II Chronicles 34:3 For in the eighth year of his reign, while he was yet young, he began to seek after the God of David his father
Two years ago, my family and I had a very special Christmas in the Rockies because of the kindness of some dear friends of ours. We had a great time. When I came back home, I discovered that I was missing a book. I looked everywhere, but couldn’t find it. I came to the conclusion that I must have left it back in our place in the Rockies. Two weeks ago, nearly two years after we had lost the book, I was back at the same place. In the living room on the bookshelf there is an old Bible, a hardbound collection of Reader’s Digest stories, and there was my book marked at the last place I had read! Have you ever had the joy of discovering something that you have not seen for some time? That is exactly what I felt two weeks ago. That must be something like what was experienced by a king named Josiah of whom we read in II Chronicles 34.
The Bible says that Josiah found the Word of God in the house of God. How astounding that God’s people could lose God’s Word in God’s house, but that is exactly what had happened because they had turned from God. What is interesting is to find out how this king made a choice to seek God and how he found God.
Almost any successful search for God will include His Word. II Chronicles 34:3 says, “For in the eighth year of his reign, while he was yet young, he began to seek after the God of David his father.” This all began with a desire while he was young. The sooner you begin to seek God, the better off you will be. Verse 14 tells us that because of his search, he found the Word of God, “And when they brought out the money that was brought into the house of the LORD, Hilkiah the priest found a book of the law of the LORD given by Moses.”
Again, how amazing that God’s Word had been lost in His house, but it had been. Israel had not paid much attention to it. Now why did Josiah find this portion of God’s Word? He found it because he was seeking God. Because Josiah was seeking God, he went to God’s house, and because he went to God’s house, he decided to clean it up. Because he decided to clean it up, he found God’s Word.
Years ago, my father met an older man who had been around the world as a younger man working on ships and doing a variety of interesting jobs. He was seeking, as almost all people are. One night on a ranch in the bush in Australia he came back to the bunkhouse where there was no television, radio, or anything else to do. So he reached up on a dusty bookshelf and found a Bible. He dusted it off and read a portion. He closed the book, put it back on the shelf, and went to bed. This repeated itself for several nights. Eventually, he came to realize Who God was, the gift that God had given him through Jesus Christ, and that Christ had taken his sin. He trusted God’s Son to be his Savior. That happened because he found the Book. This is what happened to Josiah.
Notice that Josiah read the Book. The Bible says that a scribe named Shaphan read it before the king. So, Josiah sought God, found the Book, and read the Book. What follows is just unfettered joy because verse 19 says, “When the king had heard the words of the law, that he rent his clothes.” Well, he was not rejoicing, but he found out that he was in trouble with a God he hardly knew. He had disobeyed the law that he was not even intimate with. He didn’t know. Sometimes we think, “No news is good news.” Maybe that is true if you are talking about your great aunt’s condition in the hospital, but it is not true if you are talking about your soul’s condition with God. Josiah discovered this as he was seeking God, and he found the Book and discovered the truth.
Then Josiah inquired of God. In verse 21 Josiah tells some of his men to inquire of the Lord for him. They didn’t have all the Word of God as we do now, so he was asking them to go inquire of God. Verse 27 says, “I have even heard thee also, saith the LORD.” God says, because you had a tender heart and were humble and heard me, I will hear you. The conclusion is “and all his days they departed not from following the LORD, the God of their fathers.”
God is noble. God is personal. God cares for you and He has revealed His mind on your matters through His Word. Today, seek God. The sooner you do, the better it will be. Nearly any successful search for God will include His Word. Are you reading the Word of God? How can you possibly know God’s mind for your life if you are inundated with the input of your cell phone, your friends, your television, your radio, and your social media, but you don’t know what God has said? God is eternal and that means He is ahead of where you are today. He knows you and your life. He has the answers. If you are going to seek God, you need to seek His Word.