The First Thing to Do in Your Ministry

Listen or read the following transcript as D. A. Carson speaks on the topic of ministry and church issues from Deuteronomy 17:14-20.

Madam President, members of the Board of Regents, faculty members and staff, graduating students, and perhaps above all, supporting family and friends. Today is not so much the end as the beginning. That fact is reflected in the traditional word we use to describe these occasions: commencement. You work hard for two, three, four, five, six years, and all we do is talk about commencement.

Advertise on TGC

In the few moments allotted me, I want to reflect with you on one of the more important commencement passages in all of the Bible. It’s found in Deuteronomy 17, and I shall read verses 14–20.

“When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you and have taken possession of it and settled in it, and you say, ‘Let us set a king over us like all the nations around us,’ be sure to appoint over you the king the Lord your God chooses. He must be from among your own people. Do not place a foreigner over you, one who is not an Israelite.

The king, moreover, must not acquire great numbers of horses for himself or make the people return to Egypt to get more of them, for the Lord has told you, ‘You are not to go back that way again.’ He must not take many wives, or his heart will be led astray. He must not accumulate large amounts of silver and gold. When he takes the throne of his kingdom, he is to write for himself on a scroll a copy of this law, taken from that of the Levitical priests.

It is to be with him, and he is to read it all the days of his life so that he may learn to revere the Lord his God and follow carefully all the words of this law and these decrees and not consider himself better than his fellow Israelites and turn from the law to the right or to the left. Then he and his descendants will reign a long time over his kingdom in Israel.”

This is the Word of the Lord.

The passage clearly has to do with how the king of ancient Israel is supposed to commence his reign, and obviously his commencement was unlike the onset of your impending ministries and vocations, at least in certain respects. For a start, he is going to reign. He’s a king, and as far as I know, none of our graduates aspire to that particular role.

Moreover, the kings of ancient Israel in the south were lined up to partake in the Davidic dynasty that would one day lead to Jesus Christ. There are some peculiar things that are bound up in God’s promises to these kings, which, again, cannot be duplicated in our ministry. It’s partly for that reason that this king is supposed to be peculiarly chosen by God, not simply a volunteer.

He’s supposed to be from his own people. He’s ruling over Israelites, whereas today the people of God are astonishingly diverse. The Bible speaks of men and women from every tongue, tribe, people, and nation, and many of us seek ministries that are astonishingly multicultural, and so it should be. So we don’t fit in those sorts of restrictions today.

Nevertheless, what is prohibited to this fledgling king and what he is commanded to do both speak with surprising force to those launching out in their own new beginnings, their own commencements. So, taking our cue from Deuteronomy 17, two things. First, what you should not do as you launch into your new field of service. Second, what you should do as you commence your new vocation.

1. What you should not do

A) Don’t acquire a lot of horses.

That’s what the text says. “The king, moreover, must not acquire great numbers of horses for himself.” The contemporary application is not referring to the size and displacement of your car, how many horses are under the hood. In the ancient world, a horse was more or less equivalent to a tank.

The prohibition against acquiring many horses really said, in effect, “Don’t set yourself up to be a power that finds its identity in how many people you can subjugate. Don’t find your identity there.” Once that is seen, it is easy to think of many New Testament passages with the same sort of focus.

Do you remember the remarkable passage in Matthew 20 and parallels, where James and John and their mother approach Jesus? (Matthew 20:20) They ask a favor of him. “ ‘What is it you want?’ he asked. She said, ‘Grant that one of these two sons of mine may sit at your right and the other at your left in your kingdom.’ ”

“Yes, I know there are twelve apostles, but somebody has to be secretary of state, and it might as well be my James. Somebody has to be minister of defense, and I can’t see for the life of me why it can’t be dear John. Number one and number two … under you, of course, so let’s say number two and number three, when you get into your kingdom.” “ ‘You don’t know what you are asking,’ Jesus said to them. ‘Can you drink the cup I am going to drink?’ ”

He was referring to his cup of suffering. They’re looking for power. He’s looking to suffer. “We can,” they answered with remarkable aplomb, not having a clue what Jesus meant. You can almost see Jesus smile as he answers. “You will indeed drink from my cup …” After all, one of them would become the first apostolic martyr, and the other would end his days on an island in exile. “Yeah, you’ll have your own fair share of suffering. Hang in there.”

“ ‘… but to sit at my right or left is not for me to grant. These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared by my Father.’ When the ten [the other apostles] heard about this, they were indignant with the two brothers. Jesus called them together and said, ‘You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave—just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.’ ”

Do not misunderstand this passage. Today we sometimes speak so glibly about servant leadership there is barely place for authority left at all, but the Jesus who says this is an astonishingly authoritative figure. In fact, this whole book ends, “All authority is given to me in heaven and on earth.” Jesus is not suggesting that leaders abandon authority.

