Deuteronomy 17:14 ¶ When
thou art come unto the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee, and shalt
possess it, and shalt dwell therein, and shalt say, I will set a king over me,
like as all the nations that are about me; 15 Thou shalt in any wise set him king
over thee, whom the LORD thy God shall choose: one from among thy
brethren shalt thou set king over thee: thou mayest not set a stranger over
thee, which is not thy brother. 16
But he shall not multiply horses to himself, nor cause the people to
return to Egypt, to the end that he should multiply horses: forasmuch as the
LORD hath said unto you, Ye shall henceforth return no more that way. 17 Neither shall he multiply wives to himself,
that his heart turn not away: neither shall he greatly multiply to himself
silver and gold. 18 And it shall be,
when he sitteth upon the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write him a copy
of this law in a book out of that which is before the priests the
Levites: 19 And it shall be with him,
and he shall read therein all the days of his life: that he may learn to fear
the LORD his God, to keep all the words of this law and these statutes, to do
them: 20 That his heart be not lifted up
above his brethren, and that he turn not aside from the commandment, to
the right hand, or to the left: to the end that he may prolong his
days in his kingdom, he, and his children, in the midst of Israel.
Here, it is predicted what will happen in Israel later.
1Samuel 8:4 ¶ Then all the
elders of Israel gathered themselves together, and came to Samuel unto Ramah,
5 And said unto him, Behold, thou art
old, and thy sons walk not in thy ways: now make us a king to judge us like all
the nations. 6 But the thing displeased
Samuel, when they said, Give us a king to judge us. And Samuel prayed unto the
LORD. 7 And the LORD said unto Samuel,
Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee: for they
have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over
them. 8 According to all the works which
they have done since the day that I brought them up out of Egypt even unto this
day, wherewith they have forsaken me, and served other gods, so do they also
unto thee. 9 Now therefore hearken unto
their voice: howbeit yet protest solemnly unto them, and shew them the manner
of the king that shall reign over them. 10
And Samuel told all the words of the LORD unto the people that asked of
him a king. 11 And he said, This will be
the manner of the king that shall reign over you: He will take your sons, and
appoint them for himself, for his chariots, and to be his horsemen; and some
shall run before his chariots. 12 And he
will appoint him captains over thousands, and captains over fifties; and will
set them to ear his ground, and to reap his harvest, and to make his
instruments of war, and instruments of his chariots. 13 And he will take your daughters to be
confectionaries, and to be cooks, and to be bakers. 14 And he will take your fields, and your
vineyards, and your oliveyards, even the best of them, and give them to his
servants. 15 And he will take the tenth
of your seed, and of your vineyards, and give to his officers, and to his
servants. 16 And he will take your
menservants, and your maidservants, and your goodliest young men, and your
asses, and put them to his work. 17 He
will take the tenth of your sheep: and ye shall be his servants. 18 And ye shall cry out in that day because of
your king which ye shall have chosen you; and the LORD will not hear you in
that day. 19 Nevertheless the people
refused to obey the voice of Samuel; and they said, Nay; but we will have a
king over us; 20 That we also may be
like all the nations; and that our king may judge us, and go out before us, and
fight our battles. 21 And Samuel heard
all the words of the people, and he rehearsed them in the ears of the LORD.
22 And the LORD said to Samuel, Hearken
unto their voice, and make them a king. And Samuel said unto the men of Israel,
Go ye every man unto his city.
God does not create civilizations and cultures but permits man to
do so. He only places conditions on their functioning and since they rarely
obey they face His judgment. But, here is an example of how God modifies man’s
desires.
Notice how even the “good” kings disobeyed these principles God
set down. Solomon got horses from Egypt.
1Kings 10:28 And Solomon
had horses brought out of Egypt, and linen yarn: the king’s merchants received
the linen yarn at a price.
