Josiah II Chronicles 34

II Chronicles 34:1 "Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned in Jerusalem one and thirty years. v2 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."

Josiah was very young when he started to reign. It does not say here but he must have had someone guiding him in the tasks of the king. His life was very systematic so far as his growth was concerned.

v3 "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."

He was sixteen when he turned to the LORD on a personal level. That says a lot for him when he had the authority and riches of a king to play around with but he choose to follow God and seek his will. Then when he was twenty, he shook up the kingdom by exerting his authority as king and working to do away with idol worship.

v8 "Now in the eighteenth year of his reign, when he had purged the land, and the house, he sent Shaphan the son of Azaliah, and Maaseiah the governor of the city, and Joah the son of Joahaz the recorder, to repair the house of the LORD his God.

Important to note here the last part of the verse: "...his God." He did not say the God of Israel, thou he is, but his own personal God. So Josiah found the God he was seeking when he was sixteen.

Something happened when they were repairing the house of the LORD. Hikiah the priest found a book of the law of the LORD given by Moses. v14 It was given to Shaphan who gave it to the king. Honestly, I do not know how a people such as Israel who were schooled in the wilderness from the very lips of God could loose the book of law that Moses had written down but they did. It was put aside when they turned to idols and apparently got covered over. Now it is found.

Josiah did not hesitate. He found out what was in the book and realized that they had sinned against God by not following the law written in the book. He took action.

The king was distressed over the pronouncements of the book which described the punishment for Israel for turning away from God. But the LORD was touched by Josiah and told him he would die and not see all that took place.

v27 "Because thine heart was tender and thou didst humble thyself before God, when thou heardest his words against this place, ...I have even heard thee also saith the LORD."

So Josiah read the book to the people, further cleaned up the land of idol worship and caused the people to honor the law. "...And all his days they departed not from following the LORD, the God of their fathers."

Psalm 149:4 "For the LORD taketh pleasure in his people: he will beautify the meek with salvation."

Josiah, a very good king, follows God at a young age and does not turn aside.

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