In a book

"Also it shall be, when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write for himself a copy of this law in a book, from the one before the priests, the Levites. And it shall be with him, and he shall read it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the LORD his God and be careful to observe all the words of this law and these statutes,  - Deuteronomy 17.18-19

Write it in a book. I am so glad for those few simple words. I like the words ‘write in a book’ because that give a sure source of authority that is more dependable than just oral tradition.

There is a game called by various names that involves one person taking a written text and whispering it to the next person. The message is then passed on orally to the end of the line where the last person writes down what they heard. The fun comes in seeing how much the message had changed.

Fun maybe, but not very reliable or trustworthy. The only way to make sure the message really got to the end would be to pass on the piece of paper with the message on it.

God did not want His people to forget His word. He did not want to depend on the faithfulness of oral tradition. He knew that His word would change with the very first retelling.

So He said ‘write it down in a book.’

The great thing about a book is that we can look back at it again and again it is not going to change. It is a reliable source.

Let me give you a personal example. We are fortunate in Ireland to have some of the oldest Greek and Hebrew texts of the Bible on display in a museum in Dublin. Our son Matt is quite skilled in Biblical Greek and was able to look at a 2^nd century manuscript on display and translate it into English. They were the same words as we read in our Bibles today. Imagine doing that with on oral traditions!

Thank God that His word was written down in a book! Thank God I turn back to it any time I want and it is going to be the same as it was last time I looked!