Deuteronomy - Lesson 24

Our text in this session is Deuteronomy 17:14 to 20, and our theme is The Burden of Leadership: The King as Righteousness Embodied. We have to set the context for this text. It comes right in the middle of a larger section, which some people think of in terms of, or as, Israel’s constitution, because from 16:18 to the end of chapter 18, Moses is dealing with the various offices in Israel, in their society, that develop, or are assigned roles in keeping this nation going. It gives political structure to the nation and it gives spiritual structure to the nation. But in my estimation, the common concern is the issue of righteousness. 

We mentioned yesterday in an earlier session, that if there is a key text, or a text that is the key to the third address, it is chapter 16 verse 20, “Righteousness, only righteousness, you shall pursue that you may live and possess the land that the Lord your God is giving you.” Again, I mentioned that our translations all have, almost all of us have, “Justice, justice, you shall pursue.” But the way we use that word today, it focuses it much too narrowly. But that verse comes right before this long section, it comes at the introduction to this long section, “Righteousness, righteousness you shall pursue,” this is the goal. 

And so, what we have in this introduction are instructions concerning the guardians of righteousness, which I see here as judges, “You shall appoint judges” as guardians of righteousness. And at the end, prophets as guardians of righteousness. The way they guard righteousness differs, but on the other hand, this is what’s happening here.

Then we have instructions for Levitical priests who are also guardians of righteousness but in a different way. In 17:8 to 13, the Levitical priests, as a sort of court of appeal for insoluble cases (or difficult cases), and then the Levitical priests and the instructions concerning Levitical priests as cultic officials addressed to the people, all of these are addressed to the people. The instructions for the king are not given to the king, they’re given to the people. So, the people might know what sort of king they are to have or how he should behave. And all of these are addressed to the people that they have a communal understanding of how righteousness is to be promoted in this nation. 

And right at the middle, you have instructions concerning the king of Israel as the embodiment of righteousness. So, guardians of righteousness and embodiments of righteousness. 

Well, we can see how this command works, 16:20, “Righteousness, righteousness you shall pursue.” These are the various dimensions of righteousness that we see represented in the third address, actually all the way through this book, ṣeḏeq and ṣeḏeqa. And so, we will see that right after this he says, ”You shall appoint judges for yourself,” but the first kinds of issues he’s talking about are vertical. It’s not social justice we’re talking about; it’s vertical righteousness. No other gods, ritual fidelity bearing the Lord’s name. 

Then there will be text on coveting and remaining pure, that’s personal internal righteousness, and then finally horizontal righteousness towards our environment, towards the members of the family, and the communities in which we live. Righteousness in all its dimensions. So that when we translate this as ‘social justice,’ we’re boxing it in there. It’s much bigger than as we understand it. Social justice. Righteousness only righteousness. 

Well, let’s start at this text. This text on kingship in Israel, I call this, under the influence of Walt Kaiser, Israel’s Charter for Kingship, The Mosaic Charter for Kingship. But notice how it begins, quite naturally, and this again, this is not the style of legislation. This is the style of an orator, a preacher. He’s back to preaching. 

“When you enter the land that Yahweh your God is giving you and you have taken possession of it and settled in it, and you say.” Legislation doesn’t talk that way. Now he is introducing an interlocutor. He quotes what people are saying. It looks like it’s a collective saying, but it’s all singular. “Let us set a king over us like the nations have around us.” That is the nature of the request. We want a king. 

Under that we have to notice, first of all, the context. “When you enter the land and you have taken possession of it, then you will say.” You are inclined to say, you know, “I’d like a king. We’ve been operating okay until now, but we really do need a king.” And we have to interpret this text in the context of ancient Near Eastern views of kingship. 

I mentioned in an earlier session that in the ancient world, this ancient world, kings had primarily three roles and they related to a nation’s relationship to its deity, to fellow citizens, and to the outside world. In relationship to the deity, it was the duty of the king to be sure that the national patron god was happy. The kings functioned as the patron of the cult to keep the gods happy. Secondly, kings were there to see to it that the citizens were kept happy through the good, just, righteous administration of issues that arise in any community. And then finally, it was the duty of kings to ensure the security of a country by keeping enemy nations at bay. And he would particularly, or specifically, he would serve as the leader of the military forces. 

So that Deuteronomistic historian can talk about – at the time of year when kings go out to war. That’s the springtime when kings go out to war. Well, it’s not only kings going out to war, they’re at the head of an army. 

So, Moses is anticipating, you know, we’re going to be settled in the land and you’re going to be worried about the security issues, let’s have a king. 

Given our understanding of Moses, who has a perpetual scowl on his face, we would expect him to say, “Let’s set a king over ourselves.” He says, “Stop it right there. You have no business asking for a king. Look at the kings out there.” 

But he doesn’t do that. After the declaration of the request, “Let us set a king over ourselves like the nations. Go ahead. Get yourself a king, if that’s what you want.” But then he will draw some boundaries on what they expect. 

In the opening of this and comparing the style and tone of this text with what we saw in chapter 12, “When you live in your towns and you say, I would like to eat meat at home, I don’t want to wait until I go to the central sanctuary. I’d like to eat meat at home. I crave meat.” And here, the pattern is the same, “When you come to the land that the Lord God is giving you and you possess it, you say, ‘I’d like to install a king.’” He introduces the interlocutor. 

In the first, he says, “Go ahead, eat meat. All that you desire, whenever you desire, if you want meat, go for it.” And here he said, “You may indeed set a king over yourself.” But then he adds some qualifiers, “…whom Yahweh your God will choose. A king from among your brothers, you shall set over yourself. You may not put a foreigner over you who is not your brother.” 

So here they say, “Give us a king like the nations.” That’s actually ambiguous. Is it, “Give us a king like the kings the nations have?” Or is it, “Give us a king the way the nations arranged for getting kings?” It’s quite ambiguous here. But Moses doesn’t qualify that. He doesn’t quibble at the way they ask the question. 

But the assumption here is we need a king to defend us against foreign threats, to defend us against internal threats, and to defend us against divine threats. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of an angry God. And so, you want to keep the gods happy, that’s how the ancients thought. 

But of course, that raises for us the question, is kingship God’s will for Israel? Well, as it turns out, despite the effect of kings and their overwhelming responsibility for what happened in 722 and 586, the demise of the nations because of the kings whom you chose. Despite that, from the very beginning, the divine program anticipated kings, Genesis 17:6 and 16, “I will make you exceedingly fruitful,” God tells Abraham, “I will make you into nations.” A goy is by definition, a group of people with a king at the head. That’s what I established in my dissertation in another millennium. That’s the difference between a goy and an 'am. An 'am is a social group, an intimate social group, but a goy is a formal, legally identified group with a king at the head, which is why kings and nations are often parallel. So, a goy is a group of people with a king at the head. 

So, “Give us a king like the nations,” reflects an inferiority complex. “We don’t quite measure up to the nations. We need to have a king.” And so, “Give us a king like the goyim.” 

Well, here, “I will make you into nations, and kings shall come from you.” 

And then in verse 16, “I will bless her.” Sarah, whose name means princess. And guess what? She will be a princess because, “I will give you a son by her. I will bless her, and she will become nations; kings of peoples shall come from her.” And you have it again in 35:11. 

There’s another Genesis text, Jacob’s oracles concerning his descendants in Genesis 42:9-10, “The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until tribute comes to him; to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.” 

Also, Numbers 24:7. This is Balaam, foreign prophet talking, “Water shall flow from his buckets, and his seed shall be in many waters; his king shall be higher than Agag, and his kingdom shall be exalted.” He looks over Israel, this is that pagan prophet whom the Moabites had hired to curse the people, and this is what he says. Verse 17, “I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not near: a star shall come out of Jacob, and a scepter shall arise from Israel; it shall crush the forehead of Moab and break down all the sons of Sheth.” So, kings are in this picture. And of course, you know, Balaam was a false prophet. But in this instance, every time he opened his mouth to speak, he spoke truth, because God overwhelmed the evil spirit of inspiration. 

We could also go to 1st Samuel 2:10 where at the end of her oracle, the prophet Hannah, in the Aramaic Targum, Hannah is identified as a prophet, “and Hannah (the prophet) prayed to the Lord,” 1 Samuel 2:1. That’s the Aramaic Targum. And this is clearly an oracle. She is not speaking the way an ordinary human being speaks. It’s poetry; it’s in an elevated register. But the climax of this, Hannah’s Magnificat, of which Mary’s is an echo in the New Testament. “The adversaries of Yahweh shall be broken to pieces; against them He will thunder in heaven. Yahweh will judge the ends of the earth; He will give strength to his king and exalt the horn of his anointed.” His Messiah. Here’s the word. 

Well, of course, this is the introduction, this is the theme statement for the books of Samuel, which really are not the books of Samuel. That is such a misnomer; Samuel didn’t write them; Samuel is not the main character. He’s the first main character or semi-main character, he’s the first one. It opens with his story, but it’s not about Samuel, it’s not by Samuel, it’s not for Samuel. It’s about David. So, I insist that these books should be called First and Second David, it’s one continuous composition. In fact, I think it carries all the way through to the end of Kings. It’s all about David. That’s why Jehoiachin, at the end of the book of Kings emerges. We’re wondering at the end of Kings, what happens to David’s throne? And guess what? It’s still there in seed form.

Well, here this is the theme. And our question after hearing this is, Who will this king be? And so, the people will come to Samuel and say, “Give us a king like the nations,” quoting this Deuteronomy text, 1 Samuel chapter 8, “Give us a king like the nations.” And Samuel, or the Lord says, “All right, you ask for a king like the nations. I’ll give you a king like the nations.” He gives them Saul. Well, who is Saul? Samuel should have told the Lord at that point when the lot fell on Saul, “You can’t do this, because You said the scepter shall not depart from Judah. This is wrong.” 

But I think God is playing with him. I’m going to give the people what they’ve asked for. And He gives them Saul, who is a Benjaminite. And when you look at the end of the story of Judges, what we know about Benjaminites? They’re Sodomites. They’re the lowest of the low. And they’re almost eliminated. And Saul has to be son of Kish. My theory is that Kish is one of those 600 surviving Benjaminite troops. “I’ll give you a king like the nations.” That’s what you want and He gives them Saul. Saul’s a loser from the beginning. He can’t win. But God says—sometimes God answers people’s prayers just the way they ask them. Let’s play your game and see what happens. 

But this is not the person the Lord has in mind from the beginning. And when later it says, “I have found the person after,” the Lord has found a person after His own heart. He’s not talking about—he’s found a person who has a heart like God’s heart. It’s not about David’s heart. It’s about their heart, means mind. The Lord has identified the person whom, He whom He has had in mind from the beginning. That’s David. That’s David. 

And so here Moses says, “You may appoint yourselves one, but he must be one whom the Lord chooses. God has in mind that person. You may indeed set a king over yourself whom God will choose, one from among your brothers. You may not put a foreigner on.” And Saul is a virtual foreigner. In terms of his disposition, he is like the nations. 

Well, what are the qualifications of this king? Divine election, whom the Lord chooses. Israelite citizenship, Not an alien. But of course, those are the two principal qualifications. But then he shifts into the conduct, the handbook for royal behavior. But we must remember that this handbook on royal behavior is given to the people, not to the king. So that the people know what they may expect from the king and how the people are to assess the king’s role. So, he’s talking to the people. 

And from the people’s perspective, what is the biggest problem a king will represent? Ambition. And he gives three illustrations of how kings in that world express their political, self-centered, self-indulgent ambitions. First, it’s using the office for personal advantage. If you read it in this text, you will see it’s very clear in the Hebrew, “He shall not multiply horses for himself, nor shall he multiply wives for himself, nor shall he multiply silver and gold for himself.” Well, what’s the problem? The problem is that kings get caught up in their own status and their own position and their own power, and everything changes from being a servant of the people to the king, to the people being your servants. All the resources flow into the king. Watch it. 

And of course, the three illustrations he uses here are illustrations of ancient forms of political ambition, the lust for power. On the one hand, if we lived in Kentucky, as we did for ten years, we saw lots of beautiful horses there. But the significance of a horse in Kentucky is entirely different from the significance of horses here. “You shall not multiply horses for yourself or cause the people to return to Egypt in order to acquire horses.” Egypt’s got lots and lots of nice horses, that’s where we will go. You’re not to go back to Egypt because that is virtually undoing your history, your story. Don’t go there since Yahweh has said to you, “You shall never return that way again.” 

Actually, we don’t know where that is. We have no record of God ever telling Israel: “You’re never to go back to Egypt,” but it must be somewhere. Moses is aware somewhere along the line that word came orally from God, and it didn’t make its way into the text of Scripture. Well, they’re not to go there. 

And of course, now you can see horses were used to pull chariots. Here’s an Egyptian horse-drawn chariot from exactly that time. Nicely colorized. Here are Hittite’s chariots. And, of course, the Hittites were the real source of horses in those days. Because up there among the Scythians and the Hittites and around the Black Sea, they developed, they produced the nice horses. Everybody in the world wanted these. And even the Egyptian horses, for the most part, will have come from there. So ultimately, your source of horses, the closest handiest one is Egypt, but they came by boat from the north. 

So, here’s a Hittite. This is in the late Bronze Age. Here is another Hittite chariot. Notice these are all military. So, you have a driver driving the horses and the archer there. As opposed to this one, this here, it looks like it’s a single person, but of course, this is a way to show that Ramses the Pharaoh is the big boy. He can do it all on his own. And so, you have these chariots, a Hittite chariot. 

Here is a colorized Assyrian war chariot with nice decorations, because these war chariots are also to be ways of proclaiming the glory of the king. Everything’s advertising. “Look at what a great king I am, you can tell it by my chariots, by my armies.” This is the problem with multiplying horses. And guess what happens when we get a king? What do you know Solomon for? Well, he was a wise king, but he is also an idiot. Very explicitly here, the way the author describes Solomon’s reign. He did all of this. He did all of this. He is the problem. 

The lust for status. He shall not multiply women for himself. Of course, the issue here is the harem. In the ancient world, harems were not only about giving the king access to lustful experiences whenever he wanted them. Harems were ways of declaring to the world what a great king you are. You’d have a guest to your court from another country and you’d show him your palaces and your courtiers and whatever, and you show them all the beautiful women that you have. And as a gift to the king, you might give one of them to him. Or you might say, “Here, spend the nights while you’re in town with this woman.” It’s a matter of status. 

You remember Nebuchadnezzar at the beginning of the Book of Daniel? He needs more courtiers, so he wants people who are good looking, bright, skilled in all the literature and language of Babylon. But they have to be good looking. Why? Because every person in the court is decoration. Everything for the glory of the king, including the physical appearance. 

So, women here, it’s not only about personal, lustful issues, it’s also a status issue. “He shall not acquire many wives for himself, lest his heart turn away.” Oh, this is the real thing. Watch it, kings. If you get lots of women into your court, they will turn your heart away. And that again, that’s exactly what happened. Solomon built temples for his wives., 

And then finally, the lust for wealth, silver and gold for himself, for himself, for himself. That’s the problem with the way other kings operate. There’s a recent essay came out on this very subject, and the thesis of this guy who writes it (and he’s not an evangelical), but he argues that this is an anti-monarchy view of the monarchy. This whole thing. It is counterculture from the ground up. It is totally different. He shall not use his office for his own purposes. The danger is ambition. You believe the media: you’re the greatest. And that’s the beginning of the end. 

The demand is submission verses 18 to 20, “When he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself…” Oh, here it is. He doesn’t write for the people. He doesn’t write for the subjects, the Scriptures, and then read it to the Scriptures and say to the people, “People, you have to follow the Scriptures.” No, that’s not his role. “He is to write it for himself on a scroll, a copy of this Torah.” (I obviously just cut and pasted this in from my Bible works program, or I would have changed “law.”) It’s this Torah that Moses is giving in the presence of the Levitical priests. They are a check on his abuse of power. “And it shall be with him,” this Torah is to be his constant guide, companion, “He shall read in it all the days of his life.” Now you have it. That he may learn, that he may fear, that he may keep, that he may sit longer on the throne. That’s an old formula hearing the Torah, that we might learn the Torah or that we might fear Yahweh, that we might keep all the words of this Torah by doing them. 

And of course, here’s the motive clause. Why is it important for the king to read the Torah for himself? “That his heart be not lifted up above his brothers.” You forget, I’m just one of them. And that is the problem. And of course, we have enough illustrations of the problem that this kind of leadership raises. “That he not turn aside from the commandment,” (again, I have commandment. I should have changed that to command) “either to the right or to the left, so that he may continue long in his kingdom, he and his children in Israel.” 

Do you see what he’s doing here? The danger is ambition. The demand is submission. Submission to whom? As declared in the Torah. And of course, notice the context, when he sits on the throne, he shall copy the Torah. Sitting on the throne is in the act of governing. When you get off the throne, that means you’ve suspended rule. But in the act of governing, acting as king, he is to write for himself a copy of this Torah. 

Secondly, it is to be his constant companion. 

Third, he shall read it all his life. 

When you see this and then you read the account of Solomon, you see how quickly he forgot. 

The significance of the King’s action. One, Moses recognized the Torah as canonical teaching from the beginning. “This Torah that I am hereby proclaiming…” I have a feeling that at the time Moses was giving his third address, he’s already thinking, “As soon as I’m done preaching, I’m going to put this all in print. I’ll write it down on a scroll and they’ll have it so the king can copy from this scroll, and so…” He recognized the Torah as canonical. 

Notice the king does not create laws, but receives the constitution for the people from a higher authority, and he himself is subject to the laws. The same Torah that he has been preaching to the people has to be the king’s Torah. He’s neither above the law nor subject to a different law. It’s the same Torah. 

The expression “copy of this Torah” implies a standard copy from which transcript is to be made. I wonder at what point David might have done this. When did David make his copy of the Torah? Maybe it’s when he was doing that that he became so excited about glorifying God through his reign. I don’t know. Or about worship, whatever. 

Fourth, the Torah was to be copied in written form on a sēper. And now. I simply have to remind you that a sēper is not a book. A sēper is simply a written document. And in this context, it would have been a scroll made of sheepskin or goatskin leather or whatever else. Something like we see here. It is not a book. It’s not this book of the law. That sends the wrong impression that it’s something like this with pages and print on both sides, and there’s a binding on the one side. That’s not what we’re talking about. 

It is to be copied on a sēper in the presence of the Leviticus priests. We’ve already talked about this, but it is the priests who are the guardians of the Torah, not the king. The king is the doer of the Torah. If anything, he guards the Torah by living it. 

Why are these actions important? Well, for a leader, faithful reading of the Torah is the key to a proper disposition toward Yahweh, the divine suzerain. This is critical. It’s when Solomon’s brilliance went to his head. The Queen of Sheba comes in and congratulates him and congratulates the people. Let’s go there. It’s got to be in 1 Kings chapter 10. The Queen of Sheba, what does she say about Solomon? “It was a true report that I heard in my own land about your words and your wisdom. But I didn’t believe the reports until I came and my eyes have seen. And look, the half of it wasn’t told. You exceeded in wisdom and prosperity the report I heard. How blessed are your people. How blessed are your servants who stand before you continually and hear your wisdom. Blessed be Yahweh your God who delighted in you to set you on the throne of Israel; because Yahweh loved Israel forever that’s why he made you king to do justice and righteousness.” That is an awesome speech by an alien. 

Unfortunately, after she leaves, the narrator doesn’t have a single positive thing to say about Solomon. Not one thing. Not one thing. And, you know, he turns from God, he builds temples for his wives and all the rest. It’s the saddest story ever told. He starts out on such a high note, but he forgot who was king in this place: The Lord is king. “And God has made you king,” not to be king, but “for the sake of Israel, whom He loves.” And remember that word ‘love’? Because God is covenantally committed to Israel, He put you on the throne. His function is to keep that triangle smooth and running smoothly, keeping it greased, and keeping the people on track. And his role is to embody what the Torah represents. So, subject to a higher authority. 

Second, faithful reading of the Torah is the key to proper disposition toward his fellow members of the covenant community, that your head be not raised above your countrymen, or is it your heart be not raised above. Very quickly they thought it was above them. 

Third, faithful reading of the Torah is the key to staying on course in one’s devotion to God. Here’s the critical thing. “He shall read all the days of his life that he may learn to fear Yahweh.” What’s the first principle? What now does the Lord your God require of you? Fear the Lord your God. Walk in His ways. Love Him, serve Him, and keep the commands. That’s a summary statement. He may fear the Lord his God and demonstrate that fear by observing all the words of this Torah and these statutes that his heart may not be lifted up above his countrymen and he stay on course with God. Faithful reading is the key to staying on course.

Four, faithful reading of the Torah is the key to a secure future. With reference to the nation, it is always, “You shall hear the word.” When you hear the word, you’ll learn to fear the Lord, then you’ll obey the word. And then you will live long in the land. He adapts that formula here to the throne. He will occupy the throne forever. 

This is a very significant text for many reasons. First, it presents a revolutionary paradigm for kingship. Whereas the kings of other nations often gained power by sheer Machiavellian force, that you rise to the top at the expense of rivals and subjects, the kingship will be established in response to a democratic impulse. You say, We’d like a king. And the favorable response from God, “Go ahead, get yourself a king.” This is not the king putting himself on the throne, scratching his way to the top. 

Second, whereas other states were often governed by foreigners, usurpers from the outside or imperial overlords, the Israelites were to be governed by one of their own under the imperial reign of Yahweh. This is a theocracy, and the king functions as vice regent for God. The chronicler talks about sitting on the throne of Yahweh as his designated king. 

Third, whereas the kings of other nations regularly use their positions to satisfy their own lust for power, status, and wealth, Israelite kings were forbidden from using their office to amass power for themselves. “Don’t go there. You are the servant of the people, not the other way around.” 

Fourth, whereas other kings were perceived primarily as administrators of justice, a function they fulfilled by demanding absolute loyalty, the role of Israelite kings says nothing about that. Judge fairly. The call for judges happened in chapter 16, verse 18, “You shall appoint for yourself judges and officers.” It’s assuming that the judges will emerge from the communities, out of the body of elders and whatever, very democratic. Now, it will be the function of kings to see to it that that happens. He doesn’t have to judge everybody. But in this case, his role is not to run the court system, but to see to it that it operates. He was to embody the divinely revealed standard of covenantal justice, keeping Torah. 

And fifth, whereas other kings codified laws to protect their own interests, to regulate the conduct of subjects, not themselves, the Israelite laws were codified by Yahweh himself. Interpreted by his spokesman who had no vested interest in kingship, and then imposed on the king. This is a profoundly new theology of leadership, of kingship. 

What’s the significance of this text? Well, it’s a revolutionary paradigm. But here he characterized the king as a model Israelite citizen who embodied the Torah, righteousness of the Torah. For himself, he was to read that he might hear, that he might learn, that he might fear, that he might obey, and that he might live, and in so doing, offer the world, his country, his citizens, a paradigm of righteousness. That’s his job. Long before any job. There is no job description here. There’s no—Deuteronomy says nothing about the king building a temple. He talks about, “I’ll choose a place for My name to dwell,” but he never connected it with the king. The issue is not what jobs does the king perform, it’s what kind of person is he? So that the person who stands before the people may always say, “Follow me. Don’t do as I say, do as I do. You want to know what Torah righteousness looks like? Watch me.” That’s the goal. He is the embodiment of righteousness. 

And of course, I’ve just drafted this chart of places where you hear this formula, “Read that they may hear, that they may learn, that they may fear.” It’s interesting that all of these elements are found only in this text in chapter 17 with reference to the king. Otherwise, you never have the complete set of checkmarks. Here you have it. The king is to be the embodiment. Look at the king and you’ll know what it means to live. 

Let’s now make this more general for our own world, our own time, for ourselves whether we are the head of a household, a head in a community, a teacher of a class, a pastor of the church, a youth pastor, or whatever, what lessons do we learn? 

First, godly leaders don’t view their positions as personal accomplishments or based on personal abilities. They are chosen by God. And this is a divine charge, it’s not a personal ambition charge. As a corollary of that, I think godly leaders will often be surprised by what God puts them into. We get what we don’t ask for. Sometimes it’s far bigger than we know what we’re getting. But that’s God’s problem. And He is the one to take it. 

Second, godly leaders recognize that although they are indeed put over the people, they remain one with the people, neither greater nor lesser. You’re one of them. Don’t forget it. 

Third, godly leaders recognize that theirs is not a position of power or privilege, but responsibility. Biblically speaking, this is always true. We don’t keep our thumb on people, keeping them under control. We carry them. And we assume responsibility for their well-being. We don’t impose our definition of their being on them. They know they exist for the sake of the community, not vice versa. Therefore, rather than using position for personal advantage, selling their souls, they are willing to give up everything, even their lives, for the sake of those they’re called to lead. And of course, Paul talks about this in Carmen Christi, the hymn to Christ, “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God.” I mean, by definition, he had the rights to everything in heaven and on earth. But what does he do? “He empties Himself; He takes on the form of a servant and becomes obedient” to the calling, “even to the point of death.” This is the model. Let that mind be in you. 

Four, the primary role of godly leaders is to embody the highest virtues and values of the community. Their lives are characterized by fear of God, which derives from thorough familiarity with a revealed will of God. Well, I am presently involved in a project of refashioning a seminary in a foreign country. The existing form of the seminary is exactly the problem here. The faculty act as if it’s about the faculty, and they’re making names for themselves, and they have no time for the students. Hardly any evidence of any personal mentoring going on, let alone embodying this. We do stuff, we’re not—it is not that we are somebody. It’s what we do. And what we do, we want the world to be impressed with. Well, I’m sorry, that will not help the churches - training pastors in that environment. So, we are trying to get a new paradigm in which the character of every administrator and every faculty member and every assistant faculty member embodies the virtues that the seminary values for the church. That’s the point. This is critical. 

Ezra set his heart to study the Torah and to teach the Torah to his people. No, it’s not that. Ezra 7:10. No. He set his heart to study the Torah, to apply the Torah, and then to teach, has to be in that order. Otherwise, we lack credit, credibility, integrity. It’s hypocrisy. We study not to show our brilliance, but for the transformation of our lives. And that’s when we can stand before people. Come, follow me. 

Godly leaders point people upward to God by submitting to Him, fearing Him, serving Him without reservation. Godly leaders recognize that God doesn’t promise success unconditionally. Success is conditional depending on the leaders’ humility before their fellows. And if you think you got your position because you’re so bright and so brilliant when you crash, don’t blame anybody else. No, fear God. Obey His will scrupulously. 

As the Son of God and the Son of David, Jesus fulfills the Mosaic model of leadership perfectly. And I think that’s what he’s doing at the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount. “I came not to destroy the Torah but to fulfill it,” which doesn’t mean only to give you an exposition that is absolutely perfect. It doesn’t mean only to talk about the significance of the Torah, but it means to embody the Torah before you. I think that’s what Jesus does. 

Well, let’s look at the difference between two kinds of leadership. On the left, you have the role of godly leaders, and on the right, you’ll have the role. You notice right off the bat the relative size of the community in the heads of the people. Where people have a twisted view of leadership, they have a tiny view of the community.

Here is a godly leader. Notice the shape of the leader is exactly the shape of the community. He is a microcosm of the community. This is a godly leader. Yes, he’s at the top, but not for his sake. He’s there that the world may look at him and say, that’s what I want to be like. 

The other one, this is the ungodly leader. Notice the triangle is bigger because they have a higher view of themselves and it’s tipped over, and this is totally unstable. It doesn’t help anybody. This is a problem. The role of the ungodly leader. 

Well, Deuteronomy 17 is not only Moses’ charter for kingship, it’s Moses’ paradigm for leadership in the community of faith. May we be those kinds of leaders for the glory of God.