Why a Book?
There is a particular account in the book of 2 Kings that brings me to tears almost every single time I read it. It is, fittingly enough, the story of a book and a king.
This king - named Josiah - ruled in the kingdom of Judah and loved God, which comes as quite the shock in this narrative, for both his father and grandfather exercised their reigns with a rod of wickedness and a scepter of evil. A quick glance at the family history would wield a simple prophecy from even the most optimistic citizen: Josiah would surely follow in the paths of his father and grandfather. That was the way it always seemed to go with the kings. The sins of the father were passed down to the son, a marred birthright of disaster and ruin.
But of course, as I have already noted, Josiah did not fulfill that pessimistic prophecy. He worshipped the one true God of Israel and served him with his whole heart.
The Book
One day in the eighteenth year of his reign, king Josiah sent his secretary, Shaphan, to go check in on the repair work happening at the temple, which had been quite desecrated in the time of the previous administrations. I’m sure that neither Josiah nor Shaphan expected anything out of the ordinary with this errand. This was just another day at the office, just one more task in a seemingly never-ending list of tasks that needed to be done in order to restore the kingdom. So, off went Shaphan to check another item off the administrative task-list.
You can picture him strolling up to the temple, wearing a casual if not indifferent expression on his face, ears ringing with the clink-clank sound of hammers hitting nails. Perhaps he holds a ledger in his hands, and he glosses over it quickly as the high priest comes out to greet him. He prepares to make his dutiful inquiries, but before he can get a word in edgewise, the high priest tells him with trembling voice, “I found something.”
Flash forward (like they do in all the blockbuster films). Shaphan enters the king’s throne room, but with a slightly noticeable hesitance. He steps forward slowly, and with a subtle quake in his voice, issues his report: everything’s going swimmingly at the temple, all the right people are being paid, and the repair work is getting done. Here, too, you can almost hear Josiah replying, “Well done,” with a trance-like quality as he reads the latest news, the response of a man preoccupied with the great business of whatever it means to be a king. And then, with jittery fingers and thundering heart, Shaphan shout-whispers, “The high priest has given me a book.” And of course, Josiah can tell just by the way Shaphan said it, that this is no ordinary book. And then Shaphan begins to read from this book, and suddenly all is clear.
This is the book of the Law, forgotten and abandoned during the reign of his father and grandfather, and still yet neglected during the past eighteen years of Josiah’s own kingship.
This is the very word of God for the people of God.
Staggering Mercy
To make an incredibly amazing and long story short, Josiah instituted sweeping reform that changed the landscape of the entire nation, and he renewed the covenant that his kingdom had so gratuitously violated over the recent decades (you can read the account of his life in 2 Kings 22-23 and 2 Chronicles 34-35) - and it was all because of this dusty, old, long-forgotten book.
I think of this story often, especially when people come to me - a far lesser Josiah - and ask questions like, “Why did God give us his word as a book?” Oftentimes when such a question is asked, it seems that the real question that’s hiding underneath, hesitant to reveal itself fully, is, “Why doesn’t God simply speak to me, audibly, and let me know specifically what he wants me to do in regard to such and such?” A very fair question, in my humble estimation.
There are many theologians and scholars who have written on this topic with far more eloquence than I could ever dream, but from a very practical perspective, perhaps we have simply lost sight of what a staggering mercy it is that God has given us his words in a book.
Speaking through the Spoken
When king Josiah renewed the covenant, he didn’t have to worry about remembering every law that God had laid down; he didn’t have to wait for God to speak to him in an audible voice; he had access to God’s very words anytime he looked at the book. And to know the words of God, to understand them and see the reality they point us to, is to know and see the real and living God (John 1:1-4, Hebrews 4:12). Indeed, the apostle Paul tells us that everything that is written in Scripture was written for our instruction, so that we might be encouraged by what we read and find vibrant hope in it (Romans 15:4, 1 Corinthians 10:11). The same God who breathed life into mankind has breathed out words that have been written down and recorded for our sake (2 Timothy 3:16)!
In other words, you can literally hear God speak right now, by reading the book that he wrote for us. In fact, you can read the exact same words of God that have brought hope, comfort, peace, joy, and salvation to God’s people for thousands of years. To say it like one pastor did, “God is still speaking through what he has spoken.” And in the West, we have an embarrassing number of avenues for accessing God’s word whenever we’d like.
I’m sure we’ve all heard this (or something similar to it) before. Maybe this kind of talk doesn’t quite scratch where we itch. Maybe this whole design leaves us feeling dissatisfied due to its apparent plainness. Read a book to hear God speak? It all just looks too Ordinary to be of God. Where is the Extraordinary?
Ordinary Means, Extraordinary Things
Let me leave you with two final examples that demonstrate how God works the Extraordinary, by means of the Ordinary. (You can read more about this topic in John Piper’s book, Reading the Bible Supernaturally.)
When Abraham was 75 years old, God promised him that he and his barren wife, Sarah, would have a son. The child of promise was born 25 years later, when Abraham was 100 and Sarah was 90. If such a thing were to happen today, there would be no doubt in anyone’s mind that it was a miracle. And it was a miracle, an in-breaking of the Extraordinary into the world. And how did God bring about this Extraordinary thing? By the Ordinary means of a husband having sex with his wife.
And again, when Paul writes to Timothy near the end of his life, he instructs Timothy to, “Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything” (2 Timothy 2:7, ESV). God will give Timothy the Extraordinary: understanding of the words of Paul, the words of Scripture. And how will God do it? By the Ordinary means of reading and thinking. God can do the most Extraordinary works through the most Ordinary things.
Equipped with such knowledge, it is my sincere hope that we will open those seemingly Ordinary, leather-bound books that sit on our nightstands (or the seemingly Ordinary Bible apps that rest on the home screen of our phones), in order that God might do the Extraordinary and speak to us through what he has spoken - just as he did for king Josiah and for countless people before him and for countless people since. Who knows? We might even catch a glimpse of that True and Better Country that will be ours at the return of Christ, might even hear the comforting roar of the Lion of Judah himself - and all through an Extraordinary Ordinary book.