The nation of Israel was in desperate need of spiritual revitalization. They needed vital worship, a much deeper relationship
with the one, true God, and lives that would reflect God’s glory. Many of them had turned their backs on God and had indulged themselves in idol worship. They had problems that could not be cured with any earthly remedy. The only thing that they had going for them was that they had a good king, one of the only good kings in Israel’s history.
One day, while the temple was being repaired, someone found an old, dusty book that had been put away and forgotten years before. It was the Bible. The king was curious about the book, since neither he nor anyone for years had seen it. King Josiah had the Bible read to him, and he was absolutely horrified. There were so many things that God had commanded Israel to do that they had not done for years and years. King Josiah knew that his country deserved to be destroyed, but he hoped that God would have mercy on them.
King Josiah began to lead the country towards godliness. He began by leading the people to recommit themselves to the God of the Bible. King Josiah said he would “keep [God’s] commandments and his testimonies and his statutes with all his heart and all his soul” (2 Kings 23:3), and the people agreed to do the same.
King Josiah then did all that he could to destroy evil practices in the land, according to the Bible. He removed the pagan vessels from God’s temple, he got rid of the pagan clergy and the fortune tellers, and he destroyed the idols, male prostitute’s apartments, the pagan altars, Jeroboam’s pagan worship center, and the place of child sacrifice.
Though Josiah was a son of the great King David and a very good king, he could not bring lasting reform to Israel. Some years later, God’s judgment fell on them. Later, another son of David would come, and he would be a far better king than Josiah, setting his people free from their slavery to sin.
