Deuteronomy 17, verse 14. Let's pray and then
we'll get started. God, we thank you for a beautiful
day. We thank you for this beautiful weather
and for being good to us, for blessing us and
taking care of us and giving us the freedom in
this country to be able to come and to read your
word tonight and sing these songs to you. I pray
that your Holy Spirit would free us from the
distractions and the worries of this world. I
pray that you would help us to see your words
tonight. You would speak to us in a way that
we need to hear, that you'd meet us where we
are, and let us get something from your word
tonight. And I just ask these things in Jesus'
name. Amen. Now, in Deuteronomy, there's a lot
of repeat about commands that God had given to
his people. And in this particular passage that
we're going to look at tonight, in the context,
it's really talking about God's instructions
for... the kings that are ultimately going to
be put over the people of Israel. It'd be years
and years down the road before this would take
place. But nonetheless, God was giving some instruction.
Now, even though in the context this passage
is talking about kings, I think that there is
some application as to the reasons why God was
giving these instructions for kings. And I think
that the same ideas that were in mind for the
kings are applicable for us today as well, even
still. Verse 14, Deuteronomy 17, verse 14. When
you enter the land the Lord your God is giving
you, take possession of it, live in it, and say,
I will set a king over me like all the nations
around me. You are to appoint over you the king,
the Lord your God. Now, God knew even this far
in advance, hundreds of years before they would
set these kings over them, God knew that this
would take place. Now, when this does take place,
we see it in 1 Samuel, I believe, chapter 9.
Maybe chapter 8 is when it started. I'm not sure.
When God's people begin to request a king, they
want a king. And they want a king for just the
reason that God says here all this time before.
That they want to be like the other nations.
And now when Samuel heard this request, he was
not happy about this. And God said to Samuel,
he said, look, they have rejected me. That's
the problem here is that the people have rejected
me. Now the problem with this request, that they
wanted to be like the other nations, is that
God's people were set apart to be unlike the
other nations. They were to be a nation that
were to be led by God. It is God who brought
them out of slavery. It is God who had brought
them through the wilderness. It is God who had
provided them food to eat and water to drink.
It is God who had fought their battles against
their enemies, even when they were far outnumbered
by stronger enemies. It was God who was their
leader. But instead of following God, Eventually
they were going to do just what God was saying
here in Deuteronomy. They were going to say,
we want to be like all the other nations. We
want a man to lead us, and that's a problem.
When God is our leader and we seek men to lead
us, we are in trouble because God will never
lead us astray, but human leaders will. Nonetheless,
they were ultimately going to make this request
just as God had said in these verses, and they
were going to request a king, and that was going
to be the beginning of a bad stretch for God's
people because there were very few good kings
that they had. Now, ultimately, the kingdom split
into two different groups. There were the ten
northern tribes that retained the name of Israel,
and those ten tribes, never had one single good
king in all of Scripture. All the kings they
had, not one single king was a good king. And
Judah, the southern two tribes, they had a handful
of good kings, but not many. And so God knew
that this wasn't going to be good for them, but
nonetheless, he knew the hearts of the people,
and he knew that they had rejected him. Now,
praise the Lord, he ultimately sent a better
king in Jesus Christ. But here he's telling what
is going to take place. And to try to keep them
in check, and to try to keep them in line, he
says, when you do appoint a king, it's going
to have to be the one that I choose, and the
king that's appointed are going to have to, there's
a few things that they need to do, that they
need to be aware of so that they can be a good
king. And he tells us that in these next few
verses. He says in verse 16, However, he must
not acquire many horses for himself or send the
people back to Egypt to acquire many horses.
For the Lord has told you, you are never to go
back that way again. Now, of course, in Egypt
it was slavery. And perhaps this language here,
there's some symbolism here. That God doesn't
want them to go back into a way of slavery. That
God wants them to be dependent on him. And then
he makes a very specific command here for whoever
the king is going to be. That they are not to
acquire for themselves many horses. Now, why
is that? Well, one reason that that may be true
is that horses would have been... probably the
greatest strength you could have had in battle.
