Deuteronomy 17:14-20 Bible Study | Episode 910

April 4, 2025

Hope Alive: Applying God’s Word to Your Daily Life

Deuteronomy 17:14-20  Bible Study | Episode #910

I am Chad Harrison, and I am the teaching pastor of Lake Community Church and had been serving as a pastor for 25 years. I'm also a practicing attorney. This podcast is designed to help you study God's word and find God's will for your life. The purpose of studying scripture is that you might know the character of Jesus Christ, and that you might see the world from the Father's perspective. That you gain wisdom that changes your life. I pray in the name of Jesus right now that God would open His word to you and allow you to see Him and to know Him. To know His will, that you might glorify Him and that you might walk in faith and power each day, especially today. In Jesus name.

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Transcript

This is Chad Harrison and you're listening to Hope Applying God's word to your daily life.

Hi, this is Chad Harrison and I am the teaching pastor of Lake Community Church and have been serving as a pastor for 25 years. I'm also a practicing attorney. This podcast is designed to help you study God's word and find God's will for your life.

I pray in the name of Jesus right now that God would open up his word to you and allow you to see him and to know him and to know his will, that you might glorify him and that you might walk in faith and power each and every day,

especially today in Jesus name.

Well, good morning. Welcome to Lake Community Church's morning Bible study. We are in Deuteronomy 17,

verses 14 through the end of the chapter,

verses 20. And so this is one of those passages when you read it, you go, well, that didn't happen. That didn't happen the way God told him to do it.

And as you read it, you would be absolutely correct. It did not happen the way God told them to do it.

And it didn't work out the way God had told them because they didn't do it that way.

They didn't do it that way. Even the best of them did not do it this way. And what am I talking about? Well, I'm talking about kings.

And you go, well, I thought God didn't want them to have a king. No, God planned for them to have a king.

In fact, God wanted to be their king, but also God planned for them to have a king David to be be a picture of Christ. So it's not that God had no intention at all of them ever, ever having a king.

Obviously, Jesus came as to be to be their king and will rule them for a thousand years. So that promise and that covenant that God made with David is an important covenant in scripture.

And it was a planned covenant since the beginning. It wasn't something that God came up with after they messed up something real. So the truth is that there was always a plan for a king and there was always a plan for God to be their king.

But God gave instructions for them for a king. Well, that wouldn't come along for a few centuries after this. And notice that God's telling them about things that are going to happen a long, long time from,

from when this is written. You've got, after Deuteronomy, you've got the book of Joshua, which is taking the promised land. Now, they don't take all the promised land, but they're not numerous enough to take all the promised land.

Then you've got the Book of Judges. And there's really a couple of centuries of rule of judges. And who were judges? Well, the Book of Judges is the people that God raised up to lead and to rule the children of Israel when they were under attack by the nations around them.

It is really a picture of the New Testament church.

Joshua and Judges are the Old Testament books that give us insight into how God would like the New Testament church to operate and believers to operate. And then you've got first and Second Samuel.

And in those books you see that they first beg God for a king. And God says it's not time and they want a king. And so God allows them a king and he picks Saul for them.

And Saul is obviously it's not time, so he's not a good king. And then they get David. And David is the picture of Jesus. He is the, he's the king that Jesus's throne is named after.

And then, and then you have Solomon. And Solomon has some very good parts to who he is. He writes several books of the Old Testament. And then you have a list of a litany of a bunch of kings who turn away from God.

And very few that do right before God, but many that do wrong.

And that's because they don't do what God told them to do. And what God told them to do is right here in Deuteronomy, chapter 17. It says, when you come into the land which the Lord your God is giving you and possess it and dwell in it and say,

I will set a king over me, like the nations that are around me notice I'm going to be like the world. And he says, when you do this and you want to be like the world,

that's not really an instruction I want to have come about. I don't want to, I don't want God to say when you, when you do this, and then you're going to act like the world when you do that.

I'm going to give you some rules for acting like the world so that it won't be as bad for you. That's not, this is not really instructions that, that you want to really have to be, have to look up.

Okay,

when, when, when, when God instructs us how to, how to things for things not to be as bad as they could be. That's, that's not really the place we want to be in.

We want to be in the middle of God's blessing. We're going to be in the middle of God's best. But he knew they would, so he's given them this instruction.

You shall surely set a king over you whom the Lord your God chooses. Meaning I get to choose your king. Okay. When you want to be like the world, I'm still going to get to choose your king.

Now you go. How's that got anything to do with the New Testament? Well, it does. It really, really does. Because when, when,

when God, God says,

even though you want to be like the world,

I still get to be king over you, I'm still king. Just because, just because you want to act like the world and do the worldly things doesn't mean that I'm not in charge.

And by the way, I know that I'm in charge. And even though you're not acting like I'm in charge, you kind of know I'm in charge. And there's another group,

there's another group that knows I'm in charge and that's the enemy.

And they know who you are and they know that I'm in charge and they know that you're not doing what you're supposed to be doing.

That's a rough place to be in too. When those who want to do you harm know that you're not where you're supposed to be. So he says, you shall surely set a king, O you, whom the Lord your God chooses from one among your brethren.

You shall set his king over you. And you may not set a foreigner over you who is not your brother. Now that's, that is a, that's what he's saying is, is you're not going to, you're not going to allow other people that are not, they're not the children of Israel to be kings over you.

