Serving Before You're Ready

Who is Josiah

Imagine you wake up one day at the age you are and you are informed that you are president of the United States. Many of us in the room at our age and with our experience would need a lot of help to be up to speed as it pertains to day to day presidential responsibilities. Now imagine you were 8 years old and had to do the same thing. Be mindful that I believe that my 9 year old is extremely bright but to be a leader of an entire nation is quite the task. Here we have Josiah, in which all odds were stacked against him from a hereditary standpoint. His grandfather did evil in the sight of God, his father did evil in the sight of God nonetheless the bible tells us that Josiah sought out the teachings of David in effort to do right by God for the people of God. According to For in the eighth year of his reign while he was still a youth, he began to seek God of his father David; and in the twelfth year he began to purge Judah of Jerusalem of the high places, the Asherim, the carved images and the molten images.

Understand that in life we have to begin teaching children as early as possible because we never know when they may have to grow up faster than we are ready for them to grow up. Even in our adult life it is important that we prepare ourselves because we might find ourselves in situations that we never expected or anticipated but they are the situations that God decides we need to be in. Sometimes an inexperienced child is better than a experienced manipulative adult. God will use whomever he chooses to carry out his mission we just have to be ready and willing and able to step into our calling when He calls.

The Facts -

Josiah becomes king at the age of eight. The bible states in that the people of the land killed all those who had conspired against King Amon and the people of the land made Josiah his son king in his place.

His father was assassinated, typically family catastrophe’s cause children to have to grow up a lot faster than we wish.

Many children today in society we see are the product of parents dying soon, parents being sick, incarcerated, or even neglectful of their duties to the children that God has blessed them with.

God chooses his leaders in a calculated way, sometimes it not about your age but about living up to the name that God called you. Josiah means God shall grant a gift.

Look at the text, it says that Josiah was chosen by the people. Sometimes people see things in you that you do not see in yourself. At 8 years of age I’m not sure he felt capable of being a King right then, but the people saw something in Josiah that said KING!

When God shall grant that gift is not up to us, but we must trust that he will grant it. It is never too early to begin reaching your potential. Your accomplishments are not determined by the city you were raised in, the type of people your parents or grandparents were.

Grandfather - Manasseh, his name meaning causing to forget. He set the precedent of doing what was displeasing to God.

2 Kings 21:29-20 Amon was twenty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned two years in Jerusalem; and his mother’s name was Meshullemeth the daughter of Haruz and Jotbah. He did evil in the sight of the Lord, as Manasseh his father had done.

We see that despite the men in Josiah’s family the people still saw greatness in him. He became king at the expense of tragedy but sometimes tragedy shows us that we can be great despite our circumstances.

Teach Your Children Early

We should teach our children to seek God as early as possible.

Josiah was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem. He did right in the sight of the LORD, and walked in the ways of his father David and did not turn aside to the right or to the left. For in the eighth year of his reign while he was still a youth, he began to seek the God of his father David; and in the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem of the high places, the Asherim, the carved images and the molten images.

God can call us at any time.

Josiah was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem.

As parents this should be a testament to us that we have to rid ourselves of bad examples to ensure our children see a good example. We must do this personally and in the church collectively.

Teach children the true essence of God - be mindful that the foolishness we implement as adults may take them decades to unravel.

We see change taking place in year 18 to institute the basic tenets of the Law of Moses.

When we get away from the book, things get lost. We see Josiah find out that things written aforetime had been ignored so long that the basic essence of what God instructed them to do was absent.

Be mindful that it took him almost two decades to reinstitute things like Passover! It began with the unification of the tribes.

One of the worst examples as a church we can have is cliques, Josiah in verse 32 of , a divided Israel, he employs Benjamin to stand with him. Nonetheless he couldn’t implement basic tenets as King until all abominations were removed from the Kingdom of Israel.

Building can only happen in times of peace, and sometimes it takes longer than we desire but we have to remain patience. Josiah got rid of the cliques, implements Passover again in , we have to be careful of the traditions we implement that are not God breathed because they can have generational effects on the church.

He implements passover, he implements the Levite priest back in their place, he puts the holy ark back in the house and then they are able to move forward. “Now serve the Lord your God and His people Israel. The service couldn’t happen until the abominations were removed.

Why should we teach our children about God early, because we never know how soon they will truly need God in their life. Sometimes we have to take on responsibilities earlier than we want but if we are prepared we will be able to take on anything.

Think about your child and all the things they are faced with in school as early as kindergarten. They are around children who have been abused, children who curse, children who are the products of parents struggling with addiction. Teaching them a high morale standard according to the word of God can never start too early.

2 He did right in the sight of the LORD, and walked in the ways of his father David and did not turn aside to the right or to the left.

3 For in the eighth year of his reign while he was still a youth, he began to seek the God of his father David; and in the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem of the high places, the Asherim, the carved images and the molten images.