Where's Waldo?

We're gonna turn our attention to God's word. We are in Deuteronomy chapter 17 today, and it's our custom to read God's word aloud together. So if you want to open up your bulletin or look on the screen behind me, we're gonna be reading Deuteronomy chapter 17 verses 14 through 20. Are you ready?

When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you, take possession of it, live in it and say, I will set a king over me like all the nations around me. You are to appoint over you the king the Lord your God chooses. Appoint a king from your brothers. You are not to set a foreigner over you or one who is not of your people. However, he must not acquire many horses for himself or send the people back to Egypt to acquire many horses. For the Lord has told you, you are never to go back that way again. He must not acquire many wives for himself so that his heart won't go astray. He must not acquire very large amounts of silver and gold for himself. When he is seated on his royal throne, he is to write a copy of this instruction for himself on a scroll in the presence of the Levitical priests. It is to remain with him and he is to read from it all the days of his life so that he may learn to fear the Lord his God, to observe all the wonders of this instruction, and to do these statutes. Then his heart will not be exalted above his countrymen. He will not turn from his command to the right or the left, and he and his sons will continue reigning many years in Israel. — Deuteronomy 17:14-20

This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.

Where's Waldo and Government

Anybody grow up with Where's Waldo? I mean, there's a lot of people who've read Where's Waldo books. You pour over them because they're filled with all these really intricate scenes of all kinds of weird creatures and wild looking people doing funny things in all these backgrounds. And your job is to find on every page, where's Waldo. We have one right here this morning in case you need to see one. So, skinny guy, striped hat, striped shirt, glasses.

Today's sermon and today's passage is about Israel's form of government—how Israel was to be ordered with a king and how they were to be governed. The king is the executive leader. And what kind of king were they supposed to have? It's sort of a Where's Waldo passage. How would you identify the right king for Israel? How do you recognize what the king is supposed to be like and do?

And I find that really important for us too. We don't live in a monarchy. We live in a federal republic. We don't live in a theocracy. We live in a pluralistic society. America is not God's chosen people, his holy nation. And yet, I think a lot of us find government confusing, politics very confusing. It's kind of like the scenes in a Where's Waldo book. Lots of weird and wild creatures doing things in weird backgrounds. It's very confusing.

Surely the current debate in America about how we're governed is about this question: What are God's politics? If God is in charge of a nation, what would that look like? And so this morning, as we're gonna play Where's Waldo with this passage, I want to look at God's idea of government for his people. We're gonna look under these headings: the necessity of a king, the limits on the king, and the rule over the king.

The Necessity of a King

Would you look at this passage with me? This passage was written hundreds and hundreds of years before the events of First Samuel 8. Now some of you may not know that reference, but you may know the story—Israel asked God for a king and God provides. They get Saul, a pretty terrible first king. This is written actually hundreds of years before that, and it seems to reflect that God knew they would want somebody to rule them. That desire itself wasn't inherently wrong, as we see in this passage. But it is fraught with danger.

The human longing for order, for stability, for leadership is actually something that's baked into the Old Testament law. We see this over and over again. It reflects a universal human desire. We need governance. We need structure. We need leadership. Groups without leadership, we call those mobs. A nation without leadership, without structure is anarchy. Government itself is not necessarily a result of sin. Tyranny is.

If you remember back to the first pages of your Bible, even there are government type words in the instructions given to Adam and Eve before sin entered the world—that they were to have dominion, exercise authority, and rule and structure. And yet, what's the danger?

There's a danger inherent in humans governing one another, and it's always the temptation toward that being abused. The danger is also when we put too much hope in, too much confidence in human kings or politics or policies or parties. And it's the phrase that's embedded in this passage: "like all the nations." You are not to have a king the same way as everybody else. What exactly is like the other nations? What's in danger there? The temptation is to mirror for God's people the power grabs, the power structures, the way that the world does governance, all in the name of God and his agenda.

The state is necessary, but it also often becomes too big in our minds, too important, an idol for us. And the modern equivalent of this is when we hear people say, maybe we've said this ourselves: if we only had the right blank in power, if we only had the right judges in the supreme court, if only we had the right president, if only we had the right governor, if only we had the right representatives, everything would be okay. Politics can easily become a substitute religion. It becomes too big. Messianic hopes attached to it.

We're all very aware of tribalism. Anybody experienced this in their families, the way that politics has divided families? It's very familiar to us. Behind that tribalism is a lot of fear. Idolatry always has a fear component to it. We may not always see it, but it's always got a fear behind it. If you listen to the rhetoric of both the left and the right in this country, you hear lots of fear behind what's being said. Both parties, both sides treat politics as an ultimate demand, demanding total allegiance, an emotional investment requiring everything from its followers. And if we're not in power, oh, no. It's gonna be really bad for you. Politics always traffics in fear, and political idolatry in particular.

