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Scripture Reading: Deut. 16:18-20; 17:8-20; 19:15-21; 21:1-9
In this message on the rehearsing of the general statutes and judgments, we will begin to consider the matter of the divine government among the children of Israel (16:18-20; 17:8-20; 19:15-21; 21:1-9, 18-23; 22:13-30; 24:1-4, 7, 16; 25:1-3, 5-16). The portions of Deuteronomy which deal with the divine government are the word of God, not merely the word of Moses. We need to study all these portions in order to know God's mind and to know what He is thinking. God knows man and man's need, condition, and situation. Therefore, whatever God speaks regarding man is the final word.
The divine government among God's people is neither autocracy nor democracy but theocracy. Theocracy is government by God according to what He is. In the church life today, we exercise neither autocracy, which is a kind of dictatorship, nor democracy, which is according to the opinion of the people. Instead, we honor God's authority as our government, and thus the government in the church is a theocracy.
Deuteronomy 16:18-20 speaks of the appointing of officers and judges.
There were to be judges and officers in every city. "You shall appoint for yourself judges and officers in all your cities which Jehovah your God is giving to you, according to your tribes; and they shall judge the people with righteous judgment" (v. 18).
As verse 19 indicates, the appointed judges and officers were to keep God's justice. "You shall not distort justice; you shall not respect persons, nor shall you take a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and perverts the words of the righteous." Here we see that the divine government firstly pays attention to justice. Any government that does not practice justice will not last. A strong government is one that is established upon justice. In such a government everything is fair, just, and righteous.
The judges and officers were required to pursue righteousness. "Righteousness, and only righteousness, shall you pursue, in order that you may live and possess the land which Jehovah your God is giving to you" (v. 20). To keep justice is to pursue righteousness. By pursuing righteousness the children of Israel would be able to live long on the land God had given them. Without keeping justice and pursuing righteousness, they could not have lived longer in the good land.
In 17:8-13 we have a word concerning the judgment of a complicated civil suit.
The first requirement in the judgment of a complicated civil suit was to bring the case to the place which Jehovah God would choose (v. 8b).
"You shall come to the Levitical priests and to the judge who is presiding in those days and investigate the matter; and they shall declare to you the sentence of judgment" (v. 9). The case was investigated mainly by the priest. First, the priest investigated the case by going to God and staying with God. Second, in the presence of God, the priest would consider God's holy word. Third, as 33:8 indicates, the Levitical priests had the breastplate with the Urim and Thummim, which provided instant enlightenment. (For the details regarding the Urim and Thummim, please see the life-study on Exodus 28:15-21.) Eventually, through the presence of God, the word of God, and the Urim and Thummim, the priest would gain a clear understanding of the divine judgment and then pass on this judgment to the presiding judge. The judge would then make a judgment according to what the priest had received from God and passed on to him. The judgment of the case, therefore, came through man, but it was of God and according to God. It was truly a matter of theocracy.
The government in the church should be neither autocratic nor democratic but theocratic. It should be like the government in 17:8 and 9. All the saints are priests, but the elders are the leading priests. As such priests, they should stay in the Lord's presence with God's holy word and with today's breastplate — the mingled spirit with Christ and the church. As they remain in the Lord's presence with the word and the mingled spirit for the church, they will receive an understanding that is according to the Lord's thought, and this will become a decision as a kind of judgment. The elders should then administrate according to this divine judgment. Thus the elders function first as the leading priests and then as the administrators.
The people were to do according to the word of the sentence declared by the priest and the judge. "You shall do according to the word of the sentence that they declare to you from the place which Jehovah will choose; and you shall be certain to do according to all that they instruct you. You shall do according to the word of the instruction with which they instruct you and according to the judgment which they speak to you; you shall not turn aside to the right or to the left from the sentence that they declare to you" (17:10-11). The Hebrew word translated "instruction" here is torah, the word used elsewhere to designate the entire law (cf. v. 18).
If one would not listen to the priest or to the judge, he was to be put to death. "The man who acts presumptuously by not listening to the priest who stands to minister there before Jehovah your God, or to the judge, that man shall die. Thus you shall utterly remove the evil from Israel" (v. 12).
