DEUTERONOMY 17
The first concern of the judges would be to maintain what is due to God by the exclusion of everything idolatrous or imperfect in His service, and next to that would come the adjustment of all differences, or “matters of controversy”, between His people. These are the subjects brought before us in the section from chapter 16: 21 to chapter 17: 13.
God will have His altar safe-guarded from that which would defile it by idolatrous associations. To set up an image or a statue as an adjunct to the altar of Jehovah might not appear so serious as setting aside the altar altogether, but it would associate that altar with things idolatrous and hateful to God. His altar was identified with the revelation of Himself, for it was in the place where He would cause His Name to dwell. All that tends to obscure the revelation of God, or the grace of His glad tidings, is really of an idolatrous nature. Much that has been introduced under plea of helping worship, or making the service of God more attractive, is really idolatrous in the sight of God. There are many things of a material nature which appeal to natural religious sentiment or superstition,
[p. 233] and which men, deceived by Satan, regard as helping to produce feelings of veneration. In practice these things invariably tend to obscure the light in which God has come out in the revelation of Himself in His beloved Son.
Then chapter 17: 1 forbids the sacrificing to Jehovah of that “wherein is a defect or anything bad”. Our approach to God is to be in all the precious perfectness of Christ Himself; anything other than this is “an abomination to Jehovah thy God”. A wrong thought as to the God whom we approach will always have along with it some “defect” in the apprehension of how we approach. If Christ has been identified sacrificially with us that we might be identified with all His acceptability, this excludes any thought of defect. We approach in the consciousness that we are in the acceptance of a perfect Person and a perfect work. What is defective or bad could only be expressive of what we are according to the flesh, and God has no pleasure in that. It is, indeed, “an abomination” which God utterly condemned in the death of His own Son. The only acceptable approach now for us to God is in the sweet savour of Christ.
We may learn from this section of the book that things are to be judged of in the light of divine revelation, and of approach to God only according to the perfection of Christ. There is to be no toleration of departure from this. The man or woman who should work abomination by bringing in what was idolatrous was to be stoned that evil might be put away from the midst of God’s people (verses 2 - 7). But such a judgment was not to be executed without “thorough inquiry”, and the establishment of the truth and certainty of the matter, and this on the testimony of two or three witnesses; one witness was not to be held sufficient. This principle is important, and the apostle Paul told the Corinthians [p. 234] that his judgment of things amongst them would be based upon it. It is a divine principle of judgment in the assembly of God (2 Corinthians 13: 1). There is ever the possibility of one witness being mistaken or biased, but we have the Lord’s own word that it was written in the law that “the testimony of two men is true” (John 8: 17). If two or more should conspire together to give false witness “thorough inquiry” will bring to light that their testimony does not agree (Mark 14: 56 - 59), so that the matter charged is not really established. If evil is proved, and has to be judged, “all the people” have to put their hands to it (verse 7). It is not to be the work only of the witnesses, or of the judges and officers, but of all the people. It is incumbent on all to clear themselves individually and collectively. All such judgment has in view the preservation of purity in the worship and service of God.
Then verses 8 - 13 shew that there is an ultimate court of appeal for “matters of controversy” which are “too hard” to be settled “within thy gates”. “Then shalt thou arise, and go up to the place which Jehovah thy God will choose”. The people of God, even viewed as in the land, are by no means perfect, and divine provision is made for judgment in regard to things which may arise as “matters of controversy”. It is part of divine assembly conditions that there is ability to declare “the sentence of judgment”. The priests, the Levites, the judge, are there, and “the man that shall act presumptuously, and not hearken unto the priest that standeth to serve there before Jehovah thy God, or unto the judge, that man shall die”. God commits Himself to the decision, and woe to him who is presumptuous and disregards it!
“If also he will not listen to the assembly, let him be to thee as one of the nations and a tax-gatherer” (Matthew 18: 17). The Lord puts the assembly precisely [p. 235] in the position assigned in Deuteronomy 17 to “the place which Jehovah shall choose”. In any case of difference between brethren, the assembly is the ultimate court of appeal on the earth, divinely constituted so. But it is well to read the whole of Matthew 18 in connection with this subject, because it shows the spirit in which brethren are to act towards each other in their own gates before bringing any case before the assembly.
