At the village church in Kalonovka, Russia, attendance at Sunday school picked up after the priest started handing out candy to the peasant children. One of the most faithful was a pug-nosed, pugnacious lad who recited his Scriptures with proper piety, pocketed his reward, then ran to the fields to munch on it.
The priest took a liking to the boy and persuaded him to attend church school. For the boy, this was preferable to doing household chores from which his devout parents excused him. And by offering other inducements, the priest managed to teach the boy the four Gospels. In fact, he won a special prize for learning all four by heart and reciting them nonstop in church.
60 years or so later, he still likes to recite Scriptures, but in a context that would horrify the old priest. For the prize pupil, who memorized so much of the Bible, is Nikita Khrushchev, the former Communist czar.
This story shows that the “why” behind the memorization of Scriptures is as important as the “what.” The same Nikita Khrushchev who nimbly mouthed God’s Word when a child, later declared God to be nonexistent — because his cosmonauts had not seen Him when they went into space. Khrushchev memorized the Scriptures for the candy, the rewards, the bribes, rather than for the meaning it had for his life. Artificial motivation will produce artificial results.
Let us not simply go into the memorization of the Word of God but let it become part and parcel of our lives. Let us allow the Scriptures to nourish and feed our souls. Jeremiah would say “Thy words were found…and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of my heart.” (Jeremiah 15:16). And David sang about how he enjoyed them declaring them to be “sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.” (Psalms 19:10).
Jesus also said the Scriptures sustain our spiritual lives as bread nourishes our physical bodies. Matthew records His words, “Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.” (Matthew 4:4).