2 Chronicles 34:14-33 And when they brought out the money that was brought into the house of the LORD… 1. We to-day are in some danger of losing the Scriptures. Not as a volume of literature. (1) It is possible for the Word of God to sink out of our consciousness through our indifference. (2) We may also make so much of prayer-books and creeds, of systems of doctrine and religious treatises, that the Scriptures themselves are seen only by a reflected light. (3) Because we have been acquainted with the Scriptures from childhood, as we grow older we may fancy that we know what they contain, and leave them unstudied and unread. (4) It is not unusual in public worship for the devotional services and the sermon to come between the soul and God's Word. (5) It is not unusual to find men so wedded to traditional interpretations, having origin in some theological theory, that when they read the Bible they are like one looking upon a landscape through coloured spectacles. When this tendency rules we are in danger of losing the Bible. 2. The discovery of "the book of the law" gave Josiah a new basis for faith. He must have felt when he read it, that he was supernaturally strengthened in his great task of reformation. There are few of us who do not desire to have our various undertakings approved by those in whose sagacity and moral discernment we trust. Josiah undertook his work with a new heart, for he felt that the Lord was with him. 3. We have here suggested the broad distinction between our certainty of what seems to be true and our certainty of what is vouched for as true by the Word of God. 4. This discovery of the law enlarged Josiah's conception of duty. The knowledge that came to him and to the nation, through this book, was what a flash of light is to a ship on a dangerous coast; the light reveals the rocks upon which she nearly struck; it also reveals the safe channel and the course to the harbour. The Bible performs this double office for all to whom it comes. It reveals sin; and it discloses the path to a better life. God's prohibitions are not restrictions upon life, but protections to it. God's calls to men are calls to blessedness. 5. This narrative illustrates the way truth enters a human life and recreates it. 6. Two reflections. (1) The large importance to each one of us of our finding the truth of God. (2) The chief blessing we can confer on others is to give them the truth God has given us. The men who went to the temple treasury came back with more than money. (G. E. Horr.) Parallel Verses KJV: And when they brought out the money that was brought into the house of the LORD, Hilkiah the priest found a book of the law of the LORD given by Moses. |
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