The Lord set a little child in the midst of the disciples as the pattern of greatness in the kingdom of heaven. If I am wronged I am to seek redress in that spirit. If I have a matter of controversy with a brother let me see first that I am converted, and have become in my spirit as a little child — all self-importance gone, and a spirit of true self-humbling in its place. Then let me see that I have got rid of all offences within myself. If my hand or my foot or my eye have caused me to sin have I cut them off and cast them from me? Then have I the shepherd spirit that would go and seek one who has gone astray? What a powerful and touching appeal such a one could make to a brother who sins against him! The brother has to be reproved, but in what a beautiful spirit is it done! The object in it is to gain him. He is, for the moment, a sheep gone astray, but this makes him the subject of a special care and solicitude, more than the ninety and nine brethren who have not so gone astray. He is sought diligently. It may not be possible to gain him, for here there is a question whether the straying sheep will be found. “And if it should come to pass that he find it”. The possibility is implied that he may not succeed in his quest, but he makes every effort to do so. “But if he do not hear thee, take with thee one or two besides, that every matter may stand upon the word of two witnesses or of three”. This links Matthew 18 with Deuteronomy 17, and it safeguards the assembly from being appealed to in regard of trivial [p. 236] or imaginary grievances; there must be two or three witnesses to the seriousness of what has occurred. The “one or two besides” would bring an enlarged appeal to bear on the sinning brother — more of the little child humility, and of the evidence of severe self-judgment, more shepherd seeking! What an activity of faithful love in our own “gates” before the case is carried to the supreme court, the assembly! It is when all private appeal fails that the Lord says “Tell it to the assembly”.
There is no court on earth invested with such authority as the assembly. “Verily I say to you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on the earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever ye shall loose on the earth shall be loosed in heaven”. There is no other court which judges in the light of the revelation of God in grace. The assembly stands in the grace of the revelation of God, and it judges in the light of how He has acted, and of how Christ has acted. Everything that is not according to grace comes under judgment in the assembly. The bondman, having been forgiven a debt of ten thousand talents, went out and seized his fellow-bondman who owed him a hundred pence, and cast him into prison. His lord called him a “wicked bondman”! He had not acted according to the grace shewn to himself, and it ended in his being delivered to the tormentors till he should pay all that was owing.
In the place which Jehovah chooses everything will be judged according to the Name which dwells there, and that is the Name of ineffable grace. If one’s conduct is not according to grace it will assuredly be visited by God governmentally. One who will not listen to the appeal of grace, as voiced by the assembly, makes himself a spiritual outlaw. He need not be recognised any longer as a brother. Such is the Lord’s own word.
[p. 237] It may be asked, Where can we find the assembly today? In the present broken and scattered state of the people of God does there still remain any ability on earth to pronounce on moral questions with an authority which is recognised in heaven? These questions are humbling, for they serve to remind us that the public failure and ruin is deplorable. But in Matthew 18 we see the mind of Christ as to the assembly, and we also see certain additional words which were uttered by the Lord in immediate connection therewith, and which seem to indicate that He had in view — as He surely had — the time when the assembly as a complete entity would not be available to hear things or to speak. He said, “Again I say to you”. It is a definite and important addition to what He had said as to the assembly, and it is as authoritative as His previous utterance. “Again I say to you, that if two of you shall agree on the earth concerning any matter, whatsoever it may be that they shall ask, it shall come to them from my Father who is in the heavens. For where two or three are gathered together unto my name, there am I in the midst of them” (Matthew 18: 19, 20). In this additional utterance the Lord speaks of “two of you”, that is, two of the assembly. He brings things down to the smallest possible collective number, and while emphasising the dependence in which such would be found, for all would come to them through prayer, He pledges the Father and Himself to them. Even if only “two” are available for spiritual agreement in the Lord’s interests it is possible for them to be gathered together to His Name, and their being so gathered would answer to the chosen place of Deuteronomy. It is still the privilege of two of the assembly to be gathered together unto the Name of the Lord Jesus, and to be agreed in what they ask, so that it comes to them from His Father. Yea, He declares, “there am I in the midst of them”. No outward [p. 238] ruin can invalidate this. If such were called upon to express a judgment in regard of matters connected with the honour of the Lord’s Name, and humbly and dependently prayed to the Father, an answer would assuredly be given, and one would view with the gravest possible concern any disregard of the judgment at which they arrived concerning matters within their responsibility. One would tremble lest in thinking lightly of such a judgment one might prove to be guilty of that presumptuous acting which Deuteronomy 17 declares was to be punished with death. If the Lord sets in the assembly, or even in two or three of the assembly, what answers to “the judge that shall be in those days”, and “the priest that standeth to serve there before Jehovah”, He will not suffer those spiritual elements to be disregarded. One fully admits weakness and failure on the human side, but the truth of God abides, and one part of that truth is that where assembly conditions are found, even though in extreme weakness, He can and does maintain ability for priestly judgment, and faith regards this, and would not decline from it to the right hand, or to the left.
