The King's Responsibility

Deuteronomy 17:18-20

When he sits on the throne as king, --

This is when a new king is anointed and crowned to reign over the people.

He must copy for himself this body of instructions on a scroll --

He is required to make himself his own Bible.

in the presence of the Levitical priests. --

So he will copy accurately every word, every phrase, not leaving anything out.

He must always keep that copy with him and read it daily, --

He cannot misplace it, because he needs to read it every day.

as long as he lives. --

He will never know it so well that he doesn't need to review it every day, his whole life long.

That way he will learn to fear the Lord his God --

This will help him know God better and better, thereby growing in his "fear of the Lord," the reverential awe and respect for God that He deserves.

by obeying all the terms of these instructions and decrees. --

This king will not only know intellectually what God says, but he will also put into practice everything it says to do; this is a faith of doing, not just giving mental assent. It will teach him how to rule his people according to true justice and righteousness.

This regular reading --

Every day.

will prevent him from becoming proud and acting as if he is above his fellow citizens. --

It will continually remind him that, although he is king over the people, he is still one of them, and he does not stand above the law, but is just as subject to it as everyone else.

It will also prevent him from turning away from these commands in the smallest way. --

Continually reading all these stipulations every day will keep fresh in his mind the attitudes of mind that recognize that God is the One that is above all, and who made everything and devised the laws that govern all of Creation. 

Understanding how all these rules fit together, as a "body of laws" will impress upon him that diverting from them in the least way would be like putting just a little poison into the great pot of stew: it will pollute the whole pot. Likewise, every detail of God's laws is woven into the whole body of laws, and to pull one "string" can unravel the whole garment.

And it will insure that he and his descendants will reign for many generations in Israel.

This was when Moses was repeating to all the children of Israel the Law that God had given to him at the beginning of their sojourn in the desert, at the end of these 40 years of wandering, to make sure that they would all have these ideas clear in their minds as they entered the Promised Land to conquer and possess it.

This says that even the future king would be just as much under God's laws as the poorest of the people under him. It doesn't matter how important you think you are, or how insignificant you think you are, you are fully responsible to know, obey and follow the "Manufacturer's Instructions." No one is exempt.

Now, today, as Christians, we understand that we are not under the Law because Jesus fulfilled all the Law; so now we understand that Body of Law not as specific rules to be followed by rote, but as life principles that are to govern our view of the world, our attitudes, and our thinking processes. We all think that "common sense" should be followed, but what has commonly been known as "common sense" is nothing different than the principles God laid down in His Law. When we are so familiar with God's Word by reading it every day for years and decades, and have God's Holy Spirit living in us to teach us the Truth of His written Word, then we will follow the "common sense" it outlines for our lives.

When the king over Israel had his own Scriptures that he read every day, that would have kept him from ever being enticed to be diverted into following all the disgusting, demon-backed idols and practices of the people who lived around and among them. The peoples that God wanted displaced and eradicated from the land He gave His people. The enticing lies that had deceived these people were to be stamped out, and God's Truth would have triumphed, had the people only followed God with their whole hearts.

When the king strayed, then the people under him also strayed. Likewise, when the king followed God wholeheartedly, God blessed him and his people, and prosperity was enjoyed by everyone in the nation.

That's a very important reason why we need to pay attention to who we elect to be our leaders in our own society: If they follow the right ways, we will all be blessed; if they follow the (left?) wrong ways, they will be deceived and they will deceive the people, which has resulted in poverty and all manner of problems in our society.

Even so, come, Lord Jesus.