MJ, Precious and Professor Ooops were still shaken up from their visit from King Manasseh. They realized that they could have easily died when they met that violent, evil King.
The Professor explained again why he had chosen King Manasseh, he wanted them to meet one of the ancestors of Jesus who did not follow the one true God, and who was evil. It is important to understand that Jesus had people in His family who were not nice people.
The next name on the dial was Josiah. The Professor explained that King Josiah was a good king. He did not worship idols; he worshipped the one true God and did his best to serve God. King Josiah did not kill people or sacrifice children to false gods. This should be a very good visit with no danger. MJ and Precious were glad to hear this news, and they got ready for the visit with King Josiah. MJ turned the dial on the time machine to Josiah and Precious pushed the button.
Nothing happened for about 30 seconds, then the booth began to shake like a mosquito who had too much caffeine, there was the sound of thunder, and the air was filled with dust and small pieces of rock!
A young man burst out of the booth, he was waving a big hammer in the air, and he yelled, “Are there any idols here? I will smash them!” The Professor, MJ, and Precious screamed in terror! They ran to the other side of the lab and hid behind a table. The Professor said, “Ooops!” MJ whispered, “Is that King Josiah, he is so young, and so violent!” The Professor explained, “I did not think that he would bring his hammer! We really do not have to be afraid of him, he does not use the hammer to hurt people.”
Just then King Josiah saw the back door of the lab and he ran outside. Suddenly they heard the king yell, “I see an idol!” Then they heard something breaking! They all ran to the door and looked outside. The Professor had a cement statue of a deer by some trees at the back of his yard. Now the deer was smashed to pieces and King Josiah was still pounding it with his hammer! Precious yelled, “Stop doing that, that deer was not yours!” King Josiah answered, “I love God, and I must destroy idols!” MJ said, “That was not an idol, it was a lawn ornament!” King Josiah asked, “You mean that you do not bow down and worship the deer?”
The Professor explained that most people do not bow down to idols made of wood and stone anymore. The king then asked, “Do you mean that everyone now loves God, and no one worships idols anymore?” The Professor shook his head sadly and told the king that most people today do not love God, but they worship other types of idols. Some people worship money, others worship popularity, still other people worship things like cars, and many people worship themselves, they think that they are a god.
King Josiah looked confused, he understood that some people worshipped money, but hitting money with a hammer does not destroy the money. He also understood that some people worshipped popularity, and he understood that some people would think that they were gods. There was nothing new about this, people had always worshipped these things as well as worshipping carved idols. But there was one thing the king did not understand; how could people worship a car? In fact, King Josiah did not even know what a car was. The Professor explained that a car was a machine that was used to travel quickly from place to place. The king still did not understand.
Just they heard the noise of a motor, and a car went by on the road. Precious pointed to the car and said, “King Josiah, that is a car.” The king snatched up his hammer and yelled, “That is an idol! I am going to smash it!” The Professor said, “Ooops!” The king started to run toward the car, but MJ grabbed one of his legs and Precious grabbed the other leg. Together they slowed down the king until the car went around the corner and out of sight!
The Professor suggested that they all go into the lab and sit down and talk about all of this, so that they could understand each other better. Once they were inside, MJ shut the door and locked it so that the king could not escape outside and start smashing things again.
King Josiah explained that he loved God with his whole heart, and that he wanted everyone else to love God too. Since he was king, he was able to tell people about God, and they had to listen to him because he was king. Most of the people obeyed the king and at least pretended to love God and worship Him, but secretly they kept their idols and worshipped them too! The king heard about this and got so mad that he got a big hammer and began to smash idols whenever he saw one! He loved God so much that he could not bear to even see an idol. King Josiah was sad because even after smashing the idols, the people still did not truly love God. They only pretended to love God so that they could please their king. King Josiah could not change the people’s hearts by smashing their idols!
The Professor agreed. We cannot change another person’s heart. Each person must choose for themselves that they want to love God and follow Him. Then God will forgive that person and help them to live in the way that pleases God.
MJ asked if we should be like King Josiah and get violent toward people who worship anything other than God. The Professor shook his head, and said, “No, violence is hardly ever the right way to handle a problem. King Josiah loves God so much, but he only knew half of the solution to the problem of idol worship. Jesus talked about this in the Bible.”
In the Bible in Mark 12:29-31 Jesus said:
“The most important commandment is this: ‘Listen, O Israel! The Lord our God is the one and only Lord. And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.’ The second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ No other commandment is greater than these.”
King Josiah said, “I think I understand things a little better now. I truly do love God with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength, but I was not showing much love for other people. Maybe if I had shown love for the people, they would have started to truly love God themselves, and gotten rid of their idols with God’s help!” Josiah then asked, “By the way, who is this person named Jesus that you have been talking about?”
The Professor explained to Josiah that Jesus was the promised Savior sent from God. Jesus is fully human (King Josiah is one of Jesus’ human ancestors) and fully God, and He died on a cross to pay the penalty for all the sins of the world. Now everyone could be forgiven if they believe in Jesus and pray and ask to be forgiven and want to live for Him.
The visit with King Josiah had been a great, and exciting time! Now it was time for King Josiah to go back to his own time, and they were sorry to see their new friend leave. Just before King Josiah went into the booth, he told MJ and Precious that he had a present for them. He handed them his hammer. It was a wonderful gift!
King Josiah went into the booth, the Professor shut the door and Precious pushed the button. Nothing happened for about 30 seconds, then the booth began to shake like a mosquito who had too much caffeine, there was the sound of thunder, and King Josiah was gone!