God's Ultimate Makeover: King Josiah Study & Obey God's Word

Bible Texts: 2 Kings 22-23; 2 Chronicles 34-35
Theme: When you receive God’s Ultimate Makeover, you will want to study and obey God’s Word.
Memory Verse: 2 Timothy 2:15 “Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”

Hello boys and girls! I hope you are ready to learn about another one of God’s Ultimate Makeovers today! Who did we learn that God made over last time? Right! Ruth!

Ruth learned about the One True God and she chose to follow Him instead of the false gods of the Moabites. The Jewish people knew about the One True God, but sadly, not all Jewish people chose to follow Him like Ruth did. Some people chose to believe in false gods, even after they had been taught about the One True God.

Do you remember what we call this? SIN. Some people know the right thing to do, but they still choose to do the wrong thing. Sometimes even you and I choose to do the wrong thing, and that is called sin, and its what Jesus had to die on the cross for. Yours and my sins.

Ruth chose to turn away from her sin, and to follow the only one who could take her sins away. I’ve chosen to do that too, and I hope you have, or that you will soon.

The Bible tells us about a boy who became King at the age of eight. His name was Josiah. Josiah’s grandfather had been a very wicked and evil king. He had worshiped many false gods. Josiah’s father had been a very wicked and evil king. He had worshiped many false gods.

It was very hard to be the new king when you are only 8 years old. Josiah probably didn’t know what to do! But he did decide to do one thing very differently than his father and his grandfather.

Josiah chose NOT to be a wicked and evil king!

Furthermore, The Bible tells us that when Josiah was still young, about 15 or 16, he started to seek after the God of his ancestor, the great King David. He wanted to learn about and follow the One True God like Ruth did, and like Ruth’s great grandson, King David did.

Josiah knew that the worship of the false gods didn’t change people on the inside for good. Instead, it made them evil and wicked like Josiah’s father and grandfather had been. Josiah knew that the first two of God’s ten commandments talked about this. The One True God, our God, says in the first two commandments:

1) Thou shalt have no other gods before Me.

2) Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image (idol). Thou shalt not bow down to them or serve them. (Exodus 20:3-5)

Josiah knew that his father and grandfather and many other people in his kingdom were sinning because they were doing exactly what these two commandments said not to do…. Worship false gods and make idols of them.

So, Josiah went to work!

He began to tear down all the idols and shrines to all the false gods all over his Kingdom. He smashed them and scattered the pieces on the graves of those who had worshiped them. It took a while and some people probably got very mad at King Josiah, but he knew he was doing something that was right, and that God was pleased!

One of the next things that King Josiah did was to start to fix up the Temple of the Lord God. Over the years, it had not been taken care of and so there were many things that needed to be done to repair God’s Temple. Josiah wanted to make the Lord’s Temple look as good as when it was first built!

He hired skilled workers who would do a good job, and they worked very hard and restored the Temple. They also collected money from the people to pay for all the materials and repairs that they would need. A man named Hilkiah, who was the High Priest, was in charge of collecting and recording the money. It took a while, but King Josiah knew he was doing something that was right, and that God was pleased.

While Hilkiah was recording the money collected at the Lord’s Temple, he found a copy of the Book of the Law of the Lord as it had been given through Moses. This was God’s Word, and it was VERY important!

Boys and girls, we have God’s Word too. It is called the Bible! I hope the Bible is very important to you too!

The part of God’s Word that Hilkiah found is in the Old Testament part of our Bible. When Hilkiah found the scroll (That’s how they wrote things in those days, on scrolls of parchment), he sent it immediately to King Josiah.

King Josiah read the scroll and became VERY upset. The Bible says that Josiah tore his clothes, which is a sign of how sad and sorry he was. Josiah was not upset because they had found the scroll, but because he could see that the people and their ancestors had not been obeying God’s Word! Josiah’s father and grandfather had not obeyed God’s Word! Josiah himself had not even been obeying God’s Word all the way. Josiah knew that God was NOT pleased! And that made Josiah very upset! Josiah asked God what they should do.

God gave Josiah this answer:

“I am very angry with the people because they have been worshiping false gods instead of me! I will punish the people because of their sin, as I have promised. But, because you, Josiah, were sorry, and humbled yourself before me, and tore your clothes in repentance, so I have indeed heard you. I will not send the punishment until after you die.”

Then King Josiah called for all the leaders of his kingdom. The king went up to the Temple of the Lord with all the people of the kingdom, and the priests and the prophets. All the people were there, from the least to the greatest! There the King read to them the entire Word of God that had been found in the Lord’s Temple. Josiah made a promise to God before all the people.

He promised that he would obey the Lord by keeping His commands, rules, and laws, with all his heart and soul. And then, all the people promised this too!

Josiah knew how important God’s Word was in his, and in his people’s life. Josiah studied it and obeyed it all the rest of his life.

We need to be like Josiah, boys and girls. God has now given us His entire Word, contained in the Bible, for us to love and study and obey! Our Bible verse for today is found in 2 Timothy 2:15. It says:

“Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”

This means that after we ask Jesus to take away our sins, and come into our hearts and lives, we need to love and study His Word. When we learn as much as we can about God and His Word, we can help to teach others about Him. We should read and study our Bibles every day! It takes a while to learn everything we can learn about God, but it is the right thing to do, and God will be very pleased. That’s what it means to be “approved unto God”!

Boys and girls, if you have already asked Jesus to take your sins away and come into your heart, are you “studying God’s Word to show yourself approved unto God?” That is how you grow as a Christian! You can make that promise today like Josiah did, to love and obey God’s Word.

But maybe you have never invited Jesus into your heart or asked Him to forgive you for your sins. Jesus died on the cross to take the punishment for your sins, and He rose from the dead three days later proving He had beaten sin, and death, and satan.

Will you ask Him today to be your Savior?