you Well, good morning to you. I'd like to encourage you today from the end of Deuteronomy chapter 17, verses 14 to 20. In this passage, the Lord is anticipating the day when his people enter into the land of promise, and they are established as a nation, and they then want a king. They look around to see all the other nations that have kings, They want a king, and the Lord says that you shall surely, in verse 15, set a king over you whom the Lord your God chooses. In other words, this isn't supposed to be a democracy or even a democratic republic. This is supposed to be a theocracy where God establishes the king, God chooses the king, people don't elect him. But then the Lord goes on to give some guidelines for this one who is to serve as a king. some restrictions. Because as the people look around, and as a king in the throne would look around, he'd see how kings in other lands live, and their perks, if you will, from their positions. And the Lord says, you're not to be that kind of king. He says, He says in verse 16, he says, that king shall not multiply horses for himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt to multiply horses. He says in verse 17, neither shall he multiply wives for himself, lest his heart turn away, nor shall he greatly multiply silver and gold for himself." In other words, the king that I put over you is not to be one who will enrich himself and make himself vaunted up with a haughty spirit and an arrogant attitude and pride over his position. and then enriching himself by virtue of that position. No, this isn't the kind of king. What he is to do for himself, he says in verse 18, when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself a copy of this law in a book, He's to have for himself his own personal copy of God's law. And, he says, it shall be with him, and he shall read it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God, and be careful to observe all the words of this law and these statutes, that his heart may not be lifted up above his brethren, that he may not turn aside from the commandment to the right hand or the left, that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, he and his children, in the midst of Israel. You see what God is saying. He's saying it seems to be the inherent nature in the heart of kings to vaunt themselves, to lift themselves, exalt themselves up above everybody else, and to use that position of self-exaltation to enrich themselves. No, you're to consider, O King, that which is most valuable, that is, God's Word, and you are to live by God's Word and follow God's commandments, not accumulating wives, not accumulating horses, not accumulating wealth. Now think about that in terms of the kings who would eventually come and rule on the throne in Israel. The only one of the first three kings of Israel that didn't have multiple wives was Saul. He's also the only one that didn't have great wealth. David ended up accumulating great wealth. Now it wasn't for himself. He accumulated wealth for the building of the temple. But Solomon, the third king, boy, he kind of blew it on all these accounts. He had multiple wives, hundreds and hundreds of wives and concubines. He accumulated for himself great wealth. He accumulated for himself a bunch of horses. You have to ask yourself the question, did he accumulate for himself God's Word? Did he write a copy of God's Word for himself, read it, and heed it? Now the irony is that in the Psalms, in Psalm 19, David understood the value of God's Word. He said, more to be desired are they, the words of God, than gold, than much fine gold, sweeter also than the honey and the honeycomb. And in Psalm 119, verse 72, another one of the psalmists wrote, the law of your mouth is better to me than thousands of coins of gold and silver. The psalmist got it, that those who are in authority over others would get it as well. Not to use that position for a position of pride and arrogance and self-enrichment, but they are to heed God's word. faithfully, read it, study it, know it, live by it, not ignore it like the later kings of Israel. May this challenge us to be a people who value above all things the Word of God. Father, we thank you today for this challenge, and I pray that you would encourage us to indeed value highly, even above silver and gold and the possessions of life, your great Word, we pray. In Jesus' name, amen. All right, listen, have a good rest of your day, and I trust the Lord will bless you in it.