Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign; and he reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem; and his mother's name was Jedidah, daughter of Adaiah of Bozcath.
A boy of eight takes the throne of Judah, and he holds it for thirty-one years. The verse raises two simple questions: what could a child do with such a kingdom, and where did his goodness come from?
Josiah did not start with a clean slate. The corruption around him was old, and much of it came from his own family line.
So Josiah, a child of eight years, found himself on the throne of David. Around him were the piled-up evils and errors of his father and his grandfather — yes, and forms of corruption brought in by no less a person than Solomon himself.
A child on the throne was not the ideal. One writer calls the situation alarming, then finds God's answer in the boy's name.
It is startling to read: "Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign." This was surely not as it should be. Every nation needs strong and sound leadership to hold evil down and let righteousness prevail. What could a child of eight do with a turbulent people? They were far advanced in wickedness, and near to overwhelming judgment. What follows will show that the Lord had mercy on the child, and also on the nation. His name means "Given of Jehovah." Such a devoted and conscientious king was a priceless gift to the people of Judah at a critical moment. Through him the Lord made one last tender appeal to His straying people before He drove them out of the land.
The verse names his mother and her home town. One writer looks at those names, and links the boy to an old prophecy about a coming son of David named Josiah.
Scoffers may long have asked, "Where is the promise of the coming of this prince, this child of the house of David, named Josiah?" Generation after generation passed, and no prince of that name appeared. Even the righteous may have questioned in their minds. They may have wondered whether God had forgotten, or doubted whether the prophecy was really true. Did Jedidah (beloved) know of this prophecy when she named her firstborn? Or Adaiah (Jah has adorned)? They were from the town of Bozkath, a swell of ground. At last the time had come for the one the prophet had spoken of to arise. The prophecy was now fulfilled — as all God's word must be.
Commentators differ over where Josiah's early faith came from. One writer traces it to his grandfather Manasseh.
The early sign of godliness in Josiah makes us stop. His father, as we have seen, was a very wicked man. Of his mother we know nothing except that she was "Jedidah the daughter of Adaiah of Bozkath." So where did the child Josiah get spiritual instruction? From his grandfather Manasseh, undoubtedly.
Another writer weighs the same family influences and finds them insufficient — because later kings had godly mothers too, and turned out badly.
Whatever may have been the case with these favourable or unfavourable influences, grace alone explains the characters of Hezekiah and of Josiah. The last kings of Judah prove this: they were ungodly despite their Jewish mothers and their godly father.
One writer sets Josiah beside the kings just before him. He was younger than them, and he was godly.
After him comes a truly godly prince — Josiah — younger, too, than either. He was not too young to serve the Lord.
One writer names three reasons this reign did so much good. He says the same three things still work today.
Josiah did wonderful things for God in a very hard time. Why? (1) He sought the Lord with all his heart. (2) He was determined to obey the written Word of God in every detail. (3) He worked hard to throw away everything that clashed with God's law, both from himself and from everyone he could influence. Given these conditions in any place, we might see great things yet, so gracious is our God.
- Young. At eight, Josiah inherited the piled-up evils of his father and his grandfather. He was still not too young to serve the Lord.
- Given. His name means "Given of Jehovah." God gave Judah this king at a critical moment, as one last tender appeal before they lost the land.
- Kept. God had named him in prophecy generations before he was born. The promise looked forgotten, but all God's word must come true.
- Grace. Family influence cannot explain him; later kings had godly mothers and turned out badly. Grace alone explains a Josiah.
- Fruit. He sought the Lord with all his heart, obeyed the written Word in every detail, and threw away everything that clashed with it. On those terms, God may still do great things.
And he did what was right in the sight of Jehovah, and walked in all the way of David his father, and turned not aside to the right hand nor to the left.
Judah's last good king came to the throne as a boy of eight. Two questions run through this verse: whose eyes decide what is "right," and how far back a person must look to find the standard.
One writer reads the king's age as a symptom of national collapse — and as the setting for something better.
"Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign." This tells a tale about the condition and ways of God's people... Such things ought not to have been. They were the sad fruit of sin and folly — the humbling proof of Judah's departure from the LORD. But God was above it all. We would never have expected to find a child of eight on the throne of David. Yet that child could find his sure resource in the God of his fathers... His youth and inexperience only gave an occasion to display divine grace, and to show the value and the power of the Word of God.
The words "in the eyes of the LORD" rule out three other courts of opinion.
It is a great matter, while the heart is still tender, to have it impressed with the fear of the LORD. That fear taught this young man to know what was "right," and to hold to it with unswerving purpose. There is great force and value in the words, "He did what was right in the eyes of the LORD." It was not what was right in his own eyes, nor in the eyes of the people, nor in the eyes of those who had gone before him. It was simply what was right in the eyes of the LORD. This is the solid foundation of all right action... We may do many things out of fear of man, many things by force of habit, many things because of the influences around us. But we can never do what is truly right in the eyes of the LORD until our hearts are brought to understand the fear of His holy name.
Kings in this book usually get their grade from the man who reigned just before them. Josiah and Hezekiah did not.
God traces Hezekiah's faithfulness back to the example given by David. That is all the more remarkable because it is not said of the kings before him. Jotham did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, following all that his father Uzziah had done. Uzziah followed all that his father Amaziah had done. Amaziah followed all that Joash his father had done. The Word of God makes the same remarks about Josiah as about Hezekiah. This confirms that these two kings returned to what was there at the beginning. You cannot today call a revival a true revival if it does not have this character.
One writer turns that principle on the reader:
He walked in the ways of David, the first of Israel's godly kings (v.2). In the same way, we today should take our instructions from the first days of Christianity, not from men who have followed through the years.
The second half of the verse describes settled decision. One writer sets it against the alternative.
How we long for this plain decision! It is priceless at all times, but especially in a day of laxity and easy tolerance... It brings great peace of mind. A wavering man is never peaceful; he is always tossed about. "A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways." He tries to please everybody, and in the end pleases nobody. The decided man, by contrast, is the one who feels he has "only One to please."
Josiah grew up with no mentor on record, and one writer will not credit Josiah's own character either.
There is no mention of any spiritual helper for Josiah, as there was for Joash more than a century earlier. Joash had his godly uncle Jehoiada with him for many years. With Josiah there was probably more direct dealing with God. This would account for his sturdy faith and his amazing energy in service for God. But whether it were Joash or Josiah, or the present writer and his readers, all is grace. Every scrap of good that has ever been seen in any of us is the work of the Holy Spirit.
Josiah's faithfulness came late, when the nation as a whole had sunk low.
He was the last king in Judah to have a good record. This shows us that even when the condition of the people has sunk to a low ebb, there may still be bright exceptions to the general trend.
- Standard. "Right in the eyes of the LORD" excludes his own eyes, the people's eyes, and the eyes of the kings before him.
- Source. No mentor appears in the record; grace produced the good in Josiah, not upbringing or temperament.
- Backwards. God measures him against David, not his father — a return to the beginning, which marks any real recovery.
- Straight. Refusing to turn either way is decision, and decision brings peace. The double-minded man pleases everybody and nobody.
- Late. At the nation's lowest ebb, one life could still run true — the last good record in Judah.