Promised Land Leadership: Kings

Introduction

CSB Study Bible: Notes Chapter 17

king as a means of establishing peace and stability at a time when anarchy might otherwise prevail (cp. Jdg 21:25). The desire for a king would not in itself be wrong because the Lord had promised Abraham and Sarah that they would produce a line of kings (Gn 17:6, 16), and Jacob prophesied that a messianic King would spring from the tribe of Judah (Gn 49:10).

Major Ideas

#1: The King’s Selection (Deut. 17:14-15)

Deuteronomy 17:14–15 NASB95

14 “When you enter the land which the Lord your God gives you, and you possess it and live in it, and you say, ‘I will set a king over me like all the nations who are around me,’ 15 you shall surely set a king over you whom the Lord your God chooses, one from among your countrymen you shall set as king over yourselves; you may not put a foreigner over yourselves who is not your countryman.

[EXP] Israel would be setup in the Promised Land as a theocracy—a form of government that has God as it’s Supreme Ruler and His Law as it’s highest authority. Even so, God sees the day coming when His people ask for a king like the other nations. God’s people would ask for such a king in 1 Samuel 8.

Up until 1 Samuel 8, God’s people didn’t have a king but they weren’t without leadership. Moses led them in the wilderness. Joshua led them in the Promised Land. And then there was a series of judges, which were military leaders used by God to deliver Israel from its enemies.

The last of those judges was Samuel.

In 1 Samuel 8 though, Samuel was old and his sons weren’t going to be good leaders, so the people Israel requested a king like the kings of other nations.

Now, it wasn’t wrong for the people to ask for a king because it had long been God’s plan to provide kings for His people. In Genesis 17:6, God said to Abraham…

Genesis 17:6 NASB95

6 “I have made you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make nations of you, and kings will come forth from you.

Later in Genesis 35:11, God would say to Jacob…

Genesis 35:11 NASB95

11 God also said to him, “I am God Almighty; Be fruitful and multiply; A nation and a company of nations shall come from you, And kings shall come forth from you.

It was even foretold in Genesis 49:10 that the messianic king (i.e., Jesus) would come from the tribe of Judah…

Genesis 49:10 NASB95

10 “The scepter shall not depart from Judah, Nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, Until Shiloh comes, And to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.

But what made this request for a king wrong in 1 Samuel 8 was that Israel wanted a king like the other nations. They said to Samuel in 1 Samuel 8:5…

1 Samuel 8:5 NASB95

5 and they said to him, “Behold, you have grown old, and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now appoint a king for us to judge us like all the nations.”

Israel was a nation set apart to God; it wasn’t a nation like the other nations. Therefore, Israel’s king was to be a man set apart to God; he couldn’t be a king like the kings of other nations.

We see that here in Deuteronomy 17:14-15 as well. In verse 14, God sees the day coming when they will say, “Set a king over us like all the nations who are around us,” but in verse 15, God answers back, “You shall surely set a king over you whom the Lord your God chooses...”

Israel was to have a king.

But this king wasn’t to be like the kings of other nations.

This king was to be chosen by God.

He was to be divinely appointed, and He was to be an Israelite and not a foreigner.

Would Israel really have appointed a foreigner as king?

Well, remember that when Israel will ask for king, it will be at the end of the period of the judges. It actually says that during that time there was “no king in Israel, everyone did what was right in their own eyes,” (Judg. 21:25).

Israel’s king was supposed to point people toward God so that they did what was right in God’s eyes, but not all the Israelites necessarily saw it like that. They may have just looked for a king who could deliver them from enemies like the Philistines.

If that’s all they were looking for, they wouldn’t have to look any further than Shamgar.

Shamgar is mentioned in Judges 3:31 and Judges 5:6. In Judges 5:6 he is mentioned with a foreigner named, Jael, who delivered God’s people from harm, and in Judges 3:31 he is said to have struck down 600 Philistines with an oxgoad, saving Israel.

But in both Judges 3:31 and Judges 5:6 Shamgar is said to be the son of Anath. This means that Shamgar was or at least had been a follower of Anath, the Caananite goddess of war.

