And Hilkiah the high priest said to Shaphan the secretary, “I have found the Book of the Law in the house of the Lord.” And Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan, and he read it.
—2 Kings 22:8
Do not put yourself forward in the king's presence
or stand in the place of the great,
for it is better to be told, “Come up here,”
than to be put lower in the presence of a noble.
—Proverbs 25:6-7a
And a leper came to him, imploring him, and kneeling said to him, “If you will, you can make me clean.” Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand and touched him and said to him, “I will; be clean.”
—Mark 1:40-41
Now [Jesus] told a parable to those who were invited, when he noticed how they chose the places of honor, saying to them, “When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not sit down in a place of honor, lest someone more distinguished than you be invited by him...”
—Luke 14:7-8
When we say that we have "found" something, it usually means that it was lost, or that we were looking for it, or both.
We might call out to family members helping us search for car keys, "Never mind; I found them!" And "found" sometimes implies lack of prior knowledge, as when we tell friends, "I found a really good restaurant!"
Sometimes only a word or two in a verse can give us an opportunity to pause and let it sink in. Hilkiah, the high priest, reported that he had found the scroll of the Law in the temple. How could it have become lost?
My car keys are physically tiny; it is easy to put something on top of them or put them among other small things that disguise their presence. But a Torah scroll isn't little! My car keys are only useful a tiny percent of the time—when I'm leaving the house to go somewhere. But the Word is the light to the pathway of the Lord's people, a blessing to those who meditate on it day and night. It is important!
We know from the book of Kings that the fragmented nation kept losing its way, with leaders that kept chasing everything except shepherding the people in the right paths. But the fact that the Law scroll's presence was unknown even to the high priest says much about the state of the leaders and the people. Reading through the book of Jeremiah is a dismaying wake-up call concerning the power of distraction and forgetting.
Jesus said that He came to fulfill the Law and the Prophets, so it shouldn't be a surprise to find so much of His teaching calling His hearers back to what they had been taught before. They had to rediscover the Lord's instructions before they could understand their completion.
Lost and Found (part 1)
Light dawns in the darkness for the upright;
he is gracious, merciful, and righteous.
—Psalm 112:4
And Hilkiah the high priest said to Shaphan the secretary, “I have found the Book of the Law in the house of the Lord.” And Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan, and he read it.
—2 Kings 22:8
Do not put yourself forward in the king's presence
or stand in the place of the great,
for it is better to be told, “Come up here,”
than to be put lower in the presence of a noble.
—Proverbs 25:6-7a
And a leper came to him, imploring him, and kneeling said to him, “If you will, you can make me clean.” Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand and touched him and said to him, “I will; be clean.”
—Mark 1:40-41
Now [Jesus] told a parable to those who were invited, when he noticed how they chose the places of honor, saying to them, “When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not sit down in a place of honor, lest someone more distinguished than you be invited by him...”
—Luke 14:7-8
When we say that we have "found" something, it usually means that it was lost, or that we were looking for it, or both.
We might call out to family members helping us search for car keys, "Never mind; I found them!" And "found" sometimes implies lack of prior knowledge, as when we tell friends, "I found a really good restaurant!"
Sometimes only a word or two in a verse can give us an opportunity to pause and let it sink in. Hilkiah, the high priest, reported that he had found the scroll of the Law in the temple. How could it have become lost?
My car keys are physically tiny; it is easy to put something on top of them or put them among other small things that disguise their presence. But a Torah scroll isn't little! My car keys are only useful a tiny percent of the time—when I'm leaving the house to go somewhere. But the Word is the light to the pathway of the Lord's people, a blessing to those who meditate on it day and night. It is important!
We know from the book of Kings that the fragmented nation kept losing its way, with leaders that kept chasing everything except shepherding the people in the right paths. But the fact that the Law scroll's presence was unknown even to the high priest says much about the state of the leaders and the people. Reading through the book of Jeremiah is a dismaying wake-up call concerning the power of distraction and forgetting.
Jesus said that He came to fulfill the Law and the Prophets, so it shouldn't be a surprise to find so much of His teaching calling His hearers back to what they had been taught before. They had to rediscover the Lord's instructions before they could understand their completion.
Only then could light dawn in the darkness.