Contemplative Bible Reading

Deuteronomy 17:14-20 (New Living Translation)

⁴ “You are about to enter the land the Lord your God is giving you. When you take it over and settle there, you may think, ‘We should select a king to rule over us like the other nations around us.’ ¹⁵ If this happens, be sure to select as king the man the Lord your God chooses. You must appoint a fellow Israelite; he may not be a foreigner.

¹⁶ “The king must not build up a large stable of horses for himself or send his people to Egypt to buy horses, for the Lord has told you, ‘You must never return to Egypt.’¹⁷ The king must not take many wives for himself, because they will turn his heart away from the Lord. And he must not accumulate large amounts of wealth in silver and gold for himself.

¹⁸ “When he sits on the throne as king, he must copy for himself this body of instruction on a scroll in the presence of the Levitical priests. ¹⁹ He must always keep that copy with him and read it daily as long as he lives. That way he will learn to fear the Lord his God by obeying all the terms of these instructions and decrees. ²⁰ This regular reading will prevent him from becoming proud and acting as if he is above his fellow citizens. It will also prevent him from turning away from these commands in the smallest way. And it will ensure that he and his descendants will reign for many generations in Israel.

The LORD predicts that His people will want a king like the other nations. The prediction does not mean that having a king will be a good thing. It seems that having kings wasn’t so good for the LORD’s people.

Anyways, since the LORD knows His people will have a king, He provides instructions on how to be a king. Take note.

The King shall:

• write himself a copy of the law
• read the law every day of his life

The King shall not:

• multiply horses for himself
• send people back to Egypt to gather more horses
• multiply wives for himself
• greatly increase silver and gold for himself
• lift his heart above his countrymen
• turn aside from the law

The “The King shall” list is much shorter than the “The King shall not” list. Maybe there is something significant in that little fact.

Anyways, the LORD’s people had a few kings who obeyed this how-to, but had many more who didn’t. Since then, the kings of the nations of the world followed along this path. Few obeyed, but most didn’t. In the age of democracy, we still have this problem with most of our elected leaders.

Perhaps someone would take these verses and write a book titled something like “Being King and President and Prime Minister for Dummies.” Someone might make a lot of money with that one.