WHILST HE WAS YET YOUNG, HE BEGAN TO SEEK AFTER GOD

Josiah inherited the shame of his father and his grandfather, former kings of Judah. They had debased the worship of the Lord and had placed Judah under threat of divine judgement. Amon his father had been assassinated after reigning for only two years, but in that time had demonstrated his waywardness. Add to this the tender age of eight years at which Josiah became king and all would seem to be hastening on to disaster. But God is sovereign and He specifically prepared His instrument for just this situation. Josiah was this instrument.

Josiah was faithful to the things of the Lord, and the scriptures carefully outline this for our learning and encouragement, 2 Kgs. 22-24; 2 Chr. 34, 35. He journeyed throughout Judah and Israel personally supervising the removal of the artefacts of idolatry. A special commission was appointed to renovate the temple which resulted in the finding of the neglected scroll of the Law. This was received as the word of the Lord, was read to the people and became an encouragement to them in the work of the Lord. In the eighteenth year of his reign, Josiah with the priests and the people reinstituted the passover feast as the scroll indicated. We read, ‘There was no passover like to that kept in Israel from the days of Samuel the prophet; neither did all the kings of Israel keep such a passover as Josiah kept’, 2 Chr. 35. 18.

The record of Josiah’s reign indicates the secret of its success: ‘he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord’, ‘while he was yet young, he began to seek after God’, vv. 2, 3. To seek the Lord was Josiah’s habit. Huldah the prophetess said of him, ‘thine heart was tender, and thou didst humble thyself before God’, v. 27. There is no direct reference to a prayer of Josiah in our passage but it shows he communed with his God, actively sought His mind and was directed by Him. This is the attitude of prayer and is the foundation upon which his reforms and his successful reign were built.

The responsibilities which rest upon our shoulders are less than those of Josiah but the resources available to us are the same, as will be the blessings, if we are faithful.