Heroes Need a Hero

“Josiah was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem thirty-one years. His mother’s name was Jedidah daughter of Adaiah; she was from Bozkath. He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord and followed the ways of his father David completely, not turning aside to the right or to the left.”
2 Kings 22:1-2 NIV

In second Kings Chapters 22 and 23, you see the story of King Josiah. It’s pretty incredible what he could do in a short time at such a young age. King Josiah was, without a doubt, a hero. For the next few weeks, I am going to use his story as a theme in our Heroes blog series. While I will only share quickly in these blogs on Josiah, I’d encourage you to go check it out for yourself if you’ve never read his story and become familiar with it. 

You see, Josiah was eight years old when he became king. His reign as king came on the heels of two terrible examples of what kingship should look like in the leadership of his father, Amon, and grandfather, Manasseh. However, that gave him no excuse to be a terrible king like his predecessors. He was able to look further down his family line and discover someone worth following; King David. Josiah understood how vital obedience to God was because of David's example. He decided to honor God with his life and follow Him completely as king. 

Here are a couple things I think we can learn from an eight-year-old king:

A lousy parent is no excuse for not having a hero. God will always provide a good leader for us to look to as a model. Take the time to discover them because they are out there. 

A hero worth following is faithfully following Jesus. The only hero you and I need is the person who does what is right in the eyes of the Lord. 

If an eight-year-old can find a good hero and become one, so can we. We have no excuse. Josiah had the worst examples, yet he found a man worth following. The fruit of that decision was that Josiah became a hero himself. 

So I’ll ask the question we started this blog series with: who is your hero? I’ve got three heroes in my life and another three that I look up to from afar. Every man needs at least one. My heroes inspire me, challenge me, teach me, and set great examples for me. What’s the common theme in each of them? They all do what is right in the eyes of the Lord.