A King the Lord Will Choose

¹⁸ “And when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself in a book a copy of this law, approved by the Levitical priests. ¹⁹ And it shall be with him, and he shall read in it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God by keeping all the words of this law and these statutes, and doing them, ²⁰ that his heart may not be lifted up above his brothers, and that he may not turn aside from the commandment, either to the right hand or to the left, so that he may continue long in his kingdom, he and his children, in Israel.

Passage

Deuteronomy 17 - A King the Lord Will Choose

Conditions

I won the sleep-in this morning. Won it walking away. The children were at peace when I came down but some squabbles began when we attempted to direct our attention to breakfast and the Bible. Some communication and redirection was needed. 

Time

Saturday morning and all the time in the world. 

Teaching

We paused on why the Lord requires multiple witnesses for a sentence to be given. He is not a grumpy God itching to dish out punishment. He is a just God who requires guilt to be established in truth. And again we see the priority of holiness among the people of God - sin needs to be purged, driven out of the camp. We ought to feel the same way about sin in our lives, our families, our churches. 

We then noticed each of the characteristics of the good king laid out in 14-20. We gave special attention to the problem of acquisition. We should not want a king over us who wants more and more and more (military strength, wives). Already Christ looms large as One who did not consider equality with God a thing to be grasped, but was willing to empty himself and take the form of a servant (Phil 2). 

O that we had kings today who loved the law of God and did it. This passage is a blessing to us in very confused times with regard to leaders. There is a very simple way to judge rulers today. Who do they think they are serving? Who do they believe they are accountable to? Do they love the law of God and seek to carry it out?

We ended by remembering there is a perfect king on the throne of heaven and what a comfort that is.

We read 'Desires' (Needs ad Devotions) from The Valley of Vision:

"I confess...
That I am unfit to choose for myself,
for it is not in me to direct my steps...
May I regard the world as dreams, lies, vanities, vexation of spirit,
and desire to depart from it.
And may I seek my happiness in thy favour, image, presence, service."

Song

Joy to the World

Reflection

When the squabbles began I reached for our ‘Already’ prayer but couldn’t find it. So we attempted to recall it from memory and one of the young ones was able to do very well - this softened everyone and enabled us to settle for Scripture. Which is a reminder that sometimes directly addressing the developing issue is not better directing attention to a spiritual exercise that requires participation. In other words, instead of trying to fix a bad thing on the spot, turn aside and do a good thing (not every time, of course).