Finding the Book
“Then Hilkiah answered and said to Shaphan the secretary, ‘I have found the Book of the Law in the house of the LORD.’”—2 Chronicles 34:15
The Bible is the most controversial book ever written. There has never been a book that has elicited such a stark contrast among people. There is not a book more stolen and sacred, reviled and revered, loathed and loved, banned and bought. It is the greatest piece of literature ever written, enduring time, language and culture to speak to us concerning God, ourselves, and the meaning of life.
In the Old Testament, during the reign of the Kings, the Book of the Law (the first five books of Moses) was the Bible of the time. We must remember that God has been speaking to His people throughout the centuries, and our Bible today is the comprehensive gathering of His Words given throughout the centuries in one book. But during the time of the Kings, it was only the first five books that were connected together and known as the “Book of the Law” as God was still speaking to His servants the prophets, and books were added in subsequent centuries. Nevertheless, the Book of the Law was the authoritative word from God up until that point in time, and God’s people, the Jews, were responsible to live according to its truth. But as often happened in Jewish history, the people would turn from God and His book to pursue idols. And the kings of the nation were not exempt from such temptations. Time and time again, as the books of 1st and 2nd Kings and 1st and 2nd Chronicles record, the king would lead the people in the worship of the one true God or would lead the nation astray by turning to idols.
The nation had turned from God under the reign of several kings before young King Josiah begins his reign in Jerusalem. He was only eight years old when he ascended to the throne, but the Bible says that “he did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, and walked in the ways of David his father; and he did not turn aside to the right hand or to the left”—2 Chronicles 34:2. At the age of sixteen, the Chronicler tells us that he “began to seek the God of David his father,” and in the twelfth year removed many of the idols that his predecessors had constructed, which had led the Jewish people into idolatry and sin. But it was during the eighteenth year of his reign, when he was twenty-six years old, that he issued a proclamation to repair the Jewish temple which had been neglected under the reigns of his predecessors. As the restoration project was underway, a discovery was made. Hilkiah the priest found the Book of the Law (2 Chronicles 34:14). The nation had turned their back on God and neglected God’s words for some time, but with Hilkiah’s discovery, everything became clear. The Book of the Law contained within it the words of God and what He required of His people. And to neglect God’s word, both then and now, invites God’s swift and unmitigated judgment.
Hilkiah the priest gave the book to Shaphan, the king’s secretary, and Shaphan read from the book before the king. When the king heard the words of the Law, he tore his clothes, a sign of deep sorrow and anguish over the nation’s negligence and complete disregard for God. He realized that God’s Word must be obeyed and their failure to do so invited God’s judgment. He inquired of the Lord and learned that God’s judgment and wrath were indeed coming, but because he humbled himself before the Lord, judgment would not come in his lifetime, but would come some time after him.
The king responded to God’s decree by leading the nation in a return to God. He took the Book and read it to the people, and commanded that it be kept, which the people did. Josiah led a mini-revival, culminating in the nation's keeping of the sacred Passover feast, which had been neglected. So great was the peoples' observance under Josiah that the Chronicler tells us,
“No Passover like it had been kept in Israel since the days of Samuel the prophet. None of the kings of Israel had kept such a Passover as was kept by Josiah, and the priests and the Levites, and all Judah and Israel who were present, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem”—2 Chronicles 35:18.
All of this happened because the nation returned to the truth contained in the Book of the Law. Moses, in his farewell speech to the nation, right before they entered into the Promised Land, said,
“Take to heart all the words by which I am warning you today, that you may command them to your children, that they may be careful to do all the words of this law. For it is no empty word for you, but your very life, and by this word you shall live long in the land that you are going over the Jordan to possess”—Deuteronomy 32:46-47.
The words of God are not “empty” but our “very life.” They impart life to those who follow them, and Josiah understood that.
For us today, we have much more than the Book of the Law (or the first five books of Moses), but God’s complete word, which shows us more fully who God is. The Old Testament contains the promise of God’s redemption which would be made available through Christ, while the New Testament testifies to the reality of that promise actualized in Him. As the great church father Augustine explained it, “The Old Covenant is revealed in the New, and the New Covenant is veiled in the Old.” Or as Graham Scroggie phrased it, “The New is in the Old contained, and the Old is in the New explained.”
God has given us His Word so that we might have joy. Following His Word is not a burden, but a blessing, because we are learning how to conduct ourselves in such a way as to elicit the smile and blessing of God. I hope that we may all go to God’s Word as Josiah did—humble, confessing our sin, and ready to teach it to others so that they too may experience the joy of knowing and obeying Him who loved us and gave Himself for us. Amen.
