2 Chronicles 34:14-18

It is thought that the Law of the LORD that was found was the book of Deuteronomy. It was undoubtedly one of the Mosaic books (14). We can take encouragement today that God does great things; gives wonderful gifts through mortals. God may choose to make a human name great, but God is always greater. Sadly, the Bible is a lost Book to many in the church, let alone those outside it, and especially so to some ‘priests’ (clergy). They’ve got missing truths in their ministries. How sad it is when God’s Book gets lost in the very place where it should be read and known and treasured and honoured. It’s ironic, is it not, that the Lord’s Book (or an important part of it) had been lost in the house of the Lord? (Someone made the point that a Bible left on a shelf and neglected, is just as ‘lost’ as this Book hidden away in the temple.)

For many people, Christian conversion is like ‘finding’ the Bible (15). It comes alive to them. They see it with new eyes. ‘How could I not have seen this before?’ they ask. ‘How could I have been so blind?’ They then want to pass it on; to give it away to others once they’ve found it for themselves. They want to share it with some ‘Shaphan’ (who in turn, will hopefully impart it to others: 16, 18). This is very much the gospel pattern of finding and then telling/sharing (eg. John 1: 40, 41; 43-47.) As someone observed, ‘one lighted torch serves to light another. ’ When we pass God’s Word on to people who can tell what will happen? It will almost certainly set off a chain reaction, the results of which may only be fully known in eternity. (I think today of the incredible and faithful work of the ‘Gideon’s’, and the testimonies that come in from Bibles placed in hotels, hospitals, schools and so on.) Are you ready to tell someone about the Book you have been given?

Oh such a book it was that had been given to Shaphan (18)! It was dynamite. It was about to ‘go off’; to detonate in the heart of a king with enormous spiritual consequences. We see how vitally important is the public reading of Scripture. Note that Josiah was already a godly man. We know this. But godly people have not yet arrived while they still ‘suck air’ on this planet. They need more of God’s Word, and all through the journey there will be fresh commitments to God and adjustments of the life to His almighty Word. His truth will continue to set us free as we are continually exposed to it. We don’t know it all. There is yet more light to break forth from God’s Word, and that will be our experience and need for as long as we live.

The greatest treasure you have is not money but the Word of God, which too often is ‘’lost’’ amid the ‘’rubbish’’ you can easily accumulate. Do you treasure God’s Word? (See Ps.119:14, 72, 127, 162.) Is it ‘’buried’’ somewhere?…God’s Word is not a relic to admire in a religious museum. They did not put the Book back in its niche in the temple. Rather, they read it publicly and honoured it as the living Word of God.  Warren W. Wiersbe: With the Word, p.251

Prayer: Lord, teach me to love, honour and obey your Book every moment of every day. Let it never become a ‘lost’ Book to me.