Now, these days, we have tanks and we have helicopters,
and if you go to war, you want the best weaponry
you can have. And in those days, it would have
been a horse and it would have been a chariot.
And so perhaps what God is meaning here when
he says don't have a lot of horses is don't have
anything to do with whether or not the king likes
horses. It's got more to do with the fact that
if you get a king that builds up a strong military,
then they will be less likely to be dependent
on the Lord. Now up until this point, as God
has brought them out of slavery, it wasn't by
the strength of God's people that they were brought
out of slavery. It was by the power of God. When
they came to the wall of Jericho and it come
tumbling down, It wasn't because of their strength.
It was because of the strength of the Lord. And
so throughout their whole journey, it had been
God who had fought their battles. It had been
God who had handed the enemies over to them.
And they had to depend on God because they didn't
have anything of themselves that was of much
strength. And I believe what God is saying here
is, don't get a lot of horses because you'll
begin to depend on your own strength. And trust
in yourselves and your own abilities to defeat
the enemies. And when that is the case, you're
going to be in trouble. Because apart from God,
we cannot defeat our enemies. Now, we're not
kings today in the same way that God is talking
about these kings here. But this is good advice
to us. Are there things in our life that we become
dependent on, that we try to make our strengths,
that we begin to trust in those things more than
we trust in God? And if we do, we need to realize
that our help comes from the Lord, the maker
of heaven and earth. And so we never are going
to be strong enough on our own. We're never going
to have enough physical strength. We're never
going to have enough mental strength. We're never
going to have enough money to take care of everything.
We are going to have to be dependent on God.
So don't trust. and the things that you can get
yourself. Don't let your strength be what you
can obtain. And I think that maybe that that's
what God is saying here with these commands to
the kings. Hey, when you become king, don't forget,
I, God, am still the one who's going to be ruling.
I think that's what he's telling them. So don't
trust in your armies. Get an army, get horses,
but you don't need to get a bunch of them. Now,
when we read through this list of things, I couldn't
help but think about King Solomon. Now, he wasn't
the first king of... But when you read through
his story, it seems as though he did all of these
things that God said do not do. Now, he had a
pile of horses. I don't know how many horses
because... The translations differ. The manuscripts
differ. The books of the Bible differ. One book
says one number, one the other. So there's a
little discrepancy there. It's probably some
copyist error through the years when it was translated.
But the numbers don't agree. But he had a lot
of horses. Some say as many as 40 ,000. Some
say 12 ,000. Some say 4 ,000. Whatever the number
is, he had a lot of horses. which goes against
this command that God gives here. And we'll see
with the rest of these examples that Solomon
also fails to follow them as well. Let's continue
on. Verse 17. He must not acquire many wives
for himself so that his heart won't go astray.
He must not... Okay, first part of verse 17.
Who did that? Probably the greatest example that
comes to our mind is Solomon. He had a lot of
wives. And why did God say in this verse, don't
let my king that's going to leave my people should
not have a lot of wives. Now why? Because they
will turn you astray. And if you go and you read
about King Solomon, What happened? His wives
worshiped false gods, and Solomon began to give
in to some of their practices and some of their
ways, the very thing that God said do not do.
Then he goes on in the next part of the verse.
He says he must not acquire very large amounts
of silver and gold for himself. Why is that?
