When you begin a new job, you may receive an employee handbook of some kind. In the pages of that handbook, you’ll learn your job description and other expectations of your employment. If you follow the instructions in the employee handbook, you will likely retain your job. If you don’t, you probably won’t.

What we have in this section of Deut is an employee handbook of sorts. It pertains to future kings, priests, and Levites. It explains what they can and cannot do as officials in the theocracy.

Israel was a theocracy. That is, the government officials ruled for God. God ruled the nation through these officials. That was the way it was supposed to be at least. Over the history of Israel, many of the kings and priests did not remain faithful to these directions. The result was chaos, oppression, and destruction.

But all of that was far in the future when Moses spoke these words. Moses is giving principles that will apply once the nation settles down in the PL. That will happen shortly after he speaks these words, so the people must understand how to fulfill these expectations.

We do not function within this theocratic system. We are not Israel. We don’t have kings in our political system, and we don’t have priests or Levites in the church. These directions pertain specifically to the nation of Israel as it would live in the PL. However, we do find some timeless principles here that still pertain to us today.

Let’s consider God’s expectations for the theocratic officials as they live in the PL.