Jeremiah 1:2 – The word of the Lord came to him in the thirteenth year of the reign of Josiah son of Amon king of Judah.

Jeremiah was a young man in his late teenage years when he experienced an unmistakable call to the ministry.  His first response was to remind the Lord of his lack of talent and maturity.  Jeremiah said, “I don’t know how to speak, and I’m too young.” (1:6).  He was still trying to figure out what he wanted to do in life, living with dad and mom.

Jeremiah 1:2 mentions another young influencer – King Josiah.  He came to the throne after Manasseh’s evil forty-year reign when he was only eight.  So, King Josiah was 21, about the same age as Jeremiah.  They were contemporaries.  They were brothers from another mother.  Both shared a burning passion to see Judah wholeheartedly return to the Lord.

What was life like in the thirteenth year of King Josiah’s reign?  Around this time, the young king decided to make his first big move (2 Chron.  34:3).  The temple of God, built by Solomon, was a cluttered mess. 

That makes me think of our basement years ago when our five girls were twelve and under.  You couldn’t see the carpet because every inch was covered with scattered bits of toys, costumes, legos, dolls, and forgotten and broken Christmas gifts.  At that time, we didn’t have the energy to clean it up, so we just shut the door and made peace with the mess.  One day, we got motivated, took a push broom, and swept things into piles.  Then, we took a snow shovel and filled up about ten black plastic trash bags.

Manasseh left the temple in shambles.  But Josiah’s love for the Lord was much like King David (2 Kings 22:2).  And so he ordered the priests to restore and beautify God’s house.  While decluttering, they found an old, dusty book in the corner somewhere.  It was a copy of the Book of the Law, letting us know that no one was preaching God’s Word during Manasseh’s 40 years as king (2 Kings 22:11).  

The lost book was likely a copy of Deuteronomy, a collection of Moses’ final sermons that restated God’s laws and called the people to love the Lord with everything: heart, mind, and strength.  Josiah was deeply moved and tore his robes.  And then he went to work instituting massive religious reforms like no one had ever seen. 

He shut down the strip club in the temple and tore out the occult coffee shop.  All the male and female cult prostitutes had to look for other employment.  All the magic crystals, vibrating rocks, magic books, palm readers, and sorcerers were given the boot.  High places all around Judah were desecrated.  All the Asherah poles where people engaged in ritual sex, were set ablaze. 

King Josiah even stretched his reform efforts into the Northern Kingdom of Israel, razing every pagan shrine built since Jeroboam.  The king was a man with a mission.  Indeed, nothing else is said about his forty-year rule other than a recorded list of his reform accomplishments.  

While all this was happening, Assyria began to crumble.  Like all power-hungry empires, she over extended herself.  The conquered nations in her vast realm hated her with an exceeding hatred and began to rise up little by little.  Then, civil war hit from within, and things imploded quickly.  So, for little Judah, it was a ray of hope bursting through the darkness.  They were free of Assyrian dominion and a righteous King was on the throne.  Things were looking good.

Then one day, in the little town of Anathoth, the Lord stirred up a young man’s heart.

Jeremiah 1:4-5 – The word of the Lord came to me, saying, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”

More to come…