Sermon: Interpreting the Word
Scripture 2 Kings 22
Preached: August 23, 2015 pm service
Rev. Mike Abma
Preamble
Our text this evening is from near the end of the sorry history of God’s people in Jerusalem. For 300 years they have languished under one poor king after another, with very few exceptions.
Ever since Solomon built the Temple, things have gone downhill.
Solomon was distracted by his many wives.
A civil war breaks apart the north from the south.
By the time of our text, the northern kingdom has already been wiped out by the Assyrians, and the southern kingdom seems to be living on borrowed time.
And then there is this final flash of light,
this final ray of hope
that comes about 70 years before Jerusalem totally collapses.
2 Kings 22:
Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign; he reigned for thirty-one years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Jedidah daughter of Adaiah of Bozkath. He did what was right in the sight of the Lord, and walked in all the way of his father David; he did not turn aside to the right or to the left.
In the eighteenth year of King Josiah, the king sent Shaphan son of Azaliah, son of Meshullam, the secretary, to the house of the Lord, saying, ‘Go up to the high priest Hilkiah, and have him count the entire sum of the money that has been brought into the house of the Lord, which the keepers of the threshold have collected from the people; let it be given into the hand of the workers who have the oversight of the house of the Lord; let them give it to the workers who are at the house of the Lord, repairing the house, that is, to the carpenters, to the builders, to the masons; and let them use it to buy timber and quarried stone to repair the house. But no account shall be asked from them for the money that is delivered into their hand, for they deal honestly.’
The high priest Hilkiah said to Shaphan the secretary, ‘I have found the book of the law in the house of the Lord.’
When Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan, he read it. Then Shaphan the secretary came to the king, and reported to the king, ‘Your servants have emptied out the money that was found in the house, and have delivered it into the hand of the workers who have oversight of the house of the Lord.’
Shaphan the secretary informed the king, ‘The priest Hilkiah has given me a book.’ Shaphan then read it aloud to the king.
When the king heard the words of the book of the law, he tore his clothes. Then the king commanded the priest Hilkiah, Ahikam son of Shaphan, Achbor son of Micaiah, Shaphan the secretary, and the king’s servant Asaiah, saying, ‘Go, inquire of the Lord for me, for the people, and for all Judah, concerning the words of this book that has been found; for great is the wrath of the Lord that is kindled against us, because our ancestors did not obey the words of this book, to do according to all that is written concerning us.’
So the priest Hilkiah, Ahikam, Achbor, Shaphan, and Asaiah went to the prophetess Huldah the wife of Shallum son of Tikvah, son of Harhas, keeper of the wardrobe; she resided in Jerusalem in the Second Quarter, where they consulted her.
She declared to them, ‘Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Tell the man who sent you to me, Thus says the Lord, I will indeed bring disaster on this place and on its inhabitants—all the words of the book that the king of Judah has read. Because they have abandoned me and have made offerings to other gods, so that they have provoked me to anger with all the work of their hands, therefore my wrath will be kindled against this place, and it will not be quenched. But as to the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of the Lord, thus shall you say to him, Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Regarding the words that you have heard, because your heart was penitent, and you humbled yourself before the Lord, when you heard how I spoke against this place, and against its inhabitants, that they should become a desolation and a curse, and because you have torn your clothes and wept before me, I also have heard you, says the Lord. Therefore, I will gather you to your ancestors, and you shall be gathered to your grave in peace; your eyes shall not see all the disaster that I will bring on this place.’ They took the message back to the king.
This is the Word of the Lord
Thanks be to God
INTRODUCTION — THE WORD — READ IT
The ray of hope for Jerusalem comes in this child king named Josiah, who begins his reign at the tender age of 8.
Our text occurs when he has reigned for 18 years,
meaning when he was 26 years of age.
Josiah clearly wants to do something significant in his reign.
He begins with plans to renovate the Temple.
To do that, he needs money, so he orders his staff to have the Temple scoured and
searched for whatever money there is.
In the process, Hilkiah the High Priest, announces that a scroll has been found.
Hilkiah describes it as “the Book of the Law.”
