Help children to untie and unroll the scroll. What does it say? Have a child read it aloud.
Josiah became king of Judah when he was 8 years old! Unlike many of the kings before him, he was a good king and wanted to worship the one true God. King Josiah saw that the one true God’s temple was broken down and falling apart and he wanted to fix it. During the construction, one of the priests found the book of God’s law and gave it to the king’s men. The Book of the Law was read to king Josiah, and he saw that the people were not obeying God as they should. God’s law had been missing and ignored for years!
This made Josiah so sad that he tore his clothes and cried. It made Josiah very upset that the people were worshiping other fake gods and not worshiping the one true God.
1 Then the king sent, and all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem were gathered to him. 2 And the king went up to the house of the Lord, and with him all the men of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem and the priests and the prophets, all the people, both small and great. And he read in their hearing all the words of the Book of the Covenant that had been found in the house of the Lord. 3 And the king stood by the pillar and made a covenant before the Lord, to walk after the Lord and to keep his commandments and his testimonies and his statutes with all his heart and all his soul, to perform the words of this covenant that were written in this book. And all the people joined in the covenant.
Josiah promised to obey God. The people agreed with their king and promised also.
And they didn’t stop there! Josiah and the people tore down and broke apart everything in the entire country that was used to worship other gods. He cleaned idols out of every home and destroyed all of the temples and altars to fake Gods. He even got rid of the priests that worshiped the fake gods. Josiah wanted to make it easy to worship the one true God!
Would you expect someone so young to be used in such a big way in Jesus’ family? Of course not! Can you imagine an 8-year-old in charge of a nation? Definitely not! Despite Josiah’s young age, God gave him wisdom to lead Judah to Him. Even though Josiah was a really good guy, he still sinned. And so do we, even if we are a really good person. Josiah needed a savior just like us. Jesus is coming!
