The Great Discovery.

The great deliverance from the Scythian invasion strengthened Josiah and the Prophetic Party in their work of reform. They felt that their God had spared them because much of the idolatrous worship had already been stopped in Jerusalem and many of the pagan shrines destroyed.

The king also determined to repair and rebuild certain parts of the Temple. The great building that Solomon erected now looked like a hodge-podge of architecture. No repairs whatever had been made on it since the days of King Joash, about two hundred years before, while many additions in the interior and in the courts had been made by Ahaz and Manasseh.

Josiah determined to clear out everything foreign connected with the Temple; inside and out he was going to restore it as it was in the days of Solomon, and to beautify it. Walls were cracked and foundations had settled at different points. The alterations and repairs planned, accordingly, were very extensive and were to be done immediately.

But the Temple treasury and the coffers of the royal house were empty. The enormous tributes that the predecessors of Josiah were forced to pay to Assyria had greatly reduced the financial resources of both king and Temple.

Josiah, therefore, introduced a new method of collecting funds for the proposed work. He placed great collection boxes at the Temple gates. All who visited Jerusalem and the Temple were expected to make some contribution. Money came in fast, especially when, under the supervision of Hilkiah, the masons and the artisans and the workmen of all kinds had actually started operation.

In addition, Josiah caused collections to be made for this purpose all through his kingdom, including the old kingdom of Israel, where a remnant of the people still remained. With theis money, the hewn stone and the timber necessary for the repairs were bought and the workmen paid.

It is recorded that everyone did his work faithfully and efficiently and that the building, for that reason, was being restored in exceptionally quick time.

On a certain day, in the year 621, Josiah sent Shaphan, his minister of foreign affairs, to the Temple to empty the collection boxes and to report back to him on the progress of the repairs.

When Shaphan came to the Temple, Hilkiah approached him carrying a parchment statement, "I have found the Book of the Law in the House of God;" and Hilkiah handed the book to Shaphan.

Being questioned, Hilkiah explained that the book was discovered in one of the corner-stones of the Temple. It had probably been placed there by King Solomon himself, he explained, at the time when the Temple was built. But after Solomon's death, during the constant war between Israel and Judah and the inroads that idolatry had made in both countries, the real, genuine "Book of the Law" that was to have been the basis for government, the constitution of both Israel and Judah, had evidently been lost sight of and forgotten. Now, by the merest accident, it was found again.

When Shaphan glanced through it he immediately saw what a wonderful discovery had been made. So he took the book to the king. He reported to Josiah first, that the money was collected, material paid for and workmen satisfied; then, that the King's orders regarding the repairs of the Temple had been faithfully carried out; finally, that Hilkiah had discovered a book and that he had delivered it to him. The king, having heard the whole story of the discovery, ordered Shaphan to read the book to him, aloud.

What Shaphan read amazed Josiah and the few advisers whom he had called in to listen to the reading. Everything in it seemed to be the exact opposite of conditions as they existed in Judah. The laws for sacrifices and ceremonies in the Temple; the statutes regarding the priesthood in the Temple; the observances of the holidays; the commandments regarding duties of officers of the law and the administration of justice; the humane laws between man and man, all were different from, actually opposed to, the practice of priest, judge and people in Josiah's entire kingdom.

During the reading of the book Josiah recognized how little real headway his reforms thus far had made. When he heard Shaphan read:

"The judges shall judge the people with righteous judgment. Thou shalt not pervert justice; thou shalt not respect persons; neither shalt thou take a bribe, for a bribe blindeth the eyes of the wise and perverteth the words of the righteous. Justice and only justice shalt thou follow, that thou mayest live and inherit the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee",

he understood how far from this ideal his people had strayed.

When he heard the great declaration of God's unity,

"Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one; and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy might",

he understood how little he had accomplished throughout his reign, in attempted suppression of the worship of many gods.

When he heard the scribe read aloud that it is God's will to be worshiped only in that "place which the Lord your God shall choose out of all your tribes to put His name there," he determined, more than ever before, to pull down every shrine and pagan sanctuary and to center the worship of the Lord in the Temple in Jerusalem alone.

At the end of the book, Shaphan read a series of wonderful blessings that were promised king and people, if they would live in accordance with the commandments contained in the Book of the Law—and Josiah saw visions of peace and prosperity for his kingdom. But the reading of the last lines cast a heavy gloom upon the little party, for the book concluded with the enumeration of a series of evils upon evils that would surely befall king and people should they not live in accordance with these commandments:

"All these curses shall come upon thee and follow thee and overtake thee until thou art destroyed, because thou hast not hearkened unto the Lord thy God, to keep His commandments and His statutes which He commanded thee."

