Good morning my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
Have you ever wished you could see into the future? Perhaps you’ve even wondered what it would be like to ‘time travel’ either back hundreds of years or forward into the future? As I’m reading through the Bible book of Deuteronomy I’m struck by the reality that God is leading Moses to challenge the people to BOTH look back and remember with clarity and accuracy, and look forward in great anticipation as God describes what HE sees is ahead for them. I think that’s really wise advice for us, today.
May I ask, isn’t that one of the roles of the Holy Spirit in the lives of those of us who are trying to carefully ‘walk with Jesus’ in our day? As the Spirit of God helps us look BACK in time, we can learn important lessons for making wise decisions TODAY, right? And as the Spirit of God helps us look forward into a FUTURE only God can see, Jesus promised the Holy Spirit will teach us, and counsel us, and guide us in the wise path for us, especially as we live in the wisdom of God’s Word. Have you discovered these statements to be true in your life, my friends?
I’m struck today by two paragraphs of Moses’ farewell messages in Deuteronomy that truthfully I don’t remember spending much time in before. I’m in Deuteronomy 17 today where God is giving the people wise caution regarding the future He sees for them. Moses said: “When you enter the land the LORD your God is giving you and have taken possession of it and settled it, and you say, ‘Let us set a king over us like all the nations around us, be sure to appoint over you the king the LORD your God chooses.” (Deut. 17:14,15) God could see that almost 400 years into the future the descendants of these 1 million Hebrews, who with Moses were camped here on the east side of the Jordan, would in fact ask Samuel, their future leader, who was very much like Moses, to give them a human king!
In fact the words they said are these: “…appoint a king to lead us such as all the other nations have.” (1 Samuel 8:5) Samuel the prophet of God had been careful to lead the Hebrew people as God directed him, most of his life. He was by then old, yet he was shocked at the request of the people, so he did as Moses often did, and he went to meet with God and ask God what he should do with this unthinkable demand of the people? God told Samuel to do as the people demanded, but warn them of the great danger of replacing God as their leader, with a human king. Samuel warned them, but the record says the people “refused to listen to Samuel. NO! they said, ‘we want a king over us. Then we will be like all the other nations with a king to lead us and to go out before us and fight our battles.” (1 Samuel 8:19) If you know the story of Israel then you know Saul was chosen to be that first king, but he turned away from God rather quickly. David followed Saul and then Solomon followed David, and then at Solomon’s death the nation of Israel split into two kingdoms of Israelite people, and the nation of Israel was never the same after that.
As Moses challenged the people that day, in Deuteronomy 17, to look far into the future and consider what God was telling them would happen, Moses gave them a clear warning about how to select the right leader. His words challenge me today as I consider our desperate need for trustworthy leaders all over the world in our time, and in our future for our children..
“…be sure to appoint over you the king the LORD your God chooses. He must be from among your brothers, do not place a foreigner over you…” (Deut. 17:15) In business and education and health care and government and even in the church, do you see how important it is that senior leaders understand the people, their history, their identity, their uniqueness, and share their core values? Do you see how important it is that those selecting leaders are careful to seek God’s choice as the best leader for them?
Moses continued: “The king must not… make the people return to Egypt…for the LORD has told you, ‘You are not to go back that way again.” (Deut. 17:16) Do you see God’s warning about senior leaders ignoring the past and leading the people back into the mistakes of the past? Can we even make the application to our families, and how important it is to learn lessons from our family heritage and not fall into the same bondage of our past?
Moses continued: “the king must not take many wives, or his heart will be led astray.” God knew that the customs of many nations over the centuries would permit ‘political marriages’ intended to bring nations closer together, but that would often spell disaster. King Solomon is perhaps the epitome of this catastrophe. The Biblical record says: “King Solomon held fast to them in love. He had 700 wives and 300 concubines and his wives led him astray. As Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods…” (I Kings 11:1-11) Again, if you know the story of Israel, this led to God’s judgment on the nation. May I ask, as you look at those in leadership in your part of the world, what is their standard of morality in marriage and family?
Moses continued: “He must not accumulate large amounts of silver and gold.” (Deut. 17:17) Well that’s straightforward isn’t it? While senior leaders in every segment of society are normally well compensated for their leadership, do we too often see there is also greed and even corruption in powerful positions? Have you noticed how wealth, especially ill gotten wealth, can often distort good judgment and leadership morality, ethics and wisdom?
Finally, God instructed Moses to give the most important guidance for any future king of the Israelites: “When he takes the throne he is to write for himself on a scroll, a copy of this law, taken from that of the priests… 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 the LORD his God and follow carefully all the words of this law and these decrees…” (Deut. 17:18,19) Now that’s powerful isn’t it my friends? In America when the newly elected President and Vice President are sworn into office they place their hand on a Bible as they take the oath of office, and they take the oath invoking God’s help by saying “so help me God”. Often the same is done by others stepping into very high leadership roles. What difference do you think it would make in the lives of all those in any leadership role in your country if they wrote their own copy of God’s commandments and kept it with them always, and spent significant time reading God’s Word everyday? What if all leaders everywhere really did learn to ‘revere God and carefully follow His laws and decrees”?
To conclude these remarkable instructions Moses was led by God to say one more thing: “and the king should not consider himself better than anyone else…” As we look around our world today, or back through history, do we find evidence of those in high places who consider themselves better than others, or worse, even above the law, or worse… do they consider themselves to be god?
3400 years of history has passed since Moses spoke those words to those Israelites that day as they prepared to leave the desert wandering behind them and cross the Jordan river into the new land and a new future. The people knew Moses would not be going with them, a new leader would be needed, and many new future leaders over the decades and centuries to come. I wonder if they had the same questions that day that you and I have today, no matter where we live: where can God honoring, faithful, humble, trustworthy, courageous leaders be found? What do we look for in selecting such leaders? How do we help such leaders protect and nurture those God honoring attributes of good leadership? Look around your network of relationships my friends, do you see some emerging young leaders who may be the bright hope of the future? How might you help them become the God honoring leaders who we’ll need in the future?
And what do we do when leaders turn away from God, away from God’s principles and God’s truth? May I suggest you listen to the audio, dramatic version of Deuteronomy 17:14-20 with the link below and then spend some time thinking about the qualifications of good leadership and what we can do to help raise up these types of leaders for the future, wherever you live in the world today.
Today’s Scripture is Deuteronomy 17:14-20.
Choose below to read or listen.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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