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THE KING’S BUSINESS
words of the book of the covenant that was found in the house of the LORD.” The king, having from God’s Word found his own duty, became a preacher and gave out to his people the truth that he had learned from God’s Word. Happy is the people whose king instructs them in the things of God from the Word of God. There is more wisdom in God’s book than in all the books of then (Ps. 119:98, 99, 130; 2 Tim. 3:14-17). Josiah in his desire to know God’s will, went to God’s repre sentatives, the prophet and the prophetess. In those days the prophet of God was depended upon to discover and reveal'the mind of the Lord (cf. Ex. 18:15; 1 Sam. 9:9; 1 Kings 22:5-7; Jer. 21:2; Ez, 14:1; 20:1-7). In this dispensation we do not need to gb to any man, it is our higher privilege to be directly taught by the Spirit through the Word (John 14:26; 16:13, 14; 1 John 2:20, 27; James 1:5-7). Josiah in his effort to bring the people into obe dience to God’s word began with the leaders of the people. But he' did not stop with the leaders of the people, he left none out, “both great and small” must hear the word. The plan is worthy of our imitation today: ( 1 ) to begin our revivals with the religious leaders, “the elders” ; ( 2 ) to reach but from “the elders” to the whole community until “all the people great and small” are brought under the power of the Word of God. Josiah began his reformation where all proper and lasting reformation must begin, by teaching the whole people "all the words of the Book.” , He did not try to pick and choose, giving .the people such parts as he thought best or that most appealed to him, he gave them all that was written.. What a sight! a king reading “all the words of the Book” to his assem bled people! vs. 31-33. "And the king stood in his place, and made a covenant before the LORD, to walk after the LQRD, and to keep His commandments, and his testi monies, and his statutes, with all his heart, and with all his soul, to perform the words of the covenant, which are (were) writ-
to keep the Word of God to himself when he finds it. vs. 17-19. "And they''have gathered together ( emptied out ) the money that was found in the house of the LORD, and have delivered it into the hand of the overseers, and into the hand of the work men. Then Shaphan the scribe told the king, saying, Hilkiah the priest hath given ( delivered ) me a book. And Shaphan read it ( therein ) before the king and it came to pass, when the king had heard the worths of the law, that he rent his clothes.” Sha phan, having received the word of God, in turn passed it on to the king, and this pass ing on of the word from Hilkiah to Sha phan and from Shaphan to the king gave rise to the great reformation. One of the many proofs that the Bible is the Word of God is the effect that a new study of it has upon religion and morals. Every great religious reformation has arisen from a new study of the Word of God. The money gathered for the house of the LORD was handled with care and appro priated to its proper use. The first effect of the reading of the Word of Hod upon Josiah was to produce conviction of sin. There is nothing in the world that has such power to produce conviction of sin as the word of God. The wonderful con viction of sin recorded in the second chap ter of the Acts of the Apostles (v. 37), that resulted in three thousand being truly converted and born again in a single day, was wrought by the Word of God. It -is true it was Peter’s sermon that was used to this end, but Peter’s sermon was Bible from start to finish. . Great wrath had come upon Judah because they did not keep the Word of God and had not done “after all that is written” (v. 2 1 ). vs. 29, 30. “Then the king sent and gathered together all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem. And the -king went up into ( to ) the house of the LORD, and all' the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and the priests, and the Levites, and all the people, great and small: and he read in their ears all the
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