At the mouth of two witnesses or three witnesses shall he that is worthy of death be put to death … thou shalt in any wise set him king over thee … from among thy brethren … mayest not set a stranger over thee which is not thy brother. Deuteronomy 17:6, 15 KJV
On the evidence of two witnesses or three witnesses, he who is to die shall be put to death … you shall surely set a king over you … one from among your countrymen … may not put a foreigner over yourselves who is not your countryman. Deuteronomy 17:6,15 NASB
When was the last time you read through the book of Deuteronomy? Not only read it as part of your yearly reading plan but read it looking for Christ. You could very easily read through Deuteronomy chapter 17 and view it merely as a collection of rules which Israel was to follow on entering the land, or you could stop and think about some of the hidden gems found in its pages.
Have you ever thought about what the Spirit of God was thinking when He inspired Moses to write these words?
While the instructions given through Moses to the nation would have a significant bearing on their behaviour once in the land, within this second giving of the law can be found additional truths with a future application. Consider just one chapter from this book.
In chapter 17, God is vitally concerned with justice in the land, whether administered through intermediaries or through the king that would one day rule over them. To this end, He necessitated the testimony of two or three witnesses before capital punishment could be executed. As well, He required that the man who would rule over them must be a “brother,” a fellow Israelite, and not a stranger (v 15). There were likely many reasons for this last requirement, not the least of which would relate to the prevention of idolatry.
Now considering these two requirements – multiple witnesses whose witness agreed, and the prohibition forbidding a stranger to be their king, think then of the events surrounding the trial and rejection of the Lord Jesus Christ by the nation.
We read how the leaders “sought for witness against Jesus to put him to death; and found none” (Mark 14:55). And how their witness “did not agree” (v 59). So intent were they on the execution of Christ that they sought to fabricate the evidence to justify the sentence, in reversal of God’s law, while at the same time claiming to be the guardians of that law.
It is John alone, also, who recounts for us the scene at Gabbatha. It was a crafty move on the part of Pilate who needed to curry favor with Rome. He would present Christ as their King, forcing the hands of the leaders who had painted him into a corner. The words of the leaders, “We have no king but Caesar” (John 19:15), may have gained for Pilate a sense of revenge against the Jews and favor with Caesar, but it marked the nation as rebelling against the teaching of Deuteronomy 17.
Such was their blind passionate hatred for Christ, that they moved in total opposition to the law while claiming to zealously uphold it. They claimed a stranger as their king!
The scene reminds us not only of their failure and rebellion but of the grief of the Lord Jesus. Recall how Jeremiah spoke of his grief over the sin of the people. As Jeremiah viewed a nation moving away from God, he was moved to tears. How deeply the Lord Jesus must have felt the failure of people to obey the Word of God, the words that He Himself, as the Word, had caused to be written! His grief was compounded, as well, in that their rejection of the teaching of the Word of God, meant also that they were rejecting the God He served and loved.
The rejection of God’s standard for righteousness and for a ruler are both contained in one chapter. When your eyes are opened to truths such as these, you cannot help but wonder all that we might be missing by our casual reading of the Word of God.
Consider:
Look at Deuteronomy 19 and see if there is anything that speaks of the Lord Jesus in it.