He took many wives which turned the heart of this wisest of all
humans. As Nehemiah noted;
Nehemiah 13:23 ¶ In those
days also saw I Jews that had married wives of Ashdod, of Ammon, and of Moab: 24 And their children spake half in the speech
of Ashdod, and could not speak in the Jews’ language, but according to the
language of each people. 25 And I
contended with them, and cursed them, and smote certain of them, and plucked
off their hair, and made them swear by God, saying, Ye shall not give your
daughters unto their sons, nor take their daughters unto your sons, or for
yourselves. 26 Did not Solomon king of
Israel sin by these things? yet among many nations was there no king like him,
who was beloved of his God, and God made him king over all Israel: nevertheless
even him did outlandish women cause to sin. 27
Shall we then hearken unto you to do all this great evil, to transgress
against our God in marrying strange wives?
1Kings 11:1 ¶ But king
Solomon loved many strange women, together with the daughter of Pharaoh, women
of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Zidonians, and Hittites; 2 Of the nations concerning which the LORD said
unto the children of Israel, Ye shall not go in to them, neither shall they
come in unto you: for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods:
Solomon clave unto these in love. 3 And
he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines: and his
wives turned away his heart. 4 For it
came to pass, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned away his heart after
other gods: and his heart was not perfect with the LORD his God, as was the
heart of David his father. 5 For Solomon
went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Zidonians, and after Milcom the
abomination of the Ammonites. 6 And
Solomon did evil in the sight of the LORD, and went not fully after the LORD,
as did David his father. 7 Then did
Solomon build an high place for Chemosh, the abomination of Moab, in the hill
that is before Jerusalem, and for Molech, the abomination of the children of
Ammon. 8 And likewise did he for all his
strange wives, which burnt incense and sacrificed unto their gods.
9 ¶ And the LORD was angry with Solomon, because
his heart was turned from the LORD God of Israel, which had appeared unto him
twice, 10 And had commanded him
concerning this thing, that he should
not go after other gods: but he kept not that which the LORD commanded.
1Kings 10:21 And all king
Solomon’s drinking vessels were of gold, and all the vessels of the house of
the forest of Lebanon were of pure gold; none were of silver: it was nothing
accounted of in the days of Solomon.
Notice also how the kings disregarded God’s commandments with
regard to His law and how shocked one was to find the Law in written form
realizing that by reading it the kingdom was judged.
2Chronicles 34:14 ¶ And
when they brought out the money that was brought into the house of the LORD,
Hilkiah the priest found a book of the law of the LORD given by Moses. 15 And
Hilkiah answered and said to Shaphan the scribe, I have found the book of the
law in the house of the LORD. And Hilkiah delivered the book to Shaphan.
16 And Shaphan carried the book to the
king, and brought the king word back again, saying, All that was committed to
thy servants, they do it. 17 And they
have gathered together the money that was found in the house of the LORD, and
have delivered it into the hand of the overseers, and to the hand of the
workmen. 18
Then Shaphan the scribe told the king, saying, Hilkiah the priest
hath given me a book. And Shaphan read it before the king. 19 And it came to pass, when the king had heard
the words of the law, that he rent his clothes. 20 And the king commanded Hilkiah, and Ahikam
the son of Shaphan, and Abdon the son of Micah, and Shaphan the scribe, and
Asaiah a servant of the king’s, saying, 21
Go, enquire of the LORD for me, and for them that are left in Israel and
in Judah, concerning the words of the book that is found: for great is the
wrath of the LORD that is poured out upon us, because our fathers have not kept
the word of the LORD, to do after all that is written in this book.
We have a great advantage of having so many Bibles around today.
Imagine a king who finds a written copy of the Law to be an amazing thing to
find and a distressing thing to read. Clearly, previous kings not long after
Solomon did not read the Bible daily because they didn’t have one.
Essentially, the basic requirement for kingship was clear, that
is, kingship approved by God.
2Samuel 23:3 The God of
Israel said, the Rock of Israel spake to me, He that ruleth over men must be
just, ruling in the fear of God.
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