In Israel God held kings to a higher standard than everyone else. In order for them to rule justly in the fear of the Lord, God commanded the king to do something quite unusual by today’s standards. His assignment was hand copying Scripture and reading from it every day! “Also it shall be, when he sits
Hand Copying
the Bible
Main Benefits
Hand copying the Bible is an extremely effective method of meditating in Scripture. Christian meditation isn't about emptying your mind but filling your mind with His truth. Do you know that God commanded the kings of Israel to hand copy the Bible? You are benefited seven ways when you do the same. See the list of articles below.
You Will Learn God's Word
By copying the Bible by hand, you use more of your brain than by reading alone. Think about it. To copy a verse, you first read a phrase, store it in your memory, and then write it down using your eye-hand coordination. This forces you to meditate on every word you write, slows your brain down, causes you to concentrate, and gives God time to speak to you between the lines.
You Will Calm Your Mind
Unless properly tended, our minds tend to become undisciplined weed patches of overgrown thoughts. By copying Scripture, we still our minds and root out worldly thoughts by replacing them with the Bible's truth. This is the process of renewing our minds, the key to spiritual transformation.
You Will Improve Your Mind
A still, calm Scripture-based mind prays, concentrates, studies, and learns better. It is more patient and kind. By silencing the "static" of thoughts in an undisciplined mind, we put ourselves in a position to hear from God, mature in Christ, and learn anything better.
A Quickstart Guide to Hand Copying the Bible
After you read the first two articles, you are ready to start copying Bible verses. I've included three Scripture lists of the same verses I first copied out. The subject of love in the Bible is far more challenging than it sounds. This is because agape, the original Greek word for the God-kind of love, means an unselfish love. Agape-love does not revolve around getting our own needs and desires met, but in doing what is best for others.
In addition, Jesus calls us to "love our enemies," to "lay down our lives" for our friends, to love our neighbors as ourselves, and to love God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength.
You will grow and mature as you copy out these verses. Agapao, for example, is the verb form of agape. Most of the time it means to love with the God-kind of love. Another member of the same word family, agapetos is a word translated beloved. It describes God's only begotten Son. Further, it is the word the apostles chose to make soul-stirring appeals to the church to pay attention and hear their words.
Try to find a quiet place and time to do your hand copying so you can learn to hear from the Holy Spirit. I am convinced that as soon as you begin that the Holy Spirit will draw near and help you.
So make a commitment not only to hear but to find out by doing why God called this the meditation of kings. As kings and priests to the Lord under a better covenant, dare we do any less than the kings of old were required to do?
The Lord required the kings of Israel to perform an unusual task—to handwrite their own copy of the Torah (the first five books of the Bible). Why? He knew there were huge, rarely-discovered benefits to be gained in the personal handwriting of Scripture. Let’s look at each of them in turn.1. HumblingIt was humbling. It
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To Download: Click the download button that appears when you hover over the document. A new browser window will open that may not display the fonts correctly, but click the download button in the top right-hand corner or open in the free Acrobat Reader, and print if desired. Back to the Main Page
To Download: Click the download button that appears when you hover over the document. A new browser window will open that may not display the fonts correctly, but click the download button in the top right-hand corner or open in the free Acrobat Reader, and print if desired. Back to the Main