Musings on Josiah

In preparation for the release of Daughter of Stone this summer, I’ll be doing a series of blog posts about some of the characters and events that inspired the story.

The Prophet Chronicles is a fantastical retelling of the events before and during the Babylonian Exile. In studying the books of 1 and 2 Kings, 1 and 2 Chronicles, and Jeremiah, I had so many questions. There are so many things we just don’t know the specifics of. At the same time, there are so many things in their culture that have parallels in our own. We can look into the lives of the people of the Old Testament and see ourselves – and learn.

For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; for once he looked at himself and has gone away, he immediately forgot what kind of person he was. – James 1:23-24, LSB

King Josiah’s reign is a conundrum, beginning to end.

• Why was his father, King Ammon, killed? 2 Kings gives us eight verses about his life. He was evil, and his own servants killed him.
• Josiah became king at age eight. Wow. Who did he look to for guidance? His role model was terrible.
• He didn’t start following the Lord until years later. What event(s) led him to put his faith in Yahweh? Remember – idolatry and religious pluralism ran rampant in Judea.
• In the eighteenth year of his reign, he ordered temple repairs, and the High Priest found the Book of the Law. Yay, he ordered temple repairs. That’s a good thing, right? BUT! He didn’t get rid of all the idols on the Temple Mount and the Mount of Corruption and in the Hinnom Valley until after the Book of the Law was found and he read of the coming judgment. Imagine – he repaired the temple but left the shrines of the male cult prostitutes and the Asherah pole alone. Let that sink in. He followed Yahweh, but he tolerated idolatry until the words of the Law were read to him.  How important is it for us that we know and follow God’s Word?
• He was an amazing king. The GOAT, if you will. He went ballistic on idol worship and threw a Passover celebration that had no rival. BUT! His kids were awful kings. The worst. Jehoiakim? Don’t research his reign. Trust me. He was evil. Jehoiakim’s son, Jehoiachin? He was so bad, God put a blood curse on his line. But that’s another story for another blog post.

Josiah loved God with all his heart.

“And before him there was no king like him who turned to Yahweh with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his might, according to all the law of Moses; nor did any like him arise after him.” – 2 Kings 23:25, LSB

Wow! By the way, did you notice the reference to the greatest commandment? (Deuteronomy 6:5)

Josiah started following the Lord as a teen. He didn’t wage war on idol worship for another ten years. Why?

This isn’t a judgment on Josiah. Think about how enmeshed idol worship was in Judean society. What parallels do we see in our society? In our own hearts? Have any Asherahs taken up residence in your own Holy of Holies? Have you tried to get something on your own terms instead of following God’s leading? What are modern equivalents of Asherah, Ba’al, Molech, and the shrines of the cult prostitutes? How do they influence our society? What can we do about it?

If you were to make a modern adaptation of Josiah’s life, how would your portray his family? What went wrong?

Book Two of the Prophet Chronicles will be Daniel’s story, the reason I started writing. Growing up surrounded by idolatry and compromise, Daniel had unshakable faith. How?