Young King Josiah

GOLDEN TEXT: “Wherewith shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to Thy Word.” —Psalm 119:9

II CHRONICLES 34

JOSIAH was only eight years old when he was made king of Judah. He was the grandson of Manasseh, who, after encouraging the worship of heathen gods, repented when trouble came upon him and did what he could to make amends. Amon, Manasseh’s son, succeeded him as king. “He did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord,” and while his reign lasted only two years, this was long enough to reintroduce idol worship throughout the land. “His servants conspired against him, and slew him in his own house.”—II Chron. 33:22,24

It was upon this scene of idolatry and rebellion that Josiah was made king by the people. A youth of eight, however, could hardly exercise royal prerogatives, so older members of the government must have taken care of the affairs of state until the young king reached the age of responsibility. When he was sixteen years old “he began to seek after the God of David his father.”—II Chron. 34:3

When Josiah was twenty years old he began “to purge Judah and Jerusalem from the high places, and the groves, and the carved images, and the molten images.” (vs. 3) For six years he continued this work of destroying the trappings of heathen worship. Then, in the eighteenth year of his reign, when he was still only twenty-six, he began the work of repairing the temple of the Lord, using money which had been collected for the purpose from the “remnant of Israel, and of all Judah and Benjamin.” The ten-tribe kingdom of Israel, it will be remembered, had as a nation been taken captive into Assyria. But there was a “remnant” of the ten tribes left in the land who now were being ruled over by the successive kings of Judah.

Apparently this money had been collected and stored in the temple over a period of time before the repair work was started, and when “they brought out the money that was brought into the house of the Lord, Hilkiah the priest found a Book of the Law of the Lord given by the hand of Moses.” (vs. 14, margin) He gave the book to Shaphan the scribe, who in turn took it to Josiah the king and read it before him. The record does not so state, but it is possible that the king himself was not able to read.

In any event, the finding of this Book of the Law highlights an interesting fact concerning that ancient time, which is that God’s Law, in written form, was not possessed generally by the people, as the Bible is today. Young King Josiah began to “seek after the Lord” upon the basis of the limited knowledge he could have acquired by word of mouth from his elders who still had respect for God’s Law.

That the finding of a Book of the Law should be of such great moment suggests the possibility that this was the only known copy in all the land at that time. This would explain in part, we think, why the Israelites could be so easily led away into idolatry. After all, in idol worship there was something tangible, something to be seen, something they could even touch, if they wished. But Israel’s God was invisible, and most of the people lived and died without seeing as much as a parchment scroll containing the written law.

True, they had the temple in Jerusalem. But whenever a wicked king ruled over them, which was most of the time, idols were set up in the temple, and heathen altars; and, as the people saw it, the God of Israel was either helpless to interfere, or disinterested. Doubtless the story of the giving of the Law at the hands of Moses, and of the miraculous things which then occurred, was somewhat known to the people as it was handed down from generation to generation, and to have discovered a written copy of this Law, confirming this story, would certainly have a wholesome effect.

When the good King Josiah, who at the age of sixteen began to turn to the Lord, heard the actual words of the Law read to him, and noted the punishments the Law outlined for those disobedient to it, and especially for idolaters, “he rent his clothes.” He was conscious of the fact that he had been doing all he could to restore the worship of the true God, who in the Law had decreed, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me,” but would the flagrant sins of the people throughout so many years, even generations, be overlooked by Jehovah simply because he had fostered a reformation in the land?

To obtain the answer to this question Josiah appointed representatives to inquire of the Lord, through a prophetess named Huldah. The answer was that the punishments foretold in the book of the Law would certainly come upon the land and upon the people, but that Josiah, because of the tenderness of his heart, and his spirit of humility, would be spared seeing the calamities that were to come upon the nation, that he would be “gathered to his fathers in peace” before the final overthrow of the nation.

QUESTIONS

What were the religious conditions in Israel when Josiah began his reign?

How old was Josiah when he began to seek the Lord, and how much later was it when he began a religious reformation throughout the land?

What important discovery was made in connection with the repair of the temple?

What information did Josiah receive from Huldah concerning the future of the nation, as well as God’s intentions toward him?

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