Third Presbyterian Sunday Morning Bible Study - November 14, 2021

Below is the Bible Study written by Jim Rudiger for his Sunday School Class which meets at Third Presbyterian Church, Norfolk, Virginia. It's based on 2 Kings 22:8-20.

Lost and found. Ever look at the lost and found in the newspaper? People advertise for those lost things that means a lot to them. It may be a dog, jewelry or a car at Home Depot and you can’t remember where you parked it. Ever lose or misplace something that was important to you? You want to know how to find it? Buy a replacement and the next day you’ll find it under the towels in the linen closet.

The worst time I had with losing something important was when I was coaching kid’s basketball. We were practicing at Willard school and I had taken Gary, my youngest son, with me. He was about seven then. Well, the practice went good. We shot layups, foul shots and did a little scrimmaging. When the practice was over, I packed up my clip board and basket balls and headed home.

It was about nine o’clock when I dragged myself up to the front door. Jackie opened the door, looked around and then came the obvious question, “Where is Gary?” I looked in the bag of balls. I looked under the clip board. I opened the car trunk. No Gary. I had lost my son! I calmed Jackie down and raced to the car. When I got to Willard, there was Gary, dribbling a ball down the hallway. I grabbed him and shot off for home. Taking Gary by the hand I sheepishly opened the door to face an angry mom. There is nothing more fierce than an angry mom especially when you have just lost her baby. Needless to say, Gary didn’t go to anymore practices with me. Two weeks later, I was allowed to join the family for supper. No more bread and water.

In today’s study, a lost book is found and it propels the king and nation into a revival. Several generations have passed along with the prophet Elisha. Along comes a king named Ahaz. Ahaz, was an evil king who had a lot of problems with the prophet Isaiah. By the time of Ahaz, the northern kingdom of Israel had been defeated and occupied by the Assyrians. Ahaz played up to the Assyrians so Judah was spared being taken over by them too. He even introduced the worship of Assyrian gods in Judah. He was so into the worship of the Assyrian gods, that he sacrificed his own son to one of them.

When Ahaz died, his son Hezekiah became king. Hezekiah was nothing like his father. He tore down the altars to the foreign gods and tried to get the people back to following the convent that God had made with Moses. He started to make needed repairs to the Temple in Jerusalem. He even became the first king since Solomon to celebrate Passover in the Temple. So, with Hezekiah there was reform and a renewal among the people. He is considered one of the great Hebrew kings.

At the death of Hezekiah, his son Manasseh became king at the age of twelve. Manasseh promptly tabled his father’s reforms and went back to ruling like his grandfather, Ahaz. Mannaseh has become the by-word for evil in the Old Testament. Here are some of the high lights of his reign. He sacrificed more than one son and in doing this reintroduced infant sacrifice to the people. He re-erected altars to Baal on the high place that Hezekiah had destroyed. He worshiped Asherah, a fertility goddess, and even had an statue of Asherah erected in the Temple. Placing this idol in the very presence of God was Mannaseh’s greatest offence to God.

What does the first commandment say? You shall have no other gods before me. We generally take this to mean that you won’t have any god in the place of the true God. But, God could be saying in a literal sense not to have man’s gods even in his presence, standing before him in the same room. This place belongs solely to God and it will not be shared with a false god. Manasseh wasn’t happy with doing these evil things all by himself, so he influenced the people to participate with him. Mannaseh’s reign of 55 years ends with God’s angry response to the acts of Mannaseh and the people. God will destroy the nation because as God puts it “Ever since I delivered you from Egypt, you have been rebelling against me.”

Amon his son becomes king and he continued the sins of his father. Amon ruled only two years when he was killed by some of his servants and Josiah, Amon’s son, was made king. Josiah was only eight years old when he became king. Probably for the first eight years until he was sixteen things continued as they had under Manasseh and Amon - idol worship and neglect of God. At sixteen we are told that Josiah began to seek God. Under Amon the worship of God had been discouraged and God's prophets had not been welcomed in the palace. We don’t know what triggered in Josiah a desire to know God. Perhaps after 73 years of neglecting God, some people in the court yearned for a return to the good old days of Hezekiah when God meant something. They may have used their influence to teach Josiah about his great grandfather. One of the servants who could have played that role was a man named Shallum who was the keeper of the wardrobe.

