Faithful Fridays Two: Deuteronomy

 Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

I almost picked the same verse I picked the first time I did a 'faithful Friday' series...(HERE, if you're curious.  It was a good post).  I laughed at myself and then kept looking...and the next words that jumped out at me today were from Deuteronomy 17:18-20:

When [the new king] takes the throne of his kingdom, he is to write for himself on a scroll a copy of this law, taken from that of the priests, who are Levites.  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 and not consider himself better than his brothers and turn from the law to the right or to the left.  Then he and his descendants will reign a long time over his kingdom in Israel.

 You know, there is absolutely no indication that ANY king of Israel followed that instruction.

Each king was supposed to hand copy out the entire book of Deuteronomy and keep his personal copy with him all his days, reading from it regularly so he would never forget 1) that he is no better than any of the people he ruled and 2) what those commandments were that he was to keep.  

Things like, don't acquire great numbers of horses, and specifically do not send to Egypt for horses; don't marry many wives or accumulate large amounts of silver and gold (from the preceding verses in the same chapter).

Solomon immediately comes to mind...he did all of those things.  If he had actually copied out his own scroll of the law to read and study, he might have chosen differently.  Maybe.

But I also think it's significant that the king was to remember that he was no better than the folks he ruled...that he had to keep the same law.

How much different would history be if all the rulers were held to the same laws and requirements as those they ruled?

It's not just a good idea...it's not just common sense...it's actually God's instruction.

Rule of law.