“Royal Rules” – FBC Morning Light (3/6/2024)

What a good Wednesday morning to you. We are in the middle of the week already, and I trust your week is going well. Today in our Bible reading, we're in Deuteronomy and reading chapters 15 through 18.

The Royal Stipulations for Israel’s King

We have four chapters to cover today. I'm going to zero in on the end of chapter 17, where the Lord anticipates the day when Israel will have a king. Now, let's remind ourselves of when Deuteronomy 17 is taking place.

Moses wrote Deuteronomy, and so when is it that he is communicating what we're reading in Deuteronomy 17? This is before the children of Israel ever even entered the land. So it's prior to crossing the Jordan, prior to Joshua fitting the Battle of Jericho and conquering the land of Canaan and so forth.

So it's a long time before Israel is going to have a king. But the Lord anticipates that day when there would be a king. So he says in verse 14 of chapter 17, when you come to the land which the Lord your God is giving you, and you possess it and dwell in it, and say, and the people say, I will set a king over me like all the nations that are around me.

And this is exactly what happens. You remember when during the time of Samuel, Samuel was judging Israel. It's after the end of the period of the judges, and Israel says, you know, Samuel, you're getting old.

Your sons are not fit to take your place to judge Israel. So, you know, we need a king. We want a king like all the other nations have. That's exactly what happened. The Lord said this was going to happen.

You're going to say this. And in verse 15, he says, you shall surely set a king over you whom the Lord your God chooses. So it wasn't going to be left to the people to have a popularity contest or some kind of a beauty contest to see who is going to be the king.

The Lord would choose it, choose that king. And he did, even with Saul. The Lord chose him among all the others. And he says in the end of verse 15, one from among your brethren you shall set as a king over you.

So they weren't allowed to set up a king from some other country. Makes good sense. Just like in our country, we're not allowed to, we can't elect a president who's not a U .S. citizen and wasn't born here as a U .S. citizen.

And so he has to be somebody who's a brother. But then the Lord lays down some stipulations for the king that he needs to honor. Here's what he says. The king shall not multiply horses for himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt to multiply horses.

The Lord God has said to you, the Lord has said to you, you shall not return that way again. Neither, secondly, so he's not to multiply horses, he's not to go to Egypt, I guess thirdly here, neither shall he multiply wives for himself, lest his heart turn away.

Fourthly, nor shall he greatly multiply silver and gold for himself. So, I mean, these are pretty clear, direct, precise, specific restrictions to be placed on the king who will ultimately be set on the throne.

But I want you to do a little comparison now with what the Lord lays down here, with what eventually came about with King Solomon. King Solomon violated every one of those things. He multiplied horses for himself, he went to Egypt to get horses, he multiplied wives for himself, and he multiplied silver and gold for himself.

His palace, his own personal palace was incredibly beautiful and majestic, with all the gold that was adorning everything in that palace. But what's interesting is, it goes on to say, the text here says, it shall be when he, the king, 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.

Why? That he may learn to fear the Lord his God, and be careful to observe all the words of this law and these statutes, that his heart not be lifted up above his brethren, that he may not turn aside from the commandment to the right hand or to the left, that he may prolong his days in the kingdom.

So, you have to wonder, don't you? Did Solomon follow that? Did he write a copy of the word for himself to be read in his hearing every day, that would remind him of these stipulations for him as a king, when he went to get the tenth wife?

Did he come across Deuteronomy 17, where the Lord said, you're not supposed to multiply your wives, when he did all kinds of trading to become exceedingly wealthy and multiply gold and silver for himself, did he bother to remind himself of what the Lord said about that?

You've got to wonder, don't you? If he did hear these things, then that makes the behavior all the more egregious. Now, the point is not to be overly condemning of Solomon. Solomon was a man with failure, just like every other man that sat on the throne of Israel that knew failure.

But it does point to the one king who is coming, the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, who is going to be the right kind of king, and he will not turn aside from one side to the other of all that the Lord has commanded.

The Coming King of Kings

Look forward to that king and his coming. Well, our Father and our God, we are reminded of just how important it is to remind ourselves regularly of what your word says. Even as we looked at earlier this week, those very simply formulated requirements that please you, and I pray that we would remind ourselves frequently of these things.

We ask it in Jesus' name, and for his sake. Amen. All right, well listen, have a good rest of your Wednesday. May the Lord bless you, and a good day.