May 4, 2021
Please use the comment section on this page to share insights from today’s reading OR your own personal Bible reading.
Reading along with us in Deuteronomy? Here’s today’s reading:
Deuteronomy 17 (NIV)
1 Do not sacrifice to the Lord your God an ox or a sheep that has any defect or flaw in it, for that would be detestable to him.
2 If a man or woman living among you in one of the towns the Lord gives you is found doing evil in the eyes of the Lord your God in violation of his covenant, 3 and contrary to my command has worshiped other gods, bowing down to them or to the sun or the moon or the stars in the sky, 4 and this has been brought to your attention, then you must investigate it thoroughly.........Continue Reading
God has given us so much direction in the way of laws, courts, judges, and even kings like in this chapter. Good and fair direction where people are judged fairly and with proper process. It is sad to see how the structure remains but how broken it can become when we start to remove God from the equation. When people without God are in these positions they are not acting from a place of true equality, fairness, and upholding God’s moral standard and it is so evident when that is the case
Following other gods would be dealt with deliberately and strictly. How important it would be for the people to maintain their faith in God and they had been instructed to have no other gods. None could ever compare. But if someone was found following another god, their influence would be stopped to protect the larger community. I would imagine it wouldn’t take many people killed in this way to reenforce the point.
And how important it is for a community to have a place to resolve disagreement. But once wisdom is sought out, it needed to be followed. Otherwise people would be saying they knew better than the one they sought out as well as the one God ordained. And as I read the instructions to the king, I couldn’t help but think whether Solomon read this. How important it is for any leader to have, read, know and follow the word of God. How many messes the kings of Israel got in because they did not adhere to the word and it was clear they didn’t even care to have it before themselves. Think about when Josiah became king….they found the Word of God in a back room, probably under a lot of other disregarded things. It’s sad to think this instruction was right here but not followed…..
People who are called and set apart by God should not entertain and wink at sin, but they should deal with it harshly. While harsh, it isn’t arbitrary but requires witnesses and diligent investigation of the matter.
People who are called and set apart by God will also seek leadership that is just and seeks to abide by God’s word. I wonder how much of Israel’s history would have been different if they had followed the command to make a copy of the law, one approved by the Levites, and diligently read those words all the days of their life?
Deuteronomy 16 & 17
Deut 17
Principles for appointing leaders…….interesting:
“When you come to 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 all the nations that are around me,’ 15 you shall surely set a king over you whom the Lord your God chooses; one from among your brethren you shall set as king over you; you may not set a foreigner over you, who is not your brother. 16 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.’ 17 Neither shall he multiply wives for himself, lest his heart turn away; nor shall he greatly multiply silver and gold for himself.
18 “Also it shall be, when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write for himself a copy of this law in a book, from the one before the priests, the Levites. 19 And 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 and be careful to observe all the words of this law and these statutes, 20 that his heart may not [e]be lifted above his brethren, that he may not turn aside from the commandment to the right hand or to the left, and that he may [f]prolong his days in his kingdom, he and his children in the midst of Israel.”
18When he takes the throne of his kingdom, he is to write for himself on a scroll a copy of this law, taken from that of the Levitical priests. 19It is to be with him, and he is to read it all the days of his life so that he may learn to revere the Lord his God and follow carefully all the words of this law and these decrees 20and not consider himself better than his fellow Israelites and turn from the law to the right or to the left. Then he and his descendants will reign a long time over his kingdom in Israel.
A word to the leaders then … and now… and to us.