“And it shall be, when he sitteth upon the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write him a copy of this law in a book out of that which is before the priests and the Levites.” This command, in Deuteronomy 17:18, was the law for the days when the children of God would want a king. Although, God wanted his children to have faith in Him, He knew that they would want to physically see someone. This being the case, God gave certain instructions for this new king. The FIRST thing he was supposed to do was write a copy of God’s law.Why would he need to do this?
God in His infinite wisdom knew that this king should know the Law of the Lord before he could be a righteous king. After he had written the law with his own hand; he would have had a descent grasp of the law. And every day when he would apply his statutes he would probably be more equipped to remember that law which he had copied.
If a king copied the law to know God’s law and will for him; then why should we not as Christians study God’s word to know his will for us?
In Paul’s second letter to Timothy, he tells him, “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” (2 Timothy 2:15). Just as Timothy we should study to show that we are approved unto God. Do you want to be a workman that does not need to be ashamed? How do we do this? We study God’s word to find out how we must apply his word to our lives.
Today America is a service based society. This can be viewed by simply looking at the economy. The majority of this nation has a “serve me” mentality. This aspect of society has crept its way into the church. This is devastating to the mentality of personal Bible study in that nobody is there to do the study for them.
A preacher’s utopia would be a congregation in which the Christians were like the Jews we read about in Acts 17:11. “These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” We can see what Luke thought of these Jews. He said they were “more noble” because they were making sure that what they were being taught was the truth. Are you making sure that what you are being taught is the truth?
In the religious world today, there are those who want to tell you that you cannot know the truth. They tell people this by saying such statements as: “I’m alright and you’re alright.”, “I’ll believe what I believe and you believe what you believe, we’re both going to heaven.”, or my personal favorite “We’re all going to heaven, just in different ways.”. This is false because it implies that there is more than one right way. John 7:17 says, “Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.”
If the word of God is truth, meaning only by obeying it can we enter into the kingdom, there is only one way to go…not different ways. “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” (John 8:32). Do we see more than one truth? No! This truth is THE TRUTH, THE ONLY TRUTH!
If you have ever watched some sort of a courtroom drama you know the line “Do you swear to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth?” Is this a statement used to get different truths from them or are they asked this to make sure they tell THE TRUTH? Any reasonable person would have to agree this “truth” is singular. There is only one truth and that truth can set you free.
These days there are so many tools that we can use to study the word of God. We have concordances to help us find passages by referencing a specific word. We have numerous other books such as: Bible dictionaries, Commentaries, Lexicons, word studies, books on Archaeology. Most of us even have access to the internet that truly holds a wealth of knowledge for those who use it for good. You can use the internet to search for articles or other writings or even look up sermons; download them and listen to them on your MP3 player or computer.
A wealth of knowledge is at our fingertips. We can use these tools that we mentioned previously, but first and foremost, let us grasp the word of God.
As mentioned before this truth is the word of God, John 17:17. It is what we should study. It is able to save our souls, James 1:21. Let us study to show ourselves approved.
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