Questions from the Scripture text: Whom are they to appoint (v18)? How shall they judge (v19–20)? How mustn’t they make judgments (v21–17:1)? What sort of case is used for a case study (v2–3)? What are they to do in such a case (v4–7)? What about a case that is too difficult to decide locally (v8-11)? What if someone does not submit to this procedure (v12–13)? What other official may they have (v14–15)? Which man? What mustn’t he do (v16–17)? What law does he write (v18)? To do what with it (v19)? Why (v20)? What other office are they to have (18:1)? Wha aren’t they to have (v1–2)? How are they to be cared for (v4–5)? Who else, besides the house of Aaron can be priest and receive this portion (v6–8)? What hasn’t YHWH appointed for revelation of the divine will (v9–14)? Whom will the Lord raise up instead (v15)? Consistent with what (v16–17)? How will prophecy work (v18)? And what must they do with His words (v19)? What must they watch against, and do about it (v20–22)?
Who was the authority in Israel? Deuteronomy 16:18–18:22 looks forward to the hearing of God’s Word read in the public worship on the coming Lord’s Day. In these forty-seven verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that the ultimate authority in Israel was God Himself by means of His Word.
In this passage, we have the application of the fifth commandment to the life of Israel in the land. They are to have judges, who enforce and adjudicate the law that God gives. They may have a king, who establishes God's law as the law of the land. They are to have priests, a big part of whose office it was to teach the people the law of God. And God will give them prophets, the ones who firs speak the law of God to the people.
So, as the fifth commandment is applied to the nation of Israel, the main idea is that God is the ultimate authority in Israel. He speaks His Word through the prophets, the priests teach the people the law, the king establishes that law as the law of the land, and then the judges apply that law in particular cases.
Judges in Israel were decentralized. Everywhere that there was a town with gates, the judges would hear cases and administer judgment (16:18). They were to do so not the way that the world does, out of self-interest, receiving bribes and so forth, but judging with righteous judgment (v19–20). And they were not to use the way of the nations around them, setting up something like an Asherah (translated “wooden image” in v21), or a sacred pillar, which they would have as a superstitious way of divining their god’s verdict. And of course, to such so-called gods, you could offer a blemished sacrifice (17:1). But Israel's judges were to do none of this. Israel's judges were to judge according to YHWH’s Word.
As for the procedure that the judges are to follow, the text teaches this via case study: the most extreme violation of the law—one who turns away from YHWH Himself, transgresses the covenant, goes and serves other gods, and worships them (v3). Investigation is to be made, and if it is indeed true and certain (v4), then they are to be stoned to death (v5), upon the testimony of at least two or three witnesses (v6).
There will sometimes be a case that is too difficult for the local judge at the local city to decide (v8). That case is to be taken to the place where the Lord puts His Name, where the Aaronic priesthood acts as the higher court. In this way, the Lord establishes among His people a pattern that has been used effectively in other nations, most notably our own: a system of lower and higher judiciaries, where the decision of a lower judiciary may be appealed to a higher judiciary. And when they do send to those Levites, who are priests in the place which Yahweh chooses (v9), then when the sentence comes back from that place to the town (v8), they must do according to the sentence which they pronounce (v10–11). If they fail to follow the judgment that God has put in place in Israel, then they are to be executed (v12–13). And so, we see in the office of the judge, the authority of God in applying the law.
Next, v14–20 cover the office of the king. Truly, YHWH is the king of Israel, and we see that applied here in several ways in these seven verses. First of all, the sort of king that they are to have is to be not like the kings of the nations (v14). They should not say, “I will set a king over me like all the nations that are around me.” No, if they are to have a king, they must have a king whom YHWH their God chooses (v15). He is to be a humble king (v20), who does not to try to be the savior of the nation according to his own schemes and devices by making treaties, for instance, with Egypt, or multiplying horses or chariots, or multiplying greatly silver and gold (v16–17). And this king does not establish his own law or decrees. He copies down God's law, which is already written (v18–19).
