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, ESV)
My wife and I live in a library. Not literally, of course, though there is not a single room in our house where there is not a book.
Many of those books live in our home office. One day when I got home I saw there were a lot of books on the floor of the office—about a hundred, as it turned out. All of them were golf books. The top shelf had fallen, cascading down through more shelves.
A couple of days later I repaired the shelves, but decided some of those books could be given away. That meant I’d have to look at every book and make a decision about it.
The first book I picked up was titled Golf with the Experts, compiled by Tom Scott. The experts included Tommy Armour, Henry Cotton, Bobby Locke, and Percy Alliss. It was published in 1959.
What a find! In fact I have literally thanked God that the books fell, because I had never really looked into this gem that I apparently bought at a used book store for $2.50.
Am I willing to make a change in my life because of God’s word?
The first chapter was by Gene Sarazen. He and Francis Ouimet, then later Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods, used the interlocking grip. So did I. After reading Sarazen’s chapter, I switched to the overlapping grip. Really.
All of that made me think of an event that happened in Jerusalem when King Josiah was about 26 years old. It is recorded both in 2 Kings 22 and 2 Chronicles 34. Hilkiah, the high priest, was tasked with repairing not just book shelves, but the house of the Lord.
Work got underway, and in the process Hilkiah found the temple copy of the Book of the Law (see Deuteronomy 31:25-26) It seems that this book had been lost during the reign of one of the “bad” kings like Manassah or Amon or even Ahaz. Now it was found.
When some part of it was read to Josiah (possibly Deuteronomy 28-30), he tore his clothes. He recognized immediately that the anger of God would be great because those who came before him had not kept the words of the Law.
2 Kings 23 tells how Josiah responded, causing God’s word to be read to all the people, and then making great reforms. It is an inspiring story.
If I’m willing to make a change because of a golf book, I’m guessing you would be as well. Am I willing to make a change in my life because of God’s word? I’ll never know unless I read it, and neither will you.
Here’s hoping God doesn’t have to break our bookshelves for that to happen.
—
Lewis Greer
June 9, 2021
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The Links Daily Devotional appears Monday-Friday at www.linksplayers.com.
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