Bible

REDISCOVERED BOOK

Then Hilkiah the high priest said to Shaphan the scribe, “I have found the book of the law in the house of the Lord.” And Hilkiah gave the book back to Shaphan who read it.

Shaphan the scribe came to the king and brought back word to the king and said, “Your servants have emptied out the money that was found in the house, and have delivered it into the hand of the workmen who have the oversight of the house of the Lord.”

Moreover, Shapan the scribe told the king saying, “Hilkiah the priest has given me a book.” And Shaphan read it in the presence of the king. -- 2 Kings 22:8-10

During the repairing of the temple, the ancient book of the law, so long neglected and now nearly forgotten, was brought to light, and Josiah made it the foundation stone upon which was built one of the great religious reformations in history.

The experience of old has always brought beneficial results to the church, and to those who rediscover the Word of God and apply it to their immediate circumstances.

BOOK BURNING

So they went to the king in the court, but they had deposited the scroll in the chamber of Elishama the scribe, and they reported all the words to the king.

Then the king sent Jehudi to get the scroll, and he took it out of the chamber of Elishama the scribe. And Jehudi read it to the king as well as to all the officials who stood beside the king.

Now the king was sitting in the winter house in the ninth month, with a fire burning in the brazier before him.

When Jehudi had read three or four columns, the king cut it with a scribe’s knife and threw it into the fire that was in the brazier, until all the scroll was consumed in the fire that was in the brazier. -- Jeremiah 36:20-23

When Jeremiah’s scroll was read to the king, he cut it into pieces with a knife and threw the scraps of paper into the fire. Did he think that by burning the written words, he was canceling God’s Word and judgment?

BIBLE INTERPRETATION

They read from the book, from the law of God, translating to give the sense so that they understood the reading. -- Nehemiah 8:8

Long ago, Ezra and his associates set a pattern for interpreting the Bible, reading from the book and explaining the meaning of what they have read so that everyone would understand.

FAMINE OF THE WORD

People will stagger from sea to sea
And from the north even to the east;
They will go to and fro to seek the word of the Lord,
But they will not find it. -- Amos 8:12

There are few tragedies greater than for someone to have their Bibles taken from them, and few that are worse than that of someone who has a Bible, but turns from it stubbornly.

After Israel had continuously ignored His message and His messengers, God foretold of a famine, not of bread and water, but of hearing the words of the Lord.

A THOUSAND TONGUES

And when this sound occurred, the crowd came together, and were bewildered because each one of them was hearing them speak in his own language.

They were amazed and astonished, saying, “Why, are not all these who are speaking Galatians?”

“And how is it that we each hear them in our own language to which we were born?” -- Acts 2:6-8

The miracle of Pentecost, expressed in the question, “How is it that we each hear them in our own language?” foreshadowed the day when the words of the Bible would be translated into more than a thousand tongues.

A MIRROR OF LIFE

For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of a person he was.

But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does. -- James 1:23-25

The Bible holds a mirror up to life and reveals our true characters. The man who hears and does nothing about it is like a man catching the reflection of his own face in a mirror. He sees himself, but then he goes on with whatever he was doing without the slightest recollection of what sort of a person he had seen in the mirror. But the man who looks into the perfect mirror of God’s Law, and makes a habit of it, is not a man who then forgets what he had seen.

ANY WORD FROM GOD?

Now King Zedekiah sent and took him out; and in his palace the king secretly asked him and said, “Is there a word from the Lord?” And Jeremiah said, “There is!” Then he said, “You will be given into the hand of the king of Babylon!” -- Jeremiah 37:17

After his counselors and advisors had failed him, King Zedekiah brought Jeremiah from prison and asked him secretly, “Is there any word from the Lord?”