2 Kings 22

A new king takes the throne at 8 years old – Josiah.  Note what scripture says about him: “He lived the way God wanted”.  Those are fantastic words about a man’s life.  I so want God to say that about me someday.  “Well done good and faithful servant” are also scriptural words I long to hear when I stand at heaven’s gates.  How did Josiah, who came from a long line of really bad blood, turn out to be a man after God.  The chapter doesn’t really tell us but does call out his mother “Jedediah” as it opens.  I think the power of a godly mom probably has done more to impact the lives of young children than we do as dads sometimes.  Maybe most or all the time.  In fact, I think that kids probably turn out good if they follow a godly mom and bad when they follow an ungodly dad.  Whatever the case – scripture records this about Josiah: “He kept straight on the path blazed by his ancestor David, not one step to either left or right”.  Did you catch this.  Not ONE STEP to either the left or right.  He stayed only on the straight and narrow road that his ancestor David left as his legacy.  It skipped a few generations, but the legacy comes alive again through Josiah.  David must have smiled with God from heaven.  The real lesson in this first section of 2 Kings 22 comes in verses 10-13.  One of the kings management team returned from a visit to the Temple where Hilkiah the priest had shared some of God’s truth with him.  The truth was read to the king and pointed out that the “ancestors haven’t obeyed a thing written in this book, followed none of the instructions directed to us”.  Josiah knows they have a problem.  So what does he do?  He calls five people on his management team together and says: “Go and pray to GOD for me and for this people”.  Do you see this – PRAYER – that is the response to a difficult situation.