![[Photo of a Scripture verse]](https://www.deankwilson.com/Blog_images/Deuteronomy_17_18.jpg)
| “When he takes the throne of his kingdom, he is to write for himself on a scroll a copy of this law, taken from that of the Levitical priests.” |
| —Deuteronomy 17:14-20 |
No, I’m not suggesting that we create our very own version of Scripture, containing only those verses that we especially like and eliminating all the other verses that we don’t particularly like. Instead, I’m suggesting that, from time to time, we take a Chapter of Scripture that we want to learn and word-by-word write that Chapter down on a piece of paper or in a notebook.
The very act of writing the words of Scripture will help cement them in our minds and hearts. And, it will make the particular passage all the more meaningful when we hear someone read it during a worship service, or when we hear someone preach a sermon based on that passage.
On one of my many bookshelves, I have a red three-ring notebook that contains the photocopied pages of those originally written by a very a dear friend. This friend, while she was in college in the late 1950s and early 1960s, read through the Bible and, after reading each Chapter, wrote out a summary of the Chapter in her own words. It makes fascinating reading. Starting as an 18-year-old and progressing to the age of 21, it is interesting to see glimpses of how she was maturing spiritually. Her summaries of the New Testament Epistles, for example, exhibit a much deeper spiritual understanding than her summaries of the earlier Books of the Old Testament.
The idea of writing, or actually copying, portions of Scripture is not a new one. In fact, Moses shared the Law of God and gave some very specific instructions to His chosen people, the Jews, as recorded in Deuteronomy 17:14-20:
When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you and have taken possession of it and settled in it, and you say, “Let us set a king over us like all the nations around us,” be sure to appoint over you a king the Lord your God chooses. He must be from among your fellow Israelites. Do not place a foreigner over you, one who is not an Israelite.
The king, moreover, must not acquire great numbers of horses for himself or make the people return to Egypt to get more of them, for the Lord has told you, “You are not to go back that way again.” He must not take many wives, or his heart will be led astray. He must not accumulate large amounts of silver and gold.
When he takes the throne of his kingdom, he is to write for himself on a scroll a copy of this law, taken from that of the Levitical priests. It is to be with him, and he is to read it all the days of his life so that he may learn to revere the Lord his God and follow carefully all the words of this law and these decrees and not consider himself better than his fellow Israelites and turn from the law to the right or to the left. Then he and his descendants will reign a long time over his kingdom in Israel.
I hope you noticed the last paragraph above. The king is instructed to write for himself, on a scroll, a copy of the law that Moses conveyed in this Book of Deuteronomy. Why? So that it would be with him, he could read it all the days of his life, learn to revere (or fear) God, follow carefully the words of the law, and not consider himself better than his fellow Jews.
Do you not think that if we did the very same thing—wrote out our own copy of Scripture—we could derive the same benefit. I think we could. I think we should. Why not start today?
