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Posted by: Kim_Hamilton on 06/30/2009 09:32 AM
Updated by: thepinetree on 06/30/2009 11:26 AM
Expires: 01/01/2014 12:00 AM
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Mother to a young King ~By Connie McCamey
We would like to give a warm welcome to one of our newest columnists, Connie McCamey.....Can you imagine being the mother of an eight year old king? Do you think Jedidah had to tell her son to wash the mud off his hands before he picked up the royal scepter? Did she stop him from standing on the thrown and pretending he could fly? Did she tell him to use an “inside voice” in the palace halls? How about warning him to be careful with the sword - he could poke his brother’s eye out after all...
2 Kings 22:1,2
“Josiah was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned 31 years in Jerusalem. His mothers name was Jedidah ... and he did what was right in the sight of the Lord.”
2 Chronicles 34:2,3
“he [Josiah] did what was right in the sight of the Lord, and walked in the ways of his father David; he did not turn aside to the right hand or to the left. For in the eighth year of his reign, while he was still young [16 years old] he began to seek the God of his father David ...... “
I think I can picture her tucking him into bed kissing his dark curls and praying. Praying hard! Being a king was not a safe occupation in those days. Josiah’s predecessors did not have the best track record. His own father reigned two years, did evil in the sight of the Lord and was killed by his own servants.
We really do not know anything for certain about Jedidah, Josiah’s mother. Except for her name nothing else is recorded about her, but by looking at Josiah himself we can make some assumptions about what his mother may have been like.
At the age of 8, after his father’s death, he became king of Judah “did what was right in the Lord, without turning to the right hand or the left.” The Bible makes it pretty clear and Josiah’s father was not a positive role model in his life. Chapter 21 of Kings tells us that “he did evil in the sight of the Lord” and “forsook the Lord God of his fathers, and did not walk in the way of the Lord.” He was also a teen parent, being only 16 when Josiah was born. We can be pretty certain that Josiah’s mother did most of the parenting.
In both 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles the Bible tells us that when Josiah was 16 years old he began to purge the city of Jerusalem and the nation of Judah of idol worship. When he was 26 he provided repairs to the temple. As the the temple was being repaired one of the priests found the Book of the Law and had it read to King Josiah. The kings was so touched by the reading of God’s Word that he tore his clothes (a sign of great sorrow), realizing that the people of Judah had not been following God’s laws.
Josiah sought out God’s will for the people and when God answered through the prophetess, Hulda, He said to Josiah; “because your heart was tender and you humbled yourself before the Lord when you heard what I spoke against this place and against it’s inhabitants, that they would become a desolation and a curse, and you tore your clothes and wept before Me, I also have heard you.” (2 Kings 22:19)
So we know that Josiah actively sought to do the right thing, was sensitive to the word of God, was tenderhearted and humble. I think it is fair for us to assume that he learned this traits from his mother. You have heard the phrase “you must have done something right,” in reference to your children becoming respectable teens or adults. What was it that Jedidah did right? This is what I have been asking myself for that past few weeks, especially as I look at my 11 year old son and try to imagine the chaos we would all be in if he were president or heaven forbid, king. What about Noah, what did his mom do right to raise the one just person on the whole earth? What about Martin Luther King’s mother? Billy Grahm’s mother? What did these women do right that I am terribly afraid of missing?
When it comes down to it no matter how hard I try to figure it out, I don’t have a clue what it was that Jedidah did to enable her 8 year old son to be one of the best kings Judah ever had. I don’t have an answer. If I did or rather if there were an answer maybe I could bottle it and sell it for 5 bucks a pop. Or if I were real kind I could just tell you, for free.
So the point must not be how Jedidah did it but just the simple fact that she did do it! She raised her son well. She did what God required of her. She did not write a book about it and demand that everyone else raise their children in the exact same manner.
Just this morning I came across a verse in Ezra chapter 8. “Then I proclaimed a fast there at the river of Ahava, that we might humble ourselves before our God, to seek from Him the right way for us and our little ones and all our possessions.” (italics added)
Ezra was leading a group of Israelites, who had been captives in Babylon, home to Jerusalem. The trip was long and dangerous. The Israelites had people opposing them on just about every side. The children were endanger of being killed or taken captive by the “world” again.
Ezra did not tell the parents to start reading books on parenting, he did not tell them to take up their swords and start fighting, he did not tell them to go into hiding. All of these things are not “bad” things to do. There is a time to pick up those parenting books, to get your swords ready to do battle for your kids, to remove your children from threatening situations. They key here though, is to seek God’s will first and for-most. When faced with imminent danger, Ezra and the returning captive humbled them selves and prayed and fasted, seeking from God “the right way for us and our little ones.”
If I knew “the right way” to raise my 11 year old and tried duplicating it on my 5 year old with out first seeking God and His direction, it would not work, in fact it could be detrimental. If I knew the exact mothering method that Jedidah used to raise one of Judah’s greatest kings and implemented it in my household without God’s guidance, I would have chaos (and possibly child protective services at my door).
In the same way, if I try to tell you that you must do what I do with your kids, without seeking God yourself, then I am leading you down the wrong path and we will both regret it in the long run.
In writing this blog I may be giving some parenting or mothering advice, I may tell you what worked in my home and suggest that you try it but the foundation for every counsel I give must be that you are seeking God for His will in your home. Before you take anything I say seriously I hope that you are spending time asking God what He would have for you. Time in prayer and time reading His word must be our priority in seeking the right way for our little ones.
I am almost certain I can see Jedidah cuddling her newborn son to her breast, crying, knowing that his future would not be easy. Praying hard that he would grow to have a heart that was tender towards God and His word, hoping that just maybe, this little Josiah would have in him a little bit of his great great great grandfather, King David.
“And [Josiah] walked in the way of his father David; he did not turn to the right or the left.” (Chron. 34:2)
“David was a man after God’s own heart.”
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