Bible Reading: Good Enough for Kings

I always emphasize Bible reading at this time of year. I also provide several Bible reading schedules for our people. (If you haven’t already found one of your own, see links at the end of this post.)

For our annual message on Bible reading this year, we turned to Deuteronomy 17.18-20, the second mention of reading in the Bible. The passage is somewhat well known, where God gives the “law of kings” in anticipation of the day when Israel would be ruled by kings.

Unlike the nations, the Israelite kings were to be chosen by God, subject to God’s laws, rather than dominating the people by their own will. The nation was to be under law, not under men, and the law in question was God’s law.

The verses preceding our text outline God’s specific regulations for a king (Dt 17.14-17). The king of Israel must be chosen by God, not a foreigner (he must be a son of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob), he must not multiply horses (or wives, or wealth) and must not lead the nation back to Egypt.

Besides these restrictions, the king must have his own personal copy of “this law” (Dt 17.18) which he must keep with him and read “all the days of his life” (Dt 17.19), in other words, daily Bible reading, just as we advocate for believers today.

One question that arises here is, “what does ‘this law’ mean?” The commentaries offer various answers: the brief section in the context, the law of the king (i.e. Dt 17.14-20), or Deuteronomy itself, or the whole Torah (Genesis-Deuteronomy). Several commentators mention the repeated use of the phrase “this law” throughout Deuteronomy (Dt 1:5; 4:44; 27:3, 8, 26; 29:21, 29; 30:10), so it seems that at least the book of Deuteronomy is meant, and probably that is what was used. (It is probable that this volume was what was found by Josiah’s men in the temple when Josiah realized how far the nation, and its kings, had strayed from God’s law.)

Thinking on this, what would it be like to read Deuteronomy every day? The book has 34 chapters, if you read a chapter a day, you would read it 10.74 times in a year. We recently went through Deuteronomy as a Bible study in our Wednesday services. There are some interesting bits, but reading a law code is not the most stimulating reading, I have to say. Try reading one of the laws of our governments and see how exciting that is!

But consider what a king would be like who made Deuteronomy part of his daily routine. What would such a king be like? Our text says this practice would lead him “to fear the LORD his God” (Dt 17.19). One would think this would be the case. The mind of the king would be filled with God’s laws, God’s ways, God’s reasoning. One role of the king is to adjudicate justice in various cases brought before him. Some cases would have direct reference to a specific law in Deuteronomy, but many would not. Nonetheless, a king who feared the Lord, who daily meditated on Deuteronomy, would think about cases the way God thinks about them, finding in Deuteronomy principles which could apply to hard cases, enabling him to make righteous judgements according to the will of God.

Finally, our text tells us there are other benefits from making this a kingly practice: a spirit of humility regarding his place in the nation (first among equals), faithfulness to the commandments of God, and an enduring house and legacy of sons ruling after him (Dt 17.20).

The History of Israel’s Kings

The first thing to note is that we have NO record of any king of Israel ever taking his own copy of “this law” and making it his daily meditation. The closest we come is the discovery of the scroll in the temple by Josiah’s men (already mentioned). When we consider the lives of most of the kings … well, “fear of the Lord” is not the term you would use to describe their spiritual character.

The best of Israel’s kings was David, of course. His life and writings (despite his well-known errors) give us much evidence of his fear of the Lord. In the waning days of his life, he wrote a psalm, recorded in Psalm 18 and 2 Samuel 22, extolling God for his many blessings to him. In this psalm, he offers a striking testimony:

^{2Sa 22:21} The LORD rewarded me according to my righteousness: according to the cleanness of my hands hath he recompensed me.

²² For I have kept the ways of the LORD, and have not wickedly departed from my God.

²³ For all his judgments were before me: and as for his statutes, I did not depart from them.

²⁴ I was also upright before him, and have kept myself from mine iniquity.

²⁵ Therefore the LORD hath recompensed me according to my righteousness; according to my cleanness in his eye sight.

You will notice that I have formatted the section in a chiastic arrangement.¹

Verses 21 and 25 are clearly parallel, David says the Lord rewarded him for his righteousness and the cleanness of his hands.

Verses 22 and 24 are also parallel. Here David speaks of his obedience to the Lord, keeping his ways, and so on.

The central verse of the testimony is verse 23:

²³ For all his judgments were before me: and as for his statutes, I did not depart from them.

This is the testimony of a man steeped in the law of God. As you read David’s psalms, many have observed how they are meditations on God’s law. We aren’t sure if David wrote Psalm 119, but it is an extended and incredibly artful meditation on God’s law. The rest of David’s psalms reflect this same kind of immersion in God’s law.

I would have to say that if any king literally obeyed Deuteronomy 17.18-20, David almost surely did. His devotion to God cannot be questioned.

Wait a minute, should we be so quick? What about Uriah and Bathsheba? What about numbering the people? Yes, we must say, those were sins on David’s part, grievous sins. Yet even in them, we find that David evidenced his relationship to God, especially as we compare him to his predecessor, Saul.

• David openly received rebukes; Saul hardened his heart against rebukes
• David, when rebuked, made confession and such restitution as he could; Saul, when rebuked, made excuses and carried on in self-justification

What Does this Mean for Us?

If daily Bible reading was good for Israel’s kings, is it not at least equally good for New Testament “priest kings”? (See 1 Cor 4.8 and Rev 1.4).

We have responsibilities before God in our homes, to lead our families in the way of God. We have responsibilities in our churches, to build one another up in the ways of God and to keep our assemblies on the paths of righteousness. We have responsibilities in our communities, to influence our world as much as possible towards righteousness and justice. Even if we cannot win all men to Christ (though we try), we should also try to influence true social justice that includes something of a fear of God. (Supporting the famous “Judaeo-Christian” ethic we so often hear about.)

The word of God is the wisdom of God. We should go back to this well every day, drinking deeply of its drafts, filling our minds and hearts with its insight and directions. We should be men and women who fear the Lord.

Consequently, read your Bible!

In view of that, here are links to various Bible reading plans. There are many others out there, and many Bible apps offer you a plans as well, sometimes allowing you to customize it certain ways. Whatever plan you choose, we can only say again, read your Bible!

The Navigator’s Bible Reading Plans

A Beginners Bible Reading Plan (designed to just get first-timers into a habit of daily Bible reading)

Our own Grace Baptist Church of Victoria Chronological Bible Reading Plan (new and improved!)

The Lord bless you all as you read and study God’s word in 2025.

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For the sermon on which this post is based, see here: Good Enough for Kings

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Don Johnson is the pastor of Grace Baptist Church of Victoria, Victoria, BC, Canada.

1. A chiasm is a poetical device where the points can be paralleled in such a way as to resemble the letter X, which is the Greek letter chi. This can serve to give emphasis to the beginning and end of the chiasm, or the central point [usually the central point]. [↩]