Similarly with the horses, when we become wealthy,
all of a sudden our need for God begins to kind
of diminish a little bit. Boy, when things are
tough and things are hard and we know we are
hopeless and helpless, we really seek God and
we trust Him and we grow in Him and we call out
to Him. But all of a sudden, whenever we get
pretty strong and are able to start doing a few
things and we get a little bit of money, all
of a sudden when things aren't hard anymore,
we tend to forget about God. And God did not
want his king, the leader of his people, to forget
that it was God who was the source of their strength
and the source of their deliverance. And he said,
look, you as a leader have to be careful that
you are dependent on me to fight your battles,
that you are not led astray to other gods, and
that you are not depending on your own wealth
to sustain you. And these are all good instructions
for us, even if we are not kings. We don't trust
in our own abilities. We want to be careful of
the people that we are around, that we are not
led astray, that we don't turn from the ways
of God and turn to other ways. We don't want
to trust in our wealth because our health and
our wealth and our strength, all of these things
can be gone in an instant. God knows that. All
of these things can be gone for the king. They
can all be gone for us, but God will not be gone.
So if we are dependent on God, then these things
won't matter. And if we are not obsessed with
these things, then we will continue to be dependent
on God. Let's continue on a little further in
verse 18. When he is seated on his royal throne,
he is to write a copy of this instruction for
himself on a scroll in the presence of the Levitical
priest. It is to remain with him, and he is to
read from it all the days of his life. so that
he may learn to fear the Lord his God, to observe
all the words of this instruction, and do these
statutes. Then his heart will not be exalted
above his countrymen, he will not turn from this
command to the right or to the left, and he and
his sons will continue ruling many years over
Israel. Okay, so what's the first thing we see
here? When he's seated on the throne, he is to
write a copy of this instruction and it is to
remain with him. He is to read from it all the
days of his life. So God said, here's the deal.
I'm giving you these instructions for the king
of things that you are not supposed to do. It's
a short, simple list. You need to know them,
you need to write them down, and you need to
read them repeatedly and repeatedly and repeatedly.
Now that too is good instruction for us. Because
God gives us his word. It's a lot of words. It's
a lot of scripture in there. And we can read
through God's scripture once. You know, y 'all
may not do this, but sometimes I forget what
the scripture says because it might be a passage
I haven't read in a long time and I just forget
about that verse. And I'll be reading and I'll
be like, oh, that was such a good verse. How
could I forget that verse? But I think for most
of us it's probably human nature. We don't have
a perfect memory. We'll read a verse and we'll
like it and we'll know it. And then a few years
may go by and we don't read that book or that
verse. And then all of a sudden we read it again
and it's like, man, that is a good verse. I needed
to be reminded of that for encouragement or correction
or whatever. And so it's important for us that
we don't just say, well, I've read through the
Bible. I can shut it. I'm done. I've read it.
Well, we have read it. But praise the Lord, it's
the living word of God. So we continue to come
back to it and to continue to read it. And we
need to because sometimes we forget. Because
sometimes we do these very things that it tells
us not to. And when we go back and we read the
word again, it reminds us. We constantly have
to be reminded, I believe, of the word of God.
So what does he tell the kings? You need to take
these words. You need to write them down. You
need to keep them with you. You need to read
them all the time. Your whole life you need to
read the word of God. And that too, even though
we are not kings, is good instruction for you
and I. And what does God say is to be the result?
If the king follows these instructions, if he
remembers them, then his heart will not be exalted
above his countrymen. He will not turn from this
command to the right or to the left. Okay, so
the king won't think too highly of himself. That's
the worst thing you want in a leader is somebody
that thinks it's all about them and thinks too
highly of themselves and thinks they are better
than the people who they are ruling over. A good
leader will serve the people that they are ruling
over. Perfect example of that, Jesus Christ.
What did he do? He washed the disciples' feet.
He was the son of God, but he became a servant
of all to give his life on the cross. For all.
And Jesus is the example of good leadership.
A bad leader is one who says, I am the leader.
I have all the power. I have all the wealth.
I am better than these little peons that I rule
over. That's a bad leader. And God says, don't
be that kind of leader. Don't have that attitude.
Don't have that heart. Don't exalt yourself and
think too highly of yourself over your countrymen.
