Deuteronomy 17

The Lord demanded that Israel be holy, and that those who would lead His nation would serve in accord with His oracles. We have a Leader over God's people now who is not only full of wisdom and power; He is also the Lord our Righteousness. He is all that a King could ever be, and we must offer Him pure worship. What a relief that this same Jewish Messiah who is our King in the heavens is also the one Mediator between God and man. This holy Jesus was an offering without spot or blemish, making peace between God and His people. Now He purifies our worship and brings it to His Father as a perfect offering.

The land of Israel was to be a place of moral and spiritual purity. The ethic of the land was a rule of complete consecration, an image of the purity to come when the true King of Israel would establish the glory of the Lord's reign over a renewed and resurrected world. There could be no tolerance of false worship in that land that God gave to His people. The entire community had a responsibility to stone those who would go after other gods.

In the gospel era, we bring the Word of heaven, the Christian hope, to the entire world. We do not stone anyone. We suffer for the Name of the One who died for our sins, and we proclaim Him to all people. We plant, we water, and God gives the increase.

But the community of the redeemed in the midst of a dying world, the church, is to be holy in Christ. Though we must not tolerate false worship in the church, the Lord of the harvest has instructed us not to be too aggressive in pulling up plants that look like weeds, lest we inadvertently throw out wheat in the process. He is coming again with a host of men and angels, and he will judge rightly.

In Israel, God appointed priests and judges to decide difficult cases of justice. These all served for as many days as the Lord granted. They served temporarily and imperfectly, eventually judging so wrongly that they determined that Jesus was guilty of blasphemy because He presented Himself as the Son of God. They determined that He was worthy of death. This Jesus that they condemned is now the Judge of the living and the dead. He is the Priest who offered up His own body as an atoning sacrifice that cancels our guilt. He is still our High Priest and King over the house of the Lord. He is coming to finally purge the evil from the church that bares His Name and to establish forever His perfected kingdom of righteousness and peace. He will reign forever and ever.

Even in the Law, the Lord made a provision for Israel to have a king. The king had to be an Israelite, and not a foreign ruler called in because of what he could offer the nation. He was not to become king for what he could get from the people in an effort to accumulate his own wealth and glory in this dying world. He was not to lead the people back to Egypt to fall into the hands of a greater imperial power, as if the hope of the nation was in the power of men. He was not to collect many wives from the peoples of the world, lest they turn him away from God.

There was one other requirement for the coming King: He needed to write out a copy of the Law approved by the Levitical priests. He was to keep it close to him and to read it and follow it all the days of his life, for the Lord God would be the king's King.

Now the best king has come. This true Son of David is also the Son of God. He is not impressed with the powers of men and empires. He did not come to earth in order to gain wealth from His subjects. He came not to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many. The Law of God was in His heart, and He fully obeyed, not only the commandments given to Israel, but the call of His Father to die for our salvation. He is the Lord of love, the true King of Israel, and the Head of His body, the church. There is no other Name given among men by which we must be saved.