September 02, 2024 | Be God's Light
Josiah Removes Idolatry from Judah
Scripture: 2 Chronicles 34:1-7(NIV)
1 Josiah was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem thirty-one years. 2 He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord and followed the ways of his father David, not turning aside to the right or to the left.
3 In the eighth year of his reign, while he was still young, he began to seek the God of his father David. In his twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem of high places, Asherah poles and idols. 4 Under his direction the altars of the Baals were torn down; he cut to pieces the incense altars that were above them, and smashed the Asherah poles and the idols. These he broke to pieces and scattered over the graves of those who had sacrificed to them. 5 He burned the bones of the priests on their altars, and so he purged Judah and Jerusalem. 6 In the towns of Manasseh, Ephraim and Simeon, as far as Naphtali, and in the ruins around them, 7 he tore down the altars and the Asherah poles and crushed the idols to powder and cut to pieces all the incense altars throughout Israel. Then he went back to Jerusalem.
Devotional
Josiah became king when he was only eight years old, after his father was assassinated. Both his father (Amon) and grandfather (Manasseh) did evil, worshiped idols, practiced sorcery, and participated in child sacrifice to the false gods. Since his father only ruled for two years, he would have known his evil grandfather.
Unfortunately, he would not have known his great-grandfather Hezekiah who honored God throughout his life. But Josiah’s young heart was bent toward the Lord in the same way. When he was just sixteen, he decided to seek God wholeheartedly. By the time he was twenty, he was purging Judah of the idols that had been honored by his father and grandfather.
In the New Testament, Paul sent a young man named Timothy to minister to the Christians in the corrupt city of Ephesus. He wrote to him, “Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity. Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and to teaching” (1 Timothy 4:12-13).
Abraham was a hundred years old when Isaac was born to him.
Moses was eighty when God called him to free the Israelites.
Timothy was a young man when Paul put him in charge of the church in Ephesus.
Josiah was a child when he became king, a teenager when he sought God, and twenty when he purged the nation of evil.
How old are you? Do you ever think you are too young or too old to do anything significant for God? What would the Lord say about that?
Poem
Give Me The Heart
Give me the heart of Josiah
Who began each day seeking Your face
Who did right in Your eyes
Who each morn his praise rise
Who cleansed, purged all idols erased
Give me the heart of young David
Who patterned his heart after Yours
Your name was his vanguard
Your shelter his reward
Life proved mercy, justice endures
Give me the heart of my Savior
Who knelt, always seeking your will
Who spoke only your words
Your full favor procured
Who died to self, meekness fulfilled
