'Have you not read?' By the time Israel rediscovered Deuteronomy, it was too late

Ignorance of the law was no excuse. Israel perished for lack of knowledge.

“My people are destroyed from lack of knowledge.” — Hosea 4:6

In 2 Kings 22, a groundbreaking discovery is made, as big then as it would be today — Deuteronomy, the Book of the Law, is found in the temple.

Deuteronomy is the last of the Five Books of Moses, and valuable because it summarizes Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers.

Deuteronomy is not the book to skip. Moses is restating Israel’s journey, out of Egypt and through the desert, for a reason. He wants Israel to understand God led them on this journey. What Israel had, was because God gave it.

Moses warns Israel severely against neglecting God and worshipping foreign gods, and that’s exactly what Israel does after crossing the Jordan.

The discovery of Deuteronomy is big news.

And it inspires big questions, like: When did it go missing? If Deuteronomy had to be “found” in 2 Kings 22:8, when was the last time Israel’s leaders had consulted it? Had they read it, wouldn’t they be better equipped to ward off sin? Is that not the premise of Bible study?

If Israel’s leaders weren’t reading the wisdom of their fathers, as told in Deuteronomy, what were they reading?

2 Kings is an interesting read. It offers a contemporary view of a Bible just beginning to take shape in written form. Its continued references to upcoming Chronicles I and II read like a Charles Dickens serial, trying to sell the next edition.

When Deuteronomy is found by Israel’s leaders, its contents are shocking. It’s as if Israel is hearing God’s blessings and curses for the first time.

King Josiah quickly realizes that Israel is living what Moses had warned about.

When the king heard the words of the Book of the Law, he tore his robes. God later rewards that show of contrition — he lets Josiah die before bringing Israel to ruin.

In 2 Kings 23, Josiah renews Israel’s covenant with God. He brings back Passover, he reads from the book of Exodus and he tears down the Hill of Corruption, the high places King Solomon built for foreign gods.

“Furthermore, Josiah got rid of the mediums and spiritists, the household gods, the idols and the other detestable things seen in Judah and Jerusalem. This he did to fulfill the requirements of the law written in the book the Hilkiah the priest has discovered in the Temple of the Lord (Deuteronomy)”

Neither before nor after Josiah was there a king like him who turned to the Lord as he did — with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his strength, in accordance with all the law of Moses.”

— 2 Kings 23:24

When Josiah found the Book of the Law, he started living the law, and led his people into a more lawful observance.

Stop me if you’ve heard it before: Man finds Bible, starts reading it, starts seeing life differently, starts living differently.

When the Pharisees asked Jesus questions, his common response was: “Have you not read?” Ten times, Jesus asked this.

Jesus was not being tested for his recall of the book. The Pharisees were testing his character. Would he claim authority or good deeds for himself? But Jesus always brought it back to Scripture.

“Have you not read?” is a question Israel’s leaders could’ve used, centuries before Jesus.

2 Kings shows the danger when a nation’s leaders aren’t versed in its traditions.

Moses had told Israel exactly what to do, and what not to do. But his book was apparently so little-considered it had to be found.

Israel perished for its lack of knowledge. As police and prosecutors relish in saying, ignorance of the law is no excuse.

By the second book of Kings, Deuteronomy had survived through hundreds of years of oral tradition. It was finally committed to writing.

And somehow between the writing and 2 Kings 23, it got lost. It might’ve remained lost to history forever, if not for spring cleaning at the temple.

Josiah’s heart was responsive, and he had humbled himself, and reversed some of the idolatry. He was the right man at the wrong time.

For Israel, it was too late. Its sins were too great.

Most of the Israelites were exiled to Assyria in 2 Kings 17. The rest would soon be exiled to Babylon, under Nebuchadnezzar.

And the temple would burn.