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TEXT: 2 Chronicles 34:1-33
ONCE there was a little boy king. His name was Josiah and he was only eight years old. He was just a little boy but he loved God with all his heart. When Josiah got a little older, sixteen years old, he prayed and prayed and asked God to help him be a good king and do the things he should, to help the people love God, too.
Josiah lived in the big city of Jerusalem where there was a great big Temple Church. Josiah went to this Temple Church to pray to God. The Temple Church used to be pretty, a long time ago, but it wasn’t pretty any more.
Josiah felt real sad when he looked around at God’s house and saw how dirty it was and falling to pieces. The beautiful gates were all so broken that they fell down, and the walls had big cracks in them. There were holes in the floor, too. Josiah saw rubbish lying all around. He could see that God’s Temple had not been cleaned for a long, long, long time.
It was not Josiah’s fault that the Temple Church had not been cleaned for so many years. Before he was king there were other kings who did not love God. They were mean, bad men. Anyone who does not love God gets mean and bad, sometimes.
These kings did not want the people to pray to God so they put up some make-believe gods called idols; something they had made. They told the people to pray to them. An idol cannot see, cannot hear, cannot talk, so it could not hear the people pray or help them be good. These kings put up lots of idols for the people, and God did not like that at all.
God loved Josiah and helped him every day. Josiah could not stand to see God’s Holy Temple so dirty and falling down. He knew God did not like it either. Josiah looked around and thought, “I will make this Temple Church all beautiful again, like it used to be, a long time ago. I will get the work started right now.”
Josiah asked some men to start cleaning up the church and fixing all the broken places. My, how the men did work! They cleaned and cleaned and fixed and fixed. They picked up all the rubbish and carried it away.
One day while some of the men were cleaning, they found a Book. This Book did not look like the books you have at home. They did not have books like yours when Josiah was king. They just had a paper rolled up. That is the way they made a book then.
The men looked at the Book, and wondered what it said. They gave it to one of the High Priests. He was a man who helped in the church.
The High Priest opened the Book and my, how surprised he was when he began to read it! It was a Book that had been lost a long, long time ago. It was called the Book of the Law. God had told Moses what to write in that Book. God sent these laws and rules to the people and God wanted them to obey the rules and laws He sent. God still wants us to obey those same rules today, and to do what God said for us to do.
The High Priest knew that Josiah loved God very much and would be so happy to see the Book. Josiah told a man who worked for him to read it to him. Josiah listened as the man read. Josiah had never heard these rules before. God wanted everyone to love Him the very best; God wanted everyone to pray to Him, and to do what God told them to do. God said in the Book that boys and girls should mind their father and mother, to be kind to everybody and forgive the one who does mean things, not to fight back but to pray for them. God said many things in His Book that He wanted the people to do.
Josiah was glad to hear all these things. Now he knew how to live for God better than before. He wanted all the people to know the rules God made, too, so Josiah told all the people everywhere to come to the Temple. How surprised those people must have been to see the Temple Church all cleaned up and made beautiful.
Josiah told about the Book they had found that had been lost in the Temple for many years. The mean kings who had not loved God had thrown away a lot of God’s holy things that belonged to the House of God, but God did not let them find this Book of the Law. God knew where it was all the time, and He kept it hid until there was a king who loved Him and would take good care of it; then God let the Book be found.
There were one-two-three-four-five-books in this one roll of paper, and Josiah read them all to the people. When he had finished Josiah said he was going to always love God with all his heart and do what God said for him to do. All the people were glad for God’s laws and rules, too. They said they would pray to God and throw away those make-believe gods.
Josiah was just a little boy when he started to be a king, but God helped him to be a good king. God can talk to a little boy or a little girl. Josiah loved the Lord God and wanted to do the right things. Now God’s Book was found and Josiah could read the things God said to do. Those same five books are in our Bible today for us to read.
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