[Deuteronomy 17] Pitfalls in the Promised Land. In this chapter, God warns the people through Moses of various challenges they would face in the land of Canaan. 1.) They would be tempted to dilute their faithfulness to God and marginalize their standards of commitment by offering polluted sacrifices. 2.) They would be faced with complicated societal issues that would tempt them to stray from the simplicity of God’s word. 3.) They would eventually choose a king, which would involve many vulnerabilities and lead to a return to paganism. All of these issues are relevant to Christians today living in increasingly aggressive secularism in a post-Christian era.
[Deu 17:1-20 KJV] 1 Thou shalt not sacrifice unto the LORD thy God [any] bullock, or sheep, wherein is blemish, [or] any evilfavouredness: for that [is] an abomination unto the LORD thy God. 2 If there be found among you, within any of thy gates which the LORD thy God giveth thee, man or woman, that hath wrought wickedness in the sight of the LORD thy God, in transgressing his covenant, 3 And hath gone and served other gods, and worshipped them, either the sun, or moon, or any of the host of heaven, which I have not commanded; 4 And it be told thee, and thou hast heard [of it], and enquired diligently, and, behold, [it be] true, [and] the thing certain, [that] such abomination is wrought in Israel: 5 Then shalt thou bring forth that man or that woman, which have committed that wicked thing, unto thy gates, [even] that man or that woman, and shalt stone them with stones, till they die. 6 At the mouth of two witnesses, or three witnesses, shall he that is worthy of death be put to death; [but] at the mouth of one witness he shall not be put to death. 7 The hands of the witnesses shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterward the hands of all the people. So thou shalt put the evil away from among you. 8 If there arise a matter too hard for thee in judgment, between blood and blood, between plea and plea, and between stroke and stroke, [being] matters of controversy within thy gates: then shalt thou arise, and get thee up into the place which the LORD thy God shall choose; 9 And thou shalt come unto the priests the Levites, and unto the judge that shall be in those days, and enquire; and they shall shew thee the sentence of judgment: 10 And thou shalt do according to the sentence, which they of that place which the LORD shall choose shall shew thee; and thou shalt observe to do according to all that they inform thee: 11 According to the sentence of the law which they shall teach thee, and according to the judgment which they shall tell thee, thou shalt do: thou shalt not decline from the sentence which they shall shew thee, [to] the right hand, nor [to] the left. 12 And the man that will do presumptuously, and will not hearken unto the priest that standeth to minister there before the LORD thy God, or unto the judge, even that man shall die: and thou shalt put away the evil from Israel. 13 And all the people shall hear, and fear, and do no more presumptuously. 14 When thou art come unto the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee, and shalt possess it, and shalt dwell therein, and shalt say, I will set a king over me, like as all the nations that [are] about me; 15 Thou shalt in any wise set [him] king over thee, whom the LORD thy God shall choose: [one] from among thy brethren shalt thou set king over thee: thou mayest not set a stranger over thee, which [is] not thy brother. 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: forasmuch as the LORD hath said unto you, Ye shall henceforth return no more that way. 17 Neither shall he multiply wives to himself, that his heart turn not away: neither shall he greatly multiply to himself silver and gold. 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 the Levites: 19 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 his God, to keep all the words of this law and these statutes, to do them: 20 That his heart be not lifted up above his brethren, and that he turn not aside from the commandment, [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.
In this chapter, Moses begins by speaking to the children of Israel about the quality of their response to God. He warns them about bringing their cast-offs to the altar in the Tabernacle instead of their best. This one error resulted in one of the greatest tragedies in scripture for the nation of Israel, which is recorded in the book of Malachi.
[Mal 1:6-8 KJV] 6 A son honoureth [his] Father, and a servant his master: if then I [be] a father, where [is] mine honour? and if I [be] a master, where [is] my fear? saith the LORD of hosts unto you, O priests, that despise my name. And ye say, Wherein have we despised thy name? 7 Ye offer polluted bread upon mine altar; and ye say, Wherein have we polluted thee? In that ye say, The table of the LORD [is] contemptible. 8 And if ye offer the blind for sacrifice, [is it] not evil? and if ye offer the lame and sick, [is it] not evil? offer it now unto thy governor; will he be pleased with thee, or accept thy person? saith the LORD of hosts.
