Josiah, The Boy King Chapter 4 Part 2

Josiah, The Boy King  Chapter 4, Part 2

            The next several months were very lonely for Josiah.  King Amon wouldn’t let him see his mother at all.  When he did catch a glimpse of her in the palace, she always looked like she had been crying, and that made him very sad.

            About the only people he did see here the servants, and his tutor—a big, fat man with the unlikely name of Buz.  King Amon had personally chosen Buz as his teacher and Josiah really didn’t understand why until the day they started on his history lessons.

            Buz would always come huffing and puffing up the stairs right at 8:00 o’clock in the morning, just after Josiah had finished his breakfast.  He would plop into a big chair near the door, the only chair big enough to hold him without collapsing, and there he would sit until 2:00 in the afternoon when the lesson time was complete.

            “Today,” Buz wheezed on the particular morning.  “Today we are going to learn how Baal delivered our people from the land of the Egyptians.”

            “But that wasn’t Baal,” Josiah protested.  “That was Jehovah.  My mother told me all about it.”

            “Hush!  Your mother has filled your mind with lies, and you would be wise to forget everything she has ever told you.  King Amon has personally entrusted me to teach you the true history of our nation.”
            When he heard that, Josiah sat down on the floor, folded his hands across his chest and frowned, real big.  His mother wasn’t a liar.  He didn’t care what the king had told Buz to do. He could talk all he wanted, but that didn’t mean Josiah had to listen.  And so Buz talked and Josiah tried to think about other things, but it was hard to do, and sometimes he found himself listening even when he didn’t want to.

            “How Baal brought his people out of Egypt.”

            “The people of Israel had been in Egypt for four hundred years, ever since their old god died after leading them down there through Joseph.  Now they needed a new god.  So Moses went out into the desert to look for a new god.  There he saw a bush that was burning.  A voice said, “I am Baal.  From now on you will worship me and just as you see this bush burning today so you will give me your children by throwing them into the fire.  So Moses went back to Pharoah and said—“My god Baal wants me to lead his people out into the wilderness to worship him.  If you don’t let my people go, then Baal will send down fire and destroy your children.”

            “Pharoah wouldn’t listen to him.  So Baal sent fire down to burn up all the first-born of the Egyptians and then Pharoah said they could go.”

            “When they got out into the wilderness, Moses lost his mind and told the people they were going to worship the old, dead, god—Jehovah again.  But Aaron knew better.  So while Moses was gone on a trip, Aaron collected gold earrings from all the people.  He threw them into a fire of burning bushes and out walked a golden calf—the image of Baal.”

            “When Moses came back he was very angry and really lost his mind.  He ordered his own personal soldiers who were the only ones following him to break up the golden calf and grind it into powder.  Then he mixed the gold dust with water and made all the people drink the mixture.  Baal was so angry with Moses that he made all the people wander in the wilderness for forty years until Moses was dead and someone else could lead them into the land.”

            Josiah couldn’t believe that this grown man who should have known better was actually saying those things.  He had everything mixed up.  Every time the people of Israel were in trouble he blamed it on Jehovah.  Every time something good happened, he gave the credit to Baal.  Josiah knew it wasn’t that way at all.  His mother had told him the truth.  But there was nothing he could do except try to remember the way it really happened when Buz tried to fill his mind with lies.

            He probably couldn’t have taken it for very long if it hadn’t been for Shaphan.  Buz was so lazy and he liked to eat so much that it really bothered him to have to teach right up until 2:00 in the afternoon.  So one day he came up with a plan.  From noon until 2:00 was the time allotted to teach Josiah his writing.  That was the part of the day Buz hated the most because it meant that once or twice he had to push up out of the chair and walk over the Josiah’s desk to see if he was forming his letters correctly.  That was where Shaphan came in.  He was a young lad about six years older than Josiah.  His father was a scribe, so Shaphan knew how to write extremely well.  Buz knew his father slightly, and one day he had the idea that Shaphan could come to the room and check Josiah’s writing parchments.  It worked so famously that soon Buz was heaving himself out of the chair every day at noon and lumbering out to lunch, leaving the two boys to work on the writing lessons.

            Josiah liked Shaphan from the first day.  They would hurry through their writing in about half the time it took for Buz to go through them and then they would spend the rest of the time just talking or playing word games.  Josiah found out that Shaphan’s father was a good friend of Hilkiah the high priest and that Shaphan was a follower of the Lord God Jehovah just like Josiah.  Shaphan was excited to learn that the young prince was a believer in the god of David.

            “Your father is a worshipper of Baal and Molech, you know.”

            “Yes, I know.”  Josiah told him all about the day in the briar patch when he and Benjamin had followed his father and Bar-Abel and seen the gods in the basement.  “I’m sure he is listening to Bar-Abel just like grandfather Manasseh did before he was taken to Babylon.  Bar-Abel is so wicked.”

            “He certainly is.  I think he would like to kill the High Priest Hilkiah just like Isaiah was killed if he thought he could.  But there are many people who still worship Jehovah here in Jerusalem, even among King Amon’s own soldiers.  If any orders were ever given to capture Hilkiah his friends would know immediately and hide him away.  There are lots of places to hide in the temple where even the soldiers couldn’t find him.”

            “Have you been in the temple, Shaphan?  Except for Grandpa’s funeral I’ve never even seen it.”

            “It’s the most beautiful building in the entire world.  And the most sacred.  There is a room in the temple called the Holy of Holies where Jehovah-God Himself dwells between two golden Cherubs.  Even the high priest is only allowed to go into that room once a year, and when he does they tie a cord to his foot so that if he displeases God and dies in there they won’t have to go in and get him, they can just pull him out.”

