“You are to appoint judges and officers for all your gates [in the cities] Adonai your God is giving you, tribe by tribe; and they are to judge the people with righteous judgment.”-Deuteronomy 16:18
Up until now, within Deuteronomy Chapter 16, we’ve been discussing the Biblical Feasts and the worship practices connected to them.
However, from verse 18, the focus radically shifts from the Biblical Feasts to talking about Israel’s civil and religious authorities.
Or in other words, we are presented with the question of…
…how does God expect his people to interact with each other on every level of human government?
Let’s jump right into this topic!
The first thing you need to know is that as far as the Torah is concerned, there is no such thing as a separation of church and state.
In the Lord’s economy, the idea of compartmentalizing the spiritual from the secular just doesn’t exist.
All of God’s instructions and laws in Torah are to apply to BOTH the religious and government leaders and there was no dividing line between the civil and religious law.
We’re talking about a true theocracy here.
The topic of human government in the Torah is actually quite a deep one and will continue all the way up to Deuteronomy Chapter 21.
In the Scriptures, we’re presented with four types of human authorities.
They are…
…kings…
…priests…
…judges…
…and…
…prophets.
Honestly, I have to let you know we really can’t find nice and clear definitions of what these roles were about in the Torah.
What this means is these offices were already so well understood and such common knowledge among the Middle Eastern cultures of the time that the writers of Scripture didn’t even think it necessary to provide in-depth explanations.
However, there is one way that the governmental authorities in Israel were to be markedly different from the rulers of the gentile nations.
In terms of socio-economic hierarchy, the governmental authorities were NOT to prioritize the rich over the middle-class or poor AND…
…they were definitely not to arrogantly lord their authority over the general public.
Instead, there were clear boundaries and limitations set on how a king, priest, judge or prophet was to operate AND…
…they were not above the scrutiny of the common citizens.
What’s interesting about this section of Torah is that right after the instructions concerning the appointment of judges and officials, just a few verses down, we are given these instructions:
“You are not to plant any sort of tree as a sacred pole beside the altar of Adonai your God that you will make for yourselves. Likewise, do not set up a standing-stone; Adonai your God hates such things.”-Deuteronomy 16:21-22
Why do you think these instructions are in such close proximity with each other?
The answer is simple.
It’s because it was these governmental authorities THEMSELVES who were planting and setting up these pagan sacred poles and pillars.
Sometimes the regular citizens did that as well but for the most part it was the kings and priests etcetera who when operating in disobedience to God’s commands did such things.
Again, what we have here is God is making it clear that the government and religious officials in His kingdom were NOT to mimic the general practices of Israel’s pagan neighbors even if they were the common and ordinary customs of the time.
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