Josiah, The Boy King
Chapter 11 Part 1
“Jump,”
yelled Buz. “We’re going to crash.”
And crash
they did. As Buz and Huz rolled off the
wagon and landed ker-plunk on the road, the wagon slowly tipped toward the edge
of the road which dropped off into the valley of Molech. Gathering speed as the statues swayed in that
direction, the entire load of gold-encrusted idols of Baal crashed into the
burning fires of the valley.
Jekameamshobab
turned his horse around and headed back in the direction of Jerusalem, but one of the king’s guards was
right behind him and in no time at all the merchant and his two companions were
in chains.
That was
pretty much the end of opposition to King Josiah from the followers of
Baal. At least it was the end of outward
opposition. There were still plenty of
people who worshipped Jehovah with their lips but their hearts were far from
Him.
One of
those was the king’s son, Jehoahaz. He
arrived at the palace to live with the king at the end of the second week just
as Hamutal had promised. The horsemen
from Libnah delivered him right to the throne room where he was announced just
like any other guest. Josiah could see
that he was a good-looking boy and that pleased him, but beyond that initial
visit he didn’t pay much attention to the lad.
Kings had too many things to worry about besides raising children.
“Jehoahaz,
welcome,” he had said when the doorkeeper announced the arrival of the
prince. “You have been assigned to my
old rooms in the west wing of the palace.
There you will study with a tutor I have chosen for you. Your meals will be taken with the women
unless I specifically call for you to join us at the royal table. You are dismissed.”
Jehoahaz’
tutor was a young scribe from the temple, a good student who had also studied
with Shaphan. He taught the young prince
just what Hilkiah and Shaphan had taught him, and as far as he knew, Jehoahaz
learned what was taught. At least he was
able to repeat the answers. But what he didn’t know was that Jehoahaz really
didn’t believe anything he was being taught.
His mother had for seven years told him stories about Baal, while at the
same time telling him to hide what she was doing from his father, the king. So when Jehoahaz heard the lessons about
Jehovah, he would remember them and give the right answers, but he didn’t
believe them. His heart remained stone
cold toward the words of the Lord.
On the
fifteenth day of the twelfth month the great assembly was held in Jerusalem. Everyone was curious about the books which
had been found so they came from all over Judah
and Israel
to hear them read. For several days
before the fifteenth the streets were full of people and there was no room for
any more people in the inns. People
rented out rooms in their houses and still there were those who had to simply
wrap up in blankets and sleep out on the hills at night.
The morning
of the fifteenth dawned bright and clear as people began to gather even before
daybreak in the great courtyard in front of the temple. A sea of humanity formed as more and more
crowded into the square to hear the Word of the Lord. At nine o’clock the king stepped out of the
great doors of the temple, followed by Hilkiah and Shaphan and all the other
priests. A great hush fell over the
crowd.
“We have
gathered today to hear the word of Jehovah-God,” Josiah began. “For many years our nation has been without
this book, and we have suffered greatly because we did not know what God had
said to us. But now the book has been
found. We have read the book and will
read it to you today. But it is one
thing to hear the Word of God and it is another to obey it. At the end of our reading today, I am going
to make a covenant with God. I am going
to promise on behalf of our nation to walk after the Lord and to keep his
commandments, his testimonies, and all his statutes. I want all of you to join me in that
promise. Our only hope for continued
existence as a nation is to obey the Word of the Lord.”
For the
next six hours Josiah read to the people from the holy books. He read the account of the deliverance of the
children of Israel from Egypt; how God
brought the plagues on the Egyptians and caused Pharoah to let God’s people
go. He read about the death angel and
the application of the blood of the lamb for safety. He read about the crossing of the Red Sea and the wandering in the wilderness because of
disobedience. Josiah sometimes wept as
he read, but always he spoke in a clear, loud voice, making certain that all of
the people in the vast audience could hear.
Although they were standing and had been standing all day, there was no
noise or shuffling around. They were
awe-struck by the force and power of the words from God.
Finally
Josiah came to the portion of the holy books which had brought such conviction
on him the first time he had read it, those words which had caused him to rend
his garments.
“Neither
with you only do I make this covenant and this oath, but with him that standeth
here with us this day before the Lord our God, and also with him that is not
here this day…lest there should be among you man or woman or family or tribe
whose heart turneth away this day from the Lord our God, to go and serve the
gods of these nations, lest there be among you a root that beareth gall and
wormwood…”
When the king
read those words he paused and looked over the crowd. He couldn’t see individual people, but there
were those in the crowd who thought he was looking right at them. They had idols hidden back in their houses
and they knew God was talking about them as the “root that beareth gall and
wormwood.” Some of them decided right
then that they would destroy their idols as soon as they got home because God
didn’t want them to have them. But other
just glanced around to see if they had really been discovered. When no guards came to take them away, they
just hid in the crowd and decided they weren’t about to do anything to their
idols.
“The Lord
will not spare him,” read Josiah. “But
the anger of the Lord and his jealousy shall smite against that man, and all the
curses that are written in this book shall lie upon him, and the Lord shall
blot out his name from under heaven.”
Jehoahaz
was not in the crowd at the temple. As
one of the king’s sons a special room had been prepared for him which had a
balcony overlooking the steps where the king was standing. There he sat with a small group of close
friends. It hadn’t taken Jehoahaz long
at all to find some boys around the city who would follow him in what he wanted
to do. They weren’t followers of Baal,
that was too much to expect. But they
didn’t mind making fun of those who were serious about worshiping Jehovah, and
that fit Jehoahaz’ ideas just fine.
“Oh, I’ve
been smitten,” Jehoahaz gasped to his friends in mock terror as his father read
from the book. Grabbing his chest he
fell back on the cushions which were spread around the floor. “Help me!
The curses of the Lord are lying on me.
Pull them off quick.”
The
prince’s friends laughed hilariously and began to pile up the cushions on top
of him, all the while shouting, “The curses are piling up on you Jehoahaz. The curses are piling up on you.”
They were
so noisy that the people down below the balcony started to look up in that
direction, trying to figure out where the noise was coming from. Benjamin, who was standing with the priests
on the steps, also heard the noise and knew immediately it was coming from the
room where Jehoahaz was watching.
Bounding up the stairs two at a time he burst through the door of the
room.
“All right,
what’s going on in here.”
Immediately
a deathly quiet fell on the room. The
boys who had been cheering and shouting fell on the pillows with their mouths
shut. From under the pillows Jeohahaz
emerged still shouting, “The curse. The
curse. The…”
He spotted
Benjamin in the middle of a shout and without even missing a beat his laughter
changed to tears. “The curse!” Oh, Benjamin, is it really true? Is the curse of God really going to fall upon
our land? I am so scared.”
Benjamin
didn’t know Jehoahaz well, but somehow he didn’t trust him. Yet, he seemed so obviously shaken up by what
he had heard. Maybe the Word of God was
working on his heart.
“All right,
Jehoahaz. It will be all right. Just go back out on the balcony and listen to
your father. And try to keep it quiet.”
As soon as
Benjamin shut the door behind him, the boys broke out in stifled giggles.
“Oh,
Jehoahaz, that was quick thinking. You
kept the curse of Benjamin away for sure.”
And then
they were all laughing again.
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