17:16,17
There are then some warnings about what the king must not do. First, he must not acquire a great number of horses. Nor must he make the people return to Egypt to get more horses. While here there is an emphasis on horses, there is then a more general reference to wealth, silver and gold. This goes against all the generally accepted expectations of kingship. Nor must the king have lots of wives, for this would lead him astray, most notably to worshipping false gods. Solomon is infamous for breaching this command, though he was not the only one to do so.
17:18
We now come to more positive commands for the king. He was to write for himself a copy of the Law. This would take some time, but writing things down helps us to get them into our minds. The king was to have the Law of God in his heart. The Law was taken from the Levitical priests, so the king was subject to the Law, and was also under the priesthood as well. The kingship system was very different from that of the nations.
No comments:
Post a Comment