So we might guess that God would be like, I'm done. No politics. Don't want any of that in Israel. Don't want any government. Instead, God doesn't reject that. He redeems it. And that's what we're reading in this passage.

God's Limits on Power

It's interesting how God puts limits on the king. Limits. Here's what is astonishing in this law. God sets limits around a fence around the monarchy, around the king. It's radically unlike anything else in the ancient Near East. You can go to the Smithsonian and go to the history museum or go overseas to the British Museum. You can look at all these museums and read through the stories of the nations surrounding Israel throughout the Old Testament, and it's radically unlike what we're reading here. God puts limits on worldly power. Why? Because of the danger of power corrupting. The danger of wielding power, one person over another, and the opportunity there for exploitation and harm. We know such dangers in our own government.

Let's talk about our American presidents. Lyndon Johnson, very tall man, used his frame to physically cower and tower over people. He would get in their face and he would spit and he would belch and he would insult and curse people right in their face. He was known for taking aides into the bathroom and sitting on the toilet to have meetings with them, to intimidate them, acting like nothing had happened. Richard Nixon authorized illegal activities and justified it in an interview about his actions. He says this: "When the president does it, it means it's not illegal." Bill Clinton abused power in the Oval Office to take advantage of a young intern. You could think of a lot more examples. We've seen such corruption and abuse in the church as well. We're very familiar with high profile evangelical leaders who've abused power and taken advantage of people. For example, Bill Hybels, the pastor of Willow Creek Community Church, a huge church that was very influential in the evangelical world. And yet, over time, what came out is he faced numerous allegations of sexual misconduct, harassment, abuse of power. Ravi Zacharias' ministry was marked by—after his death in 2020, an independent investigation found sexual exploitation, abuse of power. It's gross. And you could go on and on with stories about this in the church as well, in other denominations, in our denomination.

You know, the British historian Lord Acton famously put it like this: "Power tends to corrupt, absolute power tends to corrupt absolutely." You know this. Hence, God put countercultural limits, a fence around his king.

Let's look at the limits. There are three really clear limits. First, the king must not multiply warriors, wives, or wealth. Warriors, wives, or wealth. You see this here. The language about horses is about the accumulation of military power. At that time, the big military innovation that made one nation much more dominant over others was the chariot, the iron chariot.

A chariot had two people—a driver and an archer. This changed the course of warfare. So he's saying, don't accumulate horses. Don't build up a large military. God is not forbidding them from having a military, but saying, don't trust in this. Don't build up such a large military that it becomes your focus.

Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of our God. — Psalm 20

That's where that's coming from. In addition, there's a temptation for those in power to use people to accumulate more power. That's why he says, don't go down to Egypt again. The problem with Egypt was this: God's telling him not to sell off his own people in his kingdom as mercenaries for Egypt in exchange for more horses. That's using your people rather than ruling and stewarding your people. You don't treat people like property. The king is not supposed to treat people like things.

The Three Temptations

The danger of warriors. God forbids multiplying horses because of the military power they represent.

The danger of wives. God forbids multiplying wives. Henry Kissinger described power as the great aphrodisiac—what he meant was that when people get into office, they suddenly become attractive to others in ways they otherwise wouldn't be. But this is much more a statement about the dangers of how power divides the heart.

In that day, kings would make treaties in exchange for wives. The wives were sort of the sealing of that treaty. King Solomon, the third king of Israel, is known for this. He accumulated wives based on political influence. He would make a treaty with another nation and accumulate a wife from that nation. God's saying, don't do this. Every time you do this, you give away your devotion to the Lord. Your heart will be divided.

The accumulation of wealth. Here, excessive silver and gold. God is not anti-money. He's not anti-people doing well. He's not anti-wealth. But there is always with wealth a battle for the heart. It's a temptation for us. This is why Jesus warns us to watch out for all kinds of greed. It's the kind of sin that, if we're not aware, we will be drowned in it.

So: warriors, wives, wealth. These represent the common temptations for those in leadership and power. We see this even today. The temptations of statecraft are always control, compromise, and corruption. And God knows the human heart, so he sets this boundary around it.

But I want you to think about this. Can you imagine hearing this being read and saying, "Well, why would anybody want to be a king? You've taken away all the perks." People serve often for the privileges that come with it. But God's saying, not my king. I want a king who has a shepherd's heart, whose service is on behalf of the people, who's about the people—not the perks, not what they gain from the office.

You remember how George Washington left office? Even if you just know this from Hamilton, you may remember this. George Washington won an incredible war at improbable odds over the British government. He came in as our first president, and at the end of his presidency, there was a temptation. There was an offer. You could step in here permanently. You could become king. And Washington instead retired to private life.

