17:1 As God gives His best to us, we are meant to give our best to Him. For the children of Israel, that meant dedicating the best of their crop and livestock. For us, it means dedicating our best efforts in and of faith. God does not deal in a lackluster manner with us, rather He floods us with His living and healing water and with blessings abundant. In fair return, we should give Him our best effort to be empathetic, faithful children and students of Him.
In every aspect of our lives we have the opportunity to serve Him and thank Him. In our social and familial relationships, in our work ethic, in our intentions and motivations. We always have the opportunity to grow in His wisdom and produce increasingly good fruits.
There are two distinctive types of God's children and we all fall somewhere between or on the two. In Genesis 4 Cain and Abel represent these two types. Cain offers bad fruits, the fruits which come from toil and manipulation in the world. With his life, Cain dealt corruptly with others and always sought gain for himself. Yet Abel gave God the best of what he had cared for with his own hands. Abel had genuine gratitude and love for God, recognized that God loved and gave to Him abundantly, and returned that love.
17:2-7 John 8:7 explains that stoning is an unacceptable form of justice. Yet God does want us to be vigilant and diligent in acquiring facts rather than gossip. By remaining vigilant in our societies, we will know when injustice is occurring and will therefore be able to stamp it out.
17:8-13 If the children of Israel were unable to settle a matter in their justice system, they could bring the issue to the Levites (who lived and remained separate from daily life, and therefore unbiased). Once the matter was in the hands of the Levites, the people were supposed to follow their ruling over it.
17:14-15 Moses is reaching the culmination of his leadership and life on earth. Moses prophesies when he mentions that the children of Israel will request a man king to rule over them. As of now, their King is God and His system of justice is organized by the Levites (an oligarchy).
Although the children of Israel do not need a man king, they will request one. As humans are fallible, having a human king will bring some trouble for them. God wants the children of Israel to avoid some of that trouble by remembering to elect a king who is within and participating in the faith. We will see this come to pass in I Samuel.
17:16-17 Moses explains that their king should not be obsessed with his own wealth and prosperity. Their man king should remain, as they are, a servant of God. God should be their source. They should not travel into former lands (backtrack literally) in order to obtain old desires (backtrack spiritually).
17:18-19 The king must write down the law, the commandments, in order to profess that he has read and knows them. He must continually read it, for it will keep him honest and forward-righteously thinking.
17:20 It is important for us to continually read because not only do we constantly learn, we also go over elemental principles which keep us rooted in faith. For example, learning to be patient is not like learning the definition of the word patient. Patience takes effort and encouragement... we find that encouragement and the map and strength for that effort within these pages.
Every day spent away from God's word is a day we drift from it. Everyday within these pages is a day we grow deeper and stronger in it. Many days away cause us to change, regress. If the children of Israel, or we, wish to abound in happiness and prosperity, generosity and justice, we must constantly refer to the source of those things: God's word and will and love.
