All right, good morning. Go ahead and get your Bibles
open to Deuteronomy 17 and we will get there in a little bit.
Last week we talked about Israel as a nation and they are in a
government aspect. They are called a what type of
government would they be classified?
1 theocracy and that means that they are ruled by God and and
who is represented by a human. We had Moses, we had Joshua and
then we have the judges and and basically Israel said I'm I'm
done with the judges, Samuel, your sons aren't following what
what was right and we don't like it.
We also want to be like all the other nations.
Give us a king, tell us who we have.
We want a king and, and Samuel goes to God and, and is upset
about it because Samuel knows God should be your king.
God, God is the one that's supposed to be your king and,
and Christ and God tells Samuel, don't worry about it.
They're not rejecting you, they're rejecting me.
Go tell them and, and, and basically give them a king and,
and I'll show you who it is going to be.
But what's interesting, Deuteronomy, who wrote
Deuteronomy? Does anybody know Moses?
Did Moses come before or after Samuel before Quite a while
before 400 years almost before and between Moses.
Joshua you have 14 Judges. 12 if you if you don't count Eli and
Samuel, but 14 judges if you do count Eli and Samuel that are
between Joshua and King Saul, about 400 years between there.
And look at verse 15 of Deuteronomy 17.
We'll start in 14 when thou art come unto the land which the
Lord thy God giveth thee, and shall possess it, and shall
dwell therein, and shall say, I will set a king over me, like as
all the other Nate, as all the nations that are about me.
Thou shalt in any wise set him king over thee, whom the Lord
thy God shall choose one from among the thy brethren shalt
thou set king over thee. Thou mayest not set a stranger
over thee which is not thy brother.
Remember, this is Moses writing this.
This is 400 ish years before the children of Israel.
Tell Samuel we want a king. Put your finger there.
Go to first Samuel where we were at last week.
First Samuel 8 and verse 5. And said unto him, Behold thou
art old talking to Samuel, and thy sons.
Walk not in thy ways. Now make us and listen to this.
Make us a king to judge us like all the nations.
Chapter 17 verse 1714 God tells Moses write this and shout say I
will set a king over me like as all the nations that are about
me. Isn't it amazing how God told
and knew this was going to happen?
God knew the Israelites and he says when thou art come into the
land which the Lord thy God giveth thee and shalt
possession. So they're in the land, they're
in the promised land and they're possessing it, which is Joshua
into judges. And he says they're going to
tell you, I will set a king over me like as all the nations that
are about me. God knew it was coming 400 years
before and he tells Moses, write this down.
And by the way, Samuel had this, Samuel had this book of Moses
written when he was hearing this.
And I almost wonder if Samuel went, wait, I've heard that
phrase sent me a king as all the other nations.
I've heard this before. I've heard those exact words.
Oh, God told Moses that we were going to say this.
It's amazing how God knew what was going to happen, knew they
were going to reject Him, and yet in His sovereignty and
loving, He gave them a way to still have a king, to still
protect them and still know that they are going to turn away from
me, knowing that they're going to disobey and not want me as
their king. But I'm going to set up
guidelines for that king because I want what's best for this
nation. And it's amazing how think of
your own life, all the sin you've ever done, the pain and
suffering that you've put on the heart of God, and yet God still
made you. God still made a way for you to
have a home in heaven. Even despite it all.
God still loved you that much, just like he loved this nation
before they even turned their backs on him and wanted a king
and not God got set up an instructions that those kings
were supposed to abide by because he wanted what's best
for that nation. What was best for that nation
was Christ to be their king, but they refused that.
So he said, all right, I'm going to give instructions to this man
that I'm going to have you have as a king.
And we're going to look at those instructions this morning before
we get into Rehoboam next week. We'll start into the actual
kings. I want to look at the
instructions that God set for the kings that will be governing
over his people. Let's pray and we'll get into
the lesson. Heavenly Father, thank you so
much for today for the rain and and holding off the snow.
And I thank you for being able to be in your house.
