06 Feb Breaking the Cycle – 2 Kings 23-25 “How a 8 year old boy became King and led a nation back to God”

One of the benefits of youth is not having to worry about the seriousness of life. Our most prudent task are being good obedient sons and daughters and good students. Our worries and our cares are reduced to misplaced toys, visits to the park, snow days and cartoons! Some of us had it better than others, but difficulties of life, the stresses of life, are carried by the Parents, while the child is left to be just that. A child.

This is a special time in every person’s life. It is the only time really where you have the opportunity to live innocently. Because once a child grows up, he or she is stripped of that innocence, and they must contend with the pressures, the injustices, and the stresses of a world that does not value innocence nor righteousness.

I mentioned some of us had it better than others. Because for some of us, the time we should have been allowed to be innocent, was stripped from us. Some of us came from abusive households. Some of us came from neglected households. Some of us came from loveless households. Some of us had a childhood full of sickness. Some of us had a childhood full of cruelty. Some of us came from a childhood full of physical and emotional scars that we are still suffering from until this day.

Some of us were thrust into stressful circumstances at an early age, because we were the recipients of terrible Parents and terrible parenting. Drug addiction, alcohol addiction riddled households have a devastating effect on children. Often being the precursor of a life filled with tumult. Imagine being an 8-year old child, and having to wake yourself up in the morning for school, because your Parent has gone missing for the last 2 days?

Imagine having to make yourself breakfast in the morning at the age of 8, for not only you but also a younger sibling, because your Parent is still asleep from a night of belligerent drinking? Who at the age of 8-years old is equipped to take care of themselves and deal with the responsibilities of life, let alone being responsible for the lives of others?

What if at the age of 8-years old you were responsible for a house full of people? How about if you were responsible for the lives and well-being of all the kids in your entire neighborhood plus their Parents? If you wanted that responsibility at 8-years old, raise your hand.

There was someone who had that responsibility, and he was the descendant of two terrible Parents. At the age of 8, he became responsible for an entire nation of people. Children don’t lead, children are led. It’s the benefit of being a kid. You’re able to follow your Parents or your guardian and let them focus on the things children don’t under or have to contend with.

This wasn’t the case for this 8 year old. This may have not been the case for you. King Josiah was the Son of King Amon. He was 8 years old when he became the King of Judah. His Father King Amon was the King of Judah for only two years. But in those two years, the Bible says in 2 Chronicles 33:22-23, that he did more evil in his two years as King, then his Father Manasseh did, in his 55 years of being King.

It is not always the duration that matters the most, it’s what you do in the time your giving that matters more. What I mean is, just because you’ve been doing something over a period of time longer, doesn’t mean it is more effective. If someone was to punch you in the arm once a day over a 20 year period, it will have a long lasting effect.

But if someone was to punch you in the arm, the stomach, the nose, the mouth, the leg, and the back once a day over a shorter span of time, it would have a greater effect on your body. King Amon, Josiah’s Father, did worse in two years then his Father did in a span of 55 years. All it took was opportunity and influence. The evil that was done by King Amon in those two years, didn’t have to be evil.

He could have done what was good and had the same effect. When we look at our lives and analyze the times we did what was evil with great effect, we could have done what was good to the same effect. The size of the effect just depends on opportunity. God provides opportunity. It is our responsibility to seize it. God will create the influence.

We must become just as opportunistic in our good deeds as we are in our bad deeds. Posting the perfect selfie on Facebook or on a dating app takes time and effort. When it comes to doing good, many of us don’t wanna take the time or effort. We expect God to build the boat, lift the boat, and row the boat. But we like to steer the direction!

King Amon had walked in the footsteps of his Father. Israel’s biggest problem was their pride and their idolatrous nature. This means that this is our biggest problem! We are the modern day Israel of the Old Testament. King Amon inherited the same evil ways as his Father, and he proudly walked in them and exceeded his Father’s works.

Good Parents always want their children to exceed them in their goodness, but never in their lawlessness. Here we see in 2 Chronicles 33:22-23, the Bible says King Amon walked in his Father’s evil deeds and even exceeded them. Like Father like Son. We see where the term comes from. King Amon was such an offense to God he was King for only two years before he was assassinated. His assassination left the position of King open. Luckily or unluckily for Israel, he had a son.

