Three generations passed as the scroll gathered dust under piles of odds and ends. No one in leadership bothered with outdated ideas, including strict adherence to the worship of a single god.

But then a new king, Josiah, only twenty-six years old, launched a restoration of the temple in Jerusalem. Cleaning out corners untouched for years, the high priest reported a discovery—I have found the book of the Law in the temple of the Lord.

The finding sparked a revolution. When the king heard the words of the Book of the Law, he tore his robes. Josiah then spoke to his court—great is the Lord’s anger that burns against us because those who have gone before us have not obeyed the words of this book.

Josiah set about righting those wrongs, instituting reforms that rocked the nation. It was written of Josiah: Neither before or after Josiah was there a king like him to turned to the Lord as he did—with all his heart and with all his soul and with all this strength.

The scroll carried into the light that day was likely a copy of Deuteronomy. In the initial reading the king discovered the Lord’s hatred of idolatry and the first of the Ten Commandments: You shall have no other gods before me.

Josiah’s heart wrenched as he looked at the myriad of idols filling Jerusalem and the surrounding countryside. That reading changed his life, and the lives of the citizens he served. He turned a nation’s eyes back to the Lord.

A copy of the same searing book Josiah poured over sits on my desk. It looks like any old book. But when I open it and read, living and active words rise to their work. At times imperceptibly, other times like a burning, they hound my smugness and complacency and self-centeredness.

Open the book every day. To your benefit and those around you, you’ll find your heart wrenched toward the ways of the Lord.

2 Kings 22 & 23 in reading the Bible cover to cover in 2022

Photo by Sergiu Vălenaș