bible lesson

After good King Hezekiah died, his son became king. He was a wicked king and led the people away from God. He set up the idols and altars to Baal that his father had destroyed. He worshiped the sun, moon and stars. He even dared to set up an image of an idol in the temple, the house of God. He ruled for fifty two years.

During that time all the people who had known the good king died. The people living then knew nothing but idol worship. When the bad king died his son became king. He too was wicked and did has his father had done. Finally his servants killed him when he was just a young man.

Then the people took his son, a little boy just eight years old, and made him their king. They put a crown on his head and promised to be loyal and follow him. Josiah was only a young boy but he wanted to serve the Lord. He had had a bad father and grandfather, but he did not follow in their footsteps.

There was a great prophet living in Judah at that time. His name was Jeremiah. Jeremiah taught him the Word of God and prayed for him. When Josiah was sixteen, he began to seek after the God of David his father. He gave himself to the Lord to go His way. We read that he walked in ALL the ways of his father David.

After King Josiah turned to the Lord, he wanted to lead his people in God’s way. He was twenty years old, he knew that one thing must be done first of all id they were to please God. They must get rid of all the idols which the wicked kings had set up.

Josiah took men to help him, and they went through all the country of Judah. They broke down all the idols and images. They smashed them into little pieces and ground them up into dust. They broke down the altars. They even went up into the northern kingdom. There was no king there then, since most of the people had been carried away into captivity.

We read, “He cut down ALL the idols in ALL the land and then returned to Jerusalem.” The next thing the king wanted to do was to have the house of God repaired and made ready so that they could worship there again. It had been neglected for over fifty years. Josiah gave orders that the carpenters and masons should buy what they needed and get the temple repaired. So they went to work and the temple was repaired as Josiah had instructed.

Julia Shipley is a committed christian worshiping and serving in her local church. She has a heart for the young children and the youth believing the word of God is the final authority. Proverbs 22 verse 6 tells us to “Train a child in the way that he should go: And when he is older he will not depart from it.”

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