“Matters of controversy” have arisen, and will arise, but we may be sure that upon all such matters there is a divine “sentence of judgment”. When that sentence is pronounced it is a most serious matter to disregard it. Much exercise, and priestly nearness, are required to get the Lord’s mind, but it is impossible that there could be any “matters of controversy” too hard to be settled in the place which God chooses.
From verse 14 we have the mind of God as to a king. It is not looked at here as being a wrong thought; it is rather God anticipating that His people would take up a thought which was in His own mind. The thought of a king was one of those conceptions of dignity which were created by Christ according to Colossians 1: 16. “Whether [p. 239] thrones, or lordships, or principalities, or authorities; all things have been created by him and for him”. It was a dignity created that it might be ultimately taken up as part of the glory of Christ.
Melchisedec was the first type of Christ as King, but historically Nimrod came before him. And there were “kings that reigned in the land of Edom before there reigned a king over the children of Israel” (Genesis 36: 31). But, though kings first appeared in man’s world, they had a definite place in the mind of God as that which He would introduce in due time. He said to Abraham, “Kings shall come out of thee”, and “kings of peoples shall be of her” (Sarah). And to Jacob He said, “Kings shall come out of thy loins” (Genesis 17: 6, 16; Genesis 35: 11). Jacob declared by the prophetic Spirit that “The sceptre will not depart from Judah, nor the lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come, and to him will be the obedience of peoples” (Genesis 49: 10). These scriptures clearly convey royal thoughts. The thought of a king was of God, however wrongly it might be taken up by men, or even by the people of God. We know that the people’s state and spirit were wrong in wanting a king in Samuel’s day; it was really rejecting Jehovah as their King (1 Samuel 8: 7). But God had His own thought of a King; David and Solomon were typical of Christ as His Anointed One.
The true thought of a king is one who exercises influence over others on God’s behalf. It does not seem to me that Christ personally is in view in Deuteronomy 17, but rather those kingly features derived from Christ which are to be found in rule and leadership amongst the people of God. Christ is the true Judge and Priest and King, but judicial and priestly and kingly features are to be found amongst His people as derived from Him. It is important that kingly characteristics, such as are here described, should be found amongst the saints.
[p. 240] No observant person can fail to notice the immense effect of influence either for good or evil. We all come under influence, and it is of the utmost importance that we should make sure that the influences under which we come are according to God. “Thou shalt only set him king over thee whom Jehovah thy God will choose” (verse 15). The choice of the creature, whether it be our own or that of others, is not to be trusted. We must assure ourselves by every available evidence that the influences which we allow to act upon us are divine and spiritual. Certain persons at Corinth were puffed up, and were getting influence amongst the saints in a carnal way. But Paul called attention to the house of Stephanas as persons who had “devoted themselves to the saints for service”, and he besought the brethren to “be subject to such, and to every one joined in the work and labouring” (1 Corinthians 16: 15, 16). There were persons, even at Corinth, who could be looked up to as giving a spiritual lead. It was, therefore, more to their shame that they had set as kings over them men who were not chosen of God, but who were really “false apostles, deceitful workers”. We are to look out for such persons as are chosen of God to be leaders of His people, and to welcome their influence. “Be imitators all together of me, brethren, and fix your eyes on those walking thus as you have us for a model” (Philippians 3: 17).
“From among thy brethren shalt thou set a king over thee; thou mayest not set a foreigner over thee, who is not thy brother” (verse 15). How important it is that no alien influence should be permitted to be in leadership! The king must first be a brother; he must be marked by the features of family relationship. John’s relations with the saints were of this character, “I, John your brother” (Revelation 1: 9). Diotrephes was of a very different stamp; he loved to have the first place, and [p. 241] he had apparently got it, but he was not a brother; he did not receive the brethren. He had none of the family features of the children of God. How sad that such a man should have got leadership in the assembly!
