Fear No Fear

(All scripture from the World English Bible, ebible.org, all rights reserved)

“It shall be, when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write himself a copy of this law in a book, out of that which is before the Levitical priests. It shall be with him, and he shall read from it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear Yahweh his God, to keep all the words of this law and these statutes, to do them; that his heart not be lifted up above his brothers, and that he not turn away from the commandment to the right hand, or to the left, to the end that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, he and his children, in the middle of Israel.”
(Deuteronomy 17:18-20)

“My son, keep my words.
    Lay up my commandments within you.
Keep my commandments and live!
    Guard my teaching as the apple of your eye.
Bind them on your fingers.
    Write them on the tablet of your heart.
Tell wisdom, “You are my sister.”
    Call understanding your relative,
that they may keep you from the strange woman,
    from the foreigner who flatters with her words.”
(Proverbs 7:1-5)

No other nation in the ancient world that I know of had this requirement of their king. Certainly not the nations and city-states that existed in and around the Land the Israelites were about to enter. There is no real talk about what the rights of the king were or the bounds of his authority. Except for this. He had to write his own copy of the scriptures (the Torah) and read it DAILY. This was what was going to keep his mind trained (Romans 12:2). This is what was going to keep his mind on God and what God had said about what he should and shouldn’t do (don’t get a lot of horses or get them from Egypt, don’t take a lot of wives, etc). But these were behavioural things, not authoritative king-role things. Yet they were vital. Verse 17 of chapter 17 warns that indulging in these things will turn his heart away from God. So the king was given a tool. A way to embrace the Word and to keep a godly perspective about what right behaviour is. Not to be holier than thou about it, but to embrace right living in order to remain aligned with God.

If we don’t keep God’s commands and really get it into our hearts, we will be prone to straying. To let our feet take it to where they shouldn’t go. To let our eyes and ears take in words, examples, and thoughts that are ungodly and not in any way a benefit to us and our lives. We have to do more than read the Word. We need to GUARD the Word. Treat it as precious. Make sure we are planting it, tending it, and growing it in our hearts and minds. To use it as the basis for what we consider wise, right, and good. To lean into the teachings and commands. To open ourselves up to the correction we find, the instruction we find, and the commands we find. Not to be rigid followers of rules, but living and breathing examples of freedom from the chains of darkness and ignorance of God.

Summary

Revelation 1:6 tells us “and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen” (NKJV). If we are kings, we need to act like it. We aren’t better than other men and women. We are, however, chosen to read the Word. Daily. Not as punishment, but to ensure the security of our footsteps. To ensure that we can identify the places we should go and the places we should avoid. Places where we are safe and places where we are in peril. To ensure that we never need to feel that we don’t know what to do, but instead we will DAILY be reminding us of the MIND OF GOD so that we can align with it, trust it, and live our lives according to what He says (His point of view).