His son Josiah became the King of Judah when he was 8 years old. I was in second grade elementary school at 8 years old. The most important thing to me at that time was G.i. Joe, Transformers and He-Man. I’m showing my age here lol.

We have an 8 year old boy, who is now responsible for a nation of Men. If his Father was more evil than his Father, then chances are Josiah is going to be the worse of all! Bad Parents make babies that become bad children, who turn into bad people. King Amon forsook the Lord in all his ways, 2 Kings: 21-22 reveals this to us.

“He abandoned the Lord, the God of his fathers, and did not walk in the way of the Lord“. What a second. The scripture says he abandoned the Lord the God of his fathers, and did not walk in his ways. The God of his fathers. We know King Amon’s Father King Manasseh fell into idolatry, but King Amon had others in his family line, forefathers, who did walk in the ways of the Lord.

So though King Amon followed the ways of his biological father, there were also those in his family ancestry who walked after the Lord. One thing that King Amon lacked that his father Manasseh had, that made all the difference in the world, was humility. It was his father Manasseh’s humility that extended his reign to 55 years. God sent the Assyrians to capture Manasseh, put him in bonds and carry him back to Babylon.

But before the Lord allowed the Assyrians to capture Manasseh, it says in 2 Chronicles 33:10, that the Lord spoke to Manasseh and the people but they wouldn’t listen. They wouldn’t listen. We wouldn’t listen. You wouldn’t listen. I wouldn’t listen. How many times has God warned us about something in our lives, that we were doing that would create great consequence for us, but we wouldn’t listen.

I can remember a specific time. Can you? God always warns his people, before he allows his judgement. Some of the things you’ve experienced in your life is because you ignored God when he was trying to speak to you. He spoke to your spirit. He sent somebody. He opened your eyes to something. But you ignore it. If I could only go back. If you could only go back you wouldn’t have done anything different.

It was who you were at that moment. We make choices based on who we are at that moment. The person you are now, is not the person you were then, so the choices you would make now, are not the ones you made back then. That’s where the progression comes in at. Looking back at the wrong choices you made yesterday, and not making those same wrong choices today.

How would you know you’ve grown in your faith unless you are put in a similar situation that you failed the first time, second time, third time? God does not tempt us, but God will test us. Our testing is what reveals our flaws. God’s people have a hearing problem. We do don’t we.  We tune him out. We have a habit of tuning God out, when things are going in our favor. But when our circumstances turn dire, that’s when we hear God because we go looking for him.

Israel couldn’t hear God because they were not looking for him. It wasn’t until the Assyrians invaded them that they could hear him because they went looking for him. When Manasseh was brought back to Jerusalem, he commanded the people to worship the Lord. His son Amon could have followed in those steps as well. But when Manasseh died and Amon became King, he rebuilt the altars his father tore down. Bought back all the images and led the people away from God.

God does not take it lightly when those who have been put in charge of his people lead them away from him. This is not a light thing. He will punish such people perfectly! No matter your life. No matter your circumstances. Find someone in your family, who was doing the right thing. Find someone who was walking after the Lord. If you can’t find someone in your natural family, then look at your forefathers from your spiritual family.

We have a boy who’s 8 years old who has just become the King of Judah. A King of Men, who couldn’t see over the steering wheel of a car, and who was too short to reach the gas pedal. He came from the lions of one of the worst Kings to ever reside over God’s people, and inherited all the evil inclinations that were passed down from his father, and his Grandfather.

Look what the Bible says about Josiah. 2 Kings 22:2 says “And he did what was right in the eyes of the LORD and walked in all the way of David his father, and he did not turn aside to the right or to the left.” Why did the Bible say he walked in the way of David his father when Amon was his father? Because although Josiah had his father’s physical nature, he had David’s spiritual nature.

You can look just like your Dad, but have the spiritual nature of your Grandfather or forefathers that walked with the Lord. Don’t ever think you’re limited to who your Parents were. Or to who your Grandparents were. When God called you he gave you a new nature. He gave you a new father. He gave you new forefathers and Grandparents. He adopted you into a family of those who walked with him. Even if you don’t know your Parents, you have forefathers.

In them you know who you are! Josiah wasn’t David’s son biologically, but he had the same spiritual nature, so much so God declared David his father. God doesn’t hold who your Parents were or were not against you. It’s your choice to follow in their footsteps, or follow in the footsteps of your forefathers. That takes the lid off the roof and removes the ceiling that people try to put you under because of who your Parents were, where you come from, what your race is, or what your ethnicity is.

