Our Letter to Josiah

Our Dear Josiah Michael,

This is a story about a little boy who was a very good king. 

The people rejoiced when he was born, for it meant the line of kings would continue. God had promised Israel that they would always have a king to sit on the throne for them, and Josiah’s birth was a reminder to them that God always keeps his promises. King Manasseh had a grandson! The Lord saves! Who is like the Lord?!

But eight years later, things looked very different. King Manasseh had died and Josiah’s father, King Amon, was murdered by his own servants. Suddenly there was no king left to rule for them except this little boy. It must have been scary for everyone, but God was keeping his promise. Even if he was just a little boy, Israel still had a son of David sitting on the throne. But could a little boy really rule well for them?

Well, anybody can be a good ruler with God’s help. Josiah just followed the Lord, and it turned out that’s all a good king needed to do. The Lord does save. There is no one like Him. 

When the word of the Lord was brought to King Josiah, telling him Israel’s sin and imminent destruction, he wept. He was so sad he even tore his clothes! Because he wept over his sin, God saved him from that destruction. And once God saved him, Josiah turned into a new man. He destroyed idols. He got rid of the priests who allowed the idols in the Temple in the first place. He ruined the high places. He put away the mediums and necromancers. He brought back the Passover. He walked in the way of God, without turning astray at all. And he is one of the few kings in the books of the Kings whose epitaph says nothing bad about him.

King Josiah’s life made clear the meaning of his name: the Lord saves. 

We hope that happens in your life, too. You may not tear your clothes (at least not if we teach you well), but there is a coming day when we even hope you mourn like King Josiah did. One day you may realize that because of our disobedience and the disobedience of our fathers, we too deserve destruction. We hope the Lord brings you his word like He brought it to King Josiah. And, as much as we never want to see you cry, we hope you are sad on that day. That’s because, as your name says, we hope and pray the Lord saves you. He can. There is none like Him. 

We also hope His mercy molds you into a new man: a man who walks in God’s ways without turning astray at all, even a messenger whose life and lips declare the meaning of his own name. 

That’s why there is another messenger you are also named after, one who stands before the Lord Himself. He, of all creatures, knows that there is no one like the Lord. He is a very good angel- one who fights for God’s people and faithfully delivers messages.  Your pappy and daddy are proud to bear his name and to pass it down to you. That name, Michael, means, “Who is Like the Lord?”

So we hope that, like King Josiah, your life displays a simple and unfathomably deep truth: that the Lord saves. And we hope that you become, like Michael, a messenger of God’s truths who makes people ask, “Who is like the Lord?” May there one day be multitudes in heaven shouting, “The Lord saves! Who is like the Lord?!,” because God chose to work through you. 

You were also given a royal name, like your daddy (David- after King David), your pappy (Stephen- crown), and your sister (Sarah-princess), even though we all will probably go through this life without actually wearing a crown. We feel like royalty sometimes, with the good lives God has given us, but Pappy and Daddy know that the real crown is coming later. 

That’s because those who follow in the Lord’s ways are learning today how to be rulers tomorrow. And one day, when the only truly good king Israel ever had comes back, He promises to make us rulers in His new creation. Suddenly, a lifetime of training doesn’t seem like long enough! We pray that, like the Josiah and the two Michaels who walk before you, you will one day wear an eternal, unfading crown.  

So your grandfather is Stephen Michael. Whose crown is like the Lord’s? And your father is David Michael. Who is beloved like the Lord? Now you are Josiah Michael. 

The Lord saves. Who is like the Lord?

Your loving parents,

David Michael and Emily Elizabeth Cook