by Zeke Flores<\/p>\n
During Josiah’s temple repairs, an astounding find was the impetus of a new force in a revival already underway. The Book of God’s law had been found … by a priest no less! But how long had the Book of the Law been lost? Since Josiah’s great-grandfather Hezekiah led a similar revival, which was pleasing to God, plus having the guidance of the inspired prophet Isaiah, it seems the Book was used in Hezekiah’s time. His wicked son Manasseh, who assumed the throne, probably simply ignored it, probably shelving it while he ravaged the nation with paganism and idolatry.<\/p>\n
Hilkiah, the priest who finds the Book, and Shaphan, the scribe who read it before giving it to King Josiah, knew they had found something profoundly significant. Once Josiah heard what was in the Book, he knew he needed to heed its authority and bring the nation to obey it. He read it, obeyed it, shared it, and stood for it. All this for a Book while they already had the temple of God and all its furnishings in their midst. Josiah knew that without the Book, the temple and furnishings were incomplete.<\/p>\nNow, here’s my point.<\/strong> There are many houses of worship across the land, indeed across the world, accompanied by accouterments intended to honor God. But where’s the Book? Without the authority of the “Book of the Law,” specifically the New Covenant, all the trappings of “worship” are vain, meaningless, and unacceptable. “When the king heard the words of the law, he tore his clothes … ‘for great is the wrath of Yahweh which is poured out on us because our fathers have not observed the word of Yahweh, to do according to all that is written in this book.’ Then the king stood in his place and made a covenant before Yahweh to walk after Yahweh, and to keep His commandments and His testimonies and His statutes with all his heart and with all his soul, to perform the words of the covenant written in this book<\/em>” (II Chronicles 34:19,31-32).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Zeke Flores During Josiah’s temple repairs, an astounding find was the impetus of a new force in a revival already underway. The Book of God’s law had been found … by a priest no less! But how long had the Book of the Law been lost? Since Josiah’s great-grandfather Hezekiah led a similar revival,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[219,412],"class_list":["post-68059","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-bible","tag-josiah"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":67990,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/young-king-josiah\/","url_meta":{"origin":68059,"position":0},"title":"Young King Josiah","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 9, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by Zeke Flores Think about it: An eight-year-old boy takes the reins of a country but doesn't shrink back in intimidation. Instead, young Josiah goes head-first into serving his God personally, then nationally. By the time he's 26, Josiah is leading a full-blown revival not seen since the days of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":56476,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/god-breathed\/","url_meta":{"origin":68059,"position":1},"title":"God Breathed","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 1, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"by Stan Cox In II Timothy 3, the apostle Paul penned a wonderful sentence that establishes both the precious nature of the words contained in our Bibles and their efficacy in ordering our lives as His servants. \"All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":63285,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-preaching-of-jeremiah\/","url_meta":{"origin":68059,"position":2},"title":"The Preaching of Jeremiah","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 20, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Text: Hebrews 11:32-40 \u00a0 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0As the southern nation of Judah rapidly slid into degradation, there was one bright moment before the end that came in the reign of Josiah. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0It was during his reign that God\u2019s covenant was rediscovered - II Kings 22:8-11 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0B.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Josiah understood what\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Audio"","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":87710,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/making-a-positive-difference\/","url_meta":{"origin":68059,"position":3},"title":"Making a Positive Difference","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 11, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by David Gibson Sorely Missed \"Then Jeremiah chanted a lament for Josiah . . .\" (II Chronicles 35:25 NASB). Josiah \"pled the cause of the afflicted and needy\" (Jeremiah 22:15). He urged his wayward nation to turn back to God (II Chronicles 34-35). Josiah made a difference. When Stephen was\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":69300,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/who-was-the-greatest-king\/","url_meta":{"origin":68059,"position":4},"title":"Who was the greatest king?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 14, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Good day, brother Jeffrey! About Hezekiah, we read in II\u00a0Kings 18:5-6: Hezekiah trusted in the LORD, the God of Israel. There was no one like him among all the kings of Judah, either before him or after him. He held fast to the LORD and did not cease to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":63565,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/a-tender-heart\/","url_meta":{"origin":68059,"position":5},"title":"A Tender Heart","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 11, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Text: II Kings 22:14-20 \u00a0 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The heart of Josiah \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Those were dark days in the kingdom. For 55 years his grandfather had harshly ruled over Judah \u2013 a reign of evil and terror - II Kings 21:1-2, 6 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a01.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0So terrible were his murderous ways that it\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Audio"","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68059","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68059"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68059\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nWe need to take the Book off the shelf, blow the dust off it, and make sure that we do everything written in it just as they’re written. Or, like God’s ancient disobedient people, we’ll face His judgment.\n