What sorts of things should good leaders do? Although we don’t have kings anymore, the rules we find in Deuteronomy 17:14-20 provide many helpful suggestions.

Verse 16 says that kings shouldn’t acquire many horses – along with the chariots they pulled, they were the most fearsome armaments of the day. Verse 17 says that kings shouldn’t multiply many wives for themselves – back in those days, a principal form of diplomacy was marrying into as many foreign kings’ families as possible. Verse 17 also prohibits Israelite kings from amassing lots of silver and gold. Putting all this together, God was telling the rulers of His people not to put their trust in their military forces, their alliances, or their money.

Instead, God said that the kings of His people were to write out a copy of His Word, and to read it every day. And why were they to do this? So that they might fear God, so that they might do His will, and so that they might not become proud when comparing themselves to their countrymen (vv. 18-20). No, it’s no wonder that God said His people should only be ruled by one of their own, someone who shared their faith (v. 15).

So, what does all this mean for us modern Americans? Of course we should try to elect honest, humble, pious people. But since our sovereignty rests not in our public officials but in the voters, that means we Americans are ultimately responsible for the laws under which we live. Therefore, we must all seek to live in the way God instructed those Ancient Israelite kings – we must rely on God alone and seek to govern ourselves only according to His will.

Deuteronomy 17:14-20 (ESV)

14 “When you come to the land that the LORD your God is giving you, and you possess it and dwell in it 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 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. 16 Only he must not acquire many horses for himself or cause the people to return to Egypt in order to acquire many horses, since the LORD has said to you, ‘You shall never return that way again.’ 17 And he shall not acquire many wives for himself, lest his heart turn away, nor shall he acquire for himself excessive silver and gold.
18 “And when he 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. 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, 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.