Josiah

The sixteenth king of Judah and one of the godly kings in the Old Testament. He became king when he was eight years old, after his father had been killed by slaves in the palace. The people were worshipping idols. Worship of the Lord had almost been forgotten. When Josiah was sixteen, he ordered his men to break down the altars to foreign gods. When Josiah was twenty-six, the high priest discovered the book of the law that had not been seen or read for years. After getting the advice of the prophet Huldah, Josiah gathered all the leaders and many of the people of Judah to listen while the book of the law was read. Josiah decided to do all that the book commanded. He ordered the Passover feast to be held. The Passover had not been celebrated for hundreds of years. Josiah was killed in a battle with Egypt in 609 BC when he was thirty-nine years old.