Deuteronomy 17:14-20 speaks regarding the setting of a king over the people. Actually, God does not like to see that there is a king among His people. He Himself is the King; therefore, for His people to want a king means that they want someone to replace God. But God as our King should not be replaced and cannot be replaced. Yet, according to our fallen human nature, we like to have a king. This was the situation during the time of Samuel. The people wanted a king, even though this was offensive to God (1 Sam. 8:4-22). Because of their insistence, God gave them a king — Saul. Saul was not a good king, for he was not a king who was according to God's heart. Later God exercised His own choice and raised up David to replace Saul. David was a king not according to God's preference but according to God's heart (1 Sam. 13:14). In the sight of God David was the most pleasant king.
The king had to be a brother chosen by God (Deut. 17:14-15). An unbeliever should not be a king among God's people.
"He shall not amass horses to himself, and he shall not turn the people back to Egypt so that he may amass horses, since Jehovah has said to you, You shall never again return that way" (v. 16). For the king to amass horses to himself would have caused the people to fall back to Egypt. Egypt signifies the world, and horses signify the worldly means. If we use the worldly means or the worldly way, we will surely become fallen and turn back to the world.
The king was not to amass wives to himself, so that his heart would not turn aside (v. 17a).
The king was not to amass silver and gold to himself in great amounts (v. 17b).
The king was to write out for himself a copy of the law in a book, out of that which was before the Levitical priests (v. 18). The law here refers to the Pentateuch. The king was then to read in this copy of the law all the days of his life in order that he might learn to fear Jehovah his God by keeping all the words of the law (v. 19). This indicates that in ruling over the people, he first had to be ruled himself by the word of God. A proper king among the children of Israel was one who was instructed, governed, ruled, and controlled by the word of God.
The principle should be the same with the elders in the churches today. If the elders do not read the Bible and are not controlled by the word of God, they cannot administrate the church. In order to administrate, to manage, the church, the elders must be reconstituted with the holy word of God. As a result, they will be under God's government, under God's rule and control. Then spontaneously God will be in their decisions, and the elders will represent God to manage the affairs of the church. This kind of management is theocracy.
The king was to learn to fear God by keeping the commandments of the law so that his heart would not be lifted up above his brothers and that he might not turn aside from the commandment to the right or to the left (v. 20a). The result of the king's not doing these things would be that he and his sons would extend their days in their kingdom in the midst of Israel (v. 20b).
In 19:15-21 there is a word about the judgment of any iniquity or any sin.
The judgment of any iniquity or any sin was to be done at the word of two or three witnesses (v. 15). It was not adequate to have just one witness. Two were required, and it was better to have three.
If a malicious witness rose up against a man to testify against him of wrongdoing, the two men who had the dispute were to stand before Jehovah, before the priests and the judges (vv. 16-17).
The judges were to investigate the matter thoroughly (v. 18a).
If the witness was a false witness, one who testified falsely against his brother, the children of Israel were to do to him as he intended to do to his brother (vv. 18b-19a).
By the people's doing to the false witness what he intended to do to his brother, the evil would be utterly removed from the midst of the children of Israel (v. 19b).
Those who remained would hear and would fear and would never again do anything like that evil in their midst (v. 20). This kind of criminal judgment thus became a warning to the rest of the people.
Their eye was not to pity. Instead, there was to be "life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot" (v. 21).
In 21:1-9 we have the judgment of one who murdered a man, the slain one being found in the field in the good land.
The elders of the cities were to go out and measure the distance to the cities that surrounded the slain man (vv. 1-2). By doing this they would determine which city was closest to the one who had been slain. Since this was a local matter, it was done not by the priests but by the elders.
The elders of the city that was nearest the slain man were to take a heifer of the herd which had not been worked and had not drawn the yoke, and bring the heifer down to a river valley that flowed continuously and break the neck of the heifer there (vv. 3-4).
The priests, the sons of Levi, were to draw near, and by their word every dispute and every assault was to be settled (v. 5).
All the elders of the nearest city were to wash their hands over the broken heifer (v. 6). Then they were to say, "Our hands have not shed this blood, nor have our eyes seen it done. Cover Your people Israel, whom You have ransomed, O Jehovah, and do not set the guilt of innocent blood in the midst of Your people Israel" (vv. 7-8a). The Hebrew word translated "cover" here is kipper. Literally, this word means cover over, be propitious to. After the elders had washed their hands and spoken these words, the guilt of the blood would be covered from them (v. 8b).
The conclusion of the matter was that the guilt of the innocent blood would be utterly removed from the midst of Israel, when they did what was right in the sight of Jehovah (v. 9).