Now, Shamgar was probably pretty popular after he saved Israel.

Perhaps some said, “You know, he’d make a pretty good king.”

But could a foreigner like Shamgar be trusted to point the people of God to YHWH rather than Anath?

We don’t know, and Israel wasn’t to find out.

It’s kings were to be Israelites who worship YHWH, not foreigners who may worship idols.

[ILLUS] Sometime back I heard about a church who said that they were going to hire the best vocalists and musicians they could to help lead their worship services. No expense was too great because they wanted their worship services to be the best they could be.

But while they insisted on the vocalists and musicians be talented, they didn’t insist that they be Christian.

They argued something like, “We’ll get the here, and maybe they’ll become Christians, but singing and playing isn’t limited to Christians.”

To which I would respond, “But worship leadership is! I mean, how can you lead people to worship God if you don’t know God yourself?”

That’s the point of Deuteronomy 17:14-15 as it relates to Israel’s future kings.

The future kings of Israel would be leading the people somewhere.

If they were Israelites, there was a greater chance of them leading the people to worship YHWH.

If they were foreigners, the chance was great that they would lead the people astray.

[APP] Leadership is leading us somewhere.

Leaders who know God lead us to worship God.

Praise God that we have Jesus, the Son of God, the true King, who always leads in the right worship of God.

[TS] …

#2: The King’s Temptation (Deut. 17:16-17)

Deuteronomy 17:16–17 NASB95

16 “Moreover, he shall not multiply horses for himself, nor shall he cause the people to return to Egypt to multiply horses, since the Lord has said to you, ‘You shall never again return that way.’ 17 “He shall not multiply wives for himself, or else his heart will turn away; nor shall he greatly increase silver and gold for himself.

[EXP] There are three things that Israel’s future kings are prohibited from doing in these verses: (1) They shall not multiply horses; (2) They shall not multiply wives for themselves; and (3) They shall not greatly increase silver and gold for themselves.

[Horses]

Israel had already experienced a victory against Egypt and its horse-drawn chariots. In Exodus 15:1, 4 it says…

Exodus 15:1 NASB95

1 Then Moses and the sons of Israel sang this song to the Lord, and said, “I will sing to the Lord, for He is highly exalted; The horse and its rider He has hurled into the sea.

Exodus 15:4 NASB95

4 “Pharaoh’s chariots and his army He has cast into the sea; And the choicest of his officers are drowned in the Red Sea.

During the time of the judges, Deborah and Barak will lead the people against the Canaanites, which seem to have the upper because of their horse-drawn chariots, but once again Israel will get the victory.

So what did Israel use against Pharaoh and his army?

What Deborah and Barak use against the Canaanites?

God.

Israel’s future kings were to trust in God as their tactical advantage and not horses and especially not Egyptians horses. God had rescued His people from Egypt, they were not to go back to Egypt for help. They were to trust in God. As Psalm 20:7 says…

Psalm 20:7 NASB95

7 Some boast in chariots and some in horses, But we will boast in the name of the Lord, our God.

[Wives]

The future kings of Israel were not to multiply wives for themselves either. A king might have multiplied wives for himself because of his own lust or because of the political alliances with other nations that were often established by marriage.

The danger of such thing is stated clearly, “or else his heart will turn away.”

When Solomon multiplied his wives to about 700, it wasn’t long before his heart was turned away from God and turned toward the idols worshipped by his wives.

[Silver and Gold]

The kings who became enamored with the money rolling into the royal treasury soon forgot that their security was in the Lord. Proverbs 11:28 says…

Proverbs 11:28 NASB95

28 He who trusts in his riches will fall, But the righteous will flourish like the green leaf.

So, when we consider these three prohibitions together we understand that Israel’s future kings would be tempted to forget…

…that their strength was in the Lord (and not in horses and chariots)…

…that their devotion was to the Lord (and not to the idols of foreign wives)…

…that their security was in the Lord (and not in silver and gold).

