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This week we are given permission to experiment with self-rule:
If, after you have entered the land that the ETERNAL your God has assigned to you, and taken possession of it and settled in it, you decide, “I will set a king over me, as do all the nations about me,” you shall be free to set a king over yourself, one chosen by the ETERNAL your God. (Deuteronomy 17:14-15a)
And there we have it: permission. If you want to have a king, just like everyone else, go ahead and get yourself a king. But the king is to be one chosen by God, and he will be ruling under several restrictions:
Moreover, he shall not keep many horses or send people back to Egypt to add to his horses, since GOD has warned you, “You must not go back that way again.” And he shall not have many wives, lest his heart go astray; nor shall he amass silver and gold to excess. (Deuteronomy 17:16-17)
This is awkward: in the ancient world kings accumulated power through military strength, dynastic alliances, and personal wealth. But the Torah is taking those tools away from the king of Israel: no going to Egypt to acquire horses for military power, no accumulation of wives for political alliances, and no accumulation of wealth.
So if the king's ability to wage war, conduct diplomacy, and accumulate the resources to do either is limited, what is an Israelite king good for?
When he is seated on his royal throne, he shall have a copy of this Teaching written for him on a scroll by the levitical priests. Let it remain with him and let him read in it all his life, so that he may learn to revere the ETERNAL his God, to observe faithfully every word of this Teaching as well as these laws. Thus he will not act haughtily toward his fellows or deviate from the Instruction to the right or to the left, to the end that he and his descendants may reign long in the midst of Israel. (Deuteronomy 17:18-20)
The Torah's final condition is the most radical: the person who exercises political authority is himself subject to the law; the king may wield power, but he is not above the law.
We aspire, in Lincoln's words, to a “government of the people, by the people, for the people.” Lord Acton famously wrote that “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” The Torah's answer to the temptations of tyranny is to limit personal power, prestige, and wealth, coupled with a commitment to remain grounded in the principles of law and justice.
We might want to have this in mind when we get ready to vote for our local and national representatives this November: would this candidate make a good king according to Deuteronomy 17:14-20? Will they act haughtily toward their fellows or deviate from the law to the right or to the left? As we continue the American Experiment of self-rule, are they a person who can rule themselves?
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