You Shall Not Pervert Justice
Deuteronomy 16:18–18:22 – Deuteronomy: Then You Shall Live
Sixth Sunday after Epiphany – February 16, 2020 (am)
We apologize that the recording of this sermon is not available due to technical difficulties. Please find the text of the sermon below.
“You Shall Not Pervert Justice”
How important is if for the leaders of God’s people to model the obedience He requires? That seems like a pretty easy question to answer, doesn’t it? How could anyone lead God’s people in His way without walking in His way themselves? We expect that those who are shepherding us to live in a way that honors God are supposed to be showing us what that should look like. But the fact remains that far too often they don’t. Right here in our own area there are pastors whose names we recognize and whose ministries we’ve appreciated who’ve lived lives of sexual misconduct or gambling or abusive leadership or lavish materialism. Hearing about these things is unsettling on more levels than we can even identify. It can leave us wondering whether anyone truly honors God.
Moses is talking to Israel on this subject in our passage today. He speaks of those who serve as judge or priest or prophet or even king. He gives instruction on how each of these leaders should act once Israel is established in the land. And he also addresses how God’s people should respond. Let’s look at this passage under two headings.
Seeing the Sense of Moses’ Instructions
The judges are the first group Moses mentions, and he opens with some instruction on the sort of character they should exhibit. 16:18 You shall appoint judges and officers in all your towns that the Lord your God is giving you, according to your tribes, and they shall judge the people with righteous judgment. 19 You shall not pervert justice. You shall not show partiality, and you shall not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and subverts the cause of the righteous. 20 Justice, and only justice, you shall follow, that you may live and inherit the land that the Lord your God is giving you. This gives a good taste of where Moses is headed in this section. The persons and practice of your judges should reflect the character of your God!
Moses also assumes that an occasional gnarly case will arise in judging the people once they spread out through the land. Those should be taken to the central sanctuary (17:8-13), the place that the Lord… will choose (17:8, 10) to put his name here (12:21); 17:9 … you shall come to the Levitical priests and to the judge who is in office in those days, and you shall consult them, and they shall declare to you the decision. 10 … And you shall be careful to do according to all that they direct you. … 12 The man who acts presumptuously by not obeying the priest…, or the judge, that man shall die. So you shall purge the evil from Israel. 13 And all the people shall hear and fear and not act presumptuously again. A bit later (18:1-8), Moses reaffirms and re-specifies the portion of Israel’s tithe that the priests and Levites should receive, reminding Israel of how this system is to be sustained.
But we get an even clearer picture of the sweet uniquenesses of life in a theocracy as we read about their eventual king (17:14-20). Just listen: 17:14 When you come to the land that the Lord your God is giving you, … 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—the Lord is green-lighting this plan even before they move into the land; this was part of His plan all along! But your king must be one 15 … 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. Their king must be a man of the people, one of their very own. But that’s not his only uniqueness. Israel may want a king… like all the nations… around [them], but their king will surely stand apart from all of those: 16 … he must not acquire many horses for himself. Really? The number of horses a king has is typically a measure of his power, his strength in battle. But Israel’s greatest king under the old covenant understood. David wrote: Psa.20:7 Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God. Now, there’s a king Israel can follow! 17 And he shall not acquire many wives for himself, lest his heart turn away—well, we know what happened there—nor shall he acquire for himself excessive silver and gold, meaning he shouldn’t pursue wealth for its own sake, like it’s an end in itself. But we know that it was God Himself who rewarded Solomon with all but immeasurable wealth because of his heart early on the follow the Lord. 18 And when [your king] sits on the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself in a book a copy of this law, approved by the Levitical priests. This is what sets Israel’s king apart from the those of other nations: he’d know and be regularly reminded that he was a man under authority. He would write out a copy of the law of God with his own hand. 19 And it shall be with him, and he shall read in it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God by keeping all the words of this law and these statutes, and doing them, 20 that his heart may not be lifted up above his brothers even though he’s their king, and that he may not turn aside from the commandment, either to the right hand or to the left, so that he may continue long in his kingdom, he and his children, in Israel. Wouldn’t you love a king like that?
