2 Kings 22 | Wayfarer

Then Shaphan the secretary informed the king, “Hilkiah the priest has given me a book.” And Shaphan read from it in the presence of the king.
2 Kings 22:10 (NIV)

I’ve been geeking out on some history of late. Over the years, I’ve often referenced one of the most significant inflection points in human history, when Roman Emporer Constantine unexpectedly declared his faith in Jesus Christ in 312 A.D. Almost overnight, followers of Jesus went from being illegal, hunted, persecuted, and scapegoated dregs of the Empire to having the most powerful earthly patron and protector imaginable. Over the next century or so, the Jesus Movement would become the most powerful institutional empire in the world. This ushered in many good things, but it ultimately also laid the groundwork for some of the most heinous and tragic events in history.

Initially, Constantine’s faith led him to do many positive things as Emporer. He established a day off for everyone in the empire, every week, as God had commanded in the Ten Commandments. Other than the Jewish sabbath, a day off each week was unheard of in the ancient world. Every weekend I can whisper a thank you to God, Moses, and Constantine.

Another thing Constantine did as the Emporer was to invest in creating copies of the Bible. There was, of course, no printing press in those days. Everything was copied by hand. A new copy of the entire Bible, both old and new testaments, would cost the average person 30 years’ wages. Copies of the Old Testament, the Gospels, and the letters of Paul were few and far between. By funding the creation of new copies, Constantine helped ensure that more and more people had the opportunity to hear the Great Story.

The Hebrew people, and later the followers of Jesus, have long been known as “people of the Book” (btw, the phrase is also used in reference to Muslims and their Quran). This Great Story is the foundation of what I believe as a disciple of Jesus.

Today’s chapter contains a historical inflection point similar to Constantine’s faith in Jesus. In 622 B.C., young King Josiah of Judah orders that repairs be made to Solomon’s Temple in Jerusalem. In the course of events, the high priest discovers a copy of the Law of Moses. For a couple of hundred years, the people of Judah worshipped other idols and pagan gods, even going so far as to set up altars to other gods within Solomon’s Temple. Along the way, they put the books of Moses on a shelf in the junk room and forgot about them.

When the books of Moses were read to King Josiah, they had an immediate, spiritual effect. It spurred a spiritual revival on a national scale.

In the quiet this morning, I’m thinking about this chapter-a-day journey I started 17 years ago next month. That feels like a long time, but it’s rooted in 25 prior years of being a “person of the Book.” For over forty years I’ve been reading, studying, memorizing, contemplating, meditating, and endeavoring to live each day “by the Book.” Paul wrote that the words are “living, active, sharper than any two-edged sword.” I’ve experienced that. It pierced King Josiah’s heart in today’s chapter when he heard it read for the first time. It pierces my heart again and again, deeper and deeper, the further I get in my spiritual journey.

I can’t imagine what it must have looked like for the people of Josiah’s day to live in complete ignorance of what the Books of Moses actually said.

I know a very different reality; A reality in which virtually every follower of Jesus I know has the luxury of having the Book, perhaps multiple copies, readily available.

It’s one thing for The Book to be a rare treasure that’s lost. It’s another thing for it to be an overlooked luxury ignored.

May it be said of me that I was “a person of the Book.” Not just in my reading, my blogging, or my podcasting, but in my life and relationships.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Hilkiah the high priest said to Shaphan the secretary, “I have found the Book of the Law in the temple of the Lord.” He gave it to Shaphan, who read it.
2 Kings 22:8 (NIV)

Occasionally I have had people ask me how my “chapter-a-day” journey began. It goes much further back than blogging. The roots of it go all the way back to early 1980s. I was in high school and had only recently struck out on my path following Jesus. I had an after school job, and my boss was also a follower. He invited me to join him in studying God’s Message together, and the first thing he asked of me was to memorize Joshua 1:8:

This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success.

I did memorize the verse, and I took it to heart. As I meditated on the verse during the memorization process, I came to mull over the word “meditate.” It struck me in those early stages of my journey that God’s Message was to be more than something I give a nod to on Sunday morning when the pastor refers to it. It was supposed to be more than a routine duty that I check off my daily task list of religious self-righteousness. God’s Message was the guide. It was the constant companion and the mystery to be endlessly understood. It was something to ingest and digest on a continual basis. It was something to dive into, excavate, mull over, and apply to my every day circumstances. Success in the spiritual journey came through the conduit of meditating on the Message.

Thus, what became this chapter-a-day blog began in a young man wearing Forenza parachute pants and sporting a righteous mullet. I’ll let that imagery sink in while I transition back to today. 🙂

The setting of this morning’s chapter is Solomon’s Temple. It is the Temple of the Lord built to the exact specifications prescribed in God’s Message through Moses and by plans developed by David. It was built to be the worship center of YHWH whose first command was “don’t have any other gods before me.”

But, over time the temple had become a multi-cultural interfaith religious center filled with the worship of all sorts of local dieties, some of whom practiced all sorts of nasty things we can scarcely imagine today. The scroll of God’s Message had been so long forgotten that the High Priest didn’t even know where it was nor remember what it said. When the scroll is discovered during some Temple renovations, it is a major find. When King Josiah tells the priest to “Inquire of the Lord for me concerning this book,” the priest has to scour the city to find a lone prophetess named Hulda who was “keeper of the wardrobe.” [Note: I’ve learned in theatre to always trust the costumers. They make a lifetime of keeping track of things long forgotten by others!]

The Message had been packed away, put aside, and forgotten. The words that were to be the guide for the journey weren’t even known and barely remembered. Without the guidebook, the people naturally wandered until they found themselves spiritually lost.

This morning I’m reminded of the simple principle that came out of meditating on a verse that I was asked to memorize as a kid:

If I’m going to be successful in this journey of following after God then I have to do my best to do what God’s Message says. If I’m going to do what God’s Message says then I have to constantly discover what that is and what it means. The Message has to become my source material, my constant companion, my eternal mystery, my forever friend.