As we delve into the Old Testament history, we encounter a stark contrast between Josiah, a righteous king who reinstated the law of the Lord as the guiding principle for the people of Judah, and his son, Jehoiakim, who followed the path of other wicked kings. 2 King 23:37 reveals that Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, “did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his fathers had done. If this was not a bad enough indictment, Jeremiah gives us a more specific one. He says about Jehoiakim, “Your eyes and your heart are for nothing but your covetousness, for shedding innocent blood, and practicing oppression and violence” (Jer. 22:17). But even more specifically, Jeremiah says that he cut up and burned the Word of God (Jer. 36:22–26).
Jehoiakim would not submit to God’s Word and was made a slave to the King of Egypt and then a slave to Nebuchadnezzar. His life is a parable of the truth that everyone will be a servant of something. You can either serve God or serve something else which will enslave you. God’s Word is the truth that will set us free from all our enslavement to serve God. George Mueller, known for his strong faith, confided. “The first 3 years after conversion, I neglected the Word of God. Since I began to search it diligently, the blessing has been wonderful. I have read the Bible through one hundred times and always with increasing delight!”
John Bunyan, who wrote Pilgrim’s Progress, testified, “Read the Bible, and read it again, and do not despair of help to understand something of the will and mind of God, though you think they are fast locked up from you. Neither trouble yourself, though you may not have commentaries and expositions; pray and read and read and pray, for a little from God is better than a great deal from man.” I don’t know of anything more satisfying than to come to grips with the mind of God. No one will ever know it fully, but it’s revealed in the Bible, and God wants us to understand what he has revealed. It’s not an easy venture, and it will take a lifetime. But every day, we can uncover a new nugget of truth that feeds our souls. It keeps us on the right path. David said, “I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.” He also said that God’s word is “a light to his path” and a “lamp for his feet.” It always leads him in the right ways. When Jesus confronted the religious leaders in Mark 12:24, he pointed out that they had it all wrong because they did not understand the Word of God. “Jesus said to them, ‘Is this not the reason you are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God?'”