Revering the Word
Deuteronomy 17 The people and the king were to worship God alone.
Good morning, everyone. We continue to be in the desert in Deuteronomy on the other side of the Jordan River waiting for Israel to cross God is reminding them of what's important to him through Moses and Here we have it Chapter 17 of Deuteronomy verse 1 you shall not sacrifice to the Lord your God an ox or a sheep Which has a blemish or any defect for that is a detestable thing to the Lord your God You had to bring an animal that was worthy of sacrifice again, it'd be Easier and less costly to bring a lame one a crippled one or a sick one to be sacrificed but you're supposed to bring God your best sacrifice and That's what God did in sending his son. He Jesus was the Unblemished one he was the one who was without sin who ended up being then able to take our sins So God followed his own rules in sending Jesus the unblemished one If there is found in your midst in any of your towns Which the Lord your God has given you a man or a woman who does what is evil in the sight of the Lord your God By transgressing his covenant and has gone and served other gods and worshiped them or the son or the moon or any of the heavenly hosts which I have not commanded and If it is told you and you have heard of it, then you shall inquire thoroughly Behold if it is true and the thing certain that this detestable thing has been done in Israel Then you shall bring out that man or that woman who has done this yield deed to your gates that is the man of the woman and you shall stone them the death on The evidence of two witnesses or three witnesses he who is to die shall be put to death He shall not be put to death on the evidence of one witness The hand of the witnesses shall be first against him to put him the death and afterward the hand of all the people So you shall purge the evil from your midst God when setting up his theocracy recall that he was you know setting up a government that was going to be governed Essentially by him and by judges the priests were going to be very involved in this and He was setting up he wanted us to to Be created in his image and likeness and be fruitful and multiply and God didn't want to set up a society That was going to be involved in all kinds of false and pagan worship So he was setting up a very harsh penalty So that they would worship him and worship him alone He was trying to create a world that was in love with him and worshiping him And he didn't want it intermixed with all kinds of false gods It is interesting that when you look at the justice of God They were supposed to inquire thoroughly and then it had to be at least two or three witnesses consistency and You know the two or three witnesses would know by the way that this person was going to be subject to be to death So they were going to have to really be sure that something wicked had happened and in unity about it You know and I wouldn't be surprised in mankind's grace and mercy of sometimes They overlooked what they felt was minor or whatever because they just didn't want to be a part of you know Having someone killed for it But yet, this is what God set up because he wanted people to purely worship him and worship him alone now We've talked about this many times, but we don't live in a theocracy anymore We've handed over the government to a secular government It happened that way in Jesus's day Although his government was different than ours, but you know in America the church is not in charge of The government we it's not a theocracy So now, you know, we have a plurality of worship. You can worship whatever you want in America And we obviously couldn't enforce this kind of a law anymore We live in a different age in a different era, but this is what God set up for the people of the Promised Land in Israel and It's interesting or good to know What God was after I think that's what we can see in this and that was a pure soul worship of him alone Even though we can't enforce it like this to this day now We're trying to win the world of Jesus We're trying to still worship him and worship him alone But we're trying to be witnesses and to make disciples and help people to see that Jesus is Lord and Savior and to follow him All right, verse eight if any case is too difficult for you to decide between one kind of homicide or another between one kind of lawsuit or another And between one kind of assault or another being cases of dispute in your courts Then you show a rise and go up to the place or to Lord your God chooses So they were supposed to kind of like in their own community govern these things But then when they couldn't then bring it likely to what ended up becoming Jerusalem to get judgment there so you shall come to the Levitical priest or the judge who is in office in those days and You shall inquire of them and they will declare to you the verdict in the case You shall do according to the terms of the verdict which they declare to you from the place which the Lord chooses And you should be careful to observe according to all that they teach you according to the terms of the law Which they teach you and according to the verdict which they tell you you shall do so, you know God was gonna establish You know places where there would be judges that they could go to You shall not turn aside from the word which they declare to you to the right or to the left So you're supposed to honor the verdict the man who acts presumptuously by not listening to the priest Who stands there to serve the Lord your God nor to the judge that man shall die thus you shall purge The evil from Israel then all the people here and be afraid and will not act presumptuously again And I'm sure with this kind of a harsh penalty that people would want to be very careful to not worship anything But God alone and I'm sure if things would have worked out the way that God had designed originally we'd have a much better world because People would be following God in his ways and it would lead to treating each other while now now we're filled with you know all kinds of atheistic things and a plurality of gods and people are you know killing each other over their faith and we have so much atheistic just you know Injustice in our world and murderers and you know Whatever people who are raping and doing all kinds of things I mean we have a huge population base that knows nothing of God and isn't following him and There's a lot of crime in our world as a result So I think God had a better objective than what we have accomplished here on earth When you enter the land which the Lord your God gives you and you possess it and live in it And you say I will set a king over me like all the nations who are around me You shall surely set a king over you whom the Lord your God chooses one from among your countrymen And you shall set as king over yourselves. You may not put a foreigner over your Cells who is not your countrymen isn't that interesting? We have that in America, you know, you have to have someone who is Born or a citizen of the United States. I believe even born is supposed to be the law that might have been violated in the past But it's the intention of our country that this would be the case as well And isn't it interesting that although I have a theocracy God has already beginning to understand that someday they will have a king However, that's not gonna turn out so good Moreover, he shall not multiply horses for himself and right away I got the thinking of Solomon, you know one of the grandest days in the history of Israel is when Solomon was king David Made the plans for Jerusalem. They ended up, you know building the Jerusalem and the temple and Solomon now became king and and He was had a lot of wisdom But he did not follow he didn't follow Deuteronomy 17 as you shall see here Moreover, he shall not multiply horses for himself nor shall he cause the people to return to Egypt to multiply horses Since the Lord has said to you, you shall never again return that way he shall not multiply wives for themselves and Solomon had like a thousand concubines or else his heart will turn away Nor shall he greatly increase silver and gold for himself and Solomon did that as well Now it shall come about when he sits on the throne of his kingdom He shall write for himself a copy of this law on a scroll in the presence of the Levitical priests It shall be with him and he shall read it all the days of his life Look at that God wanted his king to read the word of God All the days of his life that he may learn to fear the Lord is God by carefully observing all the words of this law and these Statutes that his heart may not be lifted up above his country man He was supposed to be a humble king following God and that he may not turn aside from the commandment to the right or to the left So that he he and his sons may continue long in his kingdom in the midst of Israel and Solomon did not do this while he violated many of the principles of Deuteronomy 17 and After Solomon died his two sons took over they became Adverserius to one another and the kingdom was divided Israel went to the north with ten tribes Judah and Benjamin went to the south and had Jerusalem with two tribes and Israel was divided right in the next generation after Solomon because of his Waywardness and what he did wrong and Man as king just did not honor God the way they should and as a result. They paid the penalty. It says though God knew what would happen and What a great thing it would be to have a king that reads the word of God that have a king that fears the Lord has God and It's been a while since we have you know had that kind of a ruler You know, I do think there's some wisdom in the sense that in America today You can you're free to worship who you want but that doesn't mean that God wants to have us use our freedom to worship a plurality of gods and what a great thing it would be to have someone come in and ruin reign who turns us back to the worship of God and his son Jesus Christ and that would honor the word of God According to our Constitution, we couldn't force people to worship him, but we could have a great example of a President who would lead in that way It'd be great to have that kind of bold spiritual leadership one day again Well until that day, let's make sure you and I each are following the word of God and reading it and praise God that you're following along In the Bible here There's three your plan and taking in the word of God It's good and right and it pleases the Lord and it'll help us to stay on track with him. God bless you all