We need leaders who know God's ideal design for government.
Deuteronomy 17:14-20 (NIV)
14 When you enter the land the LORD your God is giving you and have taken possession of it and settled in it, and you say, “Let us set a king over us like all the nations around us,” 15 be sure to appoint over you a king the LORD your God chooses. He must be from among your fellow Israelites. Do not place a foreigner over you, one who is not an Israelite. 16 The king, moreover, must not acquire great numbers of horses for himself or make the people return to Egypt to get more of them, for the LORD has told you, “You are not to go back that way again.” 17 He must not take many wives, or his heart will be led astray. He must not accumulate large amounts of silver and gold.
18 When he takes the throne of his kingdom, he is to write for himself on a scroll a copy of this law, taken from that of the Levitical priests. 19 It is to be with him, and he is to read it all the days of his life so that he may learn to revere [fear] the LORD his God and follow carefully all the words of this law and these decrees 20 and not consider himself better than his fellow Israelites and turn from the law to the right or to the left. Then he and his descendants will reign a long time over his kingdom in Israel.
Listen to passage & devotional:
Belgic Confession of Faith, Article 36: The Civil Government
We believe that
because of the depravity of the human race
our good God has ordained kings, princes, and civil officers.
He wants the world to be governed by laws and policies
so that human lawlessness may be restrained
and that everything may be conducted in good order
among human beings.
For that purpose he has placed the sword
in the hands of the government,
to punish evil people
and protect the good.
And being called in this manner
to contribute to the advancement of a society
that is pleasing to God,
the civil rulers have the task,
subject to God’s law,
of removing every obstacle
to the preaching of the gospel
and to every aspect of divine worship.
They should do this
while completely refraining from every tendency
toward exercising absolute authority,
and while functioning in the sphere entrusted to them,
with the means belonging to them.
They should do it in order that
the Word of God may have free course;
the kingdom of Jesus Christ may make progress;
and every anti-Christian power may be resisted.
Moreover everyone,
regardless of status, condition, or rank,
must be subject to the government,
and pay taxes,
and hold its representatives in honor and respect,
and obey them in all things that are not in conflict
with God’s Word,
praying for them
that the Lord may be willing to lead them
in all their ways
and that we may live a peaceful and quiet life
in all piety and decency.
And on this matter we denounce the Anabaptists, other anarchists,
and in general all those who want
to reject the authorities and civil officers
and to subvert justice
by introducing common ownership of goods
and corrupting the moral order
that God has established among human beings.
Summary
It sure sounded like today's passage was written long after Israel had already experienced the painful results that came from setting a king over them like all the nations around them. But these words of warning were written even before the wandering tribes had ever reached the Promised Land. God knows of the paradoxical nature of the human heart, which even as it yearns for freedom, it desires a king / government to fight our battles for us (1 Samuel 8:20). So God lays down this advice as His people take possession of the land.
The primary qualification the people should look for in their king is that he is the one the LORD your God chooses. As the descendents of these wanderers will painfully learn, God evaluates leaders on a different basis than the people do; whereas people look at the outward appearance, the LORD looks at the heart (1 Samuel 16:7).
God warns the future kings to fight against their sinful natures' desire to accumulate ever increasing power (a great number of horses) and large amounts of silver and gold. Our sinful nature (sarx) has an insatiable appetite for more money and power, but so often as these increase, our dependence upon God decreases. King David, who himself struggled mightily with these temptations, captured God's desire for the king in Psalm 20:7 - Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God.
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, God assigned future kings to write for himself a copy of God's law as his first order of business upon taking the throne. It's good to read God's Word on your own, and even better to hear it proclaimed out loud, but can you imagine how much more it would sink in if you wrote it out yourself? God knows this sort of studious dedication to His Law would be the one and only antidote to the otherwise unavoidable reality that absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Dig Deeper
Maybe today's passage doesn't seem relevant to our modern systems of governance. After all, we don't live either in a theocracy or a monarchy (apologies to our Canadian readers, who I guess do live in a monarchy). But nonetheless, God doesn't 'choose' our leaders in the way He did then, and any mention of government officials consulting God's Law would immediately be met with a lawsuit from those who consider themselves to be defending pluralism and tolerance.
But yet God's timeless advice is very well suited for our modern situation. God may not make His choice for leaders known through the mouth of a prophet as He once did, but He's now given us the ability to choose leaders that after careful consideration and prayer we feel will best reflect Him by removing every obstacle to preaching and divine worship.
And notice that these commands are just as much for the people as they are for the king: we, the people, must be vigilant in reigning in our governments' natural desire to accumulate ever increasing power and wealth, as God commands in today's passage. Furthermore, God's purpose in having the king write out the Law wasn't so much so that the king could impose that law upon the people as it was for the king to restrain his own sinful heart as he ruled. Can you imagine the increased wisdom that would result from our own leaders doing this?
Our Confession longs for an ideal government that removes obstacles from the Church and that functions in the sphere entrusted to them, with the means belonging to them. We'll likely never achieve such an ideal, but as God's redeemed people who've been blessed with the gift of representative government, we must also push for it.
ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Our Father, who has made our Lord & Savior our eternal and ideal King;
ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Thank God for the governments He's provided us with, and pray that you will be a good advocate for the ideal government God has prescribed for us;
ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED:
Read the New Testament in a year! Today: Revelation 2
