Tues.’s Devo - Warnings of having a King

Read: Deut. 17-20
The sacrifice and the one sacrificing had to be holy because one day the sacrifice would be God’s son sacrificed by a holy God.
God never wanted them to want a king because He was to be their king, and no human being would be able to fill God’s shoes. But he knew the heart of man so he set guidelines for this king. He was to be chosen by God and an Israelite. In 1 Samuel 16, the people had rejected Samuel from being the leader and wanted a king like all the nations around them. Samuel went to the Lord and the Lord had him anoint Saul as the king (1 Sam. 9:17). God instructed them that the king was not to multiply horses to himself. “And David took from him a thousand chariots, and seven hundred horsemen, and twenty thousand footmen: and David houghed all the chariot horses, but reserved of them for an hundred chariots. (2 Samuel 8:4)2 He was not to multiply wives unto himself. “But king Solomon loved many strange women, together with the daughter of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Zidonians, and Hittites; (1 Kings 11:1) “And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines: and his wives turned away his heart. For it came to pass, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned away his heart after other gods: and his heart was not perfect with the Lord his God, as was the heart of David his father.” (1 Kings 11:3). They were also not to accumulate silver and gold. “Now the weight of gold that came to Solomon in one year was six hundred threescore and six talents of gold, “(I Kings 10:14)
David and Solomon were the beginning of many kings who accumulated horses, wives, silver and gold and it all led to their downfall.
Deuterononmy 18 says that the Levites were to be God’s inheritance. They were to lead the people in the worship of God and do it God’s way…not the way of the other nations around them. Their worship had to do with unholy sexual practices. God promised to raise up a Prophet to talk to the people His words. They were to obey him only if what he said came to pass.
Lord, thank you that we are your inheritance.