prophecies He made, and we see this through all the kings. While each king is held responsible for his own decisions, all have done the way God has said they would go. God wanted Josiah to showcase one last shot for redemption, knowing that it would not last, but also to give a final cleansing before the bottom fell out. It was a final push for Godliness so that in the captivity there would be a few who would be a remnant for the captivity. Daniel and his three friends were children of nobles and would have sat under the ministry of Jeremiah before being taken to Babylon as teenagers. Josiah’s reforms set the stage for Daniel to be a Godly presence in Babylon.
Next week, we’ll wrap up this series and look at Josiah’s sons. Josiah went to battle against Egypt, when he did not need to, and was killed in the battle. Egypt made Judah a vassal of Egypt, and Josiah’s sons brought the final judgment upon Judah.
This forum is meant to foster discussion and allow for differing viewpoints to be explored with equal and respectful consideration. All comments are moderated and any foul language or threatening/abusive comments will not be approved. Users who engage in threatening or abusive comments which are physically harmful in nature will be reported to the authorities.
0 comments:
Post a Comment