Often the phrase “the Book of the Law” refers to the Torah
also known as the Pentateuch – the first 5 books of the Old Testament.
It is doubtful that this scroll contained all of that.
Most commentators believe that a version of the book of Deuteronomy was found.
Deuteronomy is pretty clear in its covenantal call:
stay true to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,
because if you follow after other gods
the anger of God will be kindled against you (see Deut. 6:14-15).
This scroll is not only found.
It is read.
This sounds like a simple thing – it was read — but it is an important part of this passage.
Hilkiah the High Priest reads the scroll when he finds it because he
knows it is the Book of the Law.
Then we are told explicitly that Shaphan the royal secretary reads the scroll in vs.
8.
Then we are told explicitly that Shaphan reads the scroll aloud to the King himself
in vs. 10.
The scroll is found.
The scroll is read.
If anything, we have the opposite problem in our world today.
It is not as if scrolls are hidden, and Bibles are rare.
We have more Bibles and more versions of the Bible than we know what to do with.
The Gideons have put 2 billion Bibles into hotels, hospitals, colleges all over the
world.
I learned this week that in 2014 over 140 million people downloaded the
YouVersion Bible App onto their phones — I don’t have this App, but
apparently it gives you a choice of 600 different versions of the Bible on
your phone.
The Word is all over the place – but it is hidden in plain sight.
It is available everywhere – but fewer and fewer people seem to be reading it.
Nikolas Kristoff, a New York Times reporter, had an article last spring with the title “Religion for $1000, Alex.”
In the article he pokes fun at how Biblically illiterate people are.
For example:
Noah’s wife? Is thought to be Joan of Arc.
Sodom’s wild girlfriend is…yup, Gomorrah.
Where does Moses receive the 10 commandments? On Mount Cyanide.
You have heard of the 12 Apostles.
Well did you know that their wives were the 12 Epistles?
Stephen Prothero’s book, Religious Literacy, is the sad story of how Biblically
illiterate we have become, so much so that most Americans cannot even
name one of the 4 gospels.
But the point is this — even though over two thirds of the populations says they
believe the Bible hold the answers to many of life’s basic questions,
yet, many people refuse to actually read it.
According to Prothero,
all Christians are to blame for this:
Left, right, ecumenical, evangelical — we have all abandoned the
Bible.
So that is the first significant thing in this passage – not simply is the scroll found;
it is read.
THE WORD — INTERPRET IT
When the scroll is read to King Josiah,
he recognizes that he needed more than to simply have it read.
He needed someone to interpret it – to apply it to his place and his time.
So he sends both Palace and Temple officials to find someone qualified to both read the text and interpret the text.
What follows is the first recorded reading and preaching of an actual Biblical text.
And it is done by a woman.
The woman is Huldah,
the wife of Shallum, the royal tailor.
Huldah was known as a prophet
and she lived right there in Jerusalem.
Most Bible commentators are rather confused as to why these
officials did not go to someone else.
By our reckoning, the prophet Zephaniah was probably there.
Also the prophet Jeremiah was living in Jerusalem at the time.
Jeremiah in fact complains of there being too many prophets in Jerusalem,
lying prophets
who only told people what they wanted to hear –
that all was well,
and that peace and prosperity were on the horizon.
But Huldah was not one of those prophets.
She is blunt. She does not sugar-coat her words.
She applies the Word to her time and her place.
She states that
Jerusalem had abandoned her God,
that Judah had run after false gods,
And that therefore there was big trouble on the way.
The Word needs to be Read.
The Word needs to be Interpreted.
That is the way it has always been.
In the book of Acts, (Acts 8)
a well-educated Ethiopian official
is travelling along reading a scroll of the prophet Isaiah.
Philip approaches and asks, “Do you understand what you are reading?”
The Ethiopian answers, “How can I, unless someone guides me?”
It is one thing to get people today to read the Word.
It is perhaps an even greater challenge for people to accept help in interpreting it.
Think of how Bible Studies often go.
A passage is read and then a question is often asked,
Something like
“What does this mean for you?”