I got a privilege it is to be able to open your word and to
open it and and to read it. Lord, I just pray that we not
use it as just a thing that we do on Sunday, but something that
we do every single day because it's your instruction book.
It's it's your love letter to us to help us to live this life, to
be closer to you, to know you and to be more like you.
I just pray that we realize the importance of your word through
these instructions that you've given to Moses and to Samuel for
these kings that were going to rule your nation, that that you
set apart for your people. I just pray that we realize that
the importance that it was for these kings, but it's important
it was for us today. God, I pray that you be
glorified through it all. In Jesus name I pray, Amen.
First thing I want to have you see there verse 15.
Thou shalt in any way set him king over thee, whom the Lord
thy God shall choose. It wasn't going to be a all
right, this half pick a guy, this pass hit pick a guy and
we're going to have you both debate and then we're going to
see who gets the most votes. God said I'm going to choose
who's going to be the king. You don't want me as king, fine,
But I'm going to choose who it's going to be.
I'm not going to just let anybody.
And he says it's not going to be a stranger.
It's going to be 1 of you. It's going to be 1 of thy
brother. And it's going to be an
Israelite. It's not just going to be a
random person from another country who did really well in
Egypt, got them up and great and powerful and then went to the
Amorites and got them a big city and built them up.
And now he's here and he'll make Israel a great city.
No, God said, I'm going to pick one out of you and I'm going to
be the one that chooses who it is.
Again, I, I, I know it's, it's not.
This isn't the, the part of the whole thing, the message or the
the lesson, but the fact that God knew ahead of time that this
was going to happen and he set these, these rules for the king,
the future king that was going to be coming 400 years before
they even said, Hey, we'd like to have a king.
It it, it's, it's amazing. It's amazing that God would have
that not not just that he all knowing, but that he would tell
Moses and reveal to them these these are the things that I want
them to do with their life and and think of it as OK.
We know Saul is going to be the one that's chosen first head and
shoulders above everybody. Not hard for some of us to be
taller than others. Some of us are shorter, but as
Saul is chosen by Samuel, Saul knows it wasn't chosen by
Samuel. God knows he was chosen by God.
It in the honor that that has to come with by being chosen by God
to lead his people. It wasn't something that he
should be puffed up about, but he should feel honored about it.
He should consider the responsibility that he's going
to have. You were just the Benjamite
going around doing your thing like you normally do in your
life, and now I'm going to set you up as a king over all.
Oh, I mean, I was I was in charge of the guys at work.
I was the overseer, but the nation what?
That's a lot of responsibility. That's that's a lot of
responsibility. And it wasn't to puff him up.
It wasn't your head and shoulders above everybody.
You're better looking than everybody.
You're stronger than everybody. Good job.
You made it. You hit all the check boxes.
It wasn't to make Saul feel proud.
It wasn't to boost his ego, I guess, is the way I would say
it. It wasn't meant for him to be a
lucrative business. Because I'm now king.
I'm going to, man, I'm, I'm those sheep.
I'm going to sell a lot of sheep.
Now they're going to buy my sheep for sacrificing.
The point of it wasn't to to fill his own pockets.
He had to understand the responsibility that he was
taking on becoming the king of Israel.
You, you had just had Moses. You had Joshua.
That that cleared the land and was able to get them in and
possess it partially. And then you had all the judges.
You have this for, you know, back many, many years of famous,
I guess I would call of notable people that led this country and
now I'm the one that has to lead it.
That's a big responsibility, and they have to understand that
they can't complain about it. You can't go.
I don't want to. We don't read when Saul is
chosen. Saul's not going to like Moses
did. God, I know.
No, I can't even talk. How am I supposed to do this?
No, no. Pick somebody out.
You got the wrong guy. Somebody else must have been
walking on the other side of the burning Bush.
And I was just the first one to come over here.
So I'm the wrong one. Saul doesn't do that, but he has
to understand he can't do that. As the king, you can't complain
about I'm the king. I got to listen to this, I got
to do this. I got to I would rather be back
in being a Benjamin. I don't want to be the king.
