Of course we know that all these offices could only officially unite in one glorious Man.
From our last study, we saw God’s plan for governing Israel. There were going to be judges (16:18-20; 17:8-13), kings (17:14-20), priests (18:1-8), and prophets (18:15-22). We looked at the judges, and then began to think about the kings. The first requirement: “You shall surely set a king over you whom the Lord your God chooses” (Deut 17:15). But their first king, Saul, was a man after their own heart. Not till David was there a king after God’s heart (see 1 Sam 13:14). The second regulation reads, “you may not set a foreigner over you” (Deut 17:15). Yet this was exactly the case at the time Jesus was born. The Herods were Idumeans, the people from Esau, and that certainly didn’t work out well! Then, warned the Lord, there are three traps that will take a man down, especially a king. “He shall not multiply horses for himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt to multiply horses…Neither shall he multiply wives for himself, lest his heart turn away; nor shall he greatly multiply silver and gold for himself” (vv 16-17). They were not to multiply horses, especially from Egypt, because, like Lot, they could gain resources but lose their heart to Egypt (see Gen 13:10). The Lord wanted their watchword to be, “Some trust in chariots, and some in horses; but we will remember the name of the Lord our God” (Ps 20:7). Might, maids, and money! Yet these were exactly the three factors that turned Solomon (and thousands since) from following the Lord (1 Ki 10:26–11:4). He wrote some good books, but didn’t get around to reading them. That’s why the final challenge was: “he shall write for himself a copy of this law in a book…and he shall read it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God” (Deut 17:18-19).