Start Writing

I read something this morning that I'd never really taken note of before. In Deuteronomy 17:18-20, there is a description of some of the expectations of the king(s) that would rule over Israel. The thing that caught my attention was that the king was to write for himself a copy of the law on a scroll to be kept with him during his rule. Verses 19 & 20 read, "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 to consider himself better than his brothers 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 found this interesting. I haven't done the research to see if Saul, David, Solomon, and others actually did this or not. Clearly God was very intent on the king - which you might remember God didn't really want to have in place at all - remaining faithful. I am guessing that the numbers of copies of the law available in those days was very small - as they all had to be done by hand. That God would require the king to copy it down himself makes it pretty clear He was serious about it. I suspect that if we each had to copy (by hand) some large body of scripture and keep it with us, we'd probably tend to know it better and perhaps follow it more faithfully. Just a thought.

Now, shifting gears a little and forgive me if you find the following offensive.

Taking this principle that was laid out in the Old Testament and applying it to rulers in modern times, what would it be like if the first duty of a new president after the inauguration ceremony was to copy the Constitution by hand? I wonder if that would change the reverence our leaders show toward defending and protecting the document that our form of government was based on? I am not trying to spiritualize the office of President of the US, claim that the US is a Christian nation or is somehow chosen by God. I'm just saying this principle might keep an administration from running rough-shod over the document this nation's founders wrote to establish and regulate the function of this union. Maybe it's time for President Obama to breakout a G-2 and start transcribing - let's be sure someone is watching him when he does it so he doesn't change anything to suit his political philosophy.