God's Vision for Limited Government

What is the vision for God's limited government? What does he want? It's got a balance of powers to it. The passage we read is in the middle of a much larger passage about four offices that God had for his people: a local judge, the king, a priest, and prophets. All of them have their place in Israel.

What's fascinating about this passage—why I picked this one—is that it's the shortest. The executive office is the shortest one. If you're counting on ink, it's the least important. It almost seems optional. We're told what the king is supposed to be like, but not what the king is supposed to do. There's so much not in this passage.

The king wasn't the most important. The king wasn't the only leader. The king's power was always held in balance. And the king is God's king. He's not a god. That's really different from the surrounding nations.

Samaria, Assyria, Egypt, Babylon—they all considered their kings to be either the son of a god or a god himself, a demigod of some sort. But interestingly, what's most noticeable in Deuteronomy, what may be hardest to see in this passage, is there's something really, really missing for this king. Do you know what it is? Did anybody read about a palace? There's no palace from which this king is supposed to govern. There's no place identified here with banquets, feasts, ceremonies and celebrations. This is a regular guy who lives in a regular house, who has a regular life. It's kind of bizarre when you think about it—how limited.

The king was never meant to be the person who people looked to and said, "As goes his wealth and his fertility of his crops, that's a representative of our kingdom." People wouldn't look at that. They'd say he lives down the street around the corner in a normal house. The king is not a god; rather he's under God. He's accountable. There's no absolute power, no cult of personality, no king above the law. This is a vision for just and restrained authority—something unheard of in the ancient world.

The vision here is for a steward of power, somebody under power, not exercising power. A king who serves God and the people with righteousness and not himself. If power in government or business or even ministry inevitably corrupts, God's got one solution here: to actually contain the heart of the king. Did you see it in this passage? What's the rule over the king—point three? What's the rule? It's God's word.

The king—it's fascinating. The one thing he's supposed to do is write down his own copy of the law and study it all the time. Nobody had a Bible at home. The king is supposed to make his own Bible. Write down word for word the Torah and study it all the time. Now that may not sound weird to you. That's really weird. What was the king first and foremost? His job number one was to be the first disciple. The primary, number one job is the first disciple in the realm. His authority came from obedience, not charisma and not strategy.

This is the model for what God wants in a leader. This is his paradigm. You want to know what God's king, God's president, God's governor, God's leader should look like? This is it. One under his word—pastor, judge, executive, any other leader who claims God's name for what they're doing. This is it. First and foremost, a disciple.

Godly leadership is characterized by moral and spiritual submission to God and his word. Now what does that accomplish? The word keeps him humble and dependent. Did you notice the language of verse 20?

That he would not be above his brothers, that his heart may not be lifted up above his brothers — Deuteronomy 17:20

Christian leadership is one that doesn't exalt but stoops, that bows, that kneels. It submits. In other words, the antidote to political idolatry is humility before the ultimate King of Kings. This is what God wants in his leader. This is what God wants—a submissive heart.

So this is what God's model is for all kinds of leadership: in our churches, in our organizations, in anybody who would claim the name of Jesus. They need to read Deuteronomy 17. A person who's more about character than they are about effectiveness. More about not being a great teacher, but one who's teachable. Not one who's seen to be a great prayer, but one who prays. Not one whose morality is on display for the Instagram photo, but in the closet in private.

If there's a danger of all these temptations for people in leadership, you know what the danger is for followership, for Christians? It's to cut corners on character, to look the other way and say, "It doesn't really matter. What we care about is policy. What we really care about is an effective leader." God doesn't. God cares about character in his people. And we have seen organization after organization, movement after movement fail because people in authority cut corners and then looked the other way when they saw something missing with regard to character. It really does matter.

Robert Ingersoll said of Abraham Lincoln: "Nothing discloses real character like the use of power. It is easy for the weak to be gentle. Most people can bear some type of adversity, but if you want to know what a person is really like, give them power. That's the supreme test."

You know what God promises that such submission to him will produce? The promise related to this is stability for the kingdom, longevity in office, good things for those being governed. So here's my question for you this morning: Where's Waldo? If you read your Bible, you go back through First and Second Kings, First and Second Chronicles, you're looking for this kind of king—will you find one? Are y'all here this morning? You will not find one. Every king of Israel, every king of Judah failed this test.

I mean, from the very beginning, multiplying wives, warriors, wealth. This was the thing that Israel was supposed to do in looking for a king. Where is Waldo? Where is the man who fits this paradigm? Where is the leader who's gonna be like this? And of course, there's only one answer in this: King Jesus.

