II Chronicles 34:1-3- Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned in Jerusalem one and thirty years. And he did that which was right in the sight of the LORD, and walked in the ways of David his father, and declined neither to the right hand, nor to the left. 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.
King Josiah might have been young, but he would be known as one of Judah's greatest kings! Why? Because when he was still young, he decided that he would seek God's will for his life and his kingdom. At 16 years of age, he made it a point to find out what he needed to do for God to bless him and his people.
Josiah made a decree that everyone would keep the Passover like it was written in the Law of Moses. King Hezekiah, Josiah's grandfather, also had his people keep the Passover, but Josiah went above and beyond what even Hezekiah had done!
II Kings 23:21-23- And the king commanded all the people, saying, Keep the passover unto the LORD your God, as it is written in the book of this covenant. Surely there was not holden such a passover from the days of the judges that judged Israel, nor in all the days of the kings of Israel, nor of the kings of Judah; But in the eighteenth year of king Josiah, wherein this passover was holden to the LORD in Jerusalem.
II Kings 22:3-5- And it came to pass in the eighteenth year of king Josiah, that the king sent Shaphan the son of Azaliah, the son of Meshullam, the scribe, to the house of the LORD, saying, Go up to Hilkiah the high priest, that he may sum the silver which is brought into the house of the LORD, which the keepers of the door have gathered of the people: And let them deliver it into the hand of the doers of the work, that have the oversight of the house of the LORD: and let them give it to the doers of the work which is in the house of the LORD, to repair the breaches of the house,
When he was 18 years old, he made a point of finding out what was needed to repair the temple. You can serve God anywhere, but the Lord had chosen the temple in Jerusalem as the place He wanted the Israelites to worship Him. And, Josiah was going to make sure that the temple was exactly how the Lord wanted it.
II Kings 22:8-10- And Hilkiah the high priest said unto Shaphan the scribe, I have found the book of the law in the house of the LORD. And Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan, and he read it. And Shaphan the scribe came to the king, and brought the king word again, and said, Thy servants have gathered the money that was found in the house, and have delivered it into the hand of them that do the work, that have the oversight of the house of the LORD. And Shaphan the scribe shewed the king, saying, Hilkiah the priest hath delivered me a book. And Shaphan read it before the king.
While cleaning the temple up, the priests found a book in the temple. It was part of the Law of the Lord that told what God expected of His people, and the curses that would come if they turned away from Him and worshiped false idols.
You see, Josiah started by seeking God's face. And, because of this, God sent Josiah exactly what he needed to worship Him properly. When we try to do God's will, God will send us more guidance.
II Kings 22:11- And it came to pass, when the king had heard the words of the book of the law, that he rent his clothes.
Josiah knew all the wickedness that his father and grandfather had brought into Israel. And now, he knew the destruction that their sins would bring down on his kingdom!
II Kings 22:12-13- And the king commanded Hilkiah the priest, and Ahikam the son of Shaphan, and Achbor the son of Michaiah, and Shaphan the scribe, and Asahiah a servant of the king's, saying, Go ye, enquire of the LORD for me, and for the people, and for all Judah, concerning the words of this book that is found: for great is the wrath of the LORD that is kindled against us, because our fathers have not hearkened unto the words of this book, to do according unto all that which is written concerning us.
Josiah was afraid for his people. He wanted to hear from God what was needed to keep the curses of the Law from ravaging his kingdom.
II Kings 22:14- So Hilkiah the priest, and Ahikam, and Achbor, and Shaphan, and Asahiah, went unto Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum the son of Tikvah, the son of Harhas, keeper of the wardrobe; (now she dwelt in Jerusalem in the college;) and they communed with her.
The priests went to a college that was in Jerusalem to talk with a woman who heard God's voice. She said that God was going to send all those curses on Israel, but because Josiah was doing right and trying to obey Him that God wouldn't send the curses during his reign.
II Kings 23:1-3- And the king sent, and they gathered unto him all the elders of Judah and of Jerusalem. And the king went up into the house of the LORD, and all the men of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem with him, and the priests, and the prophets, and all the people, both small and great: and he read in their ears all the words of the book of the covenant which was found in the house of the LORD. And the king stood by a pillar, and made a covenant before the LORD, to walk after the LORD, and to keep his commandments and his testimonies and his statutes with all their heart and all their soul, to perform the words of this covenant that were written in this book. And all the people stood to the covenant.
The king gathered all his subjects together and read them the book that had been found. They made a promise together that they would serve God and do everything that He had commanded of them in the Law of Moses.
By the time he was 20 years old, he began to go around his kingdom and the areas that surrounded his kingdom and remove the false idols that tempted his people to sin!
