Josiah, the grandson of Judah's most wicked king, Manasseh, for some reason initiated a reconstruction project for the dilapidated temple in Jerusalem (2 Kings 22-23).
In the middle of the project, the workers discovered an old scroll, which was brought to the king and read to him.
Upon hearing the words of this scroll, Josiah, tore his clothes and put on sackcloth.
He then begins a reformation in the land. The people of Jerusalem, from the most powerful to the most common, gathered before the king as he read this scroll out loud.
The king destroys the signs of idolatry that were throughout the land. Many right in the temple and the palace. Some that had stood for centuries.
Idols which Solomon had built.
The altars to the golden calf which Jeroboam had built in Bethel.
The places where the people had been sacrificing their children.
Bones were dug up, cremated and strewn across these idolatrous places to desecrate them.
The sorcerers were cast out of the land.
Josiah cleaned up the land - and it was pretty dirty!
All because of what he read in an old scroll.
The scroll?
The Book of the Law. The Torah. The five books of Moses.
It was that scroll, the Word of God, that changed Josiah and motivated him to do what is right.
No other book has that power to change a nation.
No other book has that power to change my life.
So be careful when you pick up your Bible to study it.
It might change your life.
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