I heard a really
really good message in church last week. I took some notes, and I thought I
would share them with you. You can listen to the original message over HERE!
2 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.
Even though Josiah was only 8
years old when he became king, he did what was right, and served GOD. How many
8 years olds do we know who would do the same?
When he was only 16 {he
was 8 when he began to rule, and now it’s the 8th year of his reign;
8+8=16} he began to seek after God. He began to study and find out what
God wanted him to do.
Josiah may not have had the word of God. We will see later that someone finds a copy of it, but his response to
the discovery kind of implicates that he may have never read it, or perhaps did
not have a complete copy.
Instead, he followed what he knew was right… He knew that his “father” David had followed and served the LORD, so he
patterned his ways after David’s.
When he was 20{the 12th
year of his reign} he began to put what he had learned into practice, by
destroying the evil idols and high places.
Why did he begin acting on what he knew was right when he was
20? Why didn’t he just put it into practice right away?
Numbers
14:28-30
Say
unto them, As truly as I live, saith the LORD,
as
ye have spoken in mine ears, so will I do to you:
Your
carcases shall fall in this wilderness;
and
all
that were numbered of you, according to your whole number,
from twenty
years old and upward, which have murmured against me,
Doubtless
ye shall not come into the land, concerning which I sware to make you dwell
therein,
save
Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun.
At age 20 we become accountable
to God for the choices we make. We are responsible for making our own
decisions. We are then considered adults, and should not rely on anyone else to
make our life changing decisions. It is our responsibility.
Not only did Josiah tear down the
idols and high places, but he also started re-building the temple of GOD. He
replaced the bad with good.
2 Chronicles
34:14-19
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 Moses.
And Hilkiah
answered and said to Shaphan the scribe,
I have found the book of the law in the house
of the LORD.
And Hilkiah delivered the book to Shaphan.
And Shaphan
carried the book to the king, and brought the king word back again, saying,
All that was
committed to thy servants, they do it.
And they have
gathered together the money that was found in the house of the LORD,
and have delivered
it into the hand of the overseers, and to the hand of the workmen.
Then Shaphan the
scribe told the king, saying,
Hilkiah
the priest hath given me a book.
And Shaphan read it before the king.
And it came to
pass, when the king had heard the words of the law, that he rent his
clothes.
Because of Josiah’s reaction, I think it is safe to say that
he probably was not familiar with this book. Probably Josiah did not have a
copy of all of the previous written books. Since he knew about David, and David
serving the Lord, we can assume that he had some of the BOOK, or some sort of
record.
When Shaphan read the Book to Josiah, he realized that the
people have not been serving the LORD. He realized that he needed to work even
harder to lead the people back to GOD!
*Be active right now by seeking the
LORD. Even if you are only 8 you can be learning God’s word, so that when you
are 16 you can stand up for what is right, and when you are 20 you can step out
and make a difference!