I would rather be, and unfortunately he does try a
priest. I'd rather be a different
position. Sadly, we see Saul try that and
we see the disaster that happens because of it.
But when God chose Saul as a king, he had to understand
that's the position that God put him in.
God equipped him for it. God put him in charge and he had
to understand that's where God put him and that's where I was
going to be content with being. He also had to understand that
pride was going to be big Pride, as we'll see in a lot of these
kings was one of the biggest downfalls for most of them.
And, and rightfully so, I think you could go easily understand
as a man to go from being just a normal Israelite to being king
over everything. I don't, I don't have to cook.
I don't know, I got servants for that.
Now I don't have to bathe myself.
I don't have to dress myself. I don't have to worry about
making my own clothes. All that's going to be provided
for me. And you can easily see that
pride would be very quick and easy to come to him, but he has
to understand and be careful to cultivate a life and a mind of
humility. First Corinthians 12/18 says,
But now hath God set the members, every one of them, in
the body, as it has pleased him? You and I are in this church
because God set us in those positions.
You're you're an usher, you're doing sound, you're a layperson,
you're in the choir. God put you in those positions
for a purpose. And you, you don't complain
about man. I got to do nursery again.
God put you there in the body as it hath pleased him.
And just like the king couldn't complain and say I'd rather be a
priest, I'd rather be a fill in the blank.
We too have to understand God put us in this positions that
we're in for a purpose and we can't complain about.
Man, I wish I could, I don't know something, pick it.
I wish I could be in the nursery and I don't have to worry about
dealing with older people. I can just deal with the kids or
I don't know, fill in the blank. Whatever it is, you, you have to
understand your position, even if it's just coming and sitting
and being under the the preaching and the teaching of
the word of God. You're put there for a reason by
God. You're not here on accident,
just like the king wasn't there on accident.
Oh, Samuel stumbled and fell in front of Saul and looked up and
went, yeah, he'll do. No, God chose him, just like God
chose you to be in this building, in this church, in
this specific time, in this specific hour for a reason.
And it's our job to find out what that reason is and to find
out and to do the work that God's put us there to do.
That's why it's important to know what the kings did.
That's why these instructions are important for us today.
They're instructions for the king.
I'm not a king. I could just be like the future
king. If you have a heading over top
of your, you know, sections in the Bible reading chapter 17,
the future king, well, I ain't going to be a king.
I'm skipping that. And I'm pretty sure none of us
are kings either. Why did God keep it in his word
then? The Bible says that all
scripture is given by inspiration and is profitable
means I need to know what the point of why I'm reading about
the future kings and what the instructions were.
And it's because the same instructions that the God cave
kings to abide by for a reason we can put towards our life.
And the first thing we see there.
Look at chapter 17 of Deuteronomy verse 16.
But he shall not multiply horses to himself, nor cause the people
to return to Egypt to the end that he should multiply horses.
For as much as the Lord hath said unto you, ye shall
henceforth return no more that way.
Neither shall he multiply wives to himself that his heart turned
not away, neither shall he greatly multiply to himself
silver and gold. There's some submissions that
this king has to abide by. The first thing that we see
there is he's not to multiply horses.
Now, we don't really think of this today.
We don't look at horses as as the way they did back then.
But a king would multiply horses because horses was the strength
of an army that that's what plowed your feels.
That's what went to battle for you.
And the more Chariots that you had, most likely you were the
going to be the winner. And over and over we, we talk,
we see about David counting the men numbering the people.
And God said don't do it. It's the same reasoning behind
why God said don't multiply horses because God wanted to
retell them. I'm going to be your safety, the
horses that you breed and everything.
Look at Egypt. Remember what I did to Egypt,
the most powerful nation, and I wiped them out with one.
Well, I was going to say wave, but I drowned them all.
How many horses did they have? And God says you're not going
back down to Egypt to get horses to make more security, because
your security is not in them. Psalms 3317 says a horse and
horse is a vain thing for safety.
God wanted them to depend on him, not on this earthly stuff.
He wanted this king to understand.
