Josiah: The Child Leading Them.

1Josiah was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem thirty-one years. 2He did what was pleasing in the LORD’s sight and followed the example of his ancestor David. He did not turn aside from doing what was right.

3During the eighth year of his reign, while he was still young, Josiah began to seek the God of his ancestor David. Then in the twelfth year, he began to purify Judah and Jerusalem, destroying all the pagan shrines, the Asherah poles, and the carved idols and cast images. 4He saw to it that the altars for the images of Baal and their incense altars were torn down. He also made sure that the Asherah poles, the carved idols, and the cast images were smashed and scattered over the graves of those who had sacrificed to them. 5Then he burned the bones of the pagan priests on their own altars, and so he purified Judah and Jerusalem.

6He did the same thing in the towns of Manasseh, Ephraim, and Simeon, even as far as Naphtali. 7He destroyed the pagan altars and the Asherah poles, and he crushed the idols into dust. He cut down the incense altars throughout the land of Israel and then returned to Jerusalem.

8In the eighteenth year of his reign, after he had purified the land and the Temple, Josiah appointed Shaphan son of Azaliah, Maaseiah the governor of Jerusalem, and Joah son of Joahaz, the royal historian, to repair the Temple of the LORD his God. 9They gave Hilkiah the high priest the money that had been collected by the Levites who served as gatekeepers at the Temple of God. The gifts were brought by people from Manasseh, Ephraim, and from all the remnant of Israel, as well as from all Judah, Benjamin, and the people of Jerusalem. 10He entrusted the money to the men assigned to supervise the restoration of the LORD’s Temple. Then they paid the workers who did the repairs and renovation. 11Thus, they hired carpenters and masons and purchased cut stone for the walls and timber for the rafters and beams. They restored what earlier kings of Judah had allowed to fall into ruin.

12The workers served faithfully under the leadership of Jahath and Obadiah, Levites of the Merarite clan, and Zechariah and Meshullam, Levites of the Kohathite clan. Other Levites, all of whom were skilled musicians, 13were put in charge of the laborers of the various trades. Still others assisted as secretaries, officials, and gatekeepers.

Well Tuesday was Election Day and whether you like it or not George W. Bush will be our president for the next four years. If you are a news junkie like me you will no that for the second term in a row our country was divided by a real small margin. So chances are there are some in this room who were in favor of either candidate candidates. What all the news commentators seemed to find noteworthy was how civilized our country is when it comes to elections. When it was all over John Kerry called President bush and conceded the election. He admitted defeat and wished him well.

There were no military coups no assignation attempts, none of our states tried to leave the country. The citizens who did not vote for our president for the most part simply accept that he is the president and they will have their chance to change things in 4 years.

That’s not how things were in Israel a few thousand years ago. King Amon was not a good king he was not well liked by the people of his country so the murdered him and placed his son on the throne. The only problem was that his son Josiah was only 8 years old can you imagine an 8 year old king Josiah was king at just 8 years old.

Often the sinful patterns of the parents are duplicated in the following generations. Even those who do not want to be like their parents often turn out to be amazingly similar in their behavior and personality. We see that in the case of alcoholics child abusers and many of sinful situations. But it is possible for us to break out of this ongoing spiral of sinful habits through hard personal choices and by facing reality in our lives.

Josiah was a young King who chose to stand against a long sinful family history. This was particularly difficult because he was thrown into so much responsibility so young. And he had little knowledge to guide his decisions. His people had been in rebellion from God for so many generations that no one really knew how to follow God correctly. In fact the scriptures had actually been lost

At the age of 16 Josiah decides to follow God but he is not quite sure how but he does his best. He knows first of all that if he is going to serve the God of his ancestor David he needs to get rid of all the alters of the false gods baal asherih and others. When that’s done he begins to clean up the temple Lets read on: