Bible Studies
Instructions to the King (Deut. 17:16-20)
Series: Additional StudiesIntroduction:
1. We read with fascination the biblical account in 1 Kings 10 of the Queen of Sheba and her visit to King Solomon. 2. Intrigued by what she had heard about his wisdom, his wealth and his splendor she could not believe it until she saw it with her own eyes. 3. Her conclusion: “The half was not told me” (1 Kings 10:7). 4. We thrill to read the account. We are impressed by the grandeur, and awed by the magnificence of Solomon’s “success.” 5. But the Lord is not so impressed with Solomon, and instead of seeing this description as “the golden age” of Israel and the high level mark of prosperity, perhaps we would be better served to see it as the most depressing time in Solomon’s life, because it illustrates that Solomon had done just what God had told him NOT to do. 6. Read with me in Deut. 17:14-17.Discussion:
I. God had given special instruction to those who would be king in Israel. He knew the temptations they would face after they entered into Canaan, and so, before they ever went into the land, during the days of Moses, he had given special instruction.A. The king was not to multiply horses for himself (Deut. 17:16).
1. The text in Deuteronomy addresses a time when there was a danger among the people of desiring to return to Egypt (v. 16). Some during the wilderness travels had greedy desires and thought about Egypt.
2. By the time of Solomon such attraction must have diminished.
3. But the attraction of the wealth, the power and the advantages associated with many horses was still prevalent in Solomon’s day.
a. Horses were given as gifts to Solomon (1 Kings 10:25).
b. Solomon gathered chariots and horsemen, and he had 1400 chariots and 12,000 horsemen (1 Kings 10:26). He imported chariots and horses from Egypt and Kue and exported them to the Hittites and kings of the Armaeans (1 Kings 10:28-29).
B. The king was not to multiply wives for himself (Deut. 17:16)
1. God had revealed by Moses that such wives would turn the heart of the king away from the Lord.
2. Immediately following the description of Solomon’s multiplication of horses in 1 Kings 10:25ff the writer identifies how Solomon loved many foreign wives (1 Kings 11:1-8).
3. The Lord had appeared to Solomon twice. Both times God had warned Solomon to keep His statutes and ordinances, “If,” He said, “you serve other gods then I will cut off Israel from the land” (1 Kings 3:14; 9:4ff).
4. Solomon did not have to go back to read Deut. 17 in order to know these things. God appeared to him and told him directly.
5. Still Solomon did not obey (1 Kings 11:10)
C. Deut. 17:17 said that the king should not greatly increase silver and gold for himself.
1. But Solomon’s yearly income included 666 talents of gold, besides that from the traders and the wares of the merchants and all the kings of the Arabs and governors (1 Kings 10:14).
2. And such only represented a portion of the wealth he possessed.
D. It was not the wealth itself that was the problem. It was the direction of Solomon’s heart.
II. The Lord was angry with Solomon because his heart was turned away from the Lord (1 Kings 11:10).A. The kingdom would be torn away from him.
1. After Solomon’s death, his son Rehoboam was made king.
2. Shortly thereafter the kingdom was torn away from Rehoboam and ten tribes set Jereboam as their king (1 Kings 12).
B. Adversaries (Hadad, the Edomite and Rezon from Damascus) arose and Solomon was plagued by them.
III. What God wanted from the kings of Israel (Deut. 17:18-20).A. He wanted them to “write a copy of this law on a scroll in the presence of the Levitical priests.”
B. “It shall be with him and he shall read it all the days of his life.”
C. “That he may learn to fear the Lord his God, by carefully observing all the words of the law.”
D. “That his heart may not be lifted up and that he may not turn aside from the commandment.”
E. “So that he and his sons may continue long in his kingdom in the midst of Israel.”
F. Solomon had been greatly blessed by the Lord with wisdom and riches and great things, but he had turned his heart away from the Lord.
1. Solomon had done just what the Lord told him not to do.
2. His wealth was not a mark of success but of failure.
3. All the world may see you as prosperous and wealthy. The Queen of Sheba may say, “The half has not been told,” but success is marked by service to the Lord, not by horses, wives and gold and silver.
4. It is not a matter of how much or how little you have, but a matter of what your heart is given to.
5. Jesus said, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” (Matt. 4:4).
He asked, “What shall it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? What shall a man give in exchanged for his soul?” (Matt. 17:26).
It was He who told the story of the man whose land was very productive, tore down his barns and built bigger ones and said “eat, drink and be merry.” God identified him as a fool. So is the man who stores up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God (Lk. 12:16ff).
“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in or steal. . . no one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth” (Matt. 6:19ff).
Conclusion:
1. Are you spending your life pursing the very things that God has told you not to pursue? Are you taking great pride in how successful you have been in their pursuit? 2. Are you busy impressing the Queen of Sheba (the world) or are you busy being careful to serve the Lord? 3. Are you known by your wisdom and wealth OR by your faith?
