Easy to Happen
Easy to Happen
When you look back in the Old Testament, you see that in spite of all the instruction about worship, often repeated, an astounding loss nevertheless had occurred. All that the priests could control, they did. All that the ceremonies could control, they used to their advantage. And when a select or elect few control and sell salvation, the victim is always the common person. No religion is spared here. One would think that this New Spirituality has brought about a new Eden and that its rivers flow peacefully and calmly. But it is not so… In fact, it has never been so. Few arenas lend themselves to abuse and loss as that of religion.
In the enormous temple that Solomon built for the worship of the one true God, ceremonies were rife. All that glittered was gold. The largesse represented was almost unprecedented… the regal splendor of it was proverbial. Worshippers made pilgrimages to the temple and celebrated key moments in family life there. But Solomon lost his way, and before long, his people were like sheep without a shepherd. The temple remained busy; the ceremonies continued to be celebrated; but something crucial had been lost.
When Josiah became the king many years later, he ordered a thorough cleaning of the temple and, lo and behold! in the midst of that massive cleanup someone found the Book of the Law, God’s written word to his people, buried in dust somewhere in a back room. The temple was the place where the Book of the Law had been valued and protected. But no one knew it was even there. And saddest of all, they hadn’t missed it. This meant that people were still going to the temple to pray, but God was no longer in their midst and they didn’t even know it. They were, in effect, talking to themselves. They went to listen, but the book was missing, so there was no one to speak to them. They were sitting in an echo chamber, listening only to themselves. There was no ear to hear them and no voice to speak to them. They lived their lives and carried out their ceremonies of worship in a vacuum.
It is hard to imagine how something like that could have happened. But it has happened repeatedly in history. Someone has said that the main thing in life is to keep the main thing, the main thing… because there are always multiple options vying to replace the main thing.
This is how the Bible describes the startling find in 2 Kings 22:8–10:
Hilkiah the high priest said to Shaphan the secretary, “I have found the Book of the Law in the temple of the LORD.” He gave it to Shaphan, who read it. Then Shaphan the secretary went to the king and reported to him: “Your officials have paid out the money that was in the temple of the LORD and have entrusted it to the workers and supervisors at the temple.” Then Shaphan the secretary informed the king, “Hilkiah the priest has given me a book.” And Shaphan read from it in the presence of the king. (NIV)
Imagine the scene. That which was the most sacred depository had been lost… lost in the very place that had been erected to guard that trust. The king was overcome with emotion at the find. He gathered an assembly of his people and read the book aloud to them. The long-lost treasure had been rediscovered, and there was a time of national repentance before God. It would have been one thing if they had lost the Book of the Law while traveling, or had hidden it someplace for “safekeeping” and the location of its hiding place had been forgotten over years. But to lose it in the temple itself?
The Word of God that was referred to as the Law had been the guiding light and wisdom for generation after generation. It had been a little over seven hundred years since the people had returned from captivity in Egypt. The same Book of the Law had been read to the people as they reentered their homeland in Joshua’s time, and they were reminded to teach it to their children and to the generations that were to come so that they would never forget how they had been rescued by God against all odds and brought back from captivity. This Book of the Law contained God’s instruction to them for life, following their redemption.
I cannot ignore the need to make an observation here: Look over the world today and observe how many wars are being fought because of border disputes. How interesting that we consider these wars over boundaries legitimate, but we do not wish to allow God the prerogative to establish boundaries for us.
When I was a child, I often played marbles with my friends. There was a set of rules for the game, but one of my friends introduced a new rule into the game, captured in two words: “Everything mine!” The rule was that whoever was the first to shout “Everything mine” became the determiner of what rules applied, and when. Even a game of marbles loses its fun when the rules apply only at one person’s whim. Our world has rejected the transcendent law and is trying to play the game according to the rule of “everything mine.” But when two “mines” collide, if one would pardon the pun, we find ourselves walking through a minefield of horror.
In the time following Solomon, each person began to do what was right in his own eyes. It was indeed a time of “everything mine.” Gradually, the teaching of the Law was lost, and with society in total chaos, it took a massive cleaning of the temple, led by a young monarch, to even find this document.
I will never forget the first time I visited Russia during the days of the Cold War. I attended an old historic church in the city of Leningrad, which is now called St. Petersburg. I watched as people came in for the service, most of them quite elderly. When the pastor began to speak, my wife and I observed as one elderly woman carefully unfolded layers of old cloth in her lap until she finally held a Bible in her hands. She clasped it so tenderly, as one would the most precious and fragile treasure. She was one of very few people in the church who even had a Bible. That was more than twenty years ago.
A few short days ago, I addressed a packed auditorium in Moscow. The man introducing me said, “Not too long ago, if you had come to Moscow the only Bible you were likely to have seen would have been in the museum. Today, in this auditorium alone there are at least a thousand Bibles. What a great thing has happened in our country!” The audience broke into a thunderous applause.
I sat there and pondered what America would be like today if we had been without the Bible for ninety years. It has been the beautiful teaching of the Word of God across time that has given this nation its ethos. It was this Word of God that put a song into the hearts of slaves during their darkest days. It was this Word of God that gave William Wilberforce in England the conviction and the courage to speak out against slavery and sustained him in the long struggle to see it abolished in the British Commonwealth. It was this same Word of God that inspired Martin Luther King Jr. in his pursuit of civil liberty. It was from the sermon Jesus preached, recorded in this Word of God as the Sermon on the Mount, that Mahatma Gandhi often quoted. And this same Word of God has transformed the life of many a prisoner, and of many others I could tell of, from some of the darkest parts of the world where the light of God’s Word has shone. The New Spiritualists would do well to read the Word of God again without prejudice and find in there the treasure that God has given to all of us.
Any nation that neglects teaching the sacredness of life and the family does so at its own peril. Any nation that sanctions the removal of God’s boundaries will destroy its own.
I remember asking a Hindu and a Muslim in Canada why they sent their children to a Christian school rather than a public one. They both in effect answered the question the same way: “At least in the Christian school they will learn that values are something very sacred and will not be taught according to secular values.” “We would rather point them to the God we believe in than have to prove to them that God exists,” said one. What an interesting take on valueless, godless secularism! When the Word of God is lost, the basis of the sacred is lost and anything goes.
One of the all-time greatest books was written by John Bunyan. I believe that other than the Bible, it has been translated into more languages than any other book. I am referring, of course, to The Pilgrim’s Progress. In it, Pilgrim struggles through life with his burden, going through the testing of Vanity Fair, the Slough of Despond, and so on. It is only when he reaches the foot of the cross at the top of the hill that his burden falls off him. But the journey doesn’t end there. He is met by the “Three Shining Ones”: The first is the Angel of the Dawn, who greets him with the words “Your sins are forgiven.” The second is the Angel of the Daylight, who strips him of his rags and gives him a new set of clothes. The third is the Angel of the Dusk, who points the way for Pilgrim to the gate of the Celestial City. This third angel also puts a mark on his forehead and gives him a scroll so that he will have a map to guide him on his way. The first angel meets his spiritual need, the second addresses his physical needs, and the third engages his intellectual needs and gives him tools to help and instruct him along the journey.
The Christian’s walk involves all three areas of life—the spiritual, the practical, and the intellectual. These are not mutually exclusive. God is an immensely practical Being, but he also guides us with reason and wisdom. God’s Word is the scroll given to us to inform, enrich, teach, correct, and guide us to the celestial city. If we lose that Word, we have lost the light that guides us on the journey.