HILKIAH – Restoring The Lost Law
2 Kings 22:8

Our lesson focuses upon one of the great heroes of the Old Testament. Hilkiah was a High Priest who served during the reign of King Josiah.  He is the man who discovered the lost Book of God. The spiritual situation in Judah was deplorable when Josiah became King. He ascended the throne after two of the most evil Kings of the Southern Kingdom had led Judah very far away from God’s will. King Josiah was Judah’s last hope of being saved from exile. Assuming the throne when he was only eight years old meant that he would be tutored by the High Priest until he reached a mature age. The King surrounded himself with godly advisors who would support Josiah’s efforts to bring Judah back to God’s will.  Josiah faced a nation who had given themselves totally to idolatry. The Temple was filled with images of pagan gods. There remained only a “memory” of God’s Word because the written Word had been lost. Josiah faced an enormous task.  Among those upon whom Josiah leaned for counsel and support was the High Priest Hilkiah.

The History of Hilkiah
There are a number of men identified by this name in the Old Testament. The one in our lesson is first mentioned in 2 Kings 22. He was serving as the High Priest under King Josiah. Hilkiah’s name meant “Yah is my Portion”. He is forever known as the man in the Old Testament who gave people God’s Book!  At this time in history, the Book of God had vanished. People knew about its teachings but they had never seen it or read from it.  He was trusted to find the proper understanding of God’s will. When King Josiah needed to know what God’s will was, he selected a committee of respected men to go to the prophetess Huldah. The King trusted each of these men to tell him God’s will.

Josiah wanted the pagan articles purged from the Temple. The King appointed Hilkiah to do this. Evidently the High Priest was known as one who would do this important task and his leadership would compel others to do it as well. He was thus known for devotion and zeal and commitment to YahuWaH. He recognized the value of God’s Book and the urgency to get its information out to the people. Hilkiah knew the value of The Book of the Law.

He also is listed among the spiritual leaders of Israel who freely donated items for the restored Passover celebration (2 Chr 35:8). This indicates his unselfishness and his loyalty to God.  He also had a fantastic influence in getting Judah to restore Scriptural worship to God (2 Chr 35:18). Read the text and observe what Hilkiah’s influence led God’s people to do – they abolished pagan practices, destroyed alters to Baal, remove vessels dedicated to idols, remove the images dedicated to the sun, moon, and stars, abruptly stopped the child sacrifices, crushed to pieces the alters erected by Manasseh in the Temple’s courts, they even razed the high places scattered throughout Israel. Throughout the entire region, reformation was the order of the day. There was “zero tolerance” for anything/any one connected with idolatry.  All of this happened because of the influence of Hilkiah!

He brought the Word of God out of hiding! The Scripture became public because Hilkiah brought it to the King’s attention. This one aspect of Hilkiah’s life is probably the best remembered. Why had the Law of the Lord been lost?

“It would seem that the written law of God had passed from human knowledge, lost in the haze of heathenism, which so long had enveloped the land … yet the narrative clearly indicates that king and people were strangers to its contents … The natural meaning is that the written law had been lost, its substance meanwhile only existing in memory, or as a tradition”.

Contemplate this tragedy of the lost Torah.    Is this calamity occurring today?

How could this happen?     Is Yah’s word “lost” in our society today?

Restoration IS possible. YaHuWaH is a God of RESTORATION.

The 200 survivors of MH370 will be instrumental in helping to bring this about.