“He did what was right in the eyes of the LORD and walked in all the ways of his father David, not turning aside to the right or to the left.”
~ 2 Kings 22:2
Hi James and Ellen,
How would you like to be a king or queen someday? Do you think that you are old enough now to be a king or queen? How old do you think that a guy, gal or kid needs to be to be a king or queen? Josiah was eight years old when he became the king over God’s specially chosen guys, gals and kids who were living in the land of Judah. The Kings Books historian – in 2 Kings 22, wrote about Josiah and what Josiah did as a kid king. Your grandpaa thinks that when Josiah was still a really young kid – like you are now, that Josiah had two really good mentors. When Josiah was a kid, Jeremiah and Zephaniah – two of God’s dedicated prophet spokesmen, were doing what God was tasking them to do. Both Jeremiah and Zephaniah had God – as God the Spirit, breathe words on them to scribe in what are now books in the Bible that go by their names. Josiah grew up always wanting to do with his life what was the right thing to do. Verse 2 says “He did what was right in the eyes of the LORD and walked in all the ways of his father David, not turning aside to the right or to the left.” Would you like to be like Josiah as you grow older? What is something that you can do as you grow older to be like Josiah? Would you ever admit that you have been doing something wrong after you have been doing something for a long time that you have thought that what you were doing was right to do? Do you think that you are always right? Do you believe that you are never wrong? After you have done something that made you look weak and flawed in front of other kids, do you accept the blame or fault for what you did that made you look weak and flawed in front of other kids or do you put the blame or fault on another kid for something that you did that made you look weak and flawed in front of other kids?
Eighteen years after Josiah became the last godly king over God’s specially chosen guys and gals who were living in the land of Judah and possibly because of Jeremiah’s urging – acting as Josiah’s mentor, Josiah put a push on repairing God’s temple that was located in the city of Jerusalem. Josiah was twenty-six years old by this time. The Levite tribal clan guys who had been tasked to be the doorkeepers at God’s temple had the responsibility for collecting the money for repairing the temple that was located in the city of Jerusalem from God’s specially chosen guys and gals as they were going into the temple. Carpenters, builders and masons were ready to work on the temple. Lumber and dressed stone had been purchased to be used for repairing the temple. There were guys in place to supervise repairing the temple. When Josiah sent Shaphan – his secretary, to Hilkiah – who was at this time the acting high priest in God’s temple that was in located in the city of Jerusalem, to have Hilkiah hand over the money that the temple doorkeepers from the Levite tribal clan had collected for repairing the temple from God’s specially chosen guys and gals as they were going into the temple to the guys who had been selected to supervise the work for them to give the money that was collected to the carpenters, builders and masons for these guys to begin the work of repairing the temple, Hilkiah told Shaphan that he had come across the Book of the Law in God’s temple. Shaphan took the Book of the Law that Hilkiah found in God’s temple to Josiah. Shaphan read the Book of the Law that Hilkiah found to Josiah. When Josiah heard what the words said that were scribed in the Book of the Law about the way that God wanted His specially guys and gals to live, Josiah became really upset because he realized that God’s specially chosen guys and gals – the Israelite people group’s guys and gals, were living their lives in ways that were not pleasing to God. Josiah had begun to purge the land of Judah six years earlier of all the false idol gods that had been made from wood or stone or metal but . . . when Josiah heard read to him what the Book of the Law said about what God expected of His specially chosen guys and gals to do to live their lives for Him, Josiah realized that they were not living their lives for God and . . . the Book of the Law said that God’s anger would burn against or that He would really be angry with His specially chosen guys and gals if they did not live their lives the way that God – as God the Spirit, had breathed on Moses for him to scribe hundreds of years earlier the way that He expected them to live their lives. Josiah was very fearful that God would punish him and His specially chosen guys and gals right then and there because they were not living their lives the way that God expected them to live their lives.
Before Shaphan read the Book of the Law to Josiah, your grandpaa thinks that Josiah thought that he was doing everything right. After Shaphan read the Book of the Law to Josiah, your grandpaa knows that Josiah realized that he and God’s specially chosen guys and gals were not doing everything right. What do you think that Josiah did? Josiah sent Hilkiah, Shaphan and three other guys to a gal who was prophetess who Josiah knew lived her life serving God. Huldah – the prophetess, told the five guys to go back to Josiah and tell Josiah that because of the way that God’s specially chosen guys and gals had been disobedient to God over the years that God would do exactly what the Book of the Law said that He would do to them but . . . God also told the five guys – through Huldah, that because of the way that Josiah had humbled himself before Him when he tore his clothes and cried before Him when he realized how disobedient that he and His specially chosen guys and gals had been living their lives, that He was not going to punish His specially chosen guys and gals on Josiah’s watch. Your grandpaa knows that he has blind spots in his life. Your grandpaa does not like to change doing what he believes is right to do but . . . your grandpaa is learning to be like Josiah by being willing to make a life change when God opens his eyes to the need to change.
2 Kings 22 (382)