|
“For in the eighth year of his reign, while he was yet young, he began to seek after the God of David his father: and in the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem from the high places, and the groves, and the carved images, and the molten images” (2 Chronicles 34:3).
Today we see Josiah in the eighth and twelfth years of his reign. This would make him sixteen and twenty years old. Between the ages of eight and sixteen we grow up quite a bit; boys become young men, and girls become young women. Sad to say, sometimes young people at this age decide not to follow the Lord, but rather turn away from Him, and follow their own wills. But Josiah continued to seek the Lord, and at twenty was ready to act for the Lord. Evidently there were many idols in the land — gods made of wood, stone, metal, etc., and Josiah started to get rid of them.
Anything in our lives that becomes more important than the Lord can be an idol, and that is why the Apostle John says to believers, “Little children, keep yourselves from idols” (1 John 5:21). He did not mean literal idols, but things of this world that we tend to want, and which rob us of our time and ability to do what is right before the Lord. Let us be like Josiah and get rid of them!
|
