The King Who Struck Out
Deuteronomy 17:14-20
Our text today is a remarkable passage.
God had promised Abraham that there would be kings among his descendants:
Gen 17:6 And I will make thee exceeding fruitful, and I will make nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee.
But as Moses is writing these words, Israel had no king.
They were preparing to go into the Promised Land.
God tells them, “now when you are secure in the land, you are going to demand a king.”
He tells us the very reason they would ask it – to be like the nations that surrounded them.
About 350 years later, the people came to Samuel and said in I Samuel 8:5 – ”now make us a king to judge us like all the nations.”
God knew they would demand a king and why they would demand it.
Now, God is going to use that.
Through the Royal Line the Messiah would someday come.
He would be the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
But before Christ will rule and reign, there will be an earthly kingdom of Israel.
In our text God lays out five commands that the kings were to follow.
Number 1 – The king should be an Israelite.
Deu 17:15 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.
That will not be an issue in the Old Testament era.
The men who will hold the throne may not always be of David’s line, but they all carry the DNA of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Number 2 – Do not multiply horses.
Deu 17:16 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.
This is not just good financial advice.
Horses were used for one thing in the Old Testament – that is war.
God is telling the future kings to not build up a great army.
Why?
Because they were supposed to trust in him and not their military strength.
Number 3 – Do not multiply wives.
Deu 17:17 Neither shall he multiply wives to himself, that his heart turn not away:…
This is not just about passion or lust.
Marriages involving royalty have been used in making treaties and agreements as long as their has been royalty.
You secure good relations with such-and-such a country by marrying your princess to their prince.
Now you are one big happy family!
I believe this is to keep a king trusting in God and not trusting in his political alliances.
Number 4 – Do not multiply wealth.
Deu 17:17… neither shall he greatly multiply to himself silver and gold.
It was not a new truth that Paul wrote in I Timothy 6:10 that the love of money is the root of all evil.
Again, this is to keep a king trusting in God and not to rely on his wealth.
Number 5 – The king was to have his own copy of the Law to study.
Deu 17:18 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:
Deu 17:19 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:
Deu 17:20 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.
I think this is one is pretty self-explanatory.
Not everyone could afford to pay scribes to produce a hand-copied text of the Law, but a king could.
It was vitally important that he dwell in God’s word to guide his heart and mind.
Now, I will say that there is not really enough evidence for me to know for certain if kings actually did this one.
I think the good ones probably did, but I doubt the bad ones would have bothered.
So before us we have five criteria by which we can measure the rule of a king of Israel.
I want for us today to look at one of the greatest kings of Israel and see he faired with these.
He was certainly an Israelite, which like I said is never really an issue.
So number 1 is good.
I cannot say for certain that he had his own copy of the law, but I think he probably did.
So number 5 is either inconclusive or assumed to be good.
That leaves three rules.
Do not multiply horses – build up a massive army.
Do not multiply wives – build up alliances.
Do not multiply wealth.
If you will forgive me, I am going to think in baseball terms here.
Three pitches.
Will this king strike out.
Up to the plate steps the batter.
It is King Solomon.
We first read of him in II Samuel 7.
David had desired to build the Temple but God would not allow him to do so.
God gives him instead what we call the Davidic Covenant – a series of promises God pledges to keep.
2Sa 7:12 And when thy days be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish his kingdom.
God will establish David’s dynasty through his son – one that we not has not yet been born.
2Sa 7:13 He shall build an house for my name, and I will stablish the throne of his kingdom for ever.
That son will build the Temple and continue the dynasty.
2Sa 7:14 I will be his father, and he shall be my son. If he commit iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children of men:
2Sa 7:15 But my mercy shall not depart away from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away before thee.
That son will mess up royally.
Though he deserves to be cast aside like King Saul, God promises not to do so.
2Sa 7:16 And thine house and thy kingdom shall be established for ever before thee: thy throne shall be established for ever.
That son is born to David and Bathsheba in II Samuel 12.
They name him Solomon – man of peace.
The prophet Nathan names him Jedidiah – beloved of the Lord.
I believe he is marked to be the successor.
Those final years of David’s reign are pretty rough.
There is much trouble in David’s household, the fallout from his sin with Bathsheba.
The lowest point is when his son Absalom tried to take the throne.
Then, about a year before David’s passing, another son named Adonijah tried to take the throne.
Nathan and Bathsheba spur him to action an Solomon is anointed king.
He is twenty years old.
He co-rules with David for a year.
