We're getting into more specifics regarding God's law for his people and the system of justice they're suppose to have. Overall humility and truth, as expressed here, are so important to the Lord. And, they go hand in hand. Without an honest view of ourselves we cannot see the truth. And so kinds shouldn't be too separated from the people by wealth or wives. We are to be truthful in offering witness and testimony and judgment.
Did you see where God tells the future kings to write out the words of His law themselves, in their own hand? "When he [the future king] 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 priests, who are Levites. 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 brother and turn from the law to the right or to the left." [Deut. 17:18-20a]
I actually typed the complete manuscript of a book into my computer once -- The Thin Man by Dashiell Hammet (that's a story for another time). I noticed then that you become very intimate with the text when you do that because you're not only reading it carefully so that you can write it or type it out but you're also committing it to the muscle memory of your hands. Imagine a king or president or leader whose first official act was to write out in their own hand God's Law? I've often wanted to write out the Bible in my own hand and in my own words. Ok, don't cringe. I understand the problem of a paraphrase by non-scholar and Hebrew and Latin illiterate. But it would be for me... to read all the days of my life so that I may learn to revere the Lord my God and follow carefully all the words of this law....
2 comments:
I personally think its a great idea to write out God's laws in your own handwritting Nelson. I mean people do it all the time honestly. Any person that takes scripture and applies it to the situation they are in does the same thing. Whether its done on paper or in action I think the outcome is the same. I think this is what God meant for us to do with the bible anyway. Application is what makes them so valuable to us.
Can you imagine your grandchildren picking up a copy one day of the Lee version in their grandfather's own hand?
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