Shallum, had a daughter named Huldah who was a prophetess of God. Josiah certainly knew Shallum and probably dealt with him everyday. It is also quite logical that Shallum’s daughter, Huldah, would be a frequent visitor to the palace and would have spoke to the king about the revelations God gave to her.

When Josiah was twenty, he began a purge of the nation to destroy all the idols that had been brought in by Amon. Hezekiah had done the same thing but Josiah took it a step further. All of the altars to foreign gods were torn down, the idols smashed to dust and spread over the graves of those who had worshiped them. The priests of these gods were killed and their bones were burned on their alters. These reforms were carried out on a nation-wide basis and not confined only to Jerusalem. Josiah didn't trust a servant to carry out these reforms, so he went throughout the kingdom himself tearing down alters and destroying idols. However, his zeal wasn’t limited to just the southern kingdom of Judah. He also went to some of the cities in what had been the northern kingdom, Israel, cleansing them of foreign gods too.

Now the northern kingdom was still occupied by the Assyrians. What gave Josiah the courage to confront the hated Assyrians? The Assyrian empire was wearing thin. They had conquered all the nations bordering them and the tribute that these conquered nations sent to the empire made the Assyrians a rich nation. With wealth and the desire to keep and protect that wealth, there was little desire to take anymore risks. After all, a new war would drain money from the treasury and would present too many risks. The bottom line - it would be bad for business.

South of Judah, Egypt was also weakening. To make matters even worse, Babylon, a part of the Assyrian empire was beginning to build up their army to challenge Assyria. With the major powers in the middle east deteriorating, Josiah saw a chance to move into the northern kingdom. He knew that Assyria and Egypt would be too involved with Babylon to pay much attention to him. So, he began to occupy parts of what had been Israel with the idea of uniting the two countries under the rule of the Judahite kings.

In the eighteenth year of his rule, when he was twenty six, he began a restoration of the Temple in Jerusalem. Through the reign of Mannaseh and Amon and during the first part of Josiah's reign, the upkeep of the temple had been neglected. It had been over seventy five years since Hezekiah renovated the temple. Solomon had built the Temple about three hundred years before Josiah and it had gone through periods when the upkeep was allowed to slide. The Temple was an old, old building. .

The Levites, who had the responsibility for Temple maintenance, were sent throughout the land to raise money for the project. The money that was collected was turned over to the workmen employed to overhaul the temple. Because these workmen had dedication and faith, the Levites trusted them. In fact, all the workers had to do to get more money or supplies was to say hey needed it and they got it with no questions asked. While restoring the temple, a book was discovered. And that's where we pick up our study.

2 Kings 22: 8 The high priest Hilkiah said to Shaphan the secretary, "I have found the book of the Law in the house of the Lord." When Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan, he read it. 9 Then Shaphan the secretary came to the king, and reported to the king. "Your servants have emptied out the money that was found in the house, and have delivered it into the hand of the workers who have oversight of the house of the Lord." 10 Shaphan the secretary informed the king, "The priest Hilkiah has given me a book" Shaphan then read it aloud to the king, 11 When the king heard the words of the book of the Law, he tore his clothes. 12 Then the king commanded the priest Hilkiah Ahikam son of Shaphan, Achbor son of Micaiah, Shaphan the secretary, and the king's servant Asaiah, saying, 13 "Go, inquire of the Lord for me, for the people, and for all Judah, concerning the words of this book that has been found; for great is the wrath of the Lord that is kindled against us, because our ancestors did not obey the words of this book,, to do according to all that is written concerning us."

Whether this book had actually been lost or had been neglected or even had been planted by a faithful servant of God, we don't know. It was turned over to Hilkah the priest who determined that it was the book of law given to Moses. Hilkah took the book to Josiah's secretary and while delivering a progress report on the restoration, told him that the book had been found in the Temple. The secretary went to Josiah with the good news about how well the construction was going and then he added “Oh, bother way, they found this old book laying in the rubble. The priest said it was part of the law. Just for fun, let me read what it says.”

