lastinglewis
Pretty intense...
Good Morning,
I hope everyone is well and I have been reading through Deuteronomy wanted to highlight a thought:
“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. 19And 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, 20that 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.”
- Moses, Deuteronomy 17:18-20
The book of Deuteronomy is Moses (the Hebrew people’s leader for past 40 years and out of Egypt) pouring out all his wisdom, all the commandments he had received from God and establishing laws for the Israelite nation to serve and live before God as Moses will soon die and they will settle in the Promised Land. Moses in this passage is establishing laws about Israel’s future kings. Verse 18 instructs that the kings must be careful to work with the priests to have a usable copy of the Scriptures. Verse 19 explains that for a true king of Israel this copy of Scriptures will ‘be with him’ and he will be an active reader & study ‘all the days if his life’. It goes on to explain this is not an academic measure nor pursuit of knowledge, but rather the king is to ‘learn to fear the LORD his God by keeping the law…doing them’. This connection is all through Scripture that we truly are not ‘learning’ or ‘growing’ unless the words of Scripture impact our life and actions. I love that it includes ‘doing them’ (Luke 6:47, many others) as so often we can lazily focus on what we refrain from, rather than what we are called to do like love, serve, pray, give, read, be a part of community, share the Gospel, fulfill the Great Commission or live by the Spirit.
Verse 20 addresses that if a king fails fear God subsequently not keeping or doing the law that he will surely become conceited ‘heart lifted up above his brothers’. Pride is the anti-god according to C.S. Lewis and our refusal to obey is an act of pride that we functionally are believing that somehow God is not God and we instead claim we are god knowing what is best for ourselves.
I think we can have two big takeaways on top of all this:
1. This is all a little overwhelming and we have failed at all of this. But Christ is the true King of Israel. In fact Christ is the King who had the Scripture ‘be with him’ in His heart and mind ‘all the days if his life’. Christ alone ‘ fear[ed] the LORD his God by keeping the law…doing them’ and never became conceited with a ‘heart lifted up above his brothers’. Christ was perfect and had every right to pridefully and disdainfully look at his brothers around Him, but instead He hung out with the ‘worst’ of us (prostitutes, tax collectors, me) and eventually went to the Cross for us, a bunch of conceited sinners.
2. We have a great privilege as a believer in Christ to be a king now as a son of the living God and to read the Scriptures as this passage tells the kings of Israel to do! To read God’s Word is the work of kings! We have our own copies, helps and others to converse with! This is a great and special opportunity as most of Christian history the average believer has not had a personal copy of the Scriptures, but we do! So let us delight in His Word! the book of John is a great place to start! There are many great Bible translations and study Bibles, but my personal favorite is the pictured ESV Study Bible. Check it out here or email me to talk Bible translations…: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_c_1_15?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=esv+study+bible&sprefix=esv+study+bible
So let us reflect on failings briefly, so we can deeply appreciate and experience our perfect Savior King who fulfilled the Law and sits as the rightful King of Kings and Lord of Lords. (1st Tim. 6:15, Rev. 19:16)
Thank you.
