A New Scroll Discovered (2 Chronicles 34:1-12)
A person is likely to find undiscovered reading material in the books of the Chronicles since, to keep us on our toes, these two books are a virtual lock (and parts verbatim) with the books of 1 & 2 Kings. Reading along in 2 Chronicles, however, we suddenly reach an undiscovered country in chapter 34, where, in a fit of awe and horror and humility, the national and religious leaders discover an unread scroll in the Jerusalem temple.
It has been there for some time, they assume, mouldering in the shadows. Much later in history, it is much as the discovery of the codex Sinaiticus in Saudi Arabia, when a monk happened upon a full copy of the Hebrew testament as he was about to use the scrolls for torches.
The scroll, most likely the bulk of the material that now forms the book of Deuteronomy, was regarded as a "new" or "second" law that had been neglected, but which was now life-changing and thrilling in a new reading.
Such in the Bible as a whole. Reading, even familiar texts, we often discover strange new worlds and hear fresh voices of the Spirit and the church calling to us. We need not create a new Bible, a new translation, or even a new device for the hearing . . . although each of these can help . . . if we are to find the call of the living God in her pages. The scriptures are, and have always been, as Clive Staples Lewis was wont to say, "As fresh as the morning paper."
Just read it. (see you here on Monday with the next five!)
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