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WHO WILL BE YOUR KING?
(Deuteronomy 17:14-20)
SUBJECT:
F.C.F:
PROPOSITION:
INTRODUCTION:
A. We’re continuing to study God’s
commentary on his own law, the Ten
Commandments. And we are in the section on the
fifth commandment, which is repeated in
Deuteronomy 5:16: “‘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.” And we’ve already seen the fact that this
commandment is about more than simply parents and
children; that it speaks to every relationship of human
authority. Last time we considered priests and judges
and the responsibility to judge justly. And then God
turns to address the subject of kings.
B. In some ways this is a bit anachronistic.
There were no kings in Israel at this time, and there
wouldn’t be any kings for hundreds of years. After
Moses, Joshua led God’s people in to settle the
Promised Land. And after Joshua, the nation became
somewhat disconnected into their various tribes. God
raised up some judges to deliver the people when
they rebelled and fell into hard times. But there was
no real unified, central government until the time of
Samuel and then the first king Saul.
Yet God prepared his people for the time
when they would ask for a king. Not even the king
was above the law, and so God set down rules for the
kings.
I. QUALIFICATIONS FOR KINGS.
Look at verses 14-15: 14 “When you come to
the land that the LORD your God is giving you, and
you possess it and dwell in it and then say, ‘I will set
a king over me, like all the nations that are around
me,’ 15 you may indeed set a king over you whom
the LORD your God will choose. 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.”
A. Prior to their asking for a human king so
they could be “like all the nations” around them, God
was their king. They were not supposed to be like all
the nations around them. They were to live with God
1
as their king.
B. But when the time came for them to reject
God as their king and prefer a human king, God had
already given the qualifications and stipulations for
those kings, in order to prevent the serious errors that
were temptations to those who were so elevated.
1. First, the king had to be one of the
Israelites, and not a foreigner. This was for two
reasons. For one thing, a foreigner was disqualified
because he would not be a part of the covenant
people of God. Why would they want a pagan who is
not committed to Israel’s God to rule over them?
Having a foreigner ruling over them would be a sign
of God’s judgment for their disobedience. But the
other reason was so that they understood that the king
was just a man like the rest of them. Kings tended to
see themselves as above the rest, more than mere
man, royalty and even divinity. Pharaoh had been
considered a god. Many of the pagans worshiped
their kings as gods. It was to be understood that
Israel’s king was a mere man, subject to God as were
the rest of them. Eventually the line of kingship was
narrowed down to one man’s family, the line of king
David. David was always to have a son seated on the
throne of Israel.
2. And Israel’s kings were not to amass a
large collection of horses. “16 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.’” Some of you may be horse
lovers and may be wondering what God has against
horses, and that answer is nothing at all. But the king
was not to keep a large collection of horses for
himself. Horses and their chariots were the “heavy
artillery” of a large standing army, and the king was
not to keep a large army on the ready. If God’s
people obeyed him, they would not need a standing
army because God would protect them and establish
them in the land.
The horses would become a snare of
temptation to Israel’s king. Having a large standing
army would be a status symbol leading to pride. And
it would also lead to a false sense of security, which
is expressed in Psalm 20:7: “Some trust in chariots
and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the
LORD our God.” You cannot, apparently, trust in
both. God hates pride and trusting in your own
strength. And by the way, 40 years before this they
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were terrified of Pharaoh’s horses and chariots as
they bore down on them, and yet those horses were
powerless against Israel’s God.
3. And the king was not to have multiple
wives nor to amass wealth. “17 And he shall not
acquire many wives for himself, lest his heart turn
away, nor shall he acquire for himself excessive
silver and gold.” These were considered some of the
perks and privileges of royalty, symbols of personal
glory and splendor. God would have his king
looking to him as his great treasure, humble and
undistracted. One of the reasons the kings would
have multiple wives was so that they could have
many offspring and ensure their continued line.
Rather, God was their inheritance and their great
reward.
4. Finally, the king was to be subject to and
obedient to the law of God. “18 “And when he sits
on the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for
himself in a book a copy of this law, approved by the
Levitical priests. 19 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,
20 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,
so that he may continue long in his kingdom, he and
his children, in Israel.”
The king was to have his own copy of God’s
Word which he was to read and study and learn the
fear of the Lord, obeying his law. That way he could
not only lead the people rightly, but he could also
serve as a living model and example of a man of God
for all the people to see.
II. THE DISAPPOINTMENT OF KINGS.
A. Is this a great time to be alive? Do you
think this is a great time to be given your 70-80
years? Can you think of a better time? Can you think
of a worse time?
B. I think it had to be difficult living in Israel
under its kings, for they were all terrible
disappointments. Samuel was the last judge of Israel.