Rather, what he’s saying is that the kind of authority that is exercised in his kingdom, following his own example that takes him to the cross, is the kind of authority that cares absolutely nothing for simply being stroked, simply wanting the best place all the time in order to find one’s self-identity in being promoted. It’s the kind of exercise of authority that serves.

Some of you will become pastors. Some of you will exercise leadership in other roles, such as in counseling centers. Somewhere along the line it will become easy for you to be tempted by the kind of authority that finds its self-identity in being praised as the boss. It shall not be so with you. You do not go after tanks or horses. You come not to be served but to serve and to give your life as a ransom, as a form of service for others. So don’t acquire a great number of horses.

Don’t make the people return to Egypt. Again, I suspect most of you won’t be too tempted in that regard. In the historic context, one understands why this admonition, this prohibition, is given. There was always a desire on the part of some in ancient Israel to make fresh alliances back with Egypt, one of the region’s superpowers. Perhaps it would improve commerce, and then perhaps there would be additional safety that way.

But once you become a vassal state under a regional superpower, then you’re entering into another kind of slavery all over again. In the New Testament, it is interesting to observe how many writers take the freedom the people enjoyed coming out of slavery under Egypt into the Promised Land to be a kind of analogy of how believers come out of another kind of slavery, a slavery to sin, and into a certain kind of freedom in Christ.

Galatians picks up this scene, and it overtly says, “Don’t go back to the slavery you once had.” You start asking yourself, “Why would I? I’ve been freed in some major measure. Why should I go back?” But the way we go back, very frequently, is by trying to find answers to our sins in a new round of legalism.

You watch the church begin to slide into some sort of carelessness, some sort of licentiousness, some sort of moral disorder, and there’s always a tendency on the part of leaders to say, “What we need is to lay down some laws.” What Paul says to the Galatians under a similar set of circumstances is, “Was it the law that freed you in the first place, or was it the gospel of God? If it was the gospel of God, if it was the gospel of Jesus Christ, don’t you think that is what will save you on the long haul?”

You do not get transformed Christians or mature believers by simply returning to the slavery of more dos and don’ts and that’s all. Don’t misunderstand me. I know there are some dos and don’ts, but that’s not where the power is. The power is in the gospel itself.

I have a friend, Mark Driscoll, on the West Coast who is dealing with a surprising number of people from horrible backgrounds, often connected with sexual addiction and porn and the like. One of his lines with them is, “You worshiped your way into this addiction. You will worship your way out.” Somewhere along the line, the gospel of Christ, the power of Christ, the glory and beauty of Christ must become so spectacularly wonderful to you in all of its transcendent power that anything less seems tawdry and cheap. Don’t go back to slavery. Don’t go back to Egypt.

B) Don’t take many wives.

Or husbands, I suppose. I suppose that prohibition says something about the sanctity of marriage, but it’s not the main point. The point is that when royalty took wives in the ancient Near East, it was often in aid of political allegiances, to increase the networking, to use a contemporary expression. You increase the networking, and then you have allegiances around that keep you safe. Saul was a master at it.

But, this text says, if you do, you may find your heart going astray. Not simply with all the women. That’s not the issue. The networking becomes an end in itself. You’re not trusting God anymore. All those friends and allegiances, where you look for the lowest common denominator simply to make another friend, and somehow you’ve lost the exclusive allegiance to Christ himself.

There is a kind of networking that is healthy and good. There’s another kind that is a desperate form of entrapment, so that any restriction, any insistence that, “This is the truth. This is the gospel. This is non-negotiable” becomes an embarrassment to you because you want instead to add to your network. Don’t do that.

C) Don’t accumulate too much money.

I suspect for many of you that won’t be much of a temptation, but it is what the text says. “He must not take many wives, or his heart will be led astray. He must not accumulate large amounts of silver and gold.” Nowhere in the Bible is there a figure on this. It would be impossible to offer that sort of figure in different cultures and times and places. That’s not the point.

The point is well expressed by the Lord Jesus himself in the Sermon on the Mount. “Don’t lay up treasures for yourself on earth, where moth and rust corrode or thieves dig through and steal. Lay up for yourself treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not corrode and where thieves do not dig through and steal.” Then he adds, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

Note what the text does not say. It does not say, “Guard your heart.” There are texts that say that. This text doesn’t say that. What Jesus says is, “Choose your treasure, because your heart will follow your treasure.” Whatever you value the most, that’s what you’ll think about. That’s what you’ll daydream about. That’s where you will invest energy and thought and imagination. That’s what you will buy a journal or a magazine about.