And if you follow these commands, you won't do
that. If you follow these commands, you won't
turn to the right or to the left. You'll be on
your guard. You'll trust me for your defense.
You'll trust me to provide for your will. You
won't be led astray to other things. If you'll
follow these commands, you'll do well. And you
know what's crazy about Solomon? When we read
through the scripture, apart from Jesus Christ,
Solomon probably is the wisest person to have
ever walked the face of this earth. And he failed
at every one of these. He had a pile of horses.
He had a pile of wives. He had a pile of money.
He failed at all of these things. He turned astray
to other gods. He was disobedient to what God
says. He failed at these things. And he was the
wisest man, apart from Jesus, to ever walk the
earth. And if he is that wise, you and I ain't
got no hope. Because we ain't nearly about as
wise as Solomon. Now some of you may be saying,
speak for yourself. I'm going to speak for all
of us. We're not as wise as Solomon, and even
Solomon failed, and we failed too. But that is
why we have to come back to passages like these
and all of Scripture all the time to be reminded
repeatedly because we forget and we fail and
we sin. And even though there was a king in Solomon
who sinned, there's a king in Jesus who did not.
And so even though all the other kings failed,
God said, I'm going to send a king who is not
going to fail. And that is the king that we must
seek. And that is King Jesus. So God says, follow
these commands. You'll be all right. This instruction
is good for us too. We're not kings, but we want
to serve the king. If we follow these instructions,
we'll be all right. When we don't follow them,
because there are times that we don't, we get
ourselves into trouble. That's what happened
to Solomon. That's what happened to us as well.
But if we stick to them, we'll be a lot better
off. We won't turn to the right or to the left.
The last part of the verse, and he and his sons
will continue ruling many years over Israel.
This is good instruction. You need to learn to
live this way. You need to teach it to your sons.
And if you do good, God is going to continue
to bless you. Sadly for his people in these scriptures,
they didn't do good. The kings that ruled, they
wasn't worth nothing, most of them. And their
kids wasn't worth nothing. And they did not bring
them upright because they did not bring them
up on the word of God and teach them the word
of God because they themselves weren't living
by the word of God. So what about us today? Are
we those who are living by the word of God? Are
we raising our children and grandchildren in
the word of God? If we do that, there's blessing.
If we don't do that, we're going to get ourselves
in trouble. But praise the Lord that God has
provided a way for us to receive forgiveness.
If we would simply repent and put our faith and
trust in Jesus Christ. If we would seek to live
by His Word, and maybe tonight's a good night
for us to kind of refocus ourselves. We have
to do that sometimes. It's like a pair of binoculars.
You pick them up, you haven't worn them in a
while. You've got to get a little focused. They
get a little blurry. And sometimes it's that
way for us in Scripture. Things get a little
out of focus, and we've got to continually go
back and continually seek God and continually
remember the Word of God so we can reshift our
focus, get back on the right track, and make
sure that we are dependent on God. God and Jesus
Christ and not on ourselves. Let's pray. God,
we thank you for these words. These are good
words for us, and I pray that we would live by
them, dear Lord. Your word sometimes is difficult.
It's hard for us to follow, but it is pretty
clear. So I pray, dear Lord, that we would strive
to do as good as we can, but even that we know,
God, that there will be times more than we want
to admit we fail, just like Solomon and so many
others. But dear Lord, I pray that you would
help us to do the best we can and to seek you
and to grow in you. And God, I pray that you
just forgive us when we fail, that you give us
mercy and grace. We don't deserve it, dear Lord,
but we thank you for Jesus Christ. And I pray
that you would help us to seek to live for him
and to live by these commands and to trust you
above all else, dear Lord. It is so tempting
in this world to trust in our own strength and
our own wealth and our own abilities. And I pray,
dear Lord, that you forgive me for that and help
each one of us to trust you for everything because
we are nothing without you. And I ask these things
in Jesus' name. Amen.