It's The Law

 

University of Michigan law library interior

It's impressive, isn't it? The University of Michigan law library is impressive. However, once a student opens a book, I imagine attention is focused much more on studies than architecture. I know when I open the Bible, I really don't care if the surroundings are timelessly beautiful. I want to know what it tells me.

There are places in the Bible where that focus on the Law given by God takes total commitment. I like the history behind 2 Kings 22:

And Hilkiah the high priest said unto Shaphan the scribe, I have found the book of the law in the house of the LORD. And Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan, and he read it. (2 Kings 22:8 KJV)

From Hilkiah to Shaphan to Josiah, who called Ahikam and Achbor and Asahiah and sent them on a mission:

Go ye, enquire of the LORD for me, and for the people, and for all Judah, concerning the words of this book that is found: for great is the wrath of the LORD that is kindled against us, because our fathers have not hearkened unto the words of this book, to do according unto all that which is written concerning us. (2 Kings 22:13 KJV)

After consultations, the word was given to the people of Israel:

And the king went up into the house of the LORD, and all the men of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem with him, and the priests, and the prophets, and all the people, both small and great: and he read in their ears all the words of the book of the covenant which was found in the house of the LORD. And the king stood by a pillar, and made a covenant before the LORD, to walk after the LORD, and to keep his commandments and his testimonies and his statutes with all their heart and all their soul, to perform the words of this covenant that were written in this book. And all the people stood to the covenant. (2 Kings 23:2-3 KJV)

Years pass, kings and priests die and are replaced, again and again. Never does the Law completely disappear - there is always a remnant and a returning to walk after the Lord and to keep His Commandments. Jesus read them in the synagogue one Sabbath and shared more:

To preach the acceptable year of the Lord. And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him. And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears. (Luke 4:19-21 KJV)

Jesus said there were two important commandments in Matthew 22:34-40, the foundation of the Law and the prophets of scriptures and Judaism.

Paul studied them intensely and I trust what he says about the Law in Romans:

(For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified. (Romans 2:13 KJV)

Paul wasn't the only Apostle of Jesus who stated this emphatically:

But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed. If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is vain. Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, 

I  include the longer quote because James not only mentions hearers and doers, but he closes his example with:

To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world. (James 1:22-27 KJV)

Keep your heart and your actions focused on "pure religion" in God's word. We are not sent to change our cities, our counties, our states, our countries. We are sent to make changes in ourselves and show God's pure religion to individuals. How is that working in your life? I need to make changes in mine.