“King Josiah—No One Like Him”

​YEAH! Church - Sunday, October 10, 2021

"Heroes of the Bible” – How old do you have to be before you can become king? Well, in Josiah’s case he was only eight years old! And more surprisingly, he may have been the best king Israel and Judah ever had…

Today’s Lesson - “King Josiah—No One Like Him”

Video Story:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbOLxBHhvkA (Saddleback Kids – Josiah)
Today’s Hero – Josiah (2 Kings 22-23:25)

Josiah came from a long line of kings. Some were good, but others were very bad. One of the worst kings, was Josiah’s own grandfather, Manasseh, who ruled Judah for 55 years—he had lots of time to create a really big mess. Josiah’s own father took after his father, Manasseh, but only reigned as king for two years before he was assassinated by his own officials. The people were not happy with the conspirators and had them killed before making Amon’s son, Josiah, king in his place.

Even though many in his family had worshipped false gods, King Josiah was serious about serving God. Eighteen years after he became king, a scroll containing God’s laws was found in the Temple. But when Josiah heard what it contained, he knew they were in trouble. They hadn’t been obeying God the way they were supposed to. King Josiah set to work removing all the false gods, fixing the Temple and having people once again worship God the way they were supposed to, even celebrating the Passover for the first time in many years. God blessed King Josiah and promised that there would be peace during his lifetime as king—punishment was coming to the nation of Judah, but God would wait until Josiah was no longer king.

Engage:
• Josiah’s family worshipped many false gods. How might Josiah have come to know about God?
• He became king at the age of eight. Do you think you could be a good king/queen at eight years of age? What would you do?
• After being king for eighteen years, when the lost scroll containing the law was found, Josiah knew he needed to make some drastic changes. What did he do?
• God was pleased with King Josiah. What promise did God make to him?

Theme verses:
2 Kings 23:25, NLT - “Never before had there been a king like Josiah, who turned to the LORD with all his heart and soul and strength, obeying all the laws of Moses. And there has never been a king like him since.”

Prayer – Dear God, thank you for Josiah. Even though his father and grandfather had been terrible kings, Josiah was a good king—in fact, one of the best that Israel and Judah ever had. No matter what we experience in life, we can make good changes, just like Josiah.
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~ Pastor Jane