Reading: 2 Chronicles 34:1-7, 29-33
Key Verse: 2 Chronicles 34:3
Did you ever think a king could be lonely? I think Josiah was alone in his faith as he began sweeping reforms in a nation that had forgotten about God. Josiah did what was pleasing in the Lord’s sigh and didn’t turn aside from doing what was right. He was eight years old when he came to the throne and sixteen when he began to seek God. Josiah is painted as one of the finest of all kings. “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” (2 Kings 23:25). Josiah’s Judah didn’t follow their king’s lead with such enthusiasm. In fact, Josiah had to require the people to obey the term of God’s law as read in the newly discovered Book of the Covenant. Yet Josiah knew how the kingdom needed to go and he did what had to be done, whether the people enthusiastically followed or not. So how do you do it alone? How do you try to make a difference for God when everyone else is complacent? You take responsibility for yourself. You seek to please the Lord. You live openly and with integrity. Josiah’s spirituality and disciplined life meant going it alone. Will you go it alone if necessary? God will go with you if you do.