We have examples of who we are in Christ, and what we can become if we make the choice that Josiah did to not follow in the footsteps of his Father and his Grandfather prior to being captured by the Assyrians. As his Grandfather King Manasseh turned to the Lord later in his life, Josiah his Grandson walked with the Lord all the days of his life! The Bible said he did not turn aside to the right or to the left, but did what was right in the eyes of the LORD.

Like his Grandfather, Josiah tore down the altars that his father put up. Removed all the idols from the nation. Took tax money and restored the altar of the Lord. He called for a time of national repentance. He made a covenant with God, “The king stood by the pillar and made a covenant before the LORD, to walk after the LORD and to keep his commandments and his testimonies and his statutes with all his heart and all his soul, to perform the words of this covenant that were written in this book. And all the people joined in the covenant”; 2 Kings 23:3.

Not only did he not walk in the footsteps of his father, and to a large extent his Grandfather, but he caused the people to walk in the ways of the Lord as well. This from a King who lost his Father at the age of 8, and was thrust to the throne prematurely. You’d be surprised what God can do with a child who was brought up in tumultuous circumstances. If he could lead a boy to change the ways of a people, he can lead you to change the ways of your Family.

Change the ways of your friends. Change the ways of your neighbors. Change the ways of your neighborhood. All it takes is opportunity. God will give you the influence. Sometimes the influence is already present, like in Josiah’s case. Sometimes God gives you influence after you’ve shown to be obedient. It doesn’t matter how small you start. It is God’s job to magnify works.

The forefathers whom Josiah’s spirit was patterned after, are the same forefathers we have the opportunity to pattern our spirits after. Do you have the faith to achieve it is the question. Do you have the desire? Your will won’t do. We can will or do nothing without faith. It’s your faith, Gods grace and your desire only that will see you through.

The Bible says Josiah made a covenant with God, to walk in his ways and to keep his commandments with all his heart and soul. And all the people joined in the covenant that King Josiah had made with the Lord. The prayer of a righteous man availeth much! Though becoming a King at the tender age of 8, and observing the wicked ways of his Father and his Mother, he was able to break the cycle of idolatry.

What cycle are you trying to break? What are the things prevalent in your life that came from your Parents? Some of us do things and we don’t even know why we do them. Why certain things are so hard to overcome. Most of us grew up in a home full of idols. If your Parents weren’t saved then that’s definitely the case. Some of us are fighting things that latched on to us from our childhood.

I know I am. We’ve been one-way for so long it just seems normal now. It seems normal to be alone. It seems normal to have no friends. It seems normal to always be angry. It seems normal to isolate. It seems normal to always be let down. It seems normal to have bad relationships. It seems normal to live with no expectations. It just seems normal now.

God is anything but normal. He’s abnormal. And if he could take a child at the age of 8, who was raised by terrible Parents, in a house full of idolatry, he can take you and make you into something wonderful! I know it’s hard to believe, because it’s you, and you’ve been how you are for so long. But all it takes is a word from God and it can shift your whole focus on how you see yourself, and how you see things.

And if you’re older in age, you can be like Josiah’s Grandfather who lived the best days of his life in the second half of his life. Your age doesn’t matter. God is able to rebuild and restore old stones into new. Old wine skins into new wine skins. It’s what he does. Don’t deny God the opportunity to astonish you.

You’re important. We need every member in the Body Of Christ. Someone else may be able to use the same gift as you, but they won’t be able to use it in the same manner as you. We can’t afford to lose not one. That’s how precious and unique you are. Those words came from Jesus. I’m not speaking motivational words, I’m speaking words from the King. He said we were that valuable. And then he backed up his words by dying for you.

We are in some challenging times. Many of us are not working. Many of us are behind in bills or struggling to pay them. If that doesn’t describe your situation then consider yourself blessed. Go and help someone else who’s struggling.

As always, the spirit of the Lord has called me to fight for the ones I love. That’s you. That’s the body. He placed it in my heart. There’s no greater commandments then to worship the Lord as Josiah did, and to love one another. Don’t let the conversations of the World disrupt these commandments. Don’t let the World’s politics cause strife in your relationships. Politics is the World’s game of separating those one from the other.

There is no separation in the Body of Christ. “There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus“.