The final segment of Deuteronomy 17 has to do with choosing a king in the future and with how the king is to conduct his life.
In yesterday's passage Moses passed along this instruction from the Lord: "Be sure to appoint over you a king the Lord your God chooses." (Deuteronomy 17:15a) The Lord did not command Israel to have a king but permitted Israel to have a king because, about four hundred years after the death of Moses, the citizens would ask for "a king like all the other nations around us". This king should be a man of the Lord's choosing, not a man who looks like the best candidate to human eyes. Yesterday we discussed how King Saul, Israel's first king, looked like a good candidate to human eyes but turned out to be a spiritually rebellious and mentally unstable man.
Secondly, no man who is not a native-born Israelite should be considered for the position of king. "He must be from among your fellow Israelites. Do not place a foreigner over you, one who is not an Israelite." (Deuteronomy 17:15b) It may seem to us that such a thing could go without saying, but having a king who was not native-born was not unheard of in many of the nations of ancient times. A foreigner could reach such a high political or military rank in the country of his residence that he might be selected to succeed the king he served upon the king's death. In heathen nations it wouldn't matter much, spiritually speaking. In Israel it would matter a great deal, for a king from a pagan background would be in a powerful position to be a dangerous spiritual influence on the citizens.
A third requirement of the king is that he must not engage in trade with Egypt where Israel was formerly enslaved. "The king, moreover, must not acquire great numbers of horses for himself or make the people return to Egypt to get more of them, for the Lord has told you, 'You are not to go back that way again.'" (Deuteronomy 17:16) During Israel's early history as a nation, Egypt was the primary source of horses. Israel was to have nothing to do with Egypt, a land of oppression and idolatry. In addition, stockpiling horses in this manner displays a lack of trust in the Lord, as if once the nation is firmly established in the promised land there will be a need to amass a large number of war horses for a mobilized army. The Lord is going to be Israel's defense, not horses or armies. (As King David declared in Psalm 20:7, "Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.") David's son Solomon either did not share his father's feelings about trusting in horses and chariots or else he wanted to make an ostentatious display of his wealth; King Solomon broke the rule of verse 16 by having "four thousand stalls for chariot horses, and twelve thousand horses". (1 Kings 4:26)
Solomon also broke this next rule. "He must not take many wives, or his heart will be led astray." (Deuteronomy 17:17a) We are told in 1 Kings 11:3 that Solomon had "seven hundred wives of royal birth and three hundred concubines, and his wives led him astray." We can clearly see the cause and effect here. The Lord said that a king who takes many wives will have his heart led astray and Solomon didn't heed this warning. He took many wives---foreign wives from pagan cultures---and as a result, "His wives turned his heart after other gods, and his heart was not fully devoted to the Lord his God. He followed Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and Molek the detestable god of the Ammonites. So Solomon did evil in the eyes of the Lord; he did not follow the Lord completely, as David his father had done. On a hill east of Jerusalem, Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the detestable god of Moab, and for Molek the detestable god of the Ammonites. He did the same for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and offered sacrifices to their gods." (1 Kings 11:4-8) Even if Solomon hadn't had such a weakness for foreign, exotic women and had instead married a large number of Israelite women, he still would have neglected his relationship with the Lord while wooing and pursuing and consorting with so many women. But when the Lord gave the instructions of Deuteronomy 17:17a He knew that it was the practice of kings to make alliances with foreign governments by marrying the daughters or granddaughters of the kings of those countries and He did not want Israel making alliances with pagans in this manner. Pagan wives are capable of leading godly men astray.
The final rule of Deuteronomy 17 regarding kings of Israel is that each king is to know and meditate upon the laws of the Lord. He must make for himself his own personal copy of the law by writing it out with his own hand upon a scroll, and that scroll must be with him at all times during his reign. "When he takes the throne of his kingdom, he is to write for himself on a scroll a copy of this law, taken from that of the Levitical priests. It is to be with him, and he is to read it all the days of his life so that he may learn to revere the Lord his God and follow carefully all the words of this law and these decrees and not consider himself better than his fellow Israelites and turn from the law to the right or to the left. Then he and his descendants will reign a long time over his kingdom in Israel." (Deuteronomy 17:18-20)
Handwriting his own copy of the law will make it more personal and meaningful. It will also help him to meditate on it and commit portions of it to memory. Then each day thereafter he is to spend time reading from the scroll and thinking about the word of God. He is to have the scroll handy at all times so he can easily consult it to check one of the Lord's laws before rendering judgment in legal cases. He will be able to consult it when making political or personal decisions. If the king studies and thinks on the word of God every day of his life, he will be a blessing to the nation of Israel.
Taking the word of God seriously will keep the king from thinking he's superior to his subjects. The word of God will reveal to him that he has sinned and fallen short just like every other human being on the planet. The word of God will reveal to him that he needs the forgiveness and mercy of God just like everyone else. It will help him to "stay humble" as the saying goes. Moses was a humble man (Numbers 12:3) and that's why the Lord was able to use him to successfully lead Israel for so many years. Moses was a blessing upon the people. A king who is humbled by the recognition of his own faults and failures is a king who will bow on his knees before the Lord to ask for forgiveness and guidance. If only the leader of every nation in the world today had this attitude! Imagine how much better everyone's lives would be if all our leaders loved and followed the Lord and never thought of themselves as better than anyone else! If national leaders set godly examples for everyone under their authority, far more people would come to know the Lord. Far more people would love their neighbors as themselves. Fewer crimes would occur and fewer people would be doing without basic necessities. A godly ruler is a blessing to the citizens of his nation. But living under a wicked ruler is like living under a curse.
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