Late in 1946, a Bedouin shepherd boy looking for lost sheep made the discovery of a lifetime: the Dead Sea Scrolls, the oldest copies of the Old Testament in existence today.
The most significant of these was the Isaiah scroll, 24 feet long, weighing 25 pounds, written on parchment. Clearly, the scroll was not easily portable; it was designed to remain in the temple or synagogue. If the entire Old Testament were written on such scrolls, they would weigh over 320 pounds!
Now, however, by the marvels of modern technology, we have not just the Old Testament but the entire Bible available at our fingertips by means of our smartphones. My iPhone weighs six ounces.
Why Memorize?
When Jesus was tempted by the devil in the wilderness, he answered each temptation by reciting a passage from Deuteronomy (Matthew 4:1–11). He clearly had these verses memorized, for lugging the scroll around in the desert would have been impossible. But modern minds might ask, “If I can access any verse anytime I want with the touch of a finger on a six-ounce phone, why memorize?” Has the marvel of digital technology made memorization obsolete? My answer to this question is “Absolutely not!”
For almost forty years, I have devoted myself to the extended memorization of Scripture. I began in the summer of 1986 with the book of Ephesians. Since that time, I have memorized 45 other books. (I am presently working on Jeremiah.) My practice has been to learn three new verses every day by reciting them ten times and then saying them for one hundred consecutive days after that. Then I kiss them goodbye as I continue to learn new verses.
Sadly, for the most part, my finite and flawed mind forgets most of them after I let them go. My smartphone, on the other hand, never “forgets” anything. At any moment, it can call up whatever verse I ask. What’s more, memorizing can be incredibly hard work — it takes me over 45 minutes a day, and it’s getting harder as I get older. So, why do I continue to memorize verses?
Like Seed and Sword
Here’s the thing: There is nothing fundamentally new in our digital era. A similar question could have been asked when writing was invented. When God carved the Ten Commandments on tablets of stone, from that moment on they never changed. When people in subsequent generations copied those words onto scrolls, the same was true. Once the ink hit the parchment in the shape of the Hebrew letters, they were permanent. But those letters never helped anyone to be saved or to live a godly life while they stayed external to the mind and heart.
The word of God must enter the mind and heart to bring life, health, and fruit. As long as it stays external to us, whether in print or digital form, it can do us no good. That we now have such easy access to massive books doesn’t change that fact at all. An unused Bible app on the phone is the same as a closed and dusty Bible on the shelf.
God’s words must enter us and take root in us in order to really transform us. For example, in the parable of the sower and the soil types (Matthew 13:3–9), the seed represents the word of God. The seed that falls on the path and the seed that falls on rocky soil both have the same problem: They fail to penetrate into the soil. The good soil stands for a receptive heart. In Luke 8:15, Jesus describes this soil as those who have “an honest and good heart” — those who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop.
In the same way, “the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12). The word shapes us by piercing deep and remaining in the mind, heart, and soul, making changes from within. Likewise, Colossians 3:16 says, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.” And Jesus said, “If you abide [dwell, live, remain] in me, and my words abide in you,” you will bear much fruit (John 15:7–8). If God’s words stay outside us, they cannot bear fruit in us.
Intimacy Through Insight
Jesus as the incarnate Word comes to the door of our hearts and knocks. If we hear his voice and open the door to him, he will come in and eat with us, and we with him (Revelation 3:20). This is a picture of the way God intends the Bible’s words to function in us. They begin outside of us (either printed on the pages of our physical Bibles or programmed in our Bible apps). They come to our minds externally by our eyes or ears. They knock for entrance. If we have ears to hear, we will understand. If we have soft hearts, their truths will be planted deep within us.
They keep speaking their concepts by their nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, sentence flows, logic, and context. As we meditate deeply on those words, the Holy Spirit blesses our labor with flashes of insight (Psalm 119:99; 2 Timothy 2:7). And by those insights, a City of Truth is erected within our souls one passage at a time.
This is where memorization bears its best fruit. When we are reciting the verses over and over, day after day, suddenly insight pops up. As brilliant as AI may seem, it can never replicate this personal experience. And with these insights come a deeper love for Christ, because he is the one speaking them directly to our souls. So, insight yields intimacy with Christ.
This intimacy is the best payoff from the repetitive labor essential to memorization. And smartphones cannot do this for us, just as they cannot eat, drink, love, understand, or decide for us. These we must do for ourselves as we live and move and have our being in God.
Store His Words Within You
As amazing as today’s digital marvels are, they will never make the memorization of Scripture obsolete — any more than the printing press, radio, television, or Internet did. All of these technologies have been useful for delivering the words of God to our eyes and ears. But only by taking those words into ourselves — into our minds by comprehension and our hearts by faith and obedience — will they give us life and fruitfulness in Christ.
So, dear reader, store God’s words in your mind by the happy labor of memorization. Let the Holy Spirit work in you a magnificent array of interconnected insights, bringing you to a deeper level of intimacy with Christ than you have ever known before. Then watch him use the words planted in you to bear thirty, sixty, or one hundred times what was sown.
Desiring God