It is always fun to find something old in your house. Something you had forgotten all about. It opens the flood gates to memories long forgotten. I love to find old newspapers from the forties and fifties. To read the listing of radio programs and right away, I can hear in my mind the way those programs sounded - Lionel Barrymore in “Mayor of the Town”, “Mr. District Attorney” or Henry Aldrich yelling, “Coming Mother.”

When we had to sell Jackie’s mother’s house, we cleaned out the attic. Leaning against the wall in a darken part of the attic was a box that had been opened, but, the contents were still there just as they had been for over sixty years. It was a picture of Jackie when she must have been two or three. It wasn’t a great picture, a little fuzzy and the colors weren’t very bright. What was so interesting was the ornate frame. It was very fancy. We think that her parents had sent a snap shot of Jackie in response to an advertisement, probably in the Ladies Home Journal. When they got the finished product back, they were disappointed with the quality of the picture, so they put it back in the box and stored it in the attic. I know that our attic is a museum of everything we or our children have ever owned. I pity the kids when it comes time for them to clear out all of that stuff.

Most scholars are convinced that the book found in the Temple was part of what we know as Deuteronomy, possibly chapters 5-30. When Josiah heard the words of the law he tore his clothes and wept. In those days this was the ultimate evidence of repentance and humbling before God. Because of this reaction by Josiah, we can assume that the contents of this book had been unknown for a long time perhaps back to the days of Ahab and Ahaz. Normally, the books of the law were placed right beside the Arc of the Covenant in the Holy of Holies. So, some how it had been misplaced and wasn’t where it should have been. Now, this part of Deuteronomy deals with prohibiting the people from being contaminated with the religions of the defeated nations of Canaan. Further, it made clear that the land was dedicated to God and no other gods shall share this land. It comes from a speech made by Moses to the Hebrews just before they crossed the Jordan to take possession of Canaan as a warning not to get too involved with the Canaanite Gods. Hearing these words, Josiah recognized for the first time how far Judah had fallen from what God expected of them.

So, he has this old book telling how the people should keep the law and obey God. Josiah wanted to find out what God really wanted him to do with this book and if God was really serious about the consequences for not obeying him.. He decided to throw this up to someone who should know what God wants to do - a prophet. At this time Jeremiah was the leading prophet in Judah and a strong supporter of Josiah. Jeremiah even wrote of Josiah as being possibly a greater king than David. But Josiah skipped over Jeremiah and turned to another prophet.

2 Kings 22: 14 So the priest Hilkiah, Anikam, Achbor, Shaphan, and Asaiah went to the prophetess Huldah the wife of Shallum son of Tikvah, son of Harhas, keeper of the wardrobe; she resided in Jerusalem in the Second Quarter, where they consulted her. 15 She declared to them, "Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Tell the man who sent you to me, 16 "Thus says the Lord, I will indeed bring disaster upon this place and on it's inhabitants --- all the words of the book that the king of Judah has read. 17 Because they have abandoned me and have made offerings to other gods, so that they have provoked me to anger with all the work of their hands, therefore my wrath will be kindled against this place, and it will not be quenched. 18 But as to the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of the Lord, thus shall you say to him, Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Regarding the words you have heard, 19 because your heart was penitent, you humbled yourself before the Lord, when you heard how I spoke against this place, and against it's inhabitants, that they should become a desolation and a curse, and because you have torn your clothes and wept before me, I also heard you say's the Lord. 20 Therefore, I will gather you to your ancestors , and you shall be gathered to your grave in peace; your eyes shall not see all the disaster that I will bring on this place." They took the message back to the king.

Remember that fellow who took care of the royal wardrobe and who had a daughter named Huldah, a prophetess. Evidently her many visits to the palace had assured Josiah that she was the real thing. So Huldah is consulted to find out exactly what God is saying through this event. Huldah quotes God as describing the downfall of Judah. Her report indicated in no uncertain terms that God intended to punish the people of Judah for all of their sins against him However, since Josiah has humbled himself before God, he will die in peace.

Josiah thought that this find was so important that he had everybody come to the Temple and he, himself, read from the book aloud. He saw this as God’s moving in their lives to draw them back to the true worship and possibly to give the nation a second chance. Josiah threw himself into educating the people about the law. Contained in the book was a description giving details about observing the Passover.

