God’s Word Discovered
“And Hilkiah answered and said to Shaphan the scribe, I have found the book of the law in the house of the LORD. And Hilkiah delivered the book to Shaphan”. II Chronicles 34:15
Let’s first set the scene. The southern kingdom of Judah had suffered through some very ungodly tyrants as king. When the people of Israel and Judah demanded a king many years prior to this time, God warned them through His prophet Samuel that they had better watch what they asked for because they might just get it. God was their King. They didn’t need a human king. They had judges to rule and keep order. However, Samuel made the mistake of putting his two no-account sons as judges, and the people rebelled. Samuel’s bad judgment led the people to desire a king so that they could be like the other nations who had kings, sort of like how people desire to keep up with the Joneses, that is, have what they have, do what they do, and so forth.
God granted their desire and a long list of kings ruled, some righteous, but many were not righteous, and the people suffered just as God said they would. One of the last kings of Judah was Josiah, whose father was Amon and grandfather was Manasseh, both evil kings. However, Josiah, taking the throne at the age of eight, turned out to be one of the most righteous kings over Judah. At the age of 20, he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem of the high places, groves, and idols which his predecessors had not only allowed but encouraged. When he was 26, he sent Shaphan, his scribe (secretary) and other men to begin repairs in the temple. It had been neglected for quite some time. People donated money, and the funds were brought to Hilkiah, the high priest. Workers were hired, who were honest and hardworking, and the money was used for its intended purposes.
While overseeing the work, Hilkiah happened to find the book of the law that had been missing for quite some time, likely throughout the reigns of Manasseh (55 years) and Amon (two years). He gave it to Shaphan who took it to King Josiah and read it to him. Josiah was dumbfounded. He had never heard these words of the LORD before, and a fear came upon him because he realized how far that God’s people had drifted from obeying God. He said, “…great is the wrath of the LORD that is poured out upon us, because our fathers have not kept the word of the LORD, to do after all that is written in this book” (Verse 21). Hilkiah went to Huldah, a prophetess, to help them understand the ramifications of the neglect of God’s law. She made it plain: God was not going to overlook the sin and idolatry of His people. He would pour out His wrath upon them because they had forsaken Him, but it wouldn’t be until after Josiah had passed away because he had humbled himself before God. When Josiah heard this prophecy, he called all the people together and read the words of the book to them. He vowed to live by God’s word, and the people were obedient as long as Josiah was alive. The prophecy did come to pass about 22 years after Josiah’s death when God allowed Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon to destroy Judah and Jerusalem, killing many, and taking many captives to Babylon. God always makes good on His word.
To recap, Judah had been living apart from the LORD until His word was found. Josiah and the people of Judah repented upon hearing God’s word read. However, their righteous response only lasted about 13 years until Josiah’s evil son came into power, succeeded by three more evil kings. And then judgment fell. Fast forward to today. Imagine if someone was cleaning in the White House and found a Bible, on whose words the laws of this nation were based. It was rather dusty having been on a back shelf for years. Because it had been ignored, many ungodly policies were put forth by those in charge which resulted in all sorts of sin committed by the people of the nation, rampant crime, child sacrifice in the name of abortion, enemies somewhat like the Babylonians and Assyrians crossing over the border to do harm to the people of the land, children being taught the lies of Satan, murder, mayhem, and God knows what else, the Bible was relatively unknown to the people whose responsibility it was to lead the nation following the principles laid forth in God’s word. They knew that there was a God, but they didn’t glorify Him and weren’t thankful for all His blessings, thus becoming vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened (Romans 1:21).
Then suppose someone read the words of scripture to the leaders. How would they react? Would they, like Josiah, symbolically tear their clothes and grieve over the state of the nation? Would they call for national repentance and a return to the true worship of the Lord? Or would they continue to ignore God’s word? What do you think God would do to this nation? Do you think that at some point in the future that He would bring His wrath down upon this nation which was led at its founding by those who believed in and relied upon the God of glory, but, like Israel and Judah, became disobedient and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man (Romans 1:23), a religion of self-worship? My thought is that the leaders will continue to ignore God’s word, giving God no choice but to bring judgment upon a nation who once honored Him, but has turned to idolatry in its many forms. That’s what a just God would do.