The king’s heart was not to be “lifted up above his brethren”. Kingship amongst the saints is not what it is in the world. “The kings of the nations rule over them ... . But ye shall not be thus; but let the greater among you be as the younger, and the leader as he that serves” (Luke 22: 25, 26). It is said of Zion’s King that He is “lowly” (Zechariah 9: 9), and all that is truly kingly amongst the people of God must have this character. If we aspire to exercise influence for God amongst His people, and it is right and pleasing to Him that we should desire to do so, we must see to it that we are with them in brotherly relations and affections, and that our hearts are not lifted up above them.
The saints are going to reign with Christ, and it is fitting that royal features should mark them now. It is written, “And they lived and reigned with the Christ a thousand years” (Revelation 20: 4). If we live with the Christ we shall be able to reign with Him; we shall bring a beautiful and heavenly influence to bear upon our brethren. God would delight that one who is truly a brother, and whose heart is lowly, should have a place of influence amongst His people. Such a one would be kingly, as setting forth the excellencies of God, while having low thoughts of himself. We should be ready to honour all who bring such influence to bear upon us.
“Only he shall not multiply horses to himself, nor lead back the people to Egypt, to multiply horses; for Jehovah hath said unto you, Ye shall not return again any more that way” (verse 16). The horse is a figure of natural strength, and it is identified with the world as the place of human resources. No lead in that direction [p. 242] is to be permitted to have influence amongst saints. It is as true today as it was of Israel, that “the guides of this people mislead them” (Isaiah 9: 16). Human ability, natural wisdom and prudence, things which commend themselves to man as in the flesh, are “horses”, but they are vain things for safety (Psalm 33: 17). We must beware of every influence which tends towards the world; such influences are an ever-present danger, as they have been in all past ages. There is no more solemn warning in Scripture than the history of Solomon. Beginning in a lowly spirit, seeking wisdom from God, highly favoured by Him, and yet drifting into every snare against which Deuteronomy 17 was designed to safe-guard him! Do not let us think that we are in no danger of going back to the world out of which we have been delivered. If the secret history of souls were laid bare it would be found that many were moving in that direction. With some, alas! the public course is the plain evidence of it. Every worldly-minded Christian more or less influences others in the same direction. It is therefore of the utmost importance that we should not allow ourselves to fall under such influence. It is directly contrary to all that is kingly in a spiritual sense as suited to be in leadership amongst saints.
“Neither shall he multiply wives to himself, that his heart turn not away; neither shall he greatly multiply to himself silver and gold”. It is necessary for us all to take heed to the word, “Keep thy heart more than anything that is guarded; for out of it are the issues of life”. (Proverbs 4: 23). But this is especially needful for those who exercise influence over others. The affections must be guarded. There must be vigilance lest anything turn the heart away. “Silver and gold” tend to make one independent of God, and make it easy to live a life of self-pleasing. Paul had truly kingly features; he lived to Christ and for the saints; he could say, “I have [p. 243] coveted the silver or gold or clothing of no one” (Acts 20: 33).
None of us can influence others beyond the measure in which we are influenced ourselves. Therefore the king is to “write for himself a copy of this law in a book out of that which is before the priests, the Levites; and it shall be with him, and he shall read therein all the days of his life; that he may learn to fear Jehovah his God, to keep all the words of this law and these statutes, to do them” (verses 18, 19). The king was to be a model of subjection and obedience for all the people. He was to be the expression of God’s will, as carrying it out himself. The best way to write a copy of what is in God’s will for His people is to become the living transcript of it ourselves. I doubt whether we have any true influence for God beyond the measure in which we are a model for others to imitate. The Lord has Himself left us a model (1 Peter 2: 21); He was altogether that which He said (John 8: 25). Paul tells us that he was a model (Philippians 3: 17), and he exhorts Timothy to be “a model of the believers, in word, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity” (1 Timothy 4: 12). He says that the Thessalonians became models to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia (1 Thessalonians 1: 7). That is how to have true kingly character amongst the people of God; we cannot exercise influence for Him in any other way.