After David’s passing he still has to deal with plots against him.
At the beginning of his reign we read in I Kings 3 that God appeared to him at Gibeah and granted him one desire of his heart, and he chose wisdom.
God replies: (I am just going to read the Kings account, not Chronicles)
1Ki 3:12 Behold, I have done according to thy words: lo, I have given thee a wise and an understanding heart; so that there was none like thee before thee, neither after thee shall any arise like unto thee.
1Ki 3:13 And I have also given thee that which thou hast not asked, both riches, and honour: so that there shall not be any among the kings like unto thee all thy days.
1Ki 3:14 And if thou wilt walk in my ways, to keep my statutes and my commandments, as thy father David did walk, then I will lengthen thy days.
We go on to read of the spectacular growth and fame of Solomon and his kingdom.
We read of his great building projects, the most important of which is the Temple.
He has been king for about twenty years, most of which are good.
God appears to him again with this warning:
1Ki 9:4 And if thou wilt walk before me, as David thy father walked, in integrity of heart, and in uprightness, to do according to all that I have commanded thee, and wilt keep my statutes and my judgments:
1Ki 9:5 Then I will establish the throne of thy kingdom upon Israel for ever, as I promised to David thy father, saying, There shall not fail thee a man upon the throne of Israel.
1Ki 9:6 But if ye shall at all turn from following me, ye or your children, and will not keep my commandments and my statutes which I have set before you, but go and serve other gods, and worship them:
1Ki 9:7 Then will I cut off Israel out of the land which I have given them; and this house, which I have hallowed for my name, will I cast out of my sight; and Israel shall be a proverb and a byword among all people:
Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived, had the same two choices before him that we do today:
Serve God, and enjoy HIs blessings.
Rebel against God, and face His judgment.
He is up to bat.
We are going to throw three pitches to him – the three rules we looked at in Deuteronomy 17 – so let us see how he handles them.
Pitch 1 – Do not multiply horses.
Here’s the windup, and the pitch.
1Ki 10:26 And Solomon gathered together chariots and horsemen: and he had a thousand and four hundred chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen, whom he bestowed in the cities for chariots, and with the king at Jerusalem.
Swing and a miss – Strike one!
How often do we fail on this pitch ourselves!
We may not have chariots and horsemen, but we do trust in our own strength.
Psa 20:7 Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will remember the name of the LORD our God.
If we had more time this morning, I could take you through story after story about mighty armies humiliated before God’s power.
Trust in His strength and not your own.
Pitch 2 – Do not multiply wives
Here’s the windup, and the pitch.
1Ki 11:3 And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines: and his wives turned away his heart.
1Ki 11:4 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.
Solomon swings so hard he falls down on this one.
Strike two!
To say Solomon failed this command is like saying the Grand Canyon is just a hole in the ground.
I heard a preacher say once that Solomon may have been the wisest man on earth but he was not the smartest – why in the world would he want hundreds of mothers-in-law?
I remind you that this is about politics and not necessarily about passion.
He was making treaties with all his neighbors and all his enemies and all the powers that could benefit him.
Do we not do the same?
Instead of trusting in God when we are in distress, we pick up the phone and call that friend or loved one that owes us a favor.
If you haven’t realized it yet, earthly friends will let you down.
There is only One person in this universe that will never fail you and that is God.
Pitch 3 – Do not multiply wealth.
Here’s the windup, and the pitch.
1Ki 10:23 So king Solomon exceeded all the kings of the earth for riches and for wisdom.
1Ki 10:27 And the king made silver to be in Jerusalem as stones, and cedars made he to be as the sycomore trees that are in the vale, for abundance.
Swing and a miss – Strike three!
Those descriptions of Solomon’s wealth are astounding.
The amount gold – over 25 tons came in revenue each year – and the exotic trade goods.
Now, again, before you start pointing fingers at Solomon, do we not do the same?
We live in the greatest, most prosperous nation the world has ever seen.
I was a study this week that said if the United Kingdom were in the United States it would rank 51st – dead last – in GDP per capita.
But our abundance has made us lose our trust in God.
We’d rather turn to MasterCard or Visa than fall to our knees in prayer.
CONCLUSION
We have seen God’s commands for the kings of Israel to follow.
We have seen how Solomon failed in three of these.
He struck out, if you will.
God sent opposition against him in his final years.
He dies at 60 – Undoubtably taken home early.
But I close with the lesson he learned.
Ecc 12:13 Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.
Ecc 12:14 For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.