Today I felt led to read about Josiah and I wasn’t sure why because I could not recall who he was in scripture, but I read he ended up becoming a king at the age of eight years old.
When you see at first glance, the thought of an eight year-old running a kingdom, your mind thinks about young boys playing video games, riding their bikes, just doing boy stuff.
But not Josiah, he was placed in a position of authority to run a kingdom that was in rebellion at that stage…where they sacrificed to idols and were not serving the One true living God of Israel.
And as I read Josiah’s story, I had to go backwards in history to look at his father and his grandfather. His father was Amon and grandfather was Manasseh.
What got me is in reading about their lives is how evil they lived.
Manasseh led a life of evil and deep idolatry and witchcraft. He was in total rebellion against God. Scripture tells us that the Lord spoke to him and his People about this rebellion but they paid no attention.
And because they paid no attention the Lord brought commanders of the army of the King of Assyria against them. And they captured Manasseh with hooks, bound him in chains and they led him to Babylon. He ended up in distress and that is when the word says he appeased God By humbling himself greatly Before God.
And what I think is beautiful here is that we see an image of mercy!
Because scripture says when he prayed God was moved and heard his plea and brought him back to his land to reign as king like before. That is when Manasseh knew that the Lord alone is God (2 Chronicles 33:10-13).
The Bible goes on to say that Manasseh tore down those foreign gods and idols and he served the Lord until he died. And when he died, his grandson Josiah would have been about six years old by then. Because that is when Josiah‘s father Amon, who did evil in the sight of the Lord, became king at age 22, after his father Manasseh died.
But Amon instead of following in his father’s foot steps to serve the Lord, did evil, and sacrificed to those old carved images his Father used to sacrifice to and did not humble himself… Scripture even says he multiplied his guilt.
I thought to myself why did this man not learn from his father and what he went through?
Because two years into Amon’s reign his own servants plotted against him and killed him. Then the people of the land killed those servants that had conspired and killed Amon.
That is when Josiah became king at eight years old.
Talk about picking up the torch! But Josiah must have learned some valuable lessons from his grandfather, Manasseh.
And I had to think to myself in the short years of Josiah‘s life he probably saw some evil things, but then he saw what his grandfather Manasseh did as he tore down those idols.
I had to think that in Josiah’s little life, his grandfather Manasseh must have taught him about the ways of God and told him do not pick up those old idols.
“Do not follow those old evil paths of what I used to do, follow the one true living God, serve Him.”
Because at eight years old Josiah did not turn and do all the evil stuff His own father Amon did or even his grandfather, Manasseh before he turned to God.
Scripture says Josiah did what was right in the sight of the Lord, following, his ancestor King David.
It says in his eighth year of rein which he would have been about 16, he began to seek God. At 20, he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem of the high places.
I think it took many years to purge the land of all this idolatry, and when that was complete, at age 26, he sent people to repair the house of God.
This is when they found a book of the law as given by Moses, the Book of Deuteronomy, from my understanding. And when Josiah read that book, he was humbled and distraught because he knew they were in sin of not following that book of the law and he repented.
The Lord said that he was going to pour out his wrath upon all those that were in rebellion, and that his anger would not be quenched, but because Josiah humbled himself and repented the Lord gave word back to Josiah in mercy:
“Because your heart was tender and you humbled yourself before God when you heard His words against this place and its inhabitants, and because you humbled yourself before Me, tore your clothes, and wept before Me, I have indeed heard you,” declares the Lord. “Behold, I will gather you to your fathers, and you will be gathered to your grave in peace, so your eyes will not see all the evil which I am bringing on this place and its inhabitants.”’
Josiah made sure he and the land kept the covenant of that book of the law, were obedient and he threw a huge Passover party in celebration. His life ended by trying to go fight a battle that did not belong to him, but nonetheless, he ended up buried with his ancestors in peace.
What a story.
See how generational sin works?
Reading this opened my eyes and made me think of our own family and the many stories of others I’ve heard over the years, of families who have fallen into addiction and other things… these addictions also seem to follow their own children, who follow the same path until finally there is one son or daughter that breaks the chains by stepping away from it and choosing different.
I do believe it takes a humbled heart and turning back to God because God is the ultimate chain breaker. He is what keeps us as long as we remain obedient and faithful, we can rest assured in the very Scriptures that He has given to us. We can learn a lot from reading stories from the past…
Roman’s 15:4: For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have hope.