Lost?

Three weeks ago, Andrew (age 12) and I changed the oil on my truck as well as the fuel filter.  There is a trick to changing the filter so that you do not spray fuel over yourself and your son.  That trick to relieve the pressure is in the "repair manual" I keep in the garage.  But I could not find my manual.  The last time I used it was for a brake job. I knew where it was supposed to be, but it was not there.  I had lost my instruction book, I even wondered if I had thrown it away or if it was in the "yard sale" pile.  I spent more time looking for that book than I did on the fuel filter, which I changed anyway and did not relieve the pressure properly.  I despise losing things.


When I was about my son's age, my parents took us to that Wonderful World in Orlando.  My older and younger brothers went one direction with Mom while Dad and I went a different way.  When Dad and I finished our ride, we were to meet the other three at a certain shaded area.  We arrived early and I convinced Dad to let me go to the restroom around the corner.  Making my way back to Dad, I came to realize I was on the other side of the Park -- I was in Frontier Land headed toward Liberty Square instead of Adventure Land.  Once I realized I was lost and calmed down, I decided I had made a wrong turn at the water fountain.  I ran back to where I went wrong, and ran to the meeting spot.  Mom and my younger brother were there waiting nervously.  Dad and my older brother had gone to look for me.  This was decades before cell phones and family service radios, we had to wait for them to get back before we could go on.


I share these two events to introduce you to two similar events in the Old Testament:


1. Josiah in 2 Kngs 22:13, "Go, inquire of the LORD for me, and for the people, and for all Judah, concerning the words of this book that has been found. For great is the wrath of the LORD that is kindled against us, because our fathers have not obeyed the words of this book, to do according to all that is written concerning us." When the workers discovered the lost book of God, the king knew they had to return to following that law. 

2. Hosea 14:1-2, "Return, O Israel, to the LORD your God, for you have stumbled because of your iniquity. Take with you words and return to the LORD; say to him, "Take away all iniquity; accept what is good, and we will pay with bulls the vows of our lips." Like Israel, when I was lost, I had to return.  I had to admit I was wrong in the direction I was going and turn around to find my father.


Lost? Find the Book, and come home.