He was a kind of transition between the period of the
judges and the period of the monarchy. Samuel was
attached to the tabernacle as a young boy, you recall,
because his mother, Hannah, could not have children
2
and vowed to give her firstborn to God if he would
give her a son. When he was old enough, Samuel,
the child of promise, was sent to live in the tabernacle
and serve there. Eli was the high priest at the time,
but his sons were wicked and worthless, and God was
about to have a regime change. Eli and his two sons
all died on the same day, and Samuel found himself
as the judge of Israel.
C. In 1 Samuel 8, the people came to ask for
a king. Samuel was old and failing and his sons did
not serve the Lord as he did, so they feared a crisis of
leadership.
1. God instructed Samuel to give them what
they wanted and chose a promising young man,
handsome and tall, a natural leader, named Saul.
Saul was a disappointment, who did not follow the
Lord with his whole heart.
2. So God chose David instead whom he
called “a man after my own heart.” And David did
very well, but, well, there was that episode of
adultery and murder with Bathsheba, and he did have
multiple wives, and so he was a disappointment.
3. Solomon, his son, followed him, and
extended the borders of the kingdom and built the
temple. Yet how well did he do? Well, let’s see, he
amassed many horses, a standing army, strike one.
He also had many wives, 700 to be precise (I wonder
if he remembered all of their birthdays?) as well as
300 concubines, strike two. And he did turn away
from the Lord and led the people into idolatry, strike
three.
Is there anybody else worthy of
consideration? Not really. Most of the other kings
were bad, some really, really bad, with few
redeeming characteristics. I could mention a few of
the brighter lights.
4. There was the king named Azariah or
Uzziah, the longest reigning king of Judah, fifty-two
years. He was a breath of fresh air and was a very
good king, though, at the end of his life he grew
proud and insisted on offering incense on the altar,
which was reserved only for the priests. As a result
the Lord struck him with the curse of leprosy, and he
died a leper.
5. And there was Hezekiah, also a good king
who shepherded Judah through some very difficult
days of invasion by the Assyrian armies. But he also
faltered near the end of his life giving away state
secrets to the Babylonians and raising a terrible son
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named Manasseh who became the worst king in
Judah’s history.
It must have been utterly disillusioning to live
in Israel under these failed kings, looking for a leader
who was good to the core, but finding time and again
a man with feet of clay, every last one of them a
disappointment.
III. LONGING FOR A TRUE KING.
A. And what Israel discovered was that all
these kings could not help but be disappointments
because they were never what God had fully intended
in the first place. GOD was to be their king. He was
the only King who could never disappoint them.
B. And what they eventually found was the
God himself came in Jesus Christ to be their King
forever. He is the leader we are longing for. He is
the true Man of God who will not disappoint us
because he is God the King in human flesh. Is he
qualified? Does he fit the qualifications God
established for a true king?
1. Well, yes, he was an Israelite, from the
tribe of Judah, from the house and line of David.
Both Matthew and Luke include his genealogy which
they trace back to David. In fact, he was the true
Israelite. He came out of Egypt as they did. He was
in the wilderness, not 40 years but 40 days, as they
were. He faced temptation as did Adam, not in a
posh garden but in a stark desert, and he was
victorious. So he was truly a king from among his
brothers.
2. And did he amass a great army and possess
horses and chariots in which he trusted? No, not at
all. When he was tempted, he trusted not in superior
might but in the Word of God. He simply responded,
“It is written.” So he supremely did not trust in
horses or chariots, but trusted in the name of the Lord
our God.
3. Did he have multiple wives? And did he
acquire for himself excessive silver and gold? No, he
had only one wife, his bride, and “gave himself up
for her that he might sanctify her, having cleansed
her by the washing of water with the word, so that he
might present the church to himself in splendor,
without spot or wrinkle or any such thing….” (Eph.
5:26-27). And not only did he not acquire silver and
gold for himself, but his grace was such “that though
he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so
3
that you by his poverty might become rich.” (2 Cor.
8:9)
4. And finally, did he read and study God’s
Word? Did he study the Word “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, 20 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, so that he may continue long in his kingdom,
he and his children, in Israel”? He is the only one
who did.
CONCLUSION
Sinfully, the people of Israel rejected God as
their king. They wanted a human king so they could
be like the nations around them. And that’s what
they got: human kings who disappointed them, just
like the nations around them! All of the kings of
Israel were disappointments. They caused God’s
people to long for something more. My friends,
Jesus Christ the Son of God is that something more.
God came as a man to be their king once
again. He is the one who cannot disappoint us. And
that calls us to submit to his authority. With gladness
to own him as our king, to study his Word and way,
and walk before him in humble obedience and love.
To look to him alone for our protection and
provision, our guidance and grace.

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