copying scripture

Good afternoon sisters and brothers,
On Sunday we'll be talking about how explained scripture to his disciples after his resurrection. With that in mind we'll spend some of our daily reading this week looking at why scripture is important. Today's reading is from Deuteronomy and takes us back to Moses instructing Israel in the desert for their life in the Promised Land. He looks ahead to when they will want a king. He tells them it's OK to have a king, but the king can't think too much of himself and has to follow God carefully. We know from Israel's history (and every other kind of history) that powerful people tend to get caught up in their power and forget where they come from and why they are called to lead. Moses' warnings prove prescient, as things develop.


One of the things that catches my attention whenever I read this is the idea that the king should personally copy God's law and read it every day. That would be a powerful exercise in humility and faithfulness. Even though we aren't kings, it's a good reminder that reading scripture everyday shapes us the way God wants us.

God bless,
Sam


Deuteronomy 17:14-20
¹⁴ When you have come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you, and have taken possession of it and settled in it, and you say, “I will set a king over me, like all the nations that are around me,” ¹⁵you may indeed set over you a king whom the Lord your God will choose. One of your own community you may set as king over you; you are not permitted to put a foreigner over you, who is not of your own community. ¹⁶Even so, he must not acquire many horses for himself, or return the people to Egypt in order to acquire more horses, since the Lord has said to you, “You must never return that way again.” ¹⁷And he must not acquire many wives for himself, or else his heart will turn away; also silver and gold he must not acquire in great quantity for himself.


¹⁸When he has taken the throne of his kingdom, he shall have a copy of this law written for him in the presence of the levitical priests. ¹⁹It shall remain with him and he shall read in it all the days of his life, so that he may learn to fear the Lord his God, diligently observing all the words of this law and these statutes, ²⁰neither exalting himself above other members of the community nor turning aside from the commandment, either to the right or to the left, so that he and his descendants may reign long over his kingdom in Israel.