By Barak Lundberg

While I was growing up, my family was in a home schooling program that centered around the Bible. One of the projects that I was assigned during that time was to copy out part of the Law of Moses by hand. In Deuteronomy 17:18 we read that the kings of Israel were commanded to copy out the law: “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 the Levites.” This was the basis for my project.

One of the things that motivated me at the beginning was that I wanted my faith in Christ to be my own and not something that was dependant on my parents. There were things that I had heard about the Bible all my life, and I wanted to use this time to see for myself whether they were true or not. I didn’t want to start in the middle of a book, so I started at the beginning of Exodus. I finished copying the first five books of the Bible in 1999, and that fall I finished the New Testament Epistles. By that point, copying out the entire Bible had become my goal.

As I copied out the Scripture passages day after day I thought, “God, You must have had some reason for having the kings do this.” As far as I have been able to find, none of the kings ever fulfilled this command. However, I was reminded of the fact that God calls us to be kings and priests. Some of the things that the Lord did in my life during this time gave me a glimpse into why copying out the Law was important for the kings of Israel:

• I was given a love for God’s Word.
• My hand writing improved.
• My ability to visualize and write words improved.
• The process of writing caused me to truly consider what was being said.
• I was delivered from habits I could not change no matter how hard I tried. Because of the conviction I was under, there were times when I had an internal war of whether to even continue copying.
• My heart was turned to Scripture because that was where I put a great treasure of my time.

I have been asked whether or not I would recommend copying out the Bible to other young men. There are several things that should be kept in mind as you approach something like this. No matter what you are led to do, whether it be reading, memorizing, meditating, listening on tape, or a combination of all these, God’s Word will not return void however you choose to study it.

If you to start copying out the Bible, it should be done because it is something the Lord wants you to do and not from the motivation to be a “men-pleaser.” If your goal is to impress people, realize that this motivation stems from pride. God “resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble” (James 4:6). At one point God impressed upon my heart to give away part of what I had copied. He reminded me that this was not a project of accomplishment but rather a way of getting to know the heart of God.

Copying out the Bible by hand took me about eight years. I have recently completed typing out the Bible, which has taken me about 1 ¼ years and am presently recording an audio copy of the Bible. I know it is by the grace of God that I am able to complete these projects. It is my hope that finishing will not be the “end” for me, but that the rest of my life would be a reflection of “observing all things whatsoever I have commanded you.”

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