If your desire is to have the best home on the North Shore, I can guarantee you’ll subscribe to one of the journals on North Shore living. It’s just inevitable. It’s not necessarily bad to have such a journal, but nevertheless, if that is more important to you than reading your Bible, it’s a damnable sin. What can I say? For your heart will follow your treasure. Ask Madoff. Better to follow Wesley. “Earn as much as you can,” he said. “Give away as much as you can.” Don’t accumulate too much money.

Now let me review those again: Don’t acquire a great number of horses, don’t make the people return to Egypt, don’t take many wives, and don’t accumulate too much money. Do you hear what they are? Power, legalism, social approval, and wealth. Any of those items are too small, and they rob God of his glory.

2. What you should do.

Verses 18–20. Listen well to what these verses say. “When he takes the throne of his kingdom, he is to write for himself on a scroll a copy of this law, taken from that of the Levitical priests. It is to be with him, and he is to read it all the days of his life so that he may learn to revere the Lord his God and follow carefully all the words of this law and these decrees and not consider himself better than his fellow Israelites and turn from the law to the right or to the left. Then he and his descendants will reign a long time over his kingdom in Israel.”

The experts (I’m not one of them) debate about what this expression book of the law refers to, whether it refers to all of Deuteronomy or to some part of Deuteronomy or even, some have suggested, to the entire Pentateuch, the first five books of the Old Testament. In any case, what it does not say is, “Download from the Internet onto your hard drive without it passing through his brain.”

What it says is, “Take out your quill pen and start copying out in Hebrew, longhand, with such great clarity that that becomes your reading copy for the rest of your life.” That’s what it says. “You get one of the official copies of the Levites, and then you copy it out yourself … longhand.” That’s the first thing you do.

So when this king comes to the throne, what’s he supposed to do? Make sure his cabinet is appropriately built up? Make a lot of promises, which you know aren’t going to come to much fruition in any case? Nope. He’s supposed to copy out the Bible, or some significant chunk of it, and then he’s supposed to read it … every day, the text says. Every day that’s what he’s supposed to do. He’s supposed to copy it, keep it nearby so it’s with him all the time, and then read it every day.

What will you do when you get a new job? You may perhaps be exempted from copying out the Hebrew longhand, but surely, if you take the kinds of passages that were read earlier tonight seriously, you will read the Bible. You will read it and keep it close to you and do it every day.

Many of us in this institution have grown to revere John Stott. John Stott was converted at about the age of 16, and somebody immediately started him on the Bible-reading scheme of Robert Murray M’Cheyne, a Scot who set up this scheme about 1830 or thereabouts. This is a Bible-reading scheme where, if you follow the whole scheme, you’re reading about four chapters a day. They’re not simply in sequence. On January 1, you’re reading Genesis 1; Ezra 1; Matthew 1, and Acts 1.

If you follow the scheme, in one year you read through the New Testament and Psalms twice and the rest of the Old Testament once, in one year. Some people cut it in half and do that over two years. John Stott is now probably 85 or 87, and he has done that every single year since he was converted. This is not “A verse a day keeps the Devil away” stuff. That’s not the point. There’s no magic to it.

The point is that’s how he thinks. Proverbs says, “As a person thinks in his own heart, so is he.” When I arrived here at this institution many years ago, there was a teacher of homiletics who was known for his one-liners. I remember one of them to this day. “You are not what you think you are, but what you think, you are.” You’re not what you say. You’re not what you do. You’re not the position you hold. You are what you think.

That’s why the apostle Paul, when he is offering encouragement to the Roman Christians, says, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” Because you are what you think. If you’re going to constrain what you think, then you must read and reread and reread and reread the Bible. Do not ever get into the trap of saying, “I studied that when I was in seminary; I know that now,” because that will not shape how you think or what you think.

This text says we are to revere God’s ways and follow his words. That degree of particularity. I know the temptations in our age. I face them myself. The temptation is to get up in the morning, and the first thing to do is check your email, and then after that you have a whole lot of other things. Then you squeeze in some reading elsewhere in the day. But this is a very hectic-paced culture where the drumbeat of the urgent can squeeze out that which is of transcendent importance.

You are what you think, and the text gives three reasons. First, you will learn to revere the Lord your God and his words. In other words, you will not simply talk about them or preach from them or study them occasionally for the next address. You will revere them. Second, you will not think of yourself as superior to others. Most of you will eventually occupy positions of leadership. What will keep you realistic? Only proximity to the words of God, to God’s assessment of things. That’s the only thing. Third, you will not turn from God’s ways to the right or to the left.

Graduates, I salute you and congratulate you. We, the faculty, salute you and congratulate you. Now your vocation commences. Your ministry commences. If the handful of verses in Deuteronomy 17 had been carefully observed by all Israelite kings, all of Old Testament history would have been different. Your ministry will largely be determined by the priorities you adopt tonight and tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow. I congratulate you.