The great mistake in 1Sam 8, when Israel asked for a king, was not that they wanted a king. God had made provision for the type of king that He would give them, as part of the fifth-commandment-observing authority that He would set up in the nation of Israel. The great mistake, if you read 1Sam 8 carefully, is that they specifically wanted a king like the other nations. They specifically wanted a king who would deliver them. they wanted a king who was in the place of YHWH. And that's why YHWH says to Samuel, “they have not rejected you, they have rejected Me.” Rejecting YHWH as the one who delivers them and rules over them, to have a king who is exalted above his brethren, and to have a king who rules by his own will, and to have a king whom they trust to deliver them—which is all to say, to have a king who is like the kings of the other nations—that was the great wickedness.
The third office, then, is the priests. From the enforcement of God's law in the judges, to the establishing of God's law in the king, we're ascending to higher offices. Prophet is the highest—the one who is the mouth of God and the pen of God, to give the law of God. Then the priest who teaches the law of God, and then the king who establishes that law that has been revealed and taught as the law of the land, and then the judges who apply it.
18:1–8 condenses the duties of the priests, which came to the forefront in the wake of the execution of Nadab and Abihu. The people, because of the nearness of God's holiness, urgently needed someone to teach them to distinguish between the holy and the common, and between the clean and the unclean, so that they would not incur the wrath of God upon them. And so the YHWH at that point established this teaching ministry of the priesthood among all of Israel (cf. Lev 10:10–11).
So the Levites were to teach the people of Israel the law of God. They also had the ministry of offering unto God atoning and cleansing sacrifices by which Israel drew near to God. And, God giving them this great privilege to be near to Him, He was their inheritance. Not all Levites were priests. But a Levite who is not from the house of Aaron, if he desires to be a priest, he can set aside other callings (v6), and he can go and he can minister just like a son of Aaron. Since they don't have the same land and wealth inheritance as the rest of Israel, v3–4 establish the necessity of taking good financial or material care of the priests that the Lord has given them to teach them the law of God.
That brings us to the chief office in Israel’s application of the Fifth Commandment: the prophets of the Word. The Word of God is that authority by which He rules and governs His people. So, the prophet is the highest office (v9–22). Israel are not to try to get the Word of God in any other way (v9–14). All of these are illegitimate ways of trying to obtain secret knowledge or divine knowledge, rather than the spoken Word of God (which God has exalted above all His name): witchcraft, soothsaying, omens, sorcery, spells, mediums, spiritists, necromancers who call up the dead. The great wickedness of all of those things is that they are substitute ways of finding out divine knowledge, rather than the plain, preached word of God from the prophets. God has chosen the way of communicating Himself and telling us everything that we need to know. And that is with His plain, clear, spoken Word. If Israel tried to get information in any other such way, the Lord would destroy them.
They were to continue to have prophets that the Lord would raise up. Moses was the first one. The Lord would raise up others like him, and ultimately the Lord would send His own Son as the great and forever and everlasting prophet (v15–22). Multiple New Testament passages identify the Lord Jesus as this prophet. But even before the Lord Jesus came, YHWH would send prophets who speak in His Name, and whatever the prophet spoke in His Name, God would require from the people.
One danger would be when false prophets came, who claimed to speak in the Name of YHWH. One dead giveaway was if he prophesied things, then they did not happen (v22). Another giveaway, of course, would be if he spoke things that contradicted the Word which the Lord had already spoken, for the Lord does not contradict Himself.
How has God given you His Word? Whom has He given to you to teach you that Word? Whom has He set over you to establish laws that uphold His law? Whom does He use to enforce that law?
Sample prayer: Father, we praise You for Your perfect character. We thank You for Your good law in which You apply that character to us. We thank You for this portion of your Word in which You teach us the application of the fifth commandment And we pray that You would give us, by Your Holy Spirit, to live godly and righteously under authority, especially under the authority of your Son, our Lord Jesus, the Great Prophet, which we ask in His Name. Amen!
Suggested Songs: ARP72 “God, Give Your Judgements to the King” or TPH174 “The Ten Commandments”
No comments:
Post a Comment