King Josiah was the 16th king of the southern kingdom of Judah from 640-609 BC.

Josiah’s grandfather was perhaps the most evil of the 19 kings of Judah. His 55 year reign was mostly marked by terrible evil.

The Assyrians carried Manasseh to Babylon in hooks, bound with bronze fetters. In his suffering there, he humbled himself and repented of his evil way. We don’t know how, but God brought him back to Jerusalem. He then removed the idols, foreign gods, altars for sacrificing to those gods, etc. 2 Chronicles 33:18-19 mentions his prayer. There is a book in the Apocrypha called “The Prayer of Manasseh”, a short prayer that he supposedly prayed. We are not sure of the authenticity of that book, but 2 Chronicles 33:19 says that his prayer was recorded in the records of Hozai, so it is possible that “The Prayer of Manasseh” is really his prayer passed down throught Jewish history. As evil was Manasseh was, God forgave him and he died in a right relationship with God. God is such a merciful, forgiving God.

His father was the evil king Amon, the son of Manasseh. Amon began to reign when he was 22 and reigned for only 2 years. Most of his teen and young adult life would have been watching his father Manasseh do evil things. He would have also sseen Manasseh’s repentance and reforms, but that did not make an impact on Amon. How evil was Amon?

Josiah began to reign when he was 8 years old. Amon his father reigned for 2 years. That means that Josiah was 6 years old when his grandfather Manasseh died and 8 years old when his father Amon died. . His memories of his evil father Amon would not have been good as a 6 and 7 year old child. Fortunately his memories of his grandfather might have been mostly good as a 4 and 5 year old child since Manasseh would have been doing his reforms during those years of Josiah’s childhood.

Here is a great image detailing the age of Josiah when he began to reign at age 8 and did reforms. (Actually it should be 26 years old, the 18th year of his reign, when he repaired the temple.

During the repair of the temple when he was 26 that Hilkiah the priest found the “book of the Law” (i.e. the Pentateuch) and brought it to Josiah (2 Chronicles 34:14-21). The king tore his clothes and he himself read the book of the Law to all the elders, priests, Levites and people of Judah. He told Hlkiah to ask the prophetess Huldah what his (i.e. Josiah’s) fate would be in light of the curses that he read from the book of Deuteronomy, no doubt, as consequences for all the evil that Manasseh and Amon had done in Judah ( 2 Chronicles 34:22-30). Huldah told him that he would be spared seeing the punishment that God was going to inflict on Judah, but that the evil was so wide spread that Josiah’s reforms were “too little, too late” to save Judah from being carried off into Babylonian captivity. There were 3 deportations to Babylon that began almost immediately after Josiah died during the reign of the last 4 evil kings of Judah, and in 586 BC King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon destroyed Jerusalem and the temple and took the last group of captives to Babylon, beginning the 70 years of exile in Babylon.

So why this lesson on King Josiah at this particular time? It is b/c of my concern for America. I know there is a lot of talk about “make Ameria great again”. You can buy a MAGA hat for $50. I do hope that we can balance the budget, trim the deficit, cut government spending, secure the border, reduce inflation, etc. But will America truly repent of the greed and sexual immorality that permeates our country? Will the churches who promote LGBQT go back and read the Bible condemnation of homosexuality and repent? Will our leaders truly turn to God for guidance on how to lead this country? America has typically bounced back from ungodly stretches of its history with “grass roots revivals” like the 1st and 2nd Great Awakenings, and the Jeremy Lanphier prayer revival (that spread across many cities with thousands praying every day at noon)? But those revivals were based on people believing that the Bible was the word of God. If the Bible said drunkenness was a sin, then to repent means to quit getting drunk. But today about 70% of Americans believe that same sex relationships are morally acceptable. If someone does that believe that homosexuality is a sin, then they won’t repent of that. Therefore a grass roots revival will be nearly impossible unless we do what Josiah did. We need to rediscover the Bible, open and study it, and let the Bible tell us what sin is, and then repent if we are guilty of sin. What will be the fate of America if we do not repent and restore the Judeo-Christian values that this country was built on? Only God knows the answer to that, but I am praying for a revival. American Christians have so many resources that can and are being used to drill wells overseas and print Bibles to spread the gospel. I don’t want to see that end.

In the mean time, we need to pray daily and earnestly for our country and our leaders. 1 Timothy 1:1 First of all, then, I urge that requests, prayers, intercession, and thanksgiving be made in behalf of all people, ² for kings and all who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. ³ This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, ⁴ who wants all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.”