Israel regularly looks much more like the nations than they did look like this. So does Christian America. Every human leader who claims the name of Christian has to be measured against this. I want you to think about Jesus. I want you to think about the king, the Waldo. Here's Waldo. Here's what he's like.

King Jesus refused the three temptations. When Peter is going for the sword, Jesus says, don't draw the sword. It's not that kind of kingdom. He could have called down legions of angels at the cross. No. He rejected it. He didn't multiply horses. He didn't multiply wives. He gave himself for the bride, the bride of Christ, the church. He didn't accumulate wealth. He became poor for our sake.

The king under the word becomes the word made flesh. Jesus lived by every word according to God's mouth.

Matthew 4

He was obedient in all the small things. Even in the last hours of his life, he said, crying out, God, not my will, but yours be done. He ruled by serving. He conquered by dying. He reigns by grace. This is the kind of king we have in Jesus.

If they were not to be a kingdom like the nations, Jesus one-ups this. He says, my kingdom is not of this world. It's completely different. This doesn't erase earthly politics. It relativizes it. But Jesus is not some kind of king in a metaphorical sense. We're not pretending here this morning. I'm not playing symbolism with y'all. Jesus really is the king of the universe on the throne. And it is hard to see this for us, but this relativizes. This puts in perspective all earthly kingdoms.

Chuck Colson, who was part of Nixon's administration, said this really well: Jesus Christ is not coming back on Air Force One. That's funny, not funny, y'all, because we have a nation that believes it. We have a king whose kingdom is like none other.

The Implications of Jesus as King

Can I just drive this home for y'all this morning? Jesus is really a king. Because Jesus is king, we can engage politics as people without idolatry, without that being our greatest hope. Because Jesus is king, we can critique power, or we can critique our party and our politicians without cynicism. It's all in a bigger context.

Because Jesus is king, we can have steadiness in our souls when the rest of the world is riding the roller coaster emotionally with what's happening in the news today. The fear and uncertainty. Because Jesus is king, we know nothing but his kingdom will last, and it's not all doom and gloom. Because Jesus is king, there's better news than what comes across your social media feed. Because Jesus is king, there's no bad news that can truly touch us.

All light and momentary afflictions — the Bible

Because Jesus is king, we can care and get involved in politics. To remove yourself from that is a vote for the status quo. Sure things are fine, but we can care because we know there's ultimately a king under which all this is ruled. Because Jesus is king, Christians can run for office, should run for office. I hope there are disciples under God's word who are running for school board, city council, local government, state government, national government.

Because Jesus is king, we can go to church with people who vote differently. Let that sit for a second. Because Jesus is king, we can call others brothers and sisters who disagree with us about how to run America. Because Jesus is king, it's all under control even when it seems like it isn't.

How sad would it be? I mean, incredibly sad would it be to be alive in America right now and not know there's a king? Don't you feel sorry for some of your neighbors and friends and classmates and roommates? What would it be like to be riding that roller coaster all the time? But what would it be like to know that there's no hope? Nobody's in control?

Brothers and sisters, his is the only kingdom that's gonna last. Twenty years from now, in the history classes in high school, they might get to 2025. I'm betting not. If you took history, we always stopped at World War One. The stuff that we're worried about today, the stuff that's in your news feed today—all of that kids twenty years from now are not even gonna study in their history books.

And let me up the ante a little bit more. Ann Moomat says it this way: A hundred years from now, all new people. This planet is gonna be filled with all new people.

And what is happening right now is not gonna be the biggest news of history. Like, now, we are all white knuckling and fearful or not even looking at stuff. Hundred years from now, all new people. Nobody's gonna remember today. His is the only kingdom that lasts. It doesn't mean that this life, this political moment isn't hard, it isn't important, you shouldn't get involved, you shouldn't care, you shouldn't get upset about things, but Jesus is the only one. His kingdom is the only one that lasts, that matters, that will be remembered, that will be celebrated, we'll be talking about for eons and eons in eternity. We'll be wowed by what was the true news of the world, which is not in the newspaper headlines. It's what King Jesus is doing on this planet right now. His is the only kingdom that matters.

Brothers and sisters, can you take a deep breath? Everybody, let's do it. Alright. Y'all think I'm joking. Let's do it again. Okay? In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Let's pray together. Father, we thank you that when we talk about Jesus being king, that he more than meets the requirements of Deuteronomy 17. We thank you, Lord, that the news of what's happening right now in our world, as frightening as it is, as unsettling as things could be, as much as we get worked up, Lord, we thank you that there is a kingdom that, Lord, will never go away. And right now, it's hidden. Right now, it's not obvious. It's a kingdom that's not of this world, and one day all of it will be unveiled. And, Lord, we can't wait. Come, Lord Jesus. Amen.