Joshua was assured by direct communication from Jehovah of the divine origin and authority of the writings of Moses. He was also taught that his success in the service of God would be connected with his observing to do according to all that Moses commanded, without turning from it to the right hand or to the left. Thus Joshua had sacred writings committed to him which were to be regarded by him as the Word of God.
We find also that Joshua wrote on an altar to the Lord God of Israel. "He wrote there upon the stones a copy of the law of Moses, which he wrote in the presence of the children of Israel." And to show how genuinely he owned the divine authenticity of the writings of Moses, we are told that "afterward he read all the words of the law, the blessings and cursings, according to all that is written in the book of the law. There was not a word of all that Moses commanded, which Joshua read not before all the congregation of Israel, with the women and the little ones, and the strangers that were conversant among them." Josh. 8:32-35.
Isaiah Wrote: Jeremiah Wrote:
The prophet Samuel was also a writer. He "told the people the manner of the kingdom, and wrote it in a book, and laid it up before the Lord." 1 Sam. 10:25. We read also that Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amos, wrote the acts of Uzziah first and last. (2 Chron. 26:22.)
“Jeremiah wrote in a book all the evil that should come upon Babylon, even all these words that are written against Babylon. And Jeremiah said to Seraiah, When thou comest to Babylon, and shalt see,
and shalt read all these words; then shalt thou say, O Lord, Thou hast spoken against this place." Jer. 51:60-62.
Daniel tells us that he had a dream, and visions of his head upon his bed, and he wrote the dream. He also acknowledged the divine authenticity of sacred writings, for he tells us that he "understood by books the number of the years, whereof the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet, that He would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem," and he also owned the divine authority of what is "written in the law of Moses." Dan. 7:1; 9:2, 11.
The prophet Hosea says, "I have written to him [Ephraim] the great things of My law." Hos. 8:12. The Lord said to Habakkuk, "Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it." Hab. 2:2. The Psalmist said, "My tongue is the pen of a ready writer." Psa. 45:1. The wise man exclaimed, "Have not I written to thee excellent things?" Prov. 22:20. These instances are enough, we judge, to show that writing was a means ordered by God for communicating and treasuring up divinely given truth, and that it was practiced and acknowledged by His servants.
Sacred Writings
Scriptures, or sacred writings, with all the value of divine authority were also recognized throughout Old Testament times. As we have seen, the statutes written in the Law of Moses were to be kept. When the people of Israel had a king it was said, "He shall read therein all the days of his life; that he may learn to fear the Lord his God, to keep all the words of this law, and these statutes, to do them." Deut. 17:19. Joshua taught the people to "take diligent heed to do the commandment and the law, which Moses the servant of the Lord charged you." Josh. 22:5.
In David's day, the Lord brought a breach upon Uzzah so that he died before the ark, because the king had not sought to do the work after the due order. But when he and those with him acted as Moses commanded, according to the word of the Lord which had been written, then they brought up the ark of God with gladness. (See 2 Sam. 6:7, 8; 1 Chron. 15:13, 15, 28.) In David's dying charge to Solomon, he enjoined him to "keep His statutes, and His commandments, and His judgments, and His testimonies, as it is written in the Law of Moses, that thou mayest prosper in all that thou doest, and whithersoever thou turnest thyself." 1 Kings 2:3.
Even Amaziah, though he did not do that which was right as David his father had done, still owned the authority of sacred writings.
Written in the Book
We find when he executed judgment on those who had slain his father that, "the children of the murderers he slew not: according unto that which is written in the book of the law of Moses, wherein the Lord commanded, saying, The fathers shall not be put to death for the children, nor the children be put to death for the fathers; but every man shall be put to death for his own sin." 2 Kings 14:6.
King Asa "commanded Judah to seek the Lord God of their fathers, and to do the law and the commandment." 2 Chron. 14:4.
Jehoshaphat "sought to the Lord God of his father, and walked in His commandments." He also sent teachers who taught in Judah, and had the book of the law of the Lord with them. In the battlefield he said, "Hear me, O Judah, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem; believe in the Lord your God, so shall ye be established; believe His prophets, so shall ye prosper." 2 Chron. 17:4, 9; 20:20. C.H. Mackintosh