We like to think God’s sense of justice and retribution is the same as ours but it isn’t. Decades or even hundreds of years can pass before there is judgment while disobedient people and evil rulers reign without consequences.

For 450 years the celebration of Passover was forgotten. For 800 years the people secretly worshiped the bronze snake they had kept from the wilderness. Time and again various kings allow the Temple to fall into disrepair or, worse, actually install and bow down to foreign idols as a now normal part of the worship of God. They lose their way. They drift into apostasy and yet God continues to warn them for generations without judgment. Dynasties pass and people wander further and further from their Covenant. There are sporadic attempts at reforms mostly focused on cleaning up the Temple but the overall trend is down while moving further away from God.

It is during one of those periodic cleanings of the Temple that something is accidentally found that has been lost but no one noticed. The Book of the Law was rediscovered in a storeroom in the Temple where it had been misplaced for almost 100 years. We are always surprised at the lack of Biblical knowledge in our own country. It was the same in Israel. The Law had been lost and not observed in decades. Even the religious and political leaders were unfamiliar with it. Imagine Israel after decades of living without anything but vague memories of the Law. No one had a copy to read. Few would have remembered it and none would have passed it on. Imagine losing the Constitution and Bill of Rights for 100 years and being dependent on the memory of those who had last seen a copy many years ago.

It would have been like a scene from Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 where books were outlawed and incinerated while television had replaced reading. But a remnant called the Book People had memorized volumes of great works of literature and philosophy – including the Bible. They were waiting for the return of sanity in society by preserving the values. Maybe there were book people in Israel as well – but most had put the law aside. Kings could do as they pleased with no standards to hold them accountable.

It’s ironic that the Law was misplaced in the Temple by the very people responsible for preserving it.  The priests had misplaced the core document of the nation and no one held them to account.

Researchers George Gallup and Jim Castelli put the problem squarely:

“Americans revere the Bible–but, by and large, they don’t read it. And because they don’t read it, they have become a nation of biblical illiterates.

Fewer than half of all adults can name the four gospels. Many Christians cannot identify more than two or three of the disciples. According to data from the Barna Research Group, 60 percent of Americans can’t name even five of the Ten Commandments. According to 82 percent of Americans, “God helps those who help themselves,” is a Bible verse. Those identified as born-again Christians did better–by one percent. A Barna poll indicated that at least 12 percent of adults believe that Joan of Arc was Noah’s wife. Another survey of graduating high school seniors revealed that over 50 percent thought that Sodom and Gomorrah were husband and wife. A considerable number of respondents to one poll indicated that the Sermon on the Mount was preached by Billy Graham.”

When the King understood what had been found and what it meant he called the people together and recommitted the entire country to the Law and to worship at the Temple. It looked like he could turn things around. He might have even declared that a copy of the Ten Commandments should be placed in every school and public building but it was too late. They could return to the ritual but not to the underlying reality. Their hearts had been captured by generations having lived without the structure of the Law.

The time of Josiah’s reign was simply the time between the verdict being pronounced and the sentence carried out. The people, on the other hand, took it as a reprieve or a pardon but, in fact, it was a 40 year walk from the courtroom to the gallows. When Jeremiah was called people were optimistic about the future of the country. Things were looking up. Not only did they believe in “exceptionalism” but they believed in their being an exception to history. They could avoid judgment one more time. They were God’s people.

But it was too late. No amount of superficial reform or Temple refurbishing would save them from what had become a corruption of their hearts and minds. Babylonia was marching toward them.

Art by Shanna Bruschi