Year 1, Day 168: Deuteronomy 17

Freedom to Worship God

Deuteronomy 17 gives us a bit of a tough teaching again.  In America, we believe in the freedom of religion.  Everyone has the right to believe what they want and how they want it – so long as it doesn’t infringe upon another person’s right to believe differently.  What makes this passage difficult is that ancient Israel was not at all this way.  The Hebrew people were a people rooted in God.  To be a Hebrew meant you worshipped God or suffered the consequence (excommunication at the least, death at the most).  To our ears, that sounds harsh.

However, Christian teaching in the New Testament takes a cue from this passage and those in the Old Testament like it.  Matthew 18:15-20 gives us Jesus’ teaching on the issue.  Jesus does not teach that the non-believer should be killed, but He certainly argues for excommunication.  1 Corinthians 5:13 gives Paul’s advice to expel the immoral ones among Christian circles.

Yes, we should be forgiving.  True repentance deserves true forgiveness always.  We are forgiven but a loving God who did not need to forgive us but offered true forgiveness to the repentant.  We should absolutely follow suit.

But likewise, accepting the non-repentant and not challenging them out of their non-repentance only proclaims cheap grace!  Guaranteeing someone forgiveness when forgiveness is not guaranteed does nobody any favors.  God has expectations and when we fail to proclaim such expectations in love we do a grave injustice to those around us.

Don’t get me wrong.  Living in America, I don’t advocate killing those who believe differently than I do.  Being a Christian, I also do not advocate killing those who believe differently than I do.  However, I should take careful measure of my relationships for two reasons.  I should be careful to love and support those who need it lest they fall away from faith.  And I should be careful to minimize the influence that those who are not in Christ has upon me.  Ultimately, I think these two principles are what is at the heart of this reading from Deuteronomy.

Give Us a King!

Next, let me say that I really enjoy the last section in this chapter regarding the king.  Sure, God makes a provision for a king – although we’ll get to how that comes out in practice when we get into 1 and 2 Samuel and 1 and 2 Kings.  But what I really enjoyed about this section of the chapter are the three provisions for good kingship:

1.    Do not acquire too many horses.  If you’ll allow me to extrapolate, don’t acquire too much wealth.  Why is it that we can go from wealth to horses?  Well, anyone who owns horses will tell you that you don’t make money on them.  They are a money pit.  It takes wealth to acquire more horses than you really need.  So why is the acquisition of wealth advised against?  The acquisition of wealth only leads to the desire for greater acquisition of wealth.  Furthermore, acquiring wealth like that of other nations (for example, the horses of Egypt) will lead to domestic policies such as the Hebrew people experienced in Egypt.  In other words, when the “almighty dollar” becomes the bottom line, expect a king to be more like a master over a slave than someone who governs you in order to look out for your best interests.

2.   Do not acquire many women.  In other words, power corrupts.  Not long after a king acquires money he will acquire people who look to use that power and money for their own schemes.  History is riddled with ruling spouses using each other in ways that are destructive to each other and the nations that they are supposed to be guiding.  Another way of thinking about this piece of advice is along the way of lust.  When a king has a single wife, he learns to be content – just like when a king has only a little money he learns to be content.  But when a king has many wives, he learns to lust – just like a king who has much money dives headlong into tasks that lead to acquiring more.  This admonition is an admonition for being content with what is reasonable.  The best way to avoid the corruption of power is to be content with what we are given by God.  For example, being content with a single spouse.

3.   Study the law.  Notice that the king is actually told to copy the law for himself!  It is not only that the king is to read the law, but he is to write his own personal copy in his own hand.  God wants His ways to be personal to the leader.  God wants His influence to be personal to the leader.  For as we shall see in 1 and 2 Kings, when the leadership falls away from the ways of God, the people will fall away just as far and just as easily.

While these 3 pieces of advice are directed at kings and political leaders, I think they are great pieces of advice for the common folk like you and I, too.  Be careful what we allow to enslave us through greed.  Be careful who we allow to enslave us through lust.  And focus on God’s Word.  There are three great principles to live by!

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