[ILLUS] When you read the stories about pastors, evangelists, or ministers in general who had to step down because of some moral failure, they usually have this in common—the person in leadership forgot God.

They forgot that God was their strength and not their own gifts, talents, or abilities.

They forgot that they were to be devoted to God above all and not to the people who stroked their egos.

They forgot that their security was in the Lord and not in the notoriety or fame that came with being a big wig in the Christian world.

They forgot God, and they fell away.

The would happen to Israel’s kings if they give in to these temptations.

[APP] Thankfully King Jesus never gave in to such temptations.

It times of peace and plenty, it’s easy not trust in horses, wives, or money—but when in times of conflict and little, it’s not so easy to keep trust in God—and yet this is what Jesus did.

As Jesus went to the cross, He didn’t trust in the angels who would have saved Him if He called.

As Jesus went to the cross, He didn’t try to strike an alliance between Himself and Herod or Caesar.

As Jesus went to the cross, He didn’t try to by His way out.

He knew His strength was in His Father.

He knew that His devotion was to His Father.

He knew that His security—despite the cross—was in His Father.

First Peter 2:23-24 says it like this…

1 Peter 2:23–24 NASB95

23 and while being reviled, He did not revile in return; while suffering, He uttered no threats, but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously; 24 and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed.

The point of Deuteronomy 17:16-17 is that an Israelite would keep entrusting himself to God.

Thankfully we have the real Israelite King in Jesus who did just that.

[TS] …

#3: The King’s Education (Deut. 17:18-20)

Deuteronomy 17:18–20 NASB95

18 “Now it shall come about when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself a copy of this law on a scroll in the presence of the Levitical priests. 19 “It shall be with him and he shall read it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God, by carefully observing all the words of this law and these statutes, 20 that his heart may not be lifted up above his countrymen and that he may not turn aside from the commandment, to the right or the left, so that he and his sons may continue long in his kingdom in the midst of Israel.

[EXP] Israel would be a theocracy with a monarch (a king) who continually pointed to God. The king would direct the people toward the right worship of God as his own heart was directed to the right worship of God by the Law of God.

As v. 18 says, upon taking the throne, a new Israelite king was to write for himself a copy of God’s law on a scroll.

It was to be a careful copy.

The Levitical priests were to serve a quality control with not one error allowed, but the king was to make his own careful copy of the Scriptures by hand so that God’s Law worked it’s way into the king’s heart.

It was to be a constant companion.

The king’s careful copy was to go with him wherever he went. He was to read it everyday of his life.

King David had many faults. He multiplied wives. He took comfort in the strength of his army rather than the strength of his God. But King David did seem to make a constant companion of God’s Law, and that’s no doubt why he was said by God to be a man after His own heart.

The life verse for every king of Israel was to be Psalm 119:97…

Psalm 119:97 NASB95

97 O how I love Your law! It is my meditation all the day.

It was to be a continual contrition.

Psalm 51:17 says…

Psalm 51:17 NASB95

17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; A broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.

How would an Israelite king remain contrite before God?

By continually going to God’s Law.

Deuteronomy 17:19-20 says that Israel’s future kings would learn to fear God, learn obey God, learn to be humble before other Israelites, learn to not turn aside from God’s Word, learn to live long in the Promised Land by having God’s Law as a constant companion.

It’s hard to be continually in the Word of God and continually living in rebellion against Him.

Usually if we are in the Word, we won’t be living in rebellion.

Usually if we are living in rebellion, we aren’t continually in the Word.

[APP] But here again we are reminded that Jesus is the Israelite King preeminent.

He didn’t carry around a careful copy of God’s Word as His constant companion because He is the Word made flesh.

He didn’t just write out the Law and study and apply the Law; no, Jesus fulfilled the Law to die as the perfect atonement for all our law-breaking, all our sin.

Our King humbled Himself to the point of death even death on a cross.

And God raised Him up, exalted His name high above every name that is named, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

And all those who trust in Him will continue forever in the true Promised Land in Heaven.

[TS] …

Conclusion

Jesus is the King the Lord our God has chosen.

[PRAYER]