Losing the Book

Day three hundred two

There are people in my life that our going through some serious trials.  Today my prayer was directed towards them.  I asked the Lord to bless them with comfort as the grieve, with peace as they worry, and with love as they shed tears. May they feel His Spirit with them throughout their trials and may they know that I love them. 

2 Kings 22-23

Chapters 22-23 introduce us to the eight year old king Josiah.  He would have been raised during the end of the reign of his grandfather, Manasseh, and his father, Amon, which were some of the most wicked times in the history of Judah.  For over fifty years the people had been neglecting God.  What a time to inherit a kingdom!

Josiah was a good king in spite of his heritage.  At age 16 he chose to learn more about the Lord.  At age 20 "he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem from the high places, and the groves, and the carved images, and the molten images" (2 Chron 34:3).  By the time he was 26 he began to repair the temple.  He was a very busy young man!

While the repairs were being made to the temple, the book of the law was found.  There seems to be some excitement behind this find.  Why? It appears that during the reign of the previous wicked kings, that a written copy of the law was hidden in the temple to protect it. Imagine having to hide your scriptures for fear that they may be destroyed.  The problem was that no one knew where they were. They had lost the word of God in the house of God! The law was so sinfully neglected that the very knowledge of it had perished and the book had disappeared!

The truth is there have been times in my life when I have neglected my scriptures.  I was given my first set of scriptures as a young child, and I used them occasionally, but for the most part they sat on a shelf somewhere.  I would take them with me to church on Sunday's, but I did not read them everyday.  In a sense, I had hid them from myself. What a waste!  I could have been learning so much more!  Have you ever been there?

Over the years I had times when I leaned on the scriptures, but I think there were more days of non-reading than days reading.  I became quite good at hiding my scriptures behind excuses such as, I'm too tired, I don't have time, or I don't understand what I am reading.  It took a change of heart for me to get back into the scriptures.  I was told one time that the scriptures are love letters from God.  The question that followed that statement was, how would you feel if you wrote love letters to someone and they only chose to read a few?  Ouch!  I needed to get back into the scriptures!

Josiah learns a lot from the book of the law.  He begins to understand the seriousness of the situation regarding the sins of the people.  He rents his clothes, a sign of mourning and sorrow.  The words had touched his heart and he desires to be a better person.  He desires his people to be better people.

The scriptures have blessed my life too.  They have touched my heart and changed the person that I am.  I will never be able to neglect the word of God again.  I love Him too much!  As a person who has read and studied the scriptures with the intent to teach what is in it, I cannot imagine losing this resource.  What would I do without my scriptures? I would be lost!

On the inside of my scriptures I wrote a quote that I found:

“The scriptures that are falling apart usually belong to someone who isn’t!”

I still have my tear-filled days, but for the most part I have found that when I seek understanding and answers I can always find them in my scriptures.  The words in the scriptures have brought me comfort, peace, confidence, and a stronger relationship with God.  These are things I lacked when I "lost" the book. 

Like Josiah I have a desire to help others learn the power of the word of God.  If you have "lost" your book I hope you will take the time to find it and try reading it.  Just a little reading everyday will change your life.   It may even help keep you from falling apart!