To Encourage You

Deuteronomy 17:18-20 “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. 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, so that he may continue long in his kingdom, he and his children, in Israel.”

This morning I’m beginning a study of 1 and 2 Kings. In preparing for that study, I was referred by one commentator to the passage above from Deuteronomy 17. It’s so interesting.  It is in this passage that we find very specific direction given by God to Israel’s kings.  Notice that the kings were instructed to write out by hand a copy of the Law of God, i.e., the book of Deuteronomy.  He was to also read it all the days of his life, and he was to obey it.  Talk about reinforcement!  Can you imagine all the issues that a king would have to attend to?  Think about all the issues you’re dealing with in your life and then magnify that to an entire kingdom of hundreds of thousands or even millions of people.  But in all the busyness, in all the responsibilities, it was the guidance above that God emphasized to Israel’s kings. 

So, what were the benefits if the kings would just do this?  First and foremost, he would be prevented from pride.  Since the beginning of time, pride has been among the deadliest sins.  It marked the fall of Satan, himself, as well as the falls of so many since the beginning of Creation who have followed him.  It is an incredibly destructive vice. Throughout the Scriptures we are called not to pride but to humility. We are given the supreme example of humility in the person of Jesus, the King of kings, “who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:6-8).

So, what is the remedy for pride? It’s simple and straightforward: time in God’s Word. It is in this consistent daily practice that we, likewise, will spend time with “the Word (who) became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14).  And so, the King of kings instructed His kings to cling to His Word by writing it down, reading it, and obeying it. It was in this practice that pride would be averted, and the kingdom would be protected, for the truth of the matter has always been, “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall” (Proverbs 16:18). 

You see, one evidence of pride is that a person becomes “wise in his own eyes.”  He thinks he knows things and has control of things that he neither knows nor controls at all.  And so the Scriptures ask us, “Do you see a man who is wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him” (Proverbs 16:12).  It is by spending time with the Son of God by reading and meditating on His Word that we have our view of ourselves properly adjusted, for it is in this practice that we place ourselves in proximity to knowledge and wisdom that is as high above our knowledge and wisdom as the heavens are above the earth.  And it humbles us. It places us in an attitude of a John the Baptist, whom Jesus called the greatest prophet who ever lived (Matthew 11:11). At one point John’s disciples tried to provoke him to jealousy with the following words concerning Jesus, when Jesus was first coming onto the scene: “Look, he is baptizing, and all are going to him.” To this John replied, “You yourselves bear me witness, that I said, ‘I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before him.’ The one who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom’s voice. Therefore this joy of mine is now complete. He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:28-30).  That’s the attitude of humility that comes from time spent with the King of kings. 

So, are you spending time with Him?  Are you humbly bowing before Him and His Word? If not, it’s most likely because you are wise in your own eyes.  And to this attitude, the greatest King would warn us, “there is more hope for a fool than him.”