The Book of the Law

Then Hilkiah the high priest said to Shaphan the scribe, “I have found the book of the law in the house of Yahweh.” And Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan and he read it. – 2 Kings 22:8

Have you ever wondered what the Book of the Law was? All 5 books of the Torah, or just Deuteronomy? Scholars disagree.

And just how did it get lost in the first place?!

Hilkiah found it during the reign of Josiah. But who lost it?

Hezekiah’s son, Manasseh, was a wicked king. He didn’t just rebel. He tried to stamp out worship of Yahweh. In Judea in those days, idol worship was common. Even those who worshipped Yahweh fell into two camps–exclusive Yahwists, and inclusive Yahwists. In other words, Yahweh alone, or Yahweh AND Asherah, Bel, Moelch, etc…

It sounds a lot like our culture, doesn’t it?

Jesus and … All religions point to God …

But Manasseh was more in the Freedom From Yahweh camp. He was an anti-Yahwist. An anti-evangelist. He railed against Yahweh and followed up his hatred with consequences.

Those who remained true to the faith were at a disadvantage. They paid a cost – politically, socially, economically. If you worshipped Yahweh, you  had trouble  functioning in society. Think Chinese social credits of today. Think the Mark of the Beast, needing to take it to buy and sell.

The faithful faced discrimination and persecution. Which means Manasseh also got rid of the public proclaiming of God’s Word. In a primarily oral culture, it didn’t take long for the knowledge of the One True God to get distorted and forgotten.

I know a woman who grew up behind the Iron Curtain. Her family was Christian, but she decided that, when she turned 18, she’d join the Communist party. Why? Was she ideologically aligned with the Communists? No. She wanted an education and a good job. Fortunately, the Wall came down, and she didn’t have to choose. She’s now a faithful follower of Jesus.

How can you lose the Book of the Law?

How many Bibles do you own? We probably have at least twenty in the house. How many Bible apps do you have on your phone? I use three on a regular basis.

But in Manasseh’s day, The Torah was handwritten by scribes on parchment. Which means there weren’t many of them. Scholars disagree about if The Book of the Law was just Deuteronomy or the entire Torah. Personally, I think it was the whole Torah. And if Manasseh ordered them confiscated, they were out of circulation.

But if God wanted His Word preserved, He could do that, too, right?

He kept one copy safe until he raised up Josiah.

How bad could it have been? It was only one king’s reign, right?

We’re not talking a 4-year presidential term. Manasseh reigned 55 years. That’s a long time. He repented toward the end of his life, but the damage was done. The Book was gone. And his son Amon was evil, too. Then came Josiah. He chose to follow Yahweh in his teens. But he was 25 when when God’s Word was found. For the first twenty-five years of his life, he didn’t have a lot of knowledge on the One True God.

The Book of the Law was lost a long time.

Let’s put this in perspective. This is a ridiculous hypothetical, but work with me. Imagine Harry Truman gets elected, and he decides to get rid of the Constitution. There’s no internet. Now imagine there’s no TV, no radio, no phone or telegraph, no PRINTING PRESS! (Work with me here.)

Dictator Harry didn’t just get rid of the presidential election. He dissolved Congress. He appointed cronies to all the federal courts. He controlled all trade, and if you stepped out of line, you were punished.

Your grandparents told you about the separation of powers back in the good ol’ days, but they didn’t really understand how the government was designed to function. And no one taught the true history of our nation in school anymore, either.

Hypothetical Harry ruled as a dictator for 55 years. He died around the year 2000. And it was another 20, sometime around Trump’s first term, before someone found a copy of the Constitution hidden in a filing cabinet in the National Archives. There weren’t many left alive who could even remember what it was like to live to live in a free country.

You say, “But if they wiped out our system of government, there would have been no elections.” It’s a weak analogy. I just want you to imagine how  long we’re talking. WORK WITH ME!

That’s what it was like when Hilkiah found the Book of the Law.

It changed everything.

Josiah had been muddling through for around 10 years, doing his best to walk in the ways of the Lord. But now he had a guide.

That’s the world we’re stepping into in Daughter of Stone.