How Could They Lose The Book?
by Carl B. Garner

    If you have ever lost anything, you know how frustrating it can be. If it was valuable, you were concerned, even frightened. It is not too unusual for us to lose an item and not even know we have lost it until we need it. This is just what happened to Israel about 2,500 years ago. It is hard to imagine that you could lose the book of the law of the Lord, and especially in the house of the Lord, 2 Chronicles 34:15. But it happened during the reign of Amon, grandson of Hezekiah and father of Josiah, during whose reign it was found. Josiah became king at the age of 8 years, but it was still another 18 years before the lost book was found. Perhaps the strangest thing about this situation is that the book was lost and found in the house of the Lord. How could that happen?

    Josiah, though not perfect, was a righteous man. He is said to have done that which is right in the sight of the Lord....and turned not aside to the right hand or to the left. That was not because of his fathers or grandfathers examples, for both Amon and Manasseh were evil. His great-grandfather Hezekiah is regarded by many as the greatest of the post-division kings, and he may have influenced Josiah. Also, Jeremiah, Zephaniah and Nahum did their work in the same general period of Josiah's reign.

    During the 18th year of his reign, Josiah authorized certain repairs to the Temple, and as this was being done, Shaphan the scribe came to the king and said, Hilkiah the priest hath delivered me a book. And Shaphan read it before the king. And it came to pass, when the king had heard the words of the book of the law, that he rent his clothes, 2 Kings 22:10-11. A restoration of God's worship and teaching was immediately begun, and many needed changes were made. As a gospel preacher, I cannot read these words without the thought that God's book can be and has been lost to many people in our generation. It seems incredible to me that it could happen, but one can hardly deny that it has happened.

Lost Books Today

    Just look at the world around you; and at the religious world. The Bible, while not lost in the sense that we do not have a Bible, is, for all practical purposes, lost to many. They may have a Bible but never read or study it. It might as well be lost to them. Some read their Bible, but have little respect for it, substituting their own preferences in doctrine, worship and life-style. Others have translated the Bible in such a way as to have, by their translation, lost the thought of the original words inspired by the Holy Spirit. For all the value of some of these translations, the Book of God may as well be lost.

How Did It Happen?

    I can't tell you how the book was lost, but I can tell you what they did to solve the problem. And it just may be that this process needs to be reinitiated in this day of lack of respect for the authority of scripture. Perhaps if we will do what they did, we can bring back a measure of reverence to a book that is lost to many today. The following was their course of action:

    1. Josiah removed all remnants of Baal worship. He commanded Hilkiah the priest ... to bring forth out of the temple of the Lord all the vessels that were made for Baal ... and he burned them, 2 Kings 23:4. You cannot be true to God and not rid yourself of every vestige of rebellion.

    2. All of the priests who participated in or encouraged the worship of idols were removed, 2 Kings 23:5. There are some preachers who will have to be replaced if we ever restore pure New Testament Christianity in our century.

    3. Houses of the sodomites, male prostitutes in the land, were burned and destroyed, along with remnants of their idol worship, 2 Kings 23:7. You cannot leave intact the symbols of rebellion without encouraging the practice of rebellion.

    4. They removed all of the altars made to worship Ashtoreth, Milcom and Chemosh, the gods of their pagan neighbors. Not only did they remove them, but they brake in pieces the images, and cut down the groves, and filled their places with the bones of men, 2 Kings 23:13-14. Physical violence will not be needed, but error and sin must be removed or the disease will return.

    5. They reinstated the worship God had originally ordained, along with all the associated activities, 2 Kings 23:21f. In other words, they restored the worship and commandments that had originally been given to them.

    What does this have to do with us in the twentieth century? Are we in danger of losing the Bible? Is there a danger that the church Jesus built will die? There is a danger; but not that Christ's church will die. Only that the message of redemption will be kept from a lost generation. There is a also the danger that the family of God today can become as Israel of Josiah's day; rebellious, apathetic, lost in religious error. His church will survive, Daniel 2:44. But will we?

    Josiah's solution was very simple. Remove all worship not authorized by God and replace it with the pure religion authorized by God, in both theory and practice. The same thing will work today. It is not likely that we will lose the Book as they did. We may lose our love for truth; our determination to live by it; our love for the God who gave it; our willingness to teach it. That is what happened to Israel then, and it could happen to us today. By the way, do you know where your Bible is?

This item originally appeared at Southwestern School of Biblical Studies