            “Awesome,” said Josiah.   “I just can’t understand why my father would want to worship an old idol who can’t see or hear when God is so powerful.”

            “I don’t understand it either, but my father says the problem is pride.  When a man serves Jehovah he has to admit that God is right and he is wrong.  But when a man serves an idol which he has made he knows he is greater than his god, and that makes him feel powerful.  Then he can do anything he wants to do and just say that the god told him to do it.”

            “I suppose you’re right,” said Josiah.  “Pride sure causes lots of problems, doesn’t it?”

            As the days passed Josiah came to depend entirely on Shaphan to find out what was actually happening in the palace and the kingdom.  He was never allowed to see his mother, in fact no one else had seen her for several months either, and Shaphan told him that Amon had taken another wife by the name of Maachah.  The boys didn’t talk about what might have happened to Zedidah, but they both wondered if maybe King Amon had ordered her killed.

            Hardly a week went by that Shaphan didn’t bring word of another strange death among those who were followers of Jehovah.  It looked as if Amon was going to be even worse than his father Manasseh had been when he was under the control of Bar-Abel.  On the anniversary of his first year as king he made a proclamation that from that day on anyone who worshipped Jehovah in any place except the temple was in violation of the law of the land and would have all of his houses and lands confiscated.  Then a week later he sent his soldiers up to the temple gates and ordered them to nail the gates shut.  Rumor was that he was hoping the priests would move out so he could set up Bar-Abel’s idols right inside the temple itself.

            Josiah knew that things were getting worse—but he never expected the news Shaphan brought him at the end of his father’s second year as king.  He knew that something was up as soon as Shaphan came into the room that day, but they had to be quiet until Buz had packed up his belongings and left.  And Buz was soooooo

slow that day.

            Finally the door closed behind him.

            “What is it Shaphan?  What has happened?

            “I really don’t want to tell you Josiah. It’s just too terrible to believe.”

            “You must tell me, Shaphan.  You know that I’m trusting in Jehovah.  I can handle it.”

            “I’m not sure that Jehovah can help you this time, Josiah.  King Amon has ordered the fires to be rekindled in the valley of Molech.  And he has announced that in order to please the gods, every father in Jerusalem must offer his first-born son in the fire—beginning with the king.

            The news that the fires were again burning in the valley of Molech scared Josiah as nothing else in the two years his father had been king.  He was only eight years old, much too small to fight with the soldiers he knew Amon would send to take him.  If he were to run away—where would he go?

            But Shaphan had already thought of that.

            “We have to get you to the temple.  Tonight, when everyone is asleep, meet me at the side gate, the one that leads down to the briar patch.  I’ll take you up to the temple. Hilkiah will protect you there.  I know he will.”

            The two boys clasped each other around the neck, trying to blink back the tears, and then Shaphan was gone.

            The afternoon dragged endlessly for Josiah, but finally supper time arrived.  He wasn’t hungry, but he knew the servants would be suspicious if he didn’t eat, so he forced himself to put it all away.  After supper the servant came to help him get ready for bed, but as soon as the manservant left the room Josiah slipped from under the covers, dressed himself, and then climbed back into bed to wait until the palace grew dark.

            It seemed like people would never quit walking up and down the corridor outside his room, but finally all was still.  Carefully he crawled from the bed, slipped to the door, and opening it slowly peered out into the hallway.  No one—in either direction.  Pulling the door shut behind him he started toward the garden and the gate in the rear of the palace.  Even his light footfalls seemed to echo in the empty, high-ceilinged corridor.  If he could only make it to the garden without arousing anyone, from there it would be easy to get to the gate.

            As quiet as a little fox he scurried down the hall and around a corner.  And then he stopped.  There was a light glowing under the door to his father’s bedroom.  Josiah flattened himself against the wall and held his breath, but no one moved inside the room so again he headed toward the door to the garden.

            He had just made it past his father’s door and placed his hand on the door latch when he heard voices coming from the direction of the garden.  Wildly he looked around the hall but there was no place to hide.  All he could do was to crouch down behind the door and hope they didn’t see him.  Even as he did he knew there was no way they could avoid discovering him.

            The door swung open and from his hiding place Josiah heard the footsteps of several people move into the hall.  Then the door swung shut and he prepared to run for his life.  But they weren’t looking his direction at all.  They had their backs to him and were looking down the hall in the direction of the light that came from Amon’s bedroom.  There were three of them, so close he could have reached out and touched them.  He knew them all, even in the darkness of the hallway.  Ben-ami, Ariah, and Josedech, three of Amon’s most trusted bodyguards.  Amon must have found out about his plan to escape and sent them to guard the door to the garden in order to prevent him from getting away.

            As he watched, the three of them began to walk stealthily down the hall toward his room.  They were going to check on him and see that he was actually in bed.  Again he tensed and reached for the latch to the door.  It would be risky, but he had to try and make a run for it—it was his only chance.

            Suddenly the men stopped and Josiah pulled back into what little shadow he could find alongside the door.  They must have heard him turning the latch.  But still they didn’t look in his direction.  Instead they walked toward the light coming from under Amon’s door and as they walked Josiah saw the light glint on a dagger which one of them took from under his robe.

            Faster than he could say Mephibosheth, they threw open the door and charged into the king’s bedroom.  Josiah heard a cry of terror and then the sound of a heavy object being turned over or dropped.  Throwing away his fears he darted down the hall and up to the door, but it was all over.  The three guards stood over his father’s bed, daggers in their hands.  His father’s body lay crumpled in a heap before them, and the covers were stained with his blood.

            Others had heard the scream as well, and doors were started to open up and down the hall.  Josiah, turned to run, knowing they would be after him next, but his feet got in the way of each other and he stumbled and fell—right in the middle of the hallway.