The Bible is the most controversial book ever written. There has never been a book that has elicited such a stark contrast among people. There is not a book more stolen and sacred, reviled and revered, loathed and loved, banned and bought. It is the greatest piece of literature ever written, enduring time, language and culture to speak to us concerning God, ourselves, and the meaning of life.
In the Old Testament, during the reign of the Kings, the Book of the Law (the first five books of Moses) was the Bible of the time. We must remember that God has been speaking to His people throughout the centuries, and our Bible today is the comprehensive gathering of His Words given throughout the centuries in one book. But during the time of the Kings, it was only the first five books that were connected together and known as the “Book of the Law” as God was still speaking to His servants the prophets, and books were added in subsequent centuries. Nevertheless, the Book of the Law was the authoritative word from God up until that point in time, and God’s people, the Jews, were responsible to live according to its truth. But as often happened in Jewish history, the people would turn from God and His book to pursue idols. And the kings of the nation were not exempt from such temptations. Time and time again, as the books of 1st and 2nd Kings and 1st and 2nd Chronicles record, the king would lead the people in the worship of the one true God or would lead the nation astray by turning to idols.
The nation had turned from God under the reign of several kings before young King Josiah begins his reign in Jerusalem. He was only eight years old when he ascended to the throne, but the Bible says that “he did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, and walked in the ways of David his father; and he did not turn aside to the right hand or to the left”—2 Chronicles 34:2. At the age of sixteen, the Chronicler tells us that he “began to seek the God of David his father,” and in the twelfth year removed many of the idols that his predecessors had constructed, which had led the Jewish people into idolatry and sin. But it was during the eighteenth year of his reign, when he was twenty-six years old, that he issued a proclamation to repair the Jewish temple which had been neglected under the reigns of his predecessors. As the restoration project was underway, a discovery was made. Hilkiah the priest found the Book of the Law (2 Chronicles 34:14). The nation had turned their back on God and neglected God’s words for some time, but with Hilkiah’s discovery, everything became clear. The Book of the Law contained within it the words of God and what He required of His people. And to neglect God’s word, both then and now, invites God’s swift and unmitigated judgment.
Hilkiah the priest gave the book to Shaphan, the king’s secretary, and Shaphan read from the book before the king. When the king heard the words of the Law, he tore his clothes, a sign of deep sorrow and anguish over the nation’s negligence and complete disregard for God. He realized that God’s Word must be obeyed and their failure to do so invited God’s judgment. He inquired of the Lord and learned that God’s judgment and wrath were indeed coming, but because he humbled himself before the Lord, judgment would not come in his lifetime, but would come some time after him.
The king responded to God’s decree by leading the nation in a return to God. He took the Book and read it to the people, and commanded that it be kept, which the people did. Josiah led a mini-revival, culminating in the nation's keeping of the sacred Passover feast, which had been neglected. So great was the peoples' observance under Josiah that the Chronicler tells us,
“No Passover like it had been kept in Israel since the days of Samuel the prophet. None of the kings of Israel had kept such a Passover as was kept by Josiah, and the priests and the Levites, and all Judah and Israel who were present, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem”—2 Chronicles 35:18.
All of this happened because the nation returned to the truth contained in the Book of the Law. Moses, in his farewell speech to the nation, right before they entered into the Promised Land, said,
“Take to heart all the words by which I am warning you today, that you may command them to your children, that they may be careful to do all the words of this law. For it is no empty word for you, but your very life, and by this word you shall live long in the land that you are going over the Jordan to possess”—Deuteronomy 32:46-47.
The words of God are not “empty” but our “very life.” They impart life to those who follow them, and Josiah understood that.
For us today, we have much more than the Book of the Law (or the first five books of Moses), but God’s complete word, which shows us more fully who God is. The Old Testament contains the promise of God’s redemption which would be made available through Christ, while the New Testament testifies to the reality of that promise actualized in Him. As the great church father Augustine explained it, “The Old Covenant is revealed in the New, and the New Covenant is veiled in the Old.” Or as Graham Scroggie phrased it, “The New is in the Old contained, and the Old is in the New explained.”
God has given us His Word so that we might have joy. Following His Word is not a burden, but a blessing, because we are learning how to conduct ourselves in such a way as to elicit the smile and blessing of God. I hope that we may all go to God’s Word as Josiah did—humble, confessing our sin, and ready to teach it to others so that they too may experience the joy of knowing and obeying Him who loved us and gave Himself for us. Amen.
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