Neither before nor after

I hope that all of my readers had a wonderful weekend. I am very thankful for this last weekend. I was able to re-wire the lights for a portion of the hallway and upgrade from a T12 to a T8 ballast, hopefully saving the church a good bit of money on electric in the process. I know that the lights were at least brighter. I also discovered, through God's help, that the dimmers in the church sanctuary are having issues because (it would appear) of a problem with the communication wire going back to the sound "booth". I will test it another week or so to be sure.
We now get to observe one of my favorite kings in the history of Judah - Josiah.

From II Kings 22 - 25

1. We see that at the age of 24 (or so) Josiah was already very committed to following God whole-heartedly. What a great example to the young people of today. Today many youth forsake attending church and following God, and they only come back to God when they get into their 30s and have children / a family.

2. Neither before nor after - After reading up to II Kings 23:25, one can see why the bible says that there was neither a king before or after him who turned to the Lord with all of his heart, soul and strength. He went so far as to destroy the altars made by Solomon (destroying bad traditions) and even getting rid of household gods (even Rachel had one of these back before the twelve patriarchs were born). He also declared that the people should celebrate the Passover - something that had not been done in a very, very long time.

3. Unfortunately, Josiah could not turn God from the wrath that He had harbored due to the exceeding evil that Manasseh had committed. But God did note his extreme faithfulness. I wonder - if Josiah's son had been as committed as his father - would that have caused God to reconsider? Three or four generations of people continuing to follow God that whole-heartedly should make a difference.

4. I know that typically (especially in the US) it is thought to be bad if one is poor. However, those who were exceedingly poor during the time of the invasions of Babylon were blessed, because it was these very poor people who left behind to farm the land. However, even they were unfaithful and went to Egypt after there was a uprising against the leader left in the land by the Babylonians.

5. It is interesting that God had mercy upon Jehoiachin and allowed him later in life to eat at the king's table and have an allowance. Perhaps he was repentant after all that happened.