Or “How does that make you feel?”
We live in a society in which the only person we really trust to interpret a text
is ourselves.
We want the power to accept it or dismiss it;
to apply it or not apply is as we see fit.
As one preacher once observed,
“Opening the Bible to read it may be the easy part.
Knowing what to do with it once it is opened and read
is where things get tricky.”
THE WORD — TRUST IT
The greatest attribute of Josiah in this text is his willingness to trust.
The willingness to trust is there, right at the opening of this chapter.
Remember how the chapter begins?
Josiah tells them to search for money in the Temple,
then to pay the builders, the carpenters, the masons,
and that no accounting was necessary,
no receipts were needed.
He trusted that they would deal honestly.
Shaphan, his secretary, is the one who reads to him from the scroll.
There is no clear indication that Josiah could read it himself.
Again, King Josiah trusts what his secretary reads is accurate.
Now here, at the end of the chapter,
Josiah will trust what the Prophet Huldah says.
Based on what she says,
Josiah will put into motion a full reform movement
that isn’t simply a Temple renovation
but which is a full-scale covenant and worship renewal.
Hebrews 4:12 describes the Word as living and active,
as sharp and cutting like a double-edged sword.
The Word needs to be trusted,
the way we trust a surgeon.
When we hear the Word read, and hear it interpreted,
we go under the knife, so to speak,
trusting that it is for our own good,
trusting that this is for our sanctification,
trusting that it will cut away all that hinders
our relationship with God
with our neighbor
and with creation.
CONCLUSION – OSEOLA McCARTY
About 20 years ago, an elderly woman from Hattiesburg Mississippi was in the news.
Her name was Oseola McCarty.
Born in 1908,
she was forced to leave school after the 6th grade.
She never married.
Never had kids.
Lived in the same house for half a century.
Worked at the same job – doing people’s laundry for a buck or two.
She never owned a car.
Had never been on a plane.
Hardly ever left her home, except to go to the
Friendship Baptist Church on Sundays.
So how did this woman gain global attention?
In 1995, at the age of 87, she decided to leave most of her life savings to the University of Southern Mississippi.
She decided to start a scholarship for needy students.
Somehow, over the years,
for every dollar she made
she used a dime for herself,
she gave a dime to her church
she gave 2 dimes to help needy family members
and she saved 6 dimes.
Over the years, those 6 dimes amounted to well over $150,000
which she gave to the University.
News of her generous, selfless action spread far and wide.
Much to her bewilderment,
she received a Presidential Citizens Medal,
and even an honorary doctorate degree from Harvard University.
In a recent interview,[1]
the author Marilynn Robinson –
author of novels like Gilead,
Home, and most recently Lila
Robinson expressed great admiration for Oseola McCarty.
Robinson also stated that a person does not simply get that way.
They are shaped.
They are formed.
Robinson noted that when Oseola passed away in 1999,
they found her Bible.
It was a well-worn, well-used book.
In fact, Paul’s letters to the Corinthians, were so worn and so used,
that they came falling out of the Bible.
Marilynn Robinson observes that 1 and 2 Corinthians
are all about
how to live and how to love;
how to be gracious and how to be generous.
Clearly Oseola McCarty knew these letters backwards and forwards.
She not only read them,
She not only went to church every week to hear them read, and interpreted.
She also applied them directly to her life.
We live in an age in which
some people assume they know the Bible –
and perhaps do not know it as well as they could;
or others assume that the Bible is too complicated for them;
or they assume it is not for them at all.
This book is your book and my book and our book.
It is God’s gift to us.
It is a gift given for us to
read,
to interpret
to live.
It is a gift given to draw us closer to Jesus,
the Son.
It is a gift given to be appreciated and understood
through the working of the Spirit.
Don’t leave this gift unwrapped and unused
lost in the corner of your house somewhere.
Take it.
Open it.
Read it.
Dwell on it.
Hear it proclaimed.
Apply it to your life.
And live in its peace.
Amen
-
“The Revelations of Marilynn Robinson” NYT Oct. 5, 2014. ↑
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