Year 1, Week 21, Day 5 Bible Reading Observations

Year 1, Week 21, Day 5

I have a brief observation for today’s reading of Deuteronomy 16-17.

Today’s reading continues the re-presentation of the Mosaic Law. The second generation of Israelites, who will soon be entering the Promised Land, are given afresh the requirements for living as the LORD’s covenant people. Deuteronomy 16 begins with matters introduced in the previous day’s reading. Israel’s calendar was to revolve around the worship of the LORD. Thus, three main annual feasts are restated. Then the second part of Deuteronomy 16 and continuing through Deuteronomy 17 pertains to those in authority over Israel: judge, king, priest, and prophet. These matters associated with authority coincide with the fifth commandment: “Honor your father and your mother, as the LORD your God commanded you, that your days may be long, and that it may go well with you in the land that the LORD your God is giving you” (Deuteronomy 5:16). Lessons of authority, which are to be first established in the home, help to prepare people to live in proper relationship to structures of authority within the broader culture.

What struck me in today’s reading was the LORD’s instructions informing Israel’s leaders how they were to carry out their functions: “Give the king your justice, O God, and your righteousness to the royal son! May he judge your people with righteousness, and your poor with justice!” (Psalm 72:1-2). Israel’s judges were to judge righteously: “You shall appoint judges and officers in all your towns that the LORD your God is giving you, according to your tribes, and they shall judge the people with righteous judgment.” (Deuteronomy 16:18). When matters of judgment required priestly involvement, they too were to judge righteously: “If any case arises requiring decision between one kind of homicide and another, one kind of legal right and another, or one kind of assault and another, any case within your towns that is too difficult for you, then you shall arise and go up to the place that the LORD your God will choose. And you shall come to the Levitical priests and to the judge who is in office in those days, and you shall consult them, and they shall declare to you the decision.” (Deuteronomy 17:8-9). And when the day comes that Israel would have a king, He too must rule justly as taught to him by the Law of God: “And it shall be with him, and he shall read in it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the LORD his God by keeping all the words of this law and these statutes, and doing them, that his heart may not be lifted up above his brothers, and that he may not turn aside from the commandment, either to the right hand or to the left” (Deuteronomy 17:19-20a).

The kind of justice and righteousness that Israel’s leaders were to govern was defined by the Law: “You shall not pervert justice. You shall not show partiality, and you shall not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and subverts the cause of the righteous. Justice, and only justice, you shall follow, that you may live and inherit the land that the LORD your God is giving you.” (Deuteronomy 16:19-20). The justice that Israel’s leaders were to render was to be a reflection of God’s own justice and righteousness. A crucial element of Biblical justice is impartiality: “For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who is not partial and takes no bribe. He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing.” (Deuteronomy 10:17-18). Thus, Israel’s leaders were to govern in the same manner: “You shall not be partial in judgment. You shall hear the small and the great alike. You shall not be intimidated by anyone, for the judgment is God’s.” (Deuteronomy 1:17). Biblical justice does not favor either the rich or the poor, the mighty or the little. One’s status in a culture does not determine the outcome of what defines justice.

Israel’s leaders were to be men who were governed and not merely men who governed. The judge, priest, king, and prophet were to be governed by the LORD. The Law and not merely their own whims would define how they were to live and lead. Israel’s leaders would not have unlimited power, but have restricted power as evidenced by parameters set upon Israel’s kings: “One from among your brothers you shall set as king over you. You may not put a foreigner over you, who is not your brother. Only he must not acquire many horses for himself or cause the people to return to Egypt in order to acquire many horses, since the LORD has said to you, ‘You shall never return that way again.’ And he shall not acquire many wives for himself, lest his heart turn away, nor shall he acquire for himself excessive silver and gold.” (Deuteronomy 17:15-17). A just leader who governs righteously is one whose starting place of authority is the acknowledgment that there is a higher and greater authority than himself. A just leader who governs with true righteousness first obeys God personally for the LORD is the object of His reliance: “His delight is not in the strength of the horse, nor his pleasure in the legs of a man, but the LORD takes pleasure in those who fear him, in those who hope in his steadfast love.” (Psalm 147:10-11).

What struck you in today’s reading? What questions were prompted from today’s reading?

Pastor Joe