The lost book
O
nce upon a time in a kingdom far away, there ruled a mighty king. Now, although
this King was mighty and had great power, he was only eight years old. His
name was King Josiah and he was the son of a wicked and mean king whose name
was Amon. When Amon had died, the people of the land made Josiah the king,
for so it was done in those days. The King’s son would always be the next
ruler in the kingdom. Now Josiah had no sons of his own as yet, so the most
important thing for him to do was to learn all he could about ruling the people
of his kingdom and to stay alive long enough for him to have children, preferably
sons, of his own.
The duties of being king of the kingdom
were exceedingly great but King Josiah had lots of help. In his kingdom,
there were princes, wise men called priests and certain men and women called
prophets who gave the king wise counsel and helped him to mature into a fine
young man.
As time continued, Josiah reached the age
of sixteen and something strange began to happen to him. All of a sudden,
he began to pray to and sought to know the God of one of his forefathers whose
name was King David. Now for a long time, in Josiah’s kingdom, most of the
people had forgotten about the God of David and had started to worship other
gods and woodcarvings called idols. As Josiah learned more and more about
the God of David he realized that he and his people had offended God and
that God was not pleased at all with the way that the people of his kingdom
was worshipping. Josiah knew that something had to be done and so at the age
of twenty he began to break down all the idols and the places of false worship
in his kingdom. For six more years, King Josiah saw to it that the worship
of the false gods was abolished and that the place where the God of David
was to be worshipped was repaired and cleaned.
While the men were rebuilding the house
of the God of David, something very important was found. A priest named Hilkiah
found a special book that had been lost for many years. It was a book of the
law of the LORD that had been given to the people of Josiah’s kingdom by
a man of God named Moses a long time ago. Hilkiah quickly gave the book to
a man named Shaphan and told him to give it to the king. Josiah gave permission
to Shaphan to read the book to him and then another amazing thing happened.
When Shaphan had finished reading the words of the book, King Josiah ripped
off his clothes and began to cry. This was what was done in those days when
people became sad, greatly disturbed or grief stricken. The words of the book
had warned and told Josiah that the wrath (great anger) of God was upon him
and his people.
After this, King Josiah sent some of his
most trusted friends to ask the prophetess Huldah what he should do. After
hearing from God, Huldah replied and told the King that God was indeed angry
with the people of his kingdom and was going to destroy them but he would
show Josiah mercy by waiting until he was dead before he did this. She told
Josiah that God would show him mercy because when he heard the words of the
special book he humbled himself and cried before God.
After this, King Josiah sent and summoned
all the people of his kingdom to the house of the God of David and he read
the words of the special book of the law of God to the people. When he was
done, he made the people to sware and promise that they would follow the words
of the book and serve only the God who had wrote the book. The people agreed
and there was peace in the kingdom of Josiah until he was killed in a battle
that was not his own at the age of thirty-nine. The God of the book of the
law had kept his promise to Josiah and his son Jehoahaz was made king after
him.
This story was taken and adapted from the
Biblical Account found in 2 Chronicles Chapters 34 –36. (This story
is a great one to use to teach children the importance of the Bible (God’s
law book) and to spark their interest in the history of the Hebrew kings.