Where is your Bible?

At the end of 2 Kings 20, I overlooked this verse –

As for the other events of Hezekiah’s reign, all his achievements and how he made the pool and the tunnel by which he brought water into the city, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Judah?  2 Kings 20:20

Which will only mean something to you if you have heard of or visited Hezekiah’s tunnel. Which Andy has. So tomorrow he is going to tell you all about it.

In the meantime, I am moving on.

And here we are, back with our familiar story –

Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem fifty-five years. His mother’s name was Hephzibah. He did evil in the eyes of the Lord….  2 Kings 21:1-2

All the good that Hezekiah has done is now undone by his son. He reinstates all the foreign gods. He himself follows these foreign gods. He sacrifices his own son.

And God could not make it clearer what is about to happen –

I am going to bring such disaster on Jerusalem and Judah that the ears of everyone who hears of it will tingle. I will stretch out over Jerusalem the measuring line used against Samaria and the plumb line used against the house of Ahab. I will wipe out Jerusalem as one wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down.  2 Kings 21:12-13

Manasseh is succeeded by his son Amon, but nothing changes –

Amon was twenty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem two years. His mother’s name was Meshullemeth daughter of Haruz; she was from Jotbah. He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, as his father Manasseh had done. 2 Kings 21:19-20

Amon is assassinated and succeeded by his son Josiah. And in him, we find another good one – one of the few among the many corrupt ones –

Josiah was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem thirty-one years. His mother’s name was Jedidah daughter of Adaiah; she was from Bozkath. He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord and followed completely the ways of his father David, not turning aside to the right or to the left.  2 Kings 22:1-2

Whilst repairs on the temple are being undertaken, the Book of the Law is found. No one really knows what it is –

“Hilkiah the priest has given me a book.” 2 Kings 22:10

Until the king hears the words read from it. And then he is convicted. Then he knows.

Great is the Lord’s anger that burns against us because those who have gone before us have not obeyed the words of this book; they have not acted in accordance with all that is written there concerning us.  2 Kings 22:13

So Hilkiah the priest goes to consult Huldah the prophet. Who is a woman. Of course, it is not good news. God will bring disaster on His people because Josiah is right – God is angry because His people have long forgotten what it is to trust and obey Him. But God sees the humble and repentant attitude of Josiah’s heart and hears him and will let him be buried in peace before disaster strikes.

Josiah calls together all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem – all the priests and the prophets too – and reads aloud from the Book of the Covenant. He renews the covenant in the presence of the Lord. Everything to do with foreign gods is removed and destroyed. He cleansed the land. He reinstated the celebration of the Passover (which hadn’t been done in hundreds of years…) –

 Neither in the days of the judges who led Israel nor in the days of the kings of Israel and the kings of Judah had any such Passover been observed. 2 Kings 23:22

He read the Word of the Lord and acted upon it. When was the last time you did that?

Not that any of this changed what God was about to do to His people. It was too late for that. The damage had already been done.

Josiah was killed at Megiddo by the King of Egypt and succeeded by his son Jehoahaz.

Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem three months. His mother’s name was Hamutal daughter of Jeremiah; she was from Libnah. He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, just as his predecessors had done.   2 Kings 22:31-32

The king of Egypt captured Jehoahaz and put his brother Eliakim on the throne instead. And changed his name to Jehoiakim. And he paid Pharoah Necho in gold and silver exacted from the people.

Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem eleven years. His mother’s name was Zebidah daughter of Pedaiah; she was from Rumah. And he did evil in the eyes of the Lord, just as his predecessors had done.  2 Kings 23:36-37

That’s enough of the journey for today.

I slipped one challenge in there. I’m sure you noticed it.

‘He read the Word of the Lord and acted upon it. When was the last time you did that?’

In the Drama at church on Sunday, an evil intruder in a house challenges the girls to find their Bible and prove something to her….of course, the two girls cannot remember where their Bible is and lay their hands on it. Because it’s become a bit of a joke hasn’t it? That Christians have no idea where their Bible is because they never read it. Of course, these days, many of us have our Bible on our phones, so the preacher has to trust that we are looking at the verses he is talking about and not reading an interesting status on Facebook! But the challenge is still there, isn’t it?

How often do we read our Bibles? How well do we know God’s word? Yes, we know and can quote certain passages and verses that we know very well but what about the rest of it. If we want to know God and if we believe that God is revealed in His Book, then why are we not devouring it every single day?

I am coming up to one year of this journey through the Bible. I have come across stories that I have never discovered before in 50 years of church and faith. I know most people think I am mad for doing this, but I am reading the Bible pretty much every single day and however obscure the passage, there is always something there…….and those of you that are joining me are discovering more of the Bible on this journey too.

Of course, it’s not just reading that matters. It’s putting it into practice, as Josiah did all those years ago. That’s a daily challenge, isn’t it? Reminding ourselves of God’s rules and guidelines and standards and learning to live by them. Reminding ourselves of how Jesus lived and what he taught and all that was important to him.

The Bible astounds me with its relevance and truth. The Bible inspires me and challenges me. The Bible is a precious resource, a lifeline for our faith and we should never ever take that for granted.

The Bible calls us to action.

Let’s do it!