The Bible is more than a collection of ancient writings. It's God's standard for truth and life. 

His father had died at the hands of assassins. After the funeral, the eight-year-old son did not simply return to his third-grade classroom to finish out the school year. Little Josiah became king of Judah.

The Book helped Josiah complete a reformation in Israel

Eight years later, "he began to seek the God of his father David" (2 Chronicles 34:3). Four years after that, Josiah began to undo the wickedness of kings who had preceded him. Incense altars were cut to pieces. Idols were crushed to powder. Altars that once held sacrifices to false gods now smoked with burning bones of idolatrous priests.

Josiah was serious. Josiah showed commitment to the Lord. But Josiah was not finished.

And Josiah had also not yet found the Book.

Josiah now determined to purify the temple in Jerusalem. The building was in tremendous disrepair. New woodwork and stonework were needed. Such work required money. Money had been collected from all of the Jews. Josiah gave this money to the high priest. The high priest then began paying the woodworkers and stonemasons so they could buy new wood and new stone to recondition the Lord's house.

Josiah was serious. He was committed to honoring the Lord.

But he still had not found the Book.

As the high priest was paying workers and buying wood and stone, he discovered something. Apparently he had never seen this before. He called over Shaphan, an official in Josiah's government, and showed him the Book. "I have found the Book of the Law in the temple of the Lord" (2 Chronicles 34:15).

Shaphan took it, rolled it open, and read it.

After he read this portion of the Old Testament—perhaps the book of Deuteronomy—he went to King Josiah and said, "Hilkiah the priest has given me a book" (2 Chronicles 34:18).

A book. He didn't say "the Book of the Law." He simply said to Josiah, "The priest has given me a book." Was the book so unfamiliar that Josiah wouldn't have known what "Book of the Law" even meant? Shaphan may not have shared much of a description. But immediately he read the Book a second time, this time so that the king could hear.

When the king heard the Book, tears streamed down his face. He heard of God's love, God's will, God's warnings. And he felt so ashamed, so unworthy. He and his people were missing God's mark in so many ways. How stunned he must have been to discover that there was such a thing as the Passover! How stunned he must have been to learn that the ark of the covenant belonged in the temple! How shamed he must have been to consider that worship items made for Baal remained in the Jerusalem temple!