Font Size
This section describes the character, election procedures, and responsibilities of Yahweh’s leaders for his holy people. The major concern of all of this material is that the Torah be observed. The literary structure of this section indicates its major concerns. The first and final paragraphs deal with the classes of leading spokesmen for Yahweh’s functioning righteous community (16:18-20; 18:14-22). Things detestable to Yahweh are listed in 16:21-17:7; 18:9-13; matters pertaining to priests and Levites are set forth in 17:8-13; 18:1-8. Finally, at the center lies the section on the king (17:14-20). The king of Israel is important for our writer. He sets the pattern, the model, for the nation. The Torah should be incarnate in him.
The king is to be chosen by Yahweh, not Israel. He must come “from among your own brothers”; he cannot be a foreigner (nak̠rî). And he is to submit to the teachings of the Torah. He is to study it “all the days of his life.” As a result, he will “not consider himself better than his brothers and turn from the law to the right or to the left” (17:20). A more revolutionary conception of kingship in the ancient Near East could not be imagined. No king in Israel ever measured up to the standard—until Jesus Christ, who was God’s incarnation of the Torah in its fullness.