Welcome and thank you for taking a bible break to test your knowledge of God's word.
This week's question:

Moses spoke to the people as they were ready to cross over the river Jordan into the promised land of Canaan where God had told Moses he could not enter, "Now the Lord was angry with me on your account, and swore that I should no enter the good land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance. For I shall die in this land, I shall not cross the Jordan, but you shall cross and take possession of the good land. So watch yourselves, lest you forget the covenant of the Lord you God, which He made with you, and make for yourselves a graven image in the form of anything against which the Lord your God commanded you. For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God. When you become the father of children and children's children and have remained long in the land, and act corruptly, and make an idol in the form of anything and do that which is evil in the sight of the Lord your God so as to provoke Him to anger, I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that you shall surely perish quickly from the land where you are going over the Jordan to possess it. You shall not live long on it, but shall be utterly destroyed. And the Lord will scatter you among the peoples, and you shall be left few in numbers among the nations, where the Lord shall drive you. And there you will serve gods, the work of man's hands, wood and stone, which neither see nor hear nor eat nor smell. But from there you will seek the Lord your God, and you will find Him if you search for Him with all your heart and all your soul." (Deuteronomy 4:21-29)

And so does Nehemiah remember the words spoken by Moses from the Lord as they are in captivity because they did not remember the Lord, yet now he calls upon the Lord that they might be returned to the land of Canaan from Babylon, "Remember the word which thou didst command thy servant Moses, saying, 'If you are unfaithful I will scatter you among the peoples; bit if you return to Me and keep My commandments and do them, though those of you who have been scattered were in the most remote part of the heavens, I will gather them from there and will bring them to the place where I have chosen to cause My name to dwell." (Nehemiah 1:8-9) Now in between these two men are centuries of time and the people of Israel both remembering and forgetting the Lord.

That brings us to our question, "Who ruled when the Book of the Law was found?". When Ahaz, the son of Jotham, who did right in the sight of the Lord, became king of Judah, he did not do right in the sight of the Lord, but was like the kings of Israel (the other ten tribes) as he even made his sons pass through fire and sacrificed and burned incense on the high places, on the hills and under every green tree (2 Kings 16:1-4). Now Israel was warned by God about their evil ways, "And the sons of Israel did things secretly which were not right, against the Lord their God. Moreover, they built for themselves high places in all their towns, from watchtower to fortified city. And they set for themselves sacred pillars and Asherim on every high hill and under every green tree, and there they burned incense on all the high places as the nations did which the Lord had carried away to exile before them; and they did evil things provoking the Lord. And they served idols, concerning which the Lord had said to them, 'You shall not do this thing.'" (2 Kings 17:9-12). So the ten tribes of Israel were carried off into captivity and only the tribes of Judah and Benjamin remained (2 Kings 17:13-18). "Also Judah did not keep the commandments of the Lord their God, but walked in the customs which Israel had introduced." (2 Kings 17:19). So when the son of Ahaz, Hezekiah, became king, he did what was right in the sight of the Lord by removing the high places and idols that were established by his father (2 Kings 18:1-7). Hezekiah is granted fifteen more years to live after he became ill and was going to die, and during this time he father's a son who becomes king after his death when he was only twelve years old named Manasseh (2 Kings 20:all). Now, Manasseh reigned fifty-five years and again was evil in the sight of the Lord as he rebuilt the idols that his father had just removed before him and also made his sons pass through fire and seduced the nation to do more evil than the nations the Lord destroyed before the sons of Israel (2 Kings 21:1-9). After Manasseh dies, his son Amon became King. Amon was killed by his servants and reighned only two years as king. (2 Kings 21:19-26) Manesseh's grandson at eight years old, becomes king. (2 Kings 22:1)

 In his eighteenth year he sends the high priest to go to the house of the Lord and count the money gathered by the doorkeepers from the people.

 So then, for the answer to our question we turn and read, "Then Hilkiah the high priest said to Shaphan the scribe, 'I have found the Book of the Law in the house of the Lord.' And Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan who read it. And Shaphan the scribe came to the King and said,' Your servants have emptied out the money that was found in the house, and have delivered it into the hands of the workmen who have the oversight of the house of the Lord.' Moreover, Shaphan the scribe told the king saying, 'Hilkiah the priest ahs given me a book.' And Shaphan read it in the presence of the king. And it came about when the king heard the words of the Book of the Law, that he tore his clothes." (2 Kings 22:8-11). That king was none other than a twenty six year old named Josiah (2 Kings 22:all)

Now Josiah commanded all the people to repent and follow the words of the Book of the Law1 (2 kings 22:13)!