Deuteronomy 17:16 But he shall not multiply horses to himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt, to the end that he should multiply horses; forasmuch as the LORD hath said unto you, Ye shall henceforth return no more that way
Where are you going today? What do you plan to do? What are your goals? Are you moving forward? Sometimes we mistake movement for progress. Progress is not movement; progress is positive movement. It is progressing, going somewhere in the right way. So, are you progressing today? Maybe you have a plan for the day, the month, or the next five years. Are you actually progressing and will your goals lead to progress? What is the metric by which you would judge that?
In Deuteronomy 17 we find Israel progressing. They had been in Egypt and were going to Canaan. You see God’s ethic, His governing principle, for what progress is in the first place. It is not stated that way, but that is exactly what it is as you read Deuteronomy 16-17. In Deuteronomy 17:14 God says, “When thou art come unto the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee, and shalt possess it, and shalt dwell therein, and shalt say, I will set a king over me, like as the nations that are about me.”
Everything we are going to read here is prescient, looking forward to something that would happen. As you read I Samuel, I Kings, and so on, all these things came exactly to be as God said they would be. God is saying, “When you go into Canaan and desire to have a king so you can be like all the other nations, it should be the king that I choose for you.” Verse 16 says, “But he [the king] shall not multiply horses to himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt, to the end that he should multiply horses: forasmuch as the LORD hath said unto you, Ye shall henceforth return no more that way.”
God is looking forward to the progress of Canaan and Israel taking a king, and He is looking back to the slavery of Egypt and the freedom they gained when God brought them out. What you see here is progress. Progress begins by knowing what to celebrate and where to aim. Israel had been a theocracy. They would become a monarchy, and after Solomon, who would multiply wives, silver and gold, and horses, all of which were forbidden, the kingdom would be divided and eventually dissolved. Israel would end up under tyranny in Rome just as they had been under the tyranny of Egypt. So, progress begins by knowing what to celebrate and where to aim.
As to the what to celebrate, in chapter 16 there are three celebration times given: the Passover, the Feast of Weeks, and the Feast of Tabernacles. Three times in regard to these festivals God points back to Egypt. For instance, Deuteronomy 16:3 says, “For thou camest forth out of the land of Egypt in haste: that thou mayest remember the day when thou camest forth out of the land of Egypt all the days of thy life.” He was saying, “Remember where you’ve been. You’ve been in Egypt. That is looking back. We are going to celebrate what God did, His generosity. Thoughts about the land God has given you should all be informed by the fact that God brought you out of Egypt.” If you look at a company, a family, or any group of people and what they celebrate, it tells you much about where they are going. Israel was to celebrate coming out of Egypt. That was not independence. It was independence from Egypt, but it was dependence upon God.
Then full circle you come to in chapter 17 where He tells them when they got a king, he was not to multiply horses, wives, or silver and gold. Not multiplying horses wasn’t a personal thing. It was a matter of trying to outfit a calvary to go against the horses and chariots of other nations. So, this king was not to rely on his power and be independent of God.
He was not to multiply wives. Gaining horses and wives would turn him back to his dependence upon Egypt. Solomon’s probable first wife was the daughter of Pharaoh. Why? It was a political arrangement. Pharaoh was not going to attack his son-in-law. So, the multiplying of horses, wives, and even silver and gold turned Israel through their king back to dependence upon Egypt. Multiplying wives would also turn away the king’s heart from God. That happened to Solomon. So, progress begins by knowing what to celebrate and where to aim.
Now, let me give you two questions that might help you track your progress. First, what does God want? I’m richer, smarter, and healthier than this time last year, but what is it that is most important to God? All those things are good, but what does God actually want? Throughout chapters 16-17 God talks about the tabernacle. He always refers to the tabernacle as the place “which the Lord thy God shall choose.” In Deuteronomy 17:15 He basically says, “The king you choose should be the one whom the LORD thy God shall choose.” In other words, it should be what God wants. Verses 19-20 say, “And he [the king] shall read therein [the law] all the days of his life: that he may learn to fear the LORD his God, to keep all the words of this law and these statutes, to do them: that his heart be not lifted up above his brethren, and that he… may prolong his days in his kingdom.”
The kingdom was short-lived because Solomon was turned away by his dependence upon Egypt and his own power. So, the question to ask yourself is, “What does God want?” I know you have goals. You want to lose weight, to gain mass, to gain smarts, to accomplish a financial goal. None of those are intrinsically wrong, but even the best things are no good if they are absent of God. God can see down the road further than you can. He knows you better than you know yourself. God loves you. So, the question that true progress would ask is, “What would God want?
The second question is, “How have I moved?” What God wants looks to the future. “How I have a moved?” looks to the past. Just like these chapters looking back to Egypt, celebrating the freedom from slavery, and looking ahead to Canaan. So, how have I moved? In verse 16 he says, “Ye shall henceforth return no more that way.” In Acts, Stephen preached a powerful sermon to those who rejected Jesus and he said, “In your hearts, you turned back to Egypt.” Did Israel ever go back to Egypt to the bondage of Pharaoh? They didn’t go back to Egypt physically, but many of them never left Egypt in their hearts.
So, how have I moved? For Israel it was moving to a standard where they felt like they were making progress by the metric of the other nations. They wanted a king like the other nations, and their king wanted horses, wives, and silver and gold. All these things made them measure up to the standard of their day and not up to the standard of their God. The king was to be was a dependent servant, not a dependent slave of Pharoah. He was to be a servant of God, a leader of a nation who looked to God for everything they needed, not to a calvary, political alliances, wives, or riches, but to going where God wanted them to go.
So, progress begins by knowing what to celebrate and where to aim. What does God want and how have I moved? In the last year’s time, have you moved closer to God and therefore to the purpose He has for your life?