Found
2 Kings 22:8, “And Hilkiah the high priest said unto Shaphan the scribe, iI have found the book of the law in the house of the Lord. And Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan, and he read it.” [1]
I. Recovered
A. Forgotten
B. Gotten
II. Received
A. Given
B. Gave
III. Revered
A. Read
B. Read
Introduction: Last Sunday Merry Oaks Baptist Church commemorated what we call Old Fashioned Day. We looked back at what people wore to church in days gone by with celebration. After we left the sanctuary we went go out to the fellowship hall for a meal that was prepared by whoever wanted to bring a dish. We remembered.
Thursday we remembered again. We remembered to give thanks. I was amazed as I watched people on TV trying to remember why we have such a holiday in this nation. Most only remembered that it was a nice day to take off work and eat a bunch of food. The reason to get together was to eat. That is a shame! People don’t remember even who the Pilgrims who landed at Plymouth Rock were or why they came here and where they came from. Most people have forgotten that they were leaving a place where religion was forced by government order. Everybody had to belong to the Church of England. Yes it was against taxation without representation but they wanted to worship God the way they wanted to worship God.
The text that we will expand today speaks of another time of remembering. The children of Israel had forgotten the most important thing. They had forgotten what should have never been forgotten. They had forgotten to hear God. Other things took attention away. We live in such a time now.
As I was looking back at this text in an old copy of the Bible that I used years ago there was a notation and a highlight. The notation was from back in 2005 while I was staying in that cabin on the side of Bearwallow Mountain studying. The text today was noted in my prayer journal. A prayer journal should be something that is very personal which may never even be seen by anybody except you. I would like to share with you my thoughts from that day back in 2005.
“How many times do we abandon God to find his words years later and learn that it is still as fresh as it ever was? In fact, each day it gives new light to things yet seen. Praise God for letting me have these years of wandering as the Israelites in the desert. I never abandoned him completely and he never left me at all. He has promised to keep the Israelites until the end as well. They are tested as I am and will be tested. I almost went through this day without opening his word. I have studied a little for the tests of this week in school but have just now after traveling to this place have I opened the reading for this day.”
And this was the corresponding prayer that day…
“Lord, keep me in your word. Break my will when I find other things to do that get in the way of opening your word each day. Thank you for the fresh message that I get from you each day in reading this book. Give me the strength to get through this week and the providence of knowledge as I take these tests. Help me to retain that which will lead someone into your will for their life. Never let this be about me or the grades. Make it about the walk you have for me to take.”
Every day I read His written word I find new treasure that I had not recognized before. This message this day is to encourage us to never believe that we have reached the end of understanding what God has to say to us from the Bible. It is a never ending supply of blessing.
Another thing came to mind in preparation for this message. It is an old quilt hanging out in the fellowship hall. As Hilkiah the priest stumbled across the book of the law while repairs were being made, a similar thing happened with that old quilt. It was found in a trash bag while repairs were being made here. Now it has a place of honor to remind us of the families that were here and will always be with us here. Each time we have an event in the fellowship hall people look at that old quilt and remember what they were doing back when it was made.
The Bible will never fade like that old quilt. My prayer is that it will be as fresh the last day I read it that it was the first time I read it. That is my prayer for all who make it their daily read.
Scripture: The focal scripture today is 2 Kings 22:8. Please stand if you’re able.
Prayer: Let us pray. Be seated.
Message: Please listen as I read from a Thanksgiving Day devotional message from one of my classmates, David Saunders.
“In 1623, 3yrs after the pilgrims had settled at Plymouth Rock, the following proclamation was made by the Governor of the Plymouth Colony, Governor William Bradford.
To all you Pilgrims,
“Inasmuch as the GREAT FATHER has given us this year an abundant harvest of Indian corn, wheat, peas, squashes and garden vegetables, and has made the forests to abound with game and the sea with fish and clams, and inasmuch as HE has protected us from the raids of the savages, has spared us from pestilence and disease, has granted us freedom to worship GOD according to the dictates of our own conscience; now I, your magistrate, do proclaim that all you Pilgrims, with your wives and your little ones, do gather at the meeting house, on the hill, between the hours of 9 and 12 in the day time, on Thursday November the 29th in the Year of Our LORD one thousand six hundred and twenty three, and the third year since you Pilgrims landed on this Plymouth Rock, there to listen to the pastor and render thanksgiving to our ALMIGHTY GOD for all HIS blessings.”
