2 Kings 21:23-24. "And the servants of Amon conspired against him, and killed the king in his house. But the people of the land slew all those who had conspired against King Amon and ... made Josiah his son king in his stead."

Amon was not a good king, nor a particularly memorable one. He gets only seven verses in the Book of Kings (2 Kings 21:19-26), and much of those tell us things like "he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord" as his father had done (2 Kings 21:20). Amon only reigned two years before he was killed by his servants. The people punished this conspiracy by killing those servants and placing Josiah, Amon's eight-year-old son, on the throne. Unlike his father and grandfather, Josiah ended up being a good king - "he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord". (2 Kings 22:2)

This has me thinking about leaders and how, no matter the system of government, sometimes we get good ones and sometimes we get bad ones, but we must always follow the proper protocol for installing them. In kingly succession, the weaknesses and sins of the father are often perpetuated through his sons as they follow him on the throne, but every once in awhile there is a surprise, as there was with Josiah. In response to the problems with kings, democracies and republics came into being, but they are also no guarantee of great leaders, they just have a less messy way of replacing the bad ones.

We have to remember that God is in charge of everything. He sees every leader that will ever be in place over every nation, and His plan takes all of them into consideration. Sometimes nations have to suffer through bad leaders in order to become better nations. Sometimes the people themselves are so far away from God that they don't even see the wickedness of their leaders, and they need the justice that comes from having a bad leader, or a succession of them. In any case, knowing that God is in charge means walking in His ways, even when we do not approve of our leaders.

The people of Jerusalem avenged the murder of their king, even though he was not a good one, and placed the rightful heir on the throne. They achieved justice, and followed proper protocol, and were rewarded with a good king. When elected leaders end up being corrupt or wicked, the procedure for outing them is a fair election. When everyone adheres to this proper protocol, if we are ready to be rewarded with a good leader, we will get one. If we are not ready, we may get another bad leader, but we can view that as part of God's plan. But a good leader never results from cheating, stealing, murder, or bypassing any of the protocols in place for installing them.