II Kings 23:4-5, 14-15- And the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest, and the priests of the second order, and the keepers of the door, to bring forth out of the temple of the LORD all the vessels that were made for Baal, and for the grove, and for all the host of heaven: and he burned them without Jerusalem in the fields of Kidron, and carried the ashes of them unto Bethel. And he put down the idolatrous priests, whom the kings of Judah had ordained to burn incense in the high places in the cities of Judah, and in the places round about Jerusalem; them also that burned incense unto Baal, to the sun, and to the moon, and to the planets, and to all the host of heaven. And he brake in pieces the images, and cut down the groves, and filled their places with the bones of men. Moreover the altar that was at Bethel, and the high place which Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin, had made, both that altar and the high place he brake down, and burned the high place, and stamped it small to powder, and burned the grove.
The golden calf that had been the downfall of the nation of Israel was destroyed by Josiah during this purge.
II Kings 23:16-18- And as Josiah turned himself, he spied the sepulchres that were there in the mount, and sent, and took the bones out of the sepulchres, and burned them upon the altar, and polluted it, according to the word of the LORD which the man of God proclaimed, who proclaimed these words. Then he said, What title is that that I see? And the men of the city told him, It is the sepulchre of the man of God, which came from Judah, and proclaimed these things that thou hast done against the altar of Bethel. And he said, Let him alone; let no man move his bones. So they let his bones alone, with the bones of the prophet that came out of Samaria.
Do you remember when Israel and Judah first split into two nations? Jeroboam had built the golden calf so that the Israelites wouldn't go worship God at the temple in Jerusalem. And, God sent a prophet to tell Jeroboam that the idol would be destroyed by a king of Judah whose name would be Josiah.
This prophet disobeyed God and died in Bethel, and was buried in the tomb of an elderly local prophet. When Josiah saw the tomb, and heard the prophecy, he knew that the Lord had chosen him for this purpose!
After destroying all the false idols, Josiah got rid of the people who would be able to turn the heart of his nation toward idolatry!
II Kings 23:24- Moreover the workers with familiar spirits, and the wizards, and the images, and the idols, and all the abominations that were spied in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, did Josiah put away, that he might perform the words of the law which were written in the book that Hilkiah the priest found in the house of the LORD.
Josiah got rid of all the evil that was in his kingdom. Some would have called him intolerant! Others would have said he was a fanatic. But, what did God think of this?
II Kings 23:25- And like unto him was there no king before him, that turned to the LORD with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his might, according to all the law of Moses; neither after him arose there any like him.
God said there was no king before him that turned himself to serve God like Josiah did!
All this was accomplished by the time Josiah was just 24 years old. And, Josiah made sure that his people keep their promise to worship God only.
II Chronicles 34:33- And Josiah took away all the abominations out of all the countries that pertained to the children of Israel, and made all that were present in Israel to serve, even to serve the LORD their God. And all his days they departed not from following the LORD, the God of their fathers.
II Chronicles 34:20-21 - After all this, when Josiah had prepared the temple, Necho king of Egypt came up to fight against Carchemish by Euphrates: and Josiah went out against him. But he sent ambassadors to him, saying, What have I to do with thee, thou king of Judah? I come not against thee this day, but against the house wherewith I have war: for God commanded me to make haste: forbear thee from meddling with God, who is with me, that he destroy thee not.
Josiah went out to fight against the king of Egypt that had been sent by God to war with the city of Carcheish. The king of Egypt tried to tell Josiah that God sent him to war only with the city of Carchemish, but Josiah didn't listen to him.
II Chronicles 34:22-23- Nevertheless Josiah would not turn his face from him, but disguised himself, that he might fight with him, and hearkened not unto the words of Necho from the mouth of God, and came to fight in the valley of Megiddo. And the archers shot at king Josiah; and the king said to his servants, Have me away; for I am sore wounded. His servants therefore took him out of that chariot, and put him in the second chariot that he had; and they brought him to Jerusalem, and he died, and was buried in one of the sepulchres of his fathers.
II Kings 23:29- In his days Pharaohnechoh king of Egypt went up against the king of Assyria to the river Euphrates: and king Josiah went against him; and he slew him at Megiddo, when he had seen him.
II Chronicles 34:24-25- And all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah. And Jeremiah lamented for Josiah: and all the singing men and the singing women spake of Josiah in their lamentations to this day, and made them an ordinance in Israel: and, behold, they are written in the lamentations.
King Josiah cut his life short by fighting a battle that the Lord didn't want him to fight. His people and the prophet Jeremiah mourned for their lost king! The words of their sorrows from the loss of this great ruler were written in the book of Lamentations written by the prophet Jeremiah.
II Chronicles 34:26-27- Now the rest of the acts of Josiah, and his goodness, according to that which was written in the law of the LORD, And his deeds, first and last, behold, they are written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah.
II Kings 34:30b- And the people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of Josiah, and anointed him, and made him king in his father's stead.
