신명기(Deu) 17장
14. 네가 네 하나님 여호와께서 네게 주시는 땅에 이르러 그 땅을 차지하고 거주할 때에 만일 우리도 우리 주위의 모든 민족들 같이 우리 위에 왕을 세워야겠다는 생각이 나거든
14. When you enter the land the LORD your God is giving you and have taken possession of it and settled in it, and you say, “Let us set a king over us like all the nations around us,”
17. 그에게 아내를 많이 두어 그의 마음이 미혹되게 하지 말 것이며 자기를 위하여 은금을 많이 쌓지 말 것이니라
17. He must not take many wives, or his heart will be led astray. He must not accumulate large amounts of silver and gold.
18. 그가 왕위에 오르거든 이 율법서의 등사본을 레위 사람 제사장 앞에서 책에 기록하여
18. When he takes the throne of his kingdom, he is to write for himself on a scroll a copy of this law, taken from that of the Levitical priests.
19. 평생에 자기 옆에 두고 읽어 그의 하나님 여호와 경외하기를 배우며 이 율법의 모든 말과 이 규례를 지켜 행할 것이라
19. It is to be with him, and he is to read it all the days of his life so that he may learn to revere the LORD his God and follow carefully all the words of this law and these decrees
20. 그리하면 그의 마음이 그의 형제 위에 교만하지 아니하고 이 명령에서 떠나 좌로나 우로나 치우치지 아니하리니 이스라엘 중에서 그와 그의 자손이 왕위에 있는 날이 장구하리라
20. and not consider himself better than his fellow Israelites and turn from the law to the right or to the left. Then he and his descendants will reign a long time over his kingdom in Israel.
God explains how a king should rule his people. It is not by his power and strength to overpower them, rather by the Word of God, not thinking himself better than brothers or fellow Isralites. How amazing advice of God toward future kings it is! He also suggests that the king shouldn't have many wives nor accumulate large amount of treasures. Then he would reign a long time over his kingdom in Israel.
If I simply say the results of the kings' behaviors, they didn't keep this command at all, so the ending was desperate and terrible. The country was divided into two and many kinds of idols brought by their foreign wives were worshiped, making the chosen people more corrupt than any other nations. Finally, it was colonized by many nations and got to the point of disappearing on earth for more than 1000 years.
I don't want to comment only about the history of the Israel, rather I think that we should be careful to follow His Word as I believe that it works nowadays as a living Word. And it is not the word for kings, but ourselves because we were called as a holy priest, a holy nation and His people as well. He didn't call me as a servant. I am His adopted child who would get the inheritance.
Lastly, I will keep it in mind that I should consider my brothers and sisters better than myself, which is His good message and tip for me to keep as I am very quick to get pride and arrogance with perverse speech as proverbs 8:13 warns. I would like to end writing, thinking again that Proverbs, 1:7. The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge but fools despise wisdom and discipline.
