Seek It

 

Once the Kingdom of Israel split after Solomon’s reign, both the NorthernTribe, called Israel, and the Southern tribe, called Judah, had a series of very evil kings—one after another, with a few exceptions.

King Josiah was one of those exceptions for Judah. Josiah was the grandson of Manasseh and the son of Amon—both of whom were wicked. Their evil ways ultimately led to Josiah being crowned king at the early age of eight.

Despite being closely related to these evil men, 2 Chronicles 34:2-3 tells us something quite interesting about Josiah. It says that Josiah “…followed the ways of his father David…he began to seek the God of his father David.”

Mind you, he had a biological father named Amon and a biological grandfather named Manasseh. Yet, scripture says he followed the ways of, not Manasseh, not Amon, but David.

To seek God is to make a conscious effort to be in His presence. It is not that God is lost. It is that we have to go through or around some stuff to have our minds and hearts focused on Him. For Josiah, he made a conscious decision to go through and around the influence of evil kings to get into the presence of the true God. He did this by way of David’s legacy.

Talk about hope!

How often do we feel bummed regarding the legacy passed down to us by our parents or loved ones? How often do we feel bummed regarding the legacy we’ve created for ourselves? Perhaps you were raised by two loving, supportive, and godly parents who modeled behaviors that would serve you well to follow. Or maybe you have yet to fall off track. If so, great!

Perhaps you have fallen off track or were raised and influenced by parents who were not so loving, supportive, or godly. Maybe following their ways or continuing in your current ways would lead outcomes of which you’d rather steer clear.

Josiah offers us hope by reminding us that we all have a chance to “follow in the ways of our father David.” What this means is, we have an example of how to act laid out for us in scripture. David was known as one of Israel’s greatest and most successful Kings, “a man after God’s own heart.”

Josiah knew of his father Amon’s ways but he also knew of his father David’s ways. He, therefore, had a choice. We too have a choice. We can learn about and model good behavior as we see it lived out in a noble teacher, a supportive minister, a godly mentor, and most certainly a Biblical figure.

Living a godly life may not have been modeled for him at home but it was demonstrated by and spoken of through David’s legacy.

God has a way of providing all that we need to follow Him. It may not come in the way we expected or through the people we’d hope it would, but it has been provided. The question is: have you begun to seek it?