I pray that we here never forget what thanksgiving meant to those first settlers who survived in this new place where they came to worship God. Let us keep in our hearts the true meaning of this holiday we know as Thanksgiving.
2 Kings 22 starts with, “*Josiah awas eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned thirty and one years in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Jedidah, the daughter of Adaiah of bBoscath. 2 And he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, and walked in all the way of David his father, and cturned not aside to the right hand or to the left.” [2]
The workmen had been making repairs to the “house of the Lord.” Money had been collected to make the repairs. King Josiah was twenty-six years old when he told Shaphan the scribe to have Hilkiah the high priest to count the money. The two were to deliver the pay to the workmen. In verse seven it sounds like the workmen would not take the money because apparently they considered their work was a sign of faith.
Instead, Hilkiah found a great lost treasure. It seems ironic that a priest who is supposed to be the spiritual leader of the people would not already have the book of the law. How did it happen that the most valued thing to a priest was lost?
For whatever reason that which was lost was recovered much like the old quilt hanging in the fellowship hall. The quilt was found in a trash bag. The book was found in the house of the Lord right where it should have been. How could this book which is the basis for what we have now as The Bible have been forgotten in the temple where it was supposed to be? What have we forgotten? We know that we are living temples for The Holy Spirit. These bodies are spiritual residences for His love to overflow from. Have we forgotten?
When Hlkiah received the book he knew he had received a great treasure. As high priest he knew what he had been given. Then Hilkiah did something that seems strange. He gave it away. He told the scribe Shaphan what the book was and then Hilkiah gave it to Shaphan. What are we to do when we find the treasure that is the Bible? Are we supposed to take possession of it and hold it. Hilkaih gave it away. If we don’t receive the Bible and give it away then what we have received is worthless. Maybe that is why the book was lost in the first place. They say that beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. Those who lost it may have tried to hold it too tightly.
Shaphan was not a priest, he was a scribe. A scribe was one who wrote down knowledge to be remembered later. Shapan had an ancient book and probably understood the value of it whether he had any knowledge of its contents or not. It was of great value simply because of its age.
Somebody gave Fruitland Baptist Bible College a 1634 copy of the King James Version. If you go up the mountain you will find that old Bible under glass in the Library. Some who have held that book tried to read it but I was unable to comprehend the language. I know that it is a valuable book to be treasured but few people can still read it for comprehension.
Maybe that is how Shaphan felt holding that book that day. But when Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan to read, Shaphan read it. He understood what he had. He took it to King Josiah who told them to go and ask God what to next because through Shaphan’s reading of the book, Josiah knew that the people of Judah had sinned against God. If a person does not have this in their heart they do not believe what sin is. If they don’t know they are headed in the wrong direction they will continue being lost. It is time to find His truth everyday.
Prayer:
Invitation: We live in such a time as Josiah. We have the Bible in our hands but we have forgotten it with our hearts. We look to find the error of our ways everywhere except within the pages of this treasure. Each time we dig deeper we find new treasure.
The invitation today, as we remember last Sunday and Old Fashioned Day is that we rediscover that which has been covered. Many have read the Bible but it is worth recovering that which has already been covered. In our Prayer meetings and Bible Studies that we have in our evening services we uncover truths each evening as the Holy Spirit gives spiritual understanding. So the invitation is this; if you don’t have a plan to read the Bible through start now, start reading it again. If you do then every day will be a day of thanksgiving.
Write down the many truths and the prayers that you pray to thank God for this great treasure. Only God knows the treasure that writing down your thoughts might have later when someone else finds that old journal that you forgot. If the church is to come back into its prominence we must begin with learning what God has so graciously told us. I was lost but now I am found. Can you say that? Consider as we sing…
i Comp. Deut. 31:24–26 with 2 Chron. 34:14.
[1] The Holy Bible: King James Version (Electronic Edition of the 1900 Authorized Version., 2 Ki 22:8). (2009). Logos Research Systems, Inc.
* B.C. 641.
a 2 Chr. 34:1, 2.
b Jos. 15:39 (Heb.).
c See Deut. 5:32.
[2] The Holy Bible: King James Version (Electronic Edition of the 1900 Authorized Version., 2 Ki 22:1–2). (2009). Logos Research Systems, Inc.