But there’s yet another leader who would play a large role in the implementation of the theocracy, mediating God’s rule over His people in the land. 15 The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me, Moses wrote, and, once again, he’ll come from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen. You’ll not need to be consulting anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens, or a sorcerer or a charmer or a medium or a necromancer or one who inquires of the dead (18:10-11). You won’t need to set up a pillar or an Asherah pole (16:21-22). You won’t need to [serve] other gods or [worship] them, or the sun or the moon or any of the host of heaven, Moses declared, all of which [God has] forbidden (17:3). All of this is an abomination to the Lord your God (17:1, 4; 18:9, 12). And it’s entirely unneeded. God Himself will speak to you through a prophet He [raises] up from among you. And you’ll be able to know he’s a prophet of the Lord because everything he speaks will come to pass! (18:22) And if any alleged prophet doesn’t pass this test, that same prophet shall die! (20) That should take care of it!
Hearing the Heart of Moses’ Instructions
These, then, are the human leaders that should operate on God’s behalf in the implementation of His theocracy in Israel. And these are the leaders the people should to honor in the ways God [instructed]: judge, prophet, priest, and king. This is Moses’ instruction on the fifth commandment—as Israel honored their parents, they’d learn to honor these leaders.
Two sections of this passage (16:21-17:7; 18:9-14) call the people to look to God’s appointed leaders rather than to all the abominable ways the people in the land sought to foresee the future or control their circumstances or avoid adversity. One section (18:1-8) also speaks to the people about how to care for the priests and Levites. But the other four sections speak to the leaders about how they are to be careful to model covenant obedience for the people (17:19)—trust in God and commitment to His uncompromising justice (16:20), purity (18:13), and [truth] (18:22).
Now, there are two takeaways I want us to note here that I believe are very important as we study this text in our day. First, this is not the way we’re called to operate today with regard to human government. We’re not called to establish a Christian government or install leaders who meet the qualifications of the covenant mediators in ancient Israel’s theocracy. Our calling is simply to pray for our leaders, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life in our day, godly and dignified in every way. … For there is one… mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus (1Ti.2:2, 4). We’ll be praying this way at our Family Lunch this very day.
Second, this is the way our leaders are called to live and behave still, even under the new covenant. Leaders of Christian churches, Christian homes, Christian ministries are called model covenant obedience for those under their charge, to model trust in God and commitment to His uncompromising justice, purity, and [truth]. A faithful walk with God in Christ—new covenant obedience with eyes fixed on our crucified, risen, and returning Lord—has always been better caught that taught. And when God’s people see true and courageous faithfulness, they’re moved in spirit and motivated in will to line up with and to live out the rich biblical truths they profess to believe.
Conclusion
How many of you have heard the name of Pastor Lawan Andimi in the past few weeks, a new hero of faith? This Nigerian brother was abducted by Boko Haram just last month (2 January) and forced to make a video statement five days later. Facing almost certain death, but still looking straight into the camera and speaking very calmly he said: I have never been discouraged, because all conditions that one finds himself [in are in] the hands of God. By the grace of God I will be together with my wife and my children and my colleagues. If the opportunity has not been granted, maybe it is the will of God. Then after some kind words for his ministry colleagues and also his captors and their treatment of him, Pastor Andimi finished by saying: All people close and far…, be patient. Don’t cry. Don’t worry. But thank God in everything. Thank you.
On 21 January, Christianity Today reported that Pastor Lawan Andimi had been executed the day before by the method that has become all too familiar in these situations. He was largely unknown anywhere outside the area where he lived and ministered. And there were indications in his speech that he was as humble as he was courageous and faithful. But his courage and faith are truly astounding given that the World Watch List names his home country as the most violent for persecuted Christians second only to Pakistan.
Here is a model for us in our day—a brother in Christ whose faith was anchored in the true and living God, the God of his salvation and his eternal reward, the God Who enabled him to model the new covenant obedience and faith that he was appointed to proclaim to his Nigerian flock. Few if any of us will find ourselves in the place where we’re tested like Pastor Andimi was. But perhaps by his model of faithfulness, and by the grace of the very same God Who enabled it, we can be reminded that there are still some leaders of God’s people in our day who honor Him even when things get hard. And perhaps we can also be strengthened by that reminder to stand firm in the midst of whatever trial of faith we’ll be facing in the days ahead. That’s how godly leadership is supposed to work. That’s what Moses was telling Israel in this text. And that’s what we need to hear today.