After hundreds of years, the attitude of the nation of Israel as recorded in Malachi had become so nuanced that they openly ignored the scriptures and were not even aware they were doing it. Through the prophet Malachi, the practice of offering polluted offerings is pointed out. The result of this prevailing attitude was a 400-year silence where God did not speak through Urim or Thummim, or through teaching priests or through the prophets. At the end of this time, He sent His son, who was immediately rejected and crucified by a people who were insistent that they were God’s special people who were the only ones uniquely qualified to define service to God.
The antidote to this hypocrisy is not merely bible study because the first century Jews were far more studious than any Christian era theologian. Having said that, it is a beginning that we become a people of the book. Of all the streams of information finding their way into our lives, the bible should be at the forefront—the bible and sensitivity to God’s spirit through prayer. Charles Spurgeon wrote that what is heavily emphasized in the bible should be prominent in our lives in terms of accountability.
Secondly, idolatry was not to be tolerated. God is not a God of diversity or cultural sensitivity. The first of the seven Spirits of God in Isa. 11 is the Spirit of the Lord. In our society, “live and let live” is a higher ethic than once-revered Judeo-Christian principles based upon the ten commandments. We must realize – YES, we cannot legislate morality, but we must hold ourselves to accountability to the revealed will of God in our lives. Subjectivism, relativistic social viewpoints have no place in Christian thought. Having said this, we must place our FIRST focus upon holding ourselves accountable before looking at others:
[2Co 10:6 KJV] 6 And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled.
What do we do when we run out of answers? Often, we choose an arbitrary scriptural passage or ignore the scriptures altogether in favor of religious tradition or secular opinion. When God tells the people to “get thee up to the place the Lord thy God shall choose …” He is talking about the temple – and in the New Covenant perspective, YOU are that temple. In the New Testament, the most difficult decisions were made by the witness of the Spirit:
[Act 15:28 KJV] 28 For it seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things;
We are not without a witness. We are not to solve problems using the same approach as those who reject God. This is becoming more and more important because we are living in a season of increasing secular aggression against our faith. Recently I read an article about a fire chief of a major southern city fired because of his faith. In the UK, many of our friends said they were reluctant to be public about their faith lest they be fired. In a capitalist society having your job threatened by secularist agendas is a severe form of persecution. We must be prepared to make righteous judgments and stand against the persecution that may infringe our freedoms. We are not alarmists, but we do recognize that in our culture, we are approaching a tipping point where unrestrained suppression of the Christian faith is becoming universal and increasingly intense.
We also see in our chapter that there would come a day when Israel would desire a king. When this came about, the Lord told Samuel, “They have not rejected thee – they have rejected me …” God’s chosen form of government is theocratic. However, when the people rejected God’s government, He still maintained His sovereignty over the process. There is a God-chosen king. God chooses our rulers. Man pulls the voting lever, but God decides the outcome – many times to the chagrin of those who could not imagine God making the choice that was made. Notice the prohibitions imposed upon the king:
1.Do not choose a stranger – do not follow foreign influences for national advantage.
2.Do not multiply horses – no unrestrained military buildup.
3.Don’t lead the people back to Egypt – do not indebt the people to foreign countries.
4.Do not multiply wives – a common tactic to build diplomatic ties to other nations (therefore warning against compromised relationships with foreign countries).
5.Do not multiply gold and silver – there are other priorities than building a strong economy. The love of money is the root of all evils.
6.Make himself a handwritten copy of the scripture – again, a return to the book. To what end? As a schoolmaster to bring him to Christ.
The result of all this is so the leader’s heart be not lifted up against his brothers. One of the major problems in government and in society, in general, is elitism and class warfare. The French Revolution and the Communist revolution were fueled by the insensitive, elitist character of those in power. God resists the proud, but He gives grace to the humble. The cruelest and brutal regimes dominated the early church in history – yet they walked in humility and refused to react. The early church was not an activist church nor an insurgent church. They brought the known world to its knees at the foot of the cross by the way they prayed and the way they died. On the current developmental curve of religious sentiment in the Western World, we will see in our lifetimes a level of persecution against our faith that would have been unthinkable even twenty years ago. We must see the kingdom coming in all of this to turn us back to a deepening trust in God as we confront the nations with the claims of Christ and prepare for the cataclysmic challenge when the kingdoms of this world ultimately become the kingdoms of our God and His Christ.
