He was only eight years old when he became king. His father was a wicked king named Amon, and his grandfather was a wicked king named Manasseh. What a heritage for Josiah, the boy king!

Manasseh and Amon continued in the worship of idols as those who reigned before them had done.

During the reign of Manasseh, he erected altars to false gods in the temple. He practiced witchcraft, and II Chronicles 33:9 says, “he made Judah to err, and to do worse than the heathen, whom the Lord had destroyed before the children of Israel” (KJV). God caused Manasseh to be captured by the Assyrians and sent to Babylon where he was afflicted.

When in captivity, Manasseh did what we all often do. He prayed! Why is it we wait until we are desperate, and then we appeal to the Father?

God heard the prayers of Manasseh and allowed him to return to Jerusalem. There he began tearing down the altars, the high places, and the strange gods. He repaired the altar of the Lord and made sacrifices to the true God.

Verse 16 says that he “commanded Judah to serve the Lord God of Israel”. It appears that he had a change of heart, but he didn’t change the hearts of Judah. They continue to offer sacrifices in the high places but worshipped God. In other words, they tried to do both—worship false gods and worship God their creator.

Amon followed in the footsteps of his father. He was evil, and he sacrificed to all the carved images that Manasseh worshipped. Amon was so wicked that his servants finally killed him in his own house.

When Josiah became king, he chose to serve God. In the 12^th year of his reign, when he was 18, he tore down the high places, removed the groves and carved images, broke down the altars of Baalim. He broke them all and made dust out of them. Then he poured the dust on the graves of those that had worshipped these false gods.

The temple was in a terrible state, and Josiah ordered Hilkiah, the high priest, to use the contributions made by the people, to repair the temple. While they were cleaning and repairing, they found something very valuable. They found the book of the law.

Shaphan, the scribe, took the book to Josiah and read from it to him. II Kings 22:11 says, “And it came to pass, when the king had heard the words of the book of the law, that he rent his clothes”. Josiah was so moved by the reading that he tore his clothes, something the people did when they were very moved by something that had happened.

Josiah knew when he heard what Shaphan read that they had not been obeying what God had said. So, he asked Hilkiah to inquire from God what they should do. Hilkiah was told by a prophetess that God was angry with the people, but he would save Josiah from His wrath because of the things he had done to restore true worship.

The king assembled the people and read to them from the book. One of the things he read was how they had been instructed to remember the Passover Feast by celebrating it every year. II Kings 23:22 says that they had not celebrated this feast since the days of the judges. How sad! They had not remembered their deliverance from Egypt through all the years the kings had ruled over them.

How many people are guilty of this same thing today? Hebrews 10:25 says, “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching”.

The church was in a state of persecution. The tendency was to stay away from gathering to worship. The people were afraid. Some had strayed away from the truth. The writer of Hebrews is warning that they should not forsake gathering together to worship.

This same warning might be applied to us today. We need to assemble together to worship. We need to assemble to partake of a feast, the Lord’s Supper. The Lord Himself instituted this feast so that we might remember His death on the cross and His resurrection from the dead (Matthew 26:26-29).

Today it is not for fear that we neglect the assembly to worship and to partake of this feast, but it is for a lack of dedication for the Lord. We fail to see that worship is to show honor and respect for our Savior.

No television evangelist, no internet worship service, no at-home Bible study, no drive-through mini worship can replace assembling ourselves together to show honor and respect to God our creator. Nothing can replace the kind of worship God commanded. To be acceptable, we must worship Him “in spirit and in truth” John 4:24.

Sandra Oliver