I know that horses and when you go to battle and it's going to
look, wow, you see how many people are over there, We don't
have that many horses. I should have been breeding all
this time. I should have been thinking
about the safety of this nation. God says don't make that a
focus. Your safety is in me and God
wanted them to understand right from the first part.
Don't multiply horses. Don't dwell on carnal things in
this life to make you safe. I'm the one that's going to be
keeping you safe. The next thing he says is
neither shall he multiply wives to himself.
Emotional ties. That's the second area that God
brings up to a king. Why?
Because most many nations kings were married to many wives
because of an alliance. We we want to have safety on our
borders. So here marry my daughter and
we'll be friends because the father-in-law is not going to
attack the son-in-law. So they would they would marry
multiple wives. But God said don't do that.
God, God specifically knew what would happen if a man had
multiple wives. And we see it play out there for
Samuel or for Solomon, the wisest man alive, the God said,
God says in his word, the wisest man that's ever been around
takes to himself multiple wives, falls to that sin.
So if, if, if anybody thinks I'm smarter than anybody, I can
control this. The wisest man falls to it.
But it says in first King 11/4 For it came to pass when Solomon
was old that his wives turned away his heart after their other
gods, and his heart was not perfect with the Lord his God as
was the heart of David his father.
God knew back in Moses time that you have multiple wives, you
have wives from other nations. Great security again, I should
be your security, not not alliances, but those wives are
going to turn your heart away from me.
And 400 years before the 1st king ever was made, God said be
careful who holds your heart. It's vitally important that we
as Christians guard our heart who we have emotional ties with,
who you count as actual friends. You have a lot of acquaintances.
You work with people you you see people at the grocery store,
your neighbors and stuff. But those who you call friends
will change where your heart goes.
That's why it's important. And pastor always talks about
most of his friends and if not all are in church, maybe here
other churches. But it's important that you
surround yourself with those that are going in the same
direction as pastor says that line up with this book.
Because when you don't, they're going to steer you away.
When? Well, he just wrote read the
sporting. The revelation tells us that in
the last later days they'll heap unto them teachers having
itching ears. Why is that?
Because they want to hear a new thing.
Oh, my friend told me about this.
Have you ever heard about this? I don't know what verse it says.
I can't find it in the Bible where that lines up with, but
man, it sounds sounds pretty good.
Did you listen to this preacher that was on the Internet that
was talking about how fill in the blank?
If it's not in this book, don't believe it in the first place.
And if you can't back up with this book, then you shouldn't
back it up. But we have to understand that
those around us will move our heart one way or another.
The next thing he talks about there in verse 17, neither shall
he greatly multiply to himself. Silver and gold financial
matters. You've got a nation to run.
Wow, that's a lot bigger than my home.
I need a bigger budget. When I look at my budget and I
see the bottom night line that I can, OK, this is the number.
And then this much goes to here, this much goes to here.
That number that you start with, with a nation is a lot bigger.
And oh, by the way, you're in charge of trades, you're in
charge of gaining any kind of money.
And God, again, just like when he was dealing with the horses
and wanting to make sure you rely on me, he wanted to make
sure these kings understood. I'm going to provide the the
resources for your nation. Don't try to reap unto yourself.
Multiply gold and silver. This isn't a business venture,
Saul. This isn't trying to line your
pockets so that way when you retire, you can retire hat fat
happy and lazy. It was to lead the nation God
and throughout this whole rest of the chapter 17.
God wants him and any king to understand the responsibility.
You're leading my nation, my chosen people.
I didn't choose Egypt. I didn't choose the Amorites.
I didn't choose all the I chose Israel and I set you up over top
of them. I want you to understand don't
worry about as the as we now know and we have verses about
what you'll wear tomorrow. Don't worry about things that
the necessities that pastors been preaching on.
I will take care of you if you keep me first if you focus on me
and these areas which the king was required to submit to God
because it was this was totally contrary to what all the other
nations were doing. The other nations were marrying
other wives to be having alliances.
