Although every passage in my “consider” word study from the Bible has touched and challenged me personally, I will not share all 130 of the verses in this series. I only plan to cover the ones I feel are most pertinent for this year. I found the following passage especially significant now, in the midst of political upheaval and presidential changeover.

“When he [the 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 Levitical priests. 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 fellow Israelites 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” (Deuteronomy 17:18-20, NIV).

It took time and careful attention for me to copy these three verses exactly as they appear in the Bible onto my notepad. Until this study, it never occurred to me how much effort it would take for each king to hand copy the five books of scripture they had at the time—Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. The king was not supposed to pass the duty off to a scribe or servant; God said each king was to do the work himself.

How humbling would that be for a king to do such a menial task? But how good for him and the people of his kingdom!

No king was to consider himself too busy or important to copy each word of each verse for his own study of God’s Word, and read it every day. There’s something about the act of copying documents word for word. They stick with us longer; we tend to pause and give thought to words and phrases as we go along. And what we invest such time in, we hold more precious.

How different our world would be if the king, president, or ruler of every country did this? And so I challenge myself and each one of you to pray for our president (or the ruler of your country) throughout 2021:

• that he will begin or continue to read and treasure the Bible—the whole Bible
• that he will keep it with him at all times
• that he will copy portions of it and ponder what it means
• that he will memorize it
• that he will do what God says, and
• that he will not consider himself better than any of the people he rules

Even if our leader does all these things, it will make no difference unless we the people do the same. We must commit to read, treasure, keep, ponder, memorize, and do everything God tells us in His inspired Word. We cannot be good parents, grandparents, employers, church members, neighbors, teachers, or friends unless we humble ourselves, seek God’s help, and keep His commands. They are LIFE and the key to a strong nation!

None of us, no matter our position in society, is better than anyone else. Our life and breath and every gift we have comes from God above.

Something to consider.