The King's Copy

By Prophet Jacob R. Blandford

 

"When thou art come unto the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee, and shalt possess it, and shalt dwell therein, and shalt say, I will set a king over me, like as all the nations that are about me; Thou shalt in any wise set him king over thee, whom the LORD thy God shall choose: one from among thy brethren shalt thou set king over thee: thou mayest not set a stranger over thee, which is not thy brother. But he shall not multiply horses to himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt, to the end that he should multiply horses: forasmuch as the LORD hath said unto you, Ye shall henceforth return no more that way. Neither shall he multiply wives to himself, that his heart turn not away: neither shall he greatly multiply to himself silver and gold. 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: And it shall be with him, and he shall read therein all the days of his life: that he may learn to fear the LORD his God, to keep all the words of this law and these statutes, to do them: That his heart be not lifted up above his brethren, and that he turn not aside from the commandment, to the right hand, or to the left: to the end that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, he, and his children, in the midst of Israel." (Deuteronomy 17:14-20 KJV)

 

¶This is an interesting portion of Scripture from Deuteronomy, the 5th Book of Moses.  These are the instructions for the Israel king that God by divine foresight knew the Israelites would ask for.  Prophetically this was fulfilled in II Samuel Chapter 8 when elders of Israel came to Samuel their judge at Ramah and demanded a king to rule them.  God answered their requested and Saul was anointed king.  But Saul transgressed by not completely and totally wiping out the Amalekites and everything of theirs.  So he was succeeded by David, and there the Judean lineage of kings was established, leading up to our very Christ, Who "...took on him the seed of Abraham." (Hebrews 2:16)

 

This passage contains another prophecy related specifically to our Protestant Bible: The KJV 1611.  We read in verse 18 that Israeli kings were commanded to make them copies of the Law, namely the 5 Books of Moses, or the Torah, or Pentateuch.  Is not it interesting that the LORD commands the king to write a copy?  Did not King James VI & I, a Protestant Christian king, in a Christendom kingdom do this by commissioning the translation of the Holy Bible?  Now some may ask if the LORD meant that the king himself had to copy it by his own hand.  It's a possibility, I'm not sure honestly; but I think more probably he could have overseen the scribes and Levities to write a copy so he could read it.  That's was the purpose so he could read it. (see v. 19)

 

So we notice a few things here.  Which shows the King James Version is supernatural (see II Tim. 3:16), God-honored Bible, and a prophetical type-fulfillment of Deuteronomy 17.  #1) God likes kings.  #2) Kingdoms or Monarchies are God's kind of government.  Especially when they're governed by Christian kings. #3) Christ is the King of kings. (see Rev. 17:4, 19:17) Christ is "...the prince of the kings of the earth..." (Rev. 1:5) #4) Kingdoms and monarchies are the governments (i.e. theocratic state church) which God chose to rule His ancient people. #5) I Samuel, II Samuel, I Kings, and II Kings are collectively known as the Books of the Kings: and they along with I & II Chronicles contain the sacred history of Judean and Israeli kings. #6) King James translated this very Old Testament passage three thousand years after Moses initially penned Deuteronomy 17!

 

Now let me ask you this: what modern bible do you know of that followed the pattern of Jewish kings, by the nation's king copying (in the case of King James translating) or commissioning a Bible translation?  What modern bible was translated by a Christian king in a Christendom kingdom?  What modern bible translation was executed by traditional, godly Protestant Christians?  The NKJV bears King James' name but it wasn't under translated in England (it was translated in the U.S.), it wasn't translated in a Christendom kingdom (it was translated in a democracy which was once Christian, but now apostate and secular humanistic), it wasn't translated during the Protestant Reformation (it was translated 371 years later in the Laodicean church age), it wasn't translated under King James (it was translated under president Ronald Reagan who knew nothing about it), it wasn't translated under ANY king, it wasn't even based on the same manuscripts (Textus Receptus) and previous English translations (e.g. Wycliff, Tyndale, Coverdale, Matthews, Great Bible, Genevan Bible, Bishops Bible).  The NKJV has nothing to do with kingship; it's a corruption of the KJV.  It should be called the Thomas Nelson Version.

 

But the 1611 did follow God's pattern; and it was faithfully translated in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ by learned, pious men who were led by the Spirit, resisted Rome, feared God's Word (see Is. 66:2), and translated word-for-word: using the manuscripts and previous translations Christ's people trusted and lost everything for — even their lives.

 

King James wrote him a copy of the Law!

 

Now I quote from “Basilicon Doron” which was written by King James, he writes “And most properly of any other, belongeth the reading thereof unto kings, since in that part of the Scripture (Deut. 17), where the godly kings are first made mention of, that were ordained to rule over the people of God, there is an express and most notable exhortation and commandment given them, to read and meditate the Law of God.”  [This original writing included the marginal note to Deuteronomy 17.]