Chapter 17

Moses continues to remind them of God's commandments.  Starts off this way:

1 "You shall not sacrifice to the LORD your God an ox or a sheep in which is a blemish, any defect whatever, for that is an abomination to the LORD your God. [Deu 17:1 ESV]

Anything less than the best we can find to offer to God is an abomination.  He knows.  Always.  Reminds me of that NT verse about putting your hand to the plow and looking back. 

Anyone who was worshiping other Gods in Israel was to be stoned at the gates of his city on the testimony of two or three witnesses.  The witnesses were to cast the first stones.

5 then you shall bring out to your gates that man or woman who has done this evil thing, and you shall stone that man or woman to death with stones. [Deu 17:5 ESV]

God was beyond serious about being a jealous God.  Any who worshiped other gods were to be killed - after a very careful investigation to insure that they had actually committed such a crime.  The reason is very simple, and found here:

7 ...So you shall purge the evil from your midst. [Deu 17:7b ESV]  This was never to get even a foothold.  It was like cancer.  If even one cell remains, it can, and often does, kill the whole organism.  And look at the things we are allowing to go unpunished, or even uncondemned, in this country.  Think of the things we are not even allowed to question!  We should be very glad that the Mosaic Law is no longer in force world wide.

Difficult criminal cases were to be taken to the Levitical Priest in charge.  So church and state clearly are the same here where punishment for crime is concerned.  If they took it to the Priest/Judge, then they had to abide to the letter by what he said.  To do otherwise brought a death sentence on you.

Here is an interesting verse:

14 "When you come to the land that the LORD your God is giving you, and you possess it and dwell in it and then say, 'I will set a king over me, like all the nations that are around me,' 15 you may indeed set a king over you whom the LORD your God will choose. One from among your brothers you shall set as king over you. You may not put a foreigner over you, who is not your brother. [Deu 17:14-15 ESV]

God anticipated that they would want a King.  God goes to great lengths to talk them out of having one when this time comes, yet God not only knows it is coming, but has set up rules for the eventual king to abide by.

No King should acquire many horses, many wives, or much silver and gold.  The first was about returning to Egypt.  Apparently there were a lot of horses for sale there.  The second would make a man turn from God to the false gods of his wives, presumably to please and pacify them.  The last so that he would not grow presumptuous about where his power came from.

2021 - Still, it must have seemed odd to the people that God would give them the standards for what a King should be and for how he would conduct himself, and then tell them later that He didn't want them to have a king.  This is one of those that is very difficult to understand.  Like "it's a bad thing, but if you do it, it must be done this way."  Kind of like Gad and Reuben and half of Manasseh staying in Gilead when that was not the promised land.  They were rich and well off for a while, but they couldn't  hang on to land that God had not intended for them.  You can have it,  but some day you will realize it was less than you could have had...

It goes on to say that the King has to have a book, with all these laws in it, a book approved by the Levitical priests, and while King, he is to continually read this book.  This is so he will always rule in accordance with this covenant.  Even as King, the covenant supersedes as to the conduct and requirements that God makes.  No King is allowed to do otherwise than the covenant says.  I had not noticed this before.  I don't recall anything in Samuel through Chronicles that says this was done.  Until they find that book of the law in either Josiah or Hezekiah's day, read that book, and shake in fear when they realize how far they've drifted.  I will try and look for other references to such a book as I read on this time.