Deuteronomy 17
The Lord demanded that Israel be holy, and that those
who would lead His nation would serve in accord with His Word. 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 bears 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 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.
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