The Rules for the King are Good for the Kingdom

Deuteronomy 17, verse 14. Let's pray and then

Deuteronomy 17:14

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

Deuteronomy 17:14

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.