Upon hearing this very dramatic conclusion, Josiah came down from his throne and bowed himself to the ground. He rent his clothes and wept aloud, as if he were mourning for one who had died and whom he had loved best of all in the world.

Then, restraining himself and collecting all his strength, he turned to Shaphan and Hilkiah and the others, who had been listening to the reading, and said:

"Go ye, inquire of the Lord for me, and for them that are left in Israel and Judah, concerning the words of the book that is found; for great is the wrath of the Lord that is poured out upon us, because our fathers have not kept the word of the Lord, to do according unto all that is written in this book."

Leaving the King's presence, Hilkiah and his companions held a short council to determine what to do next. The Book of the Law was so extraordinary that they needed the wisdom of some sage to explain to them how to proceed.

Those of the Prophetic Party understood well enough what this book was. They considered that it was a copy of the law which Moses was ordered to "put by the side of the Ark" and which Solomon probably placed in the corner-stone of the Temple when he built it. They who had been trained by the descendants of the little party of faithful Judeans whom Isaiah had gathered about him, knew that this law had been continually violated since the days of Hezekiah and practically forgotten. Therefore they wanted someone who was an authority, one who would be trusted by all the people, to interpret this book and to declare it to be the genuine Law of Moses.

First, someone suggested that Jeremiah be called in to interpret the book, but Hilkiah objected on the ground that Jeremiah was still a young man and that his opinion probably would not be heeded by all the people. Shaphan then suggested that the book be taken to Huldah, the Prophetess, a wise and aged mother in Israel, then living in Jerusalem.

This suggestion was agreeable to all. With Hilkiah as leader of the delegation, they came to Huldah, bringing the request from the King. Her face lighted up benignly when she had read the book, but when she thought of the reply she had to send back, her brows knitted and wrinkles of care and pain showed in her face. Returning the scroll to Shaphan, Huldah said:

"Thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel; Tell ye the man that sent you unto me: Thus saith the Lord, 'Behold, I will bring evil upon this place, and upon the inhabitants thereof, even all the curses that are written in the book which they have read before the king of Judah. Because they have forsaken me, and have burned incense unto other gods, that they might provoke me to anger with all the works of their bands; therefore is my wrath poured out upon this place and it shall not be quenched.'

"But unto the King of Judah, who sent you to inquire of the Lord, thus shall ye say to him: 'Thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel: As touching the words which thou hast heard, because thy heart was tender, and thou didst humble thyself before God, when thou heardest his words against this place and against the inhabitants thereof, and hast humbled thyself before me and hast rent thy clothes and wept before me; I also have heard thee, saith the Lord. Behold, I will gather thee to thy fathers and thou shalt be gathered to thy grave in peace, neither shall thine eyes see all the evil that I will bring upon this place and upon the inhabitants thereof.'"

The good prophetess knew that what happens to individuals must happen to whole nations. Here was a people that had been adding evil to evil and transgression to transgression for many generations. Just as a person who keeps on sinning and sinning, without reforming in his heart and in his deeds, arrives at a time when, no matter how anxious he is to turn from his evil ways, it is too late and he must finally pay the penalty for his misspent life, so this nation of Judah, into the very heart of which the cancer of wrongdoing had long been eating, could not, at this late date, escape its final destruction.

But it is different, as the Prophetess Huldah expressed it, with individuals who turn from their evil paths while they are young, or who, like Josiah, attempt to do the right thing in the very midst of evil.

Therefore, she could send back the message to the king, that he, because of the tenderness of his heart, because of his humility before God, because of his unquestioned effort to act in accordance with God's commandments, would return unto the God who sent him here before the evil days were to come upon the land, before the doom that awaited his people would encompass them.

The king had been anxiously awaiting the return of his messengers, when they arrived at the palace from the house of the Prophetess. They were quickly ushered into the throne room.

It was with great hesitation that Hilkiah finally made up his mind to report the words of the prophetess, exactly as she had spoken them. When the priest had finished, a deep, deathlike silence hung over the room, as if some catastrophe were impending.

Josiah turned away from the little group, rested his arm heavily upon the throne and leaned his head upon it. Hilkiah, Shaphan and the others saw and felt the emotion that surged through the young king and caused his whole frame to tremble. A soft, gentle sound escaped him, as if he were weeping.

Suddenly, however, Josiah's attitude changed. He ran the back of his hand over his eyes, straightened up and faced his friends. He was calm, composed, determined. He had concluded that he, himself, was the least to be considered in this matter. He needed advice from more older and more experienced men. Consequently, before the counselors present left him, Josiah ordered Shaphan to call an assembly of the elders of the entire people to meet in Jerusalem before the coming Passover.