An Outline for “He Did Right in the Eyes of the Lord”
Introduction: Many years before Josiah’s time, Israel had asked for a human king so that they could be like the other nations. Samuel had protested this, warning Israel that one day they’d get exactly what they asked for (see 1 Samuel 8 and following for the full story).
Through the years, some kings had been very righteous and godly; others, clearly, were not and how they lived more and more became reflected in the lives of the people. Josiah was the last really good king of Judah and that was because he did right in the eyes of the LORD. This outline shows a few of the steps he took to do right in the LORD’s eyes.
Text: 2 Chronicles 34:1-7, KJV: 1 Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned in Jerusalem one and thirty years. 2 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. 3 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. 4 And they brake down the altars of Baalim in his presence; and the images, that were on high above them, he cut down; and the groves, and the carved images, and the molten images, he brake in pieces, and made dust of them, and strowed it upon the graves of them that had sacrificed unto them. 5 And he burnt the bones of the priests upon their altars, and cleansed Judah and Jerusalem. 6 And so did he in the cities of Manasseh, and Ephraim, and Simeon, even unto Naphtali, with their mattocks round about. 7 And when he had broken down the altars and the groves, and had beaten the graven images into powder, and cut down all the idols throughout all the land of Israel, he returned to Jerusalem.
1 Josiah became a believer in the God of Israel
--Couldn’t have been easy, his grandfather, Manasseh, was one of the worst kings ever. Father, Amon, was put to death after a reign of only two years. Who taught Josiah about the LORD, God of Israel? Whoever they were, they deserve a mention for passing this knowledge to Josiah!
--Not mentioned openly here but there was still a strong pull towards idolatry. They had snagged Manasseh (before he repented) and Amon (who seems to have never repented) and would come to full flower in Jeremiah’s day (not long after this). See Jeremiah 44 for an incredible twist of the Israelites’ thinking about worship of the LORD compared to the “queen of heaven”!
--No single event recorded in Scripture, common for many Old Testament saints; they like Abraham believed God and God counted it to them as righteousness (compare Genesis 15:6).
--There may have been other factors, too, but committing one’s way to the LORD is always a good first step for anyone (see Psalm 37:5).
2 Josiah became the father of several children
--The birth of one’s child should always make parents reflect. They’ve been given an immortal, “never-dying” soul (a quote from an old friend years ago) and it’s up to them how to raise that child. Josiah may now have realized he was in the very line of the Messiah!
--That he was able to father children at a young age is no surprise. Boys mature into men in the early teenage years, so it’s not an issue to believe his oldest son, Eliakim, was born when Josiah was about 14. Josiah was 39 when he died, and Eliakim was 25; thus, a 14 year difference (see 2 Kings 23:31-36)
--His other sons were Jehoahaz, as noted above, and finally Mattaniah who was renamed Zedekiah. His oldest son was also called “Johanan” and his youngest, “Shallum (1 Chronicles 1:15)” but nothing is known about Shallum.
--Josiah may have sensed that none of his sons in the princely line would be believers in the LORD but at the least, he seems to have tried. The texts in 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles give evidence of his own zeal for the LORD, even if his own sons rejected this.
3 Josiah began to lead Judah into a spiritual renewal
--Began with purging the idols that had somehow showed up in Judah. Manasseh had done much the same after his own repentance and campaign to get rid of the idols several years before (see 2 Chron. 33:14-17). How those evil things had been reconstructed is a mystery to me but—it still happened. This time Josiah took the lead to get rid of them, even hauling off a lot of that material to the Kidron valley (2 Kings 23:4-14)!
--He didn’t do this only in Judah and Jerusalem. He also went to Bethel (a former border town between Judah and Ephraim) and destroyed the altar Jeroboam 1 had built over 300 years before (see 1 Kings 13). Josiah also burned the bones of the (idolatrous?) priests of Jeroboam’s golden calf exactly as the prophet had declared (2 Kings 23:15-20). Verses 6 and 7 show he even went into the former Northern Tribes land and destroyed the idolatrous stuff that was there. Clearly he meant business.
--About eight years after this, Josiah heard the words of the Law when Shaphan read it to him. This led Josiah to inquire of the LORD because he realized, they’d all forsaken the Law. The exact passage isn’t quoted but some think it may have been from Deuteronomy. A good thing happened: even though Josiah had started off right, when he heard the Word of the LORD he know something was wrong and wanted to hear from the LORD (2 Chron. 3414-21).
--He also re-started the observance of the Passover (Exodus 12). This feast and memorial seems to have been sometimes observed and other times ignored during Israel’s history. Josiah meant business, even as his great-grandfather Hezekiah had done years before (2 Chron. 30).
--To further show his devotion to the LORD, he commissioned men to rebuild and repair the Temple. A word of recognition for these workmen, as the writer says:” . . .the men did their work faithfully (verse 12).”
Was Josiah perfect? None of us have ever been, excepting the Lord Jesus Christ, of course. Josiah would have needed to offer sacrifices like any other man of Judah. He made one extremely poor decision, going to battle with Pharaoh Necho of Egypt. Neither Judah nor Josiah had any business getting involved with Necho; even he warned Josiah to stay away but Josiah didn’t. He died as a result of his wounds. Judah was never the same after this (see 2 Chron. 35).
All in all, Josiah was a man who did right in the eyes of the LORD. We as believers in Jesus can do a lot of the same: first, becoming a believer ourselves; next, to raise our children for the Lord; and finally, to quote a preacher of yesteryear, “put feet to our faith” and live for the Lord every day. If at the end of my earthly journey, someone could say of me “He did right in the eyes of the Lord”, that would be a great compliment!
Will you do what’s right in the eyes of the LORD?
Scripture quotation taken from the King James Version of the Bible (KJV)
