A Great Discovery

“And Shaphan the scribe shewed the king, say, Hilkiah the priest hath delivered me a book.  And Shaphan read it before the king.”  II Kings 22:10

Josiah was the 15th king of the southern kingdom of Judah after Israel was split into two nations when King Solomon died.  Josiah’s father, Amon, was an evil king, allowing idolatry to run rampant throughout the land.  When Amon died, Josiah was crowned king at the age of eight years, pretty young for someone to reign over Judah.  Some of the sons of kings who were evil followed in their father’s footsteps, but not Josiah.  How he escaped that vicious cycle of sin and idolatry is not known, but I speculate that there were some who tutored him in the ways of righteousness and to honor the LORD God.  Perhaps he was so sick of all the disgusting displays of immorality, that he determined that he never wanted to be involved in idolatry.  When I was young, my Dad smoked cigarettes, and I hated the smoke and the smell so much that I determined never to smoke, and I never have. (He did eventually quit.)  The most logical answer to Josiah’s moral standing was that God gave him a tender and compassionate heart.  During his 12th year of reign, he began to destroy many of the idols and high places where the people had worshipped their gods (II Chronicles 34:3).

In the 18th year of his rule, Josiah desired to restore the temple to its rightful and honorable place in which God was worshipped and the required animal sacrifices were made as God had commanded all the way back to the time of Moses.  Amon had allowed all kinds of idol worship to be conducted in the house of the LORD, bringing in carved images and other ungodly items used in the various forms of illegal and immoral worship of these false deities.  During the cleaning out process, Hilkiah, the high priest, found the Book of the Law which had been given to Moses by God somewhere around 800 years prior to the time of Josiah.  Either one of the evil kings had thrust it aside or perhaps some godly person had hidden it to keep it safe from the evil kings.  Whatever the case, God would never let it be destroyed.  Shaphan, Josiah’s secretary, brought it to him and read it before him.  When Josiah heard the words that God had spoken, he was mortified.  He was aware that the people of Judah had strayed from following God’s commandments, but I don’t think he had any idea how far that they had strayed nor the severity of God’s wrath which would eventually come upon them for their disobedience.

Even if God’s wrath could not be averted, Josiah determine to set things right among the people of Judah and Israel as well.  After Josiah poured his heart out in anguish for the sins of the people, God promised him that he would not have to witness the wrath that would come upon the people of Judah and Jerusalem.  Josiah called all the people, priests, and prophets to the temple.  Josiah read before them the words of God concerning the covenant that God had made with Israel hundreds of years ago.  Josiah could have summarized the message, but it would have a much greater impact if the people heard God’s declarations for themselves.  Likely none of these people had heard God speak through the written law.  They were like, as Jesus viewed the crowds in Matthew 9:36, “sheep having no shepherd”.  God’s law, as described by the Apostle Paul in Galatians 3:24 was a “schoolmaster” to teach the people their need for a Savior.  Until the time that Christ came to earth and died for the sins of all people, the law and the sacrifices were the only means of being acceptable to their Creator.  Without the law and the commandments of the LORD, they had no real direction, and consequently they followed after whatever seemed right to them, just as they had done during the days of the judges (Judges 21:25).

Fast forward to today.  What percentage of people on earth know what God has said in His word?  I don’t know that number, but considering the lack of respect for God and His church that is displayed across the different forms of media, I would imagine the percentage is very small.  And there is really no excuse for not knowing.  I would venture to guess that the great majority of homes across America have at least one copy of the Bible, but far too many folks just let it gather dust on the shelf.  They do not realize what a treasure that they have–God’s mind as revealed to man.  Even without the written word, God has revealed enough of Himself in creation as evidence that He exists (Romans 1:20).  He gives folks a conscience to know right from wrong, and He has instilled in every heart a desire to worship, but many have chosen to worship anything other than the Lord.  I’ve had far too many prayers answered to know that it wasn’t “luck”.

Perhaps this current COVID-19 pandemic will cause folks to pull their copy of God’s word off the shelf and begin to read it.  At least that will be one good thing that comes from this unprecedented time.