II Kings 22:11 “When the king heard the words of the book of the law, he tore his clothes.”

Have you ever heard that saying, “Ignorance is no excuse”? Have you ever wondered what it meant? Well, many people try to use the excuse that they just didn’t know. If I had only known… Right!

Here in this passage Josiah discovers from the hearing of the Word of God that the nation had not been keeping the Lord’s commands. He literally had not heard the words before. But he instantly repents and tears his clothes as a sign of remorse and repentance. He then begins a country wide cleansing of all the pagan places of worship. He became totally sold out to God.

TEACH THE WORD

Our children also cannot use ignorance of something as an excuse. They will be held accountable to a holy God, just like everyone else. It is our job to show them the Word and teach them how to walk in righteousness. Will they slip? Sure. Don’t you? But we have to teach them how to live the Christ life and to honor Him in all they do.

Recently someone I know made the remark that there is just too much to understand in the Bible. Well, I agree to an extent. The Bible is exhaustive (and sometimes exhausting, lol). The Lord does not expect us to memorize it all. He doesn’t expect us to know every verse in Scripture. What He does expect, however, is to spend time in it striving to follow the truths it contains.

READ THE WORD

Take one verse a day and meditate on it. There are 31,102 verses in the Bible. It will take you over 85 years to do that. Or you could read one chapter a day. That would take less than 5 years to read through the Bible. Whatever you choose to do, not reading is not an option. Ignorance of God’s Word when it comes to living is NOT an excuse. Read it! Live it!