This is not an uncommon thing,

commandment that God is giving them and, and, and, and it's not an uncommon thing for, for nations to do something that they shouldn't do. Like this place, someone who's not from there over them.

And by the way, even our own presidency, you cannot be President of the United States if you're not. Unless you're a natural born citizen of the United States, you can't be president.

You can be in Congress, you can be a senator, you can serve in all kinds of offices. You can serve at every office except for president, vice president. You must be a natural born citizen.

Why? Because you're one of the people.

You're connected to them. Because you are one of their kin. And so he says to them, he says,

you can't Be a foreigner, you gotta be a part of the family. He says, but he shall not multiply horses for himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt to multiply horses.

For the Lord has said to you, you shall not return that way again, neither shall you he multiply. Now, notice, he says, don't multiply horses and don't allow them to go to Egypt and multiply horses.

Horses represent the power of the world, okay? And in Scripture, Scripture,

there's the famous verse, some trust in horses, some trust in sheriffs, but we shall trust in the name of the Lord our God.

That is a verse that says, some people trust in the world, and some people trust in the world's power, but we trust in our God's power, and horses represent the world's power.

And by the way, horses were at that time the great decider of most battles.

And let me say this,

for 3,000,

really, 33, 4,000 years, it was. It's been that way. Horses were the deciding factor in most battles. How the, how the calvary functioned decided much of what happened. And if you didn't have a good calvary, you didn't.

You didn't win. You go, what about Alexander and the, and the phalanx and all that? Well, his companion cavalry were just as important as the phalanx.

And so understanding that the world's power is not what you trust in is what he's saying. And when they had kings, oftentimes they trust in their own power,

in their own flesh, and not trusting God. And that's the main reason why God didn't want them to be like the world. He didn't want them to trust in their own power.

He says, neither shall he multiply wise for himself, lest his heart turn away, nor shall he greatly multiply silver or gold for himself. And by the way, even the best of kings, David,

multiplied wise for himself, and it caused him to turn away from God.

Solomon did it on steroids. And so,

by the way, those wives turned Solomon away from God.

And we know that when you have. Well, it's clear in scripture, when you have multiple wives, it's not good for you, it's bad for you.

And even though I joke with my wife about concubines, and it is funny, there are some funny aspects to it. The truth is that God made one man for one woman and one woman for one man.

That's his plan. And he says, don't do that, because if you do, you're going to be led astray. And if you multiply gold for yourself, and silver,

and the king's trying to build their own coffers up rather than allow the people the riches of God's blessing that leads them astray. And so he's saying the king can't have a big coffer for himself that he's built on his own as a king.

Now you'd say, well, that means we need to have poor people as our kings. No, remember, he says,

they can't as king,

multiply silver and gold to themselves. They can't multiply horses to themselves. They can't multiply wives to themselves.

Notice you can't do it when you're take that office. Don't let that be what happens. Because what generally happens when you're multiplying military power, when you're multiplying women, and when you're multiplying wealth as king, well, your heart turns toward the world.

And he says, I don't want that going on with the leader of my people. He says, and it shall be noticed. What shall he do? Well, he shall do this when he sits on his throne of his kingdom, that he shall write for himself a copy of this law in a book,

meaning make another manuscript of it, and from the one before the priest and the Levites, meaning make one just like the one I'm giving you right now. And it shall be with him.

And he shall read it all the days of his life, by the way he's supposed to be literate.

That he may learn to fear the Lord his God and be careful to observe all the words of the law and the statutes. What is he saying?

Make for yourself your own Bible and read it.

Read what I'm giving you right now and make sure your king does that his heart may not be lifted above his brethren, meaning that he might not become pompous and arrogant, that he may not turn aside from the commandments to the right hand or to the left, and that he may prolong his days in his kingdom,

he and his children in the midst of Israel. Notice this is all about not about the king's power, not about the king's authority, not about the king's position, but it's about the best of God.

Best for God's people.

If you're going to have a king, y'all function as a best. By the way, that that's for every leader. That's for pastors, that's for all kinds of political leaders on the state, national level.

That's for. Or. Or the municipal level.

That's for all people. That we would. That we would be in positions for the betterment of the people, not the betterment of ourselves. And too many times, all over the world, in every country and every time period,

there are people who take into office for their own benefit, for their own betterment. And rather than betterment of the people, when that happens, it's very destructive and very deadly.

And so he gave instructions for a king, a king that the king that would, would come.

And those instructions are very good for us just to go over and think about,

because when you think about them and consider them, what he's asking for is a godly leader. And by the way,

much of the renaissance and much of the thoughts that led to the formation of our country centered around these ideas of a good and judicious and positive and powerful structure of government in which people did what was best for their fellow citizens,

in Israel's case, their brethren.

And they looked to see that what was done was for everyone's best.

And so this thing is something that's been going on for a long, long time,

and we still, even to this day, don't do it very well. But God gives instructions for leaders in the New Testament. He gives instructions for pastors in 1 and 2 Timothy, and he gives instructions here for kings.

And we've already been through a whole lot of instruction for the priest.

And he even gives instruction for prophets and how they should act.

And God is in the business of leading his people, and he's in the business of raising up people who love him,

love his people so that they might lead.

And I'm thankful for that.

As you go today, I pray that the Lord will bless you and keep you, that he'll make his face to shine upon you, and that he will give you hope and peace today in Jesus name.