Deuteronomy 17:8, commentary and pictures

Moses' repetition of the law was spoken before Israel crossed the Jordan into the promised land to recall the lessons of the forty years in the wilderness and to impress the sacred import of God's law and the necessity of keeping it, rehearsing what God had done and the chief laws already given rather than giving them for the first time, with Israel doubly bound to keep them because He had redeemed them from Egypt. The first hearing of a matter was at the gate, which was covered by an arch or beams holding up the massive walls above, sheltered from sun and storm and convenient for sessions of the judges, with its publicity helping prevent abuses of authority. At a city of refuge the gateway was attended night and day by men to receive fugitives, whose decision of the elders admitted him, while the regular trial before a higher court came later when witnesses had been summoned and accusers had time to appear. The verse belongs to the organization given to Israel, in which able men who feared God, men of truth hating covetousness, were chosen from among the people to manage the affairs of the church as rulers, captains, heads and officers with graded responsibilities over thousands and hundreds and fifties and tens. They were located in all parts of the land among the people to associate with them and counsel and guide them in all pertaining to their spiritual welfare.

Officers handled matters arising within their own local communities, described as