The other nations were breeding many horses and trading for
horses, so their army was large. The other nations were trying to
build as much wealth as possible to I mean, you look at Egypt.
How do you, what do you think built the pyramids and all the
Sphinx and all the IT was money and why did they do it?
Look how powerful we are. Look how rich we are.
I'm going to make an entire temple made for me when I die
and I'm going to stuff it full of all my gold.
That was what was the point of the kings.
And God said you're different, you're set apart, you're my
chosen nation. I don't want you to be like all
the other nations. Yes, you're going to have a
king, but that's where the similarities should stop.
And here's the things king, I need you to submit to me.
And we have to, as children of God, do the same submission to
God. We have to understand that we
can't rely on our own safety Nets.
We can't rely on building our own wealth for our family.
We can't rely on trying to just make alliances with whoever we
can because God's going to be the one that's in charge of our
our family, our life, our church.
God has set these to be some myths that the kings and us as
children of God have to submit to because it's different than
what all the rest of this world wants us to do.
The last thing, the last thing that we see is the service that
God commands the kings to do. Look there in verse 18.
And it shall be when He sitteth upon the throne of His Kingdom,
that He shall write him a copy of this law in a book out of
that which is before the priests of the Levites, and it shall be
with him, and he shall read therein all the days of his
life, that he may learn to fear. The Lord is his God to keep all
the words of this law and these statutes to do them for his
heart, that his heart be not lifted up above his brethren and
that he turned not aside from the commandment to be the right
hand or to the right hand or to the left to the end that he may
prolong his days in his Kingdom, he and his children in the midst
of Israel. God again focuses on his word,
lifts his word up, as the Bible says, above every name, above
his own name. It's it's here forever settled
forever in heaven. God with Moses again 400 years
beforehand said you better be reading my word daily.
We think, oh man, it's hard to wake up and have to do my
devotions every day. Think of this.
They had to write a whole copy of it.
I, I don't have to write a whole copy of it.
I just have to read it and study it and and to apply it to my
life. If I had to write it a you know,
they, they had a lot smaller of a Bible at the time when Saul
started, but that would take a long time.
That's a lot of commitment to have to write out and copy the
entire word of God. But God wanted them to
understand the importance of it. You're the king, but this is the
way you live your life. This is how you rule my Kingdom.
It was going to control his pride.
You look there in verse 20 that his heart be not lifted above
his brethren. Again, pride.
When you read God's word, you realize how low on the totem
pole we are. When you understand how David
would say God, how are you even mindful of me of of everything
that you've created and and the wickedness that we are and the
sinfulness that we are and yet you're mindful of us.
God wanted the kings to understand you might be king
over Israel, but I'm king over you.
And to do that He had to have them be in His word.
And it was going to set a pride control level basically to
understand I might be the big dog in the camp, but I've got a
bigger dog on top of me that I have to follow and I have rules
that I have to submit to. And God wanted those kings to
understand that there was a responsibility was all wrapped
up in reading and following His word.
Christians, fathers, we have all the answers to how we should
live, how we should raise our kids, how we should love our
wives, how we should be service. I was going to say service full.
That's not a word. How we should do service in
churches, how we should live our lives.
Everything's all right here in command for the Kings to make
sure you're in this book is as important to them as it is to
us. We have to understand.
Pride is probably the biggest issue as a Christian.
It'll stop you and stunt your growth as a Christian before it
even starts. And God wanted to make sure of a
that wasn't going to be the problem with his kings.
They wanted to make sure the king knew you're not going to be
lifted above above your brother. The next thing is it's going to
chart his pathway. Look there in verse 20 again,
the next part and that he turned not aside from the commandment
to the right hand or to the left to the end that he may prolong
his days. Everything the man that was the
king needed was. In that book.
Again, all the problems that he was going to face, he's already
has all the laws that was going to fix all of those, all the all
the issues that he would face. God's word had it already in the
book and he just had to read it and not try to go.
Yeah, I know that's what that says.
But man, that Lady looks really good.
And and if if I marry him, then I won't have to worry about my
West side of the of the nation and it'll be safe and I won't
have to worry about fighting with them.
