Biblical Characters: Josiah, the Boy King
Josiah is introduced in 2 Kings 22 as the new king of Judah who is merely eight years old. As a young boy growing up in church, this story intrigued me. Later in elementary school in writing for an assignment asking what person in the Bible would I most like to spend one day with and what would we do, I chose Josiah. I imagined the fun that could be had by two young boys having the run of a royal palace. I imagined what it must be like for a kid like me to have servants waiting on him at every turn, tasked to listen to his every word. Yet as I’ve grown, I’m still left in wonder at this young man, not in fascination with the fun that could be had running around a palace as a boy, but in wonder at how such a young man could have this written of him: “Before him there was no king like him, who turned to the Lord 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).
But how is it that there was no king like him either before or after? The story begins in the 18th year of his reign, at which time he ordered repairs to be made to the Temple. Note firstly that his attention is given to the House of God. While renovations were being made, Hilkiah the high priest finds a copy of the Book of the Law. It is read to the king and, upon hearing of God’s promised judgment on the nation for their disobedience, he tears his clothes in anguish and immediately inquires of the Lord what must be done. The message of God to the nation is one of destruction. They have disobeyed for too long and destruction is inevitable. Yet God promises Josiah that this destruction will not come while he is king. And God Himself gives the reason why: “Because your heart was penitent, and you humbled yourself before the Lord, when you heard how I spoke….” Josiah’s heart was torn asunder, symbolized outwardly by the tearing of his clothes. Jeremiah Burroughs writes, “When Josiah heard the book read… his heart was mightily affected; for there he saw he had gone on in sin against God, though in ignorance – but he knew that would not excuse him… But for all that, as soon as he came to know what sins they were, and in what danger they were, his heart was exceedingly troubled.”[1] In his zeal for the God of Israel, his heart was brought low when he learned of the grievous sin which the nation had committed. In his zeal for the God of Israel, he instructs that a reformation of religion be carried out throughout the whole land, leading the people back to the Lord. It is for this reason that the Holy Spirit tells us there was never a king like Josiah in all of Israel’s history. In the absolute depths of sin and disobedience, God raises up a young boy who is zealous for His house and whose heart is tender and humble and trembles at His Word.
As inspiring as the account of Josiah is, a young king wholly devoted to God, it ends in sadness as Josiah disobeys God and goes out to battle in violation of God’s command. He is struck down in battle and dies. Furthermore, his reformation of religion in the nation fades almost immediately and in just a few more years, Babylon would enter the land and execute God’s judgment on the nation. For all the good that this boy king had done, we are left wondering what the point of it all is. The immediate application, which Burroughs highlights wonderfully, is that the hearts of God’s people must be tender and humble before the Word of God. Isaiah records, “This is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble, and contrite in spirit, and trembles at My Word” (Isa 66:2). God’s people are marked by a humble and contrite heart. They are a people who delight in the law of God and a sorrow over their sinful disobedience.
Yet the account of Josiah points us directly to another boy king who would come 500 years later, a coming not in a royal palace with a royal audience, but in a stable with farm animals and shepherds as an audience. This boy king, the promised Messiah, is found also consumed with zeal for God’s house and at only 12 years old is seen not only reading the Word of God but teaching it with authority to the religious leaders. It is Jesus Christ, the Word of God incarnate, who will not only bring a true and lasting reformation to the disobedient nation of Israel but will bring the entire world under His messianic rule. Josiah points us directly to Christ.
Keith Kauffman attended University of Maryland (B.S.) and Capital Bible Seminary(M.Div.). Keith currently works at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, MD, working in the Laboratory of Parasitic Diseases studying the immune response to Tuberculosis. Keith serves as an elder at Greenbelt Baptist Church.
