When the king heard the words of the Book of the Law, he tore his robes. – 2 Kings 22:11

Today’s Scripture Reading (February 14, 2017): 2 Kings 22

As an avid amateur political observer, it seems that the most revealing question indicating the success of a political campaign is found in the answer to one question – do I trust you to keep me safe. A potential candidate may have the economic know-how to run a nation, they may have the inside track on some of the social issues our country’s face, they may even seem to have taken the moral high ground – but even with all of that in their favor if we do not believe that they are capable of keeping us safe it is unlikely that the candidate will succeed and be elected to political office. It may be that the responsibility to keep the nation safe is the most important task for any politician occupying a position of rule and authority.

Josiah comes to rule the nation of Judah. And there was an expectation that every king would sit down and write out a copy of the law of God for himself. Not just that he would read it, and not that they would employ a scribe do the work for them, handing the finished copy to the king, but the king was supposed to sit down and take a writing instrument and a blank scroll and copy it himself – so that he would know what was in the law. Ignorance of the law was not going to be accepted as an excuse for its violation. Deuteronomy  17 makes this very clear – “When he [the king] takes the throne of his kingdom, he is to write for himself on a scroll a copy of this law, taken from that of the Levitical priests” (Deuteronomy 17:18.)

Deuteronomy was likely the book that was found during the reign of Josiah. And it might have been this passage that Josiah had just heard, and he realized how he had failed at the task of being king – and ignorance was not going to be accepted as an excuse. And in his failure in knowing the law, he had failed in his most basic responsibility as king – he had failed to keep the nation safe. He wasn’t alone. His father had failed to keep the nation safe in the twenty-two years of his reign – and as his grandfather had failed to keep the nation safe during the fifty-five years of his reign. Like him, they had never heard the regulation from Deuteronomy. But ignorance was not an excuse. Josiah tore his robes as he repented, not from the sins that he had committed in rebellion, but because of the sins he had committed because he simply did not know.

At the end of the American civil war, the United States placed the phrase “In God We Trust” on their money. It was simply an indication that a nation that had been hurt so badly by a war could only be put back together by God who loved them. And every leader has trusted in some power beyond themselves to help keep the nation safe. The most respected Presidents are the ones who have succeeded at that task. They kept the nation safe, especially in dangerous times.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: 2 Chronicles 34