I know it says that I shouldn't have more than one wife.
I know I shouldn't multiply them to myself, but I'll do it
anyway. Just one.
I just, I'll just have two. It's fine.
I don't multiply. It's a factor of more than two,
right? I'm not timesing it.
I'm just adding one. No, God said don't go away from
what I have written in this book.
Christians, God has the same truth for us.
Don't go away from what God has written in his word.
You have to know it. How do you know it?
You have to read it and. Like we've said, many.
Times pastor said it many times, just because you don't read it
doesn't mean that you can be ignorant and say, well, I didn't
know. That's fine.
I, I just, I live in, in life of of grace.
Paul says God forbid. Just because.
You have grace. Doesn't mean you just sin
because you have grace. And just because you don't want
to read the book doesn't mean you don't need to abide by the
book. And that's why it was so
important that the King read his word.
And it's so important for us to read his word so we know what
those laws are and you think of. 66 books.
Has a lot. Of thou shalt.
Nots has a lot of thou shalts. It's a lot of laws and and I
thankfully I was born in this time period and not back in
Israel time period because those laws were even crazier to me.
I can't I can only take so many steps on Saturday.
Can't go to the grocery store, honey, sorry, that's one too
many steps. Can't do that.
I don't have all those laws that God had for the command that
well, God didn't set that up. But anyways we.
See all these things? That we have to submit to and
you. Think of a king.
Again, pride. I ain't doing that.
I'm in charge. I don't care what you want to
say in your book thing I do what I I'm the king.
Don't you understand who you're talking to, Mr. Priest?
Telling. Me thou art the.
Man, David could have very easily said cut his head off.
He doesn't need to know that. Nobody else knows it.
Everybody that did know it, I killed him except for Bathsheba.
Kill him and we'll be done with this.
He was the king. He could have done that easily.
But David had a humble heart and knew when his sin came before
him. I got to get this right because
he. Was in his book.
How do we create a humble heart You stay in his book the the
most humbling thing is reading about Christ dying for my sins
again, the fact that he knew I was going to be born and knew I
would sin against them and and bring all these offenses and
grieve his heart and continue to do it.
And yet he still died for me and made a way that I could have
salvation, still made a way that I could be called a child of
God. And even after becoming a child
God, I continued to sin. And he still loves me enough to
give me a way to wipe that sin and wash that sin away if.
That doesn't make you. Humble as a Christian, you need
to get. Back in your book, he wanted
these kings. To understand where their power
was coming from and it was because of what God had done and
it was all wrapped up in his book the.
Last thing is is. You see there in verse 20 the
ending of their that He may prolong His days in His Kingdom,
He and His children in the midst of Israel.
It was going to be a continuation.
A continuation of his power king you want you want to have your
Kingdom and then pass it on to your son be in my book why did
Saul lose the Kingdom because. He went against what?
God said to do. If you want your.
Family to you know, we, we would all say that we all want our
kids to grow up better than we did.
We all want, you know, our, our wives, our, our families to have
better lives than we did. And we, we try to get a better
job, we try to have a bigger house or whatever.
But the most important thing? That you could do for your kids
for your wife or your family is to be in this book and do what
it says because when they. See you.
Being in this book, doing what it says, it proves to them that
this is important. It's not just a book that I read
and I go on Sunday and it's just another check box that I can do
It's important. God is real to you, and your
kids will see that. That's the instructions that God
gave Moses 400 years before there was ever a king for the
kings, and we can use them to our lives today.
Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you so
much for today. I thank you again for your word
that you've preserved it for each and every one of us to be
able to to read, to have and to put into practice in our lives.
I pray that you help us as we do that, that we, we don't just
take it as a instruction and that we have to do it, but that
we get to read your word. God, I pray that you be with
pastor as he comes in the next hour to give us your word,
exactly what you've given him. For each and every one of us
give our hearts to be open and ready to receive it.
I pray that you be glorified and your name be lifted up through
everything that goes on today here in this building.
In Jesus name I pray. Amen.