Just as Hezekiah had done, Josiah decided to celebrate the Passover only this time it would take place at the proper time of year, the middle of January, and in full accordance with the requirements of Deuteronomy. Word went out to everybody about the feast to his subjects in Judah as well as the remnant in Israel. People began to stream into Jerusalem. The city was not very big at that time, certainly not big enough to handle such a large crowd. All of the rooms were taken in the city so many travelers pitched tents outside of the wall.

As Josiah stood on his balcony, there were tents as far as he could see. Smoke was curling up from their fires and at night, it made the hillside look like thousands of stars had fallen from the skies and landed there. There was the den of noise from the camps and city. Children laughing and playing, animal sounds, the bustle of foot steps on the dusty streets. Merchants were working over time to keep food on the shelves

Why did Josiah think that observing Passover was so important? The people needed to know what their history meant. The feast let the people get in touch with their inheritance. To connect with being a Hebrew. What it meant to be God’s chosen people. It symbolized to them the power God had shown in leading them through the hard times of their history. The response must have been even greater than we felt after 911 and heard people singing “God Bless America.”

Our lesson ends here, but, what happens to Josiah after this? It looked like things were going Josiah’s way. The people were coming around and obeying his edict that only God be worshiped in Judah. But then he made a big mistake. As I said, Assyria was getting weaker while Babylon was growing stronger. Egypt and Assyria had struck a deal where they left each other alone. Now with Babylon was confusing the deal and threatening to invade Assyria, Egypt was afraid they might be next on Babylon’s list so they agreed to help Assyria fight Babylon. Now, as far as Judah was concerned , Assyria was the most hated nation in the world. So, when it came time to pick sides, Josiah threw his lot with Babylon believing that Babylon must have been God’s instrument to rid the world of Assyria.

The Pharaoh, in order to get to Assyria, had to pass through Judah, so he sent word to Josiah letting him know the Egyptian army would be passing through and this wasn’t an attack on Judah. Further, he also told Josiah that the God of Israel had told him personally that he doesn’t want Judah and Egypt fighting. The Pharaoh recommended that Josiah pull back his army and let the Egyptian army go to Assyria’s aid as his God wants. Josiah couldn’t imagine that God would ever want Assyria to get off the hook, so he rejected the Pharaoh’s request and led his army in battle at a place called Megiddo. Josiah was in disguise so that he couldn’t be identified as the king. An Egyptian sharp shooter thinking that he was just another soldier shot him with an arrow. Josiah was taken back to Jerusalem mortally wounded. He died in Jerusalem and the whole country went into mourning.

But wait a minute. Hulgah had said that God had promised that Josiah die in peace. In a sense he did. He was surrounded by his family and loyal servants. He wasn’t left to rot on the battle field, disgraced and forgotten. He also was spared the final defeat and captivity by Babylon. Babylon was a rising power and Josiah failed to recognize this fact. Josiah had been a strong champion of God and he listened to God. And yet, writings seem to indicate that God really may have instructed Josiah not to battle the Egyptians and Josiah had not listened because he couldn’t believe that God would use the Pharaoh of Egypt as his messenger. Perhaps God was giving the nation one last chance to avoid the terrible consequences of their past rebellion and spare them from invasion by Babylon. With his death, the last good king of Judah had passed. From this point on Judah has only defeat and lost of a nation to look forward to.

Lost and Found. A nation finds a book but eventually loses it’s soul. There are lost books all over our nation today. Books giving God’s law gathering dust on shelves or stuck in a drawer. That book, the Bible, is our foundation - the written word of God. How many Josiahs today don’t know the book exists but, if opened and read, would cause them today to weep at seeing how far short we fall from what God expects of us? We all have the opportunity that Josiah’s secretary had by opening the eyes of someone seeking answers in a troubled world. You see, we have something that even Josiah didn’t have. We have a Savior who has gone through our Megiddo and lives to assure us of eternal life. And that is something we will never lose.

Prayer: Father, we were lost but now are found. Thanks for being a Father who will find us when we feel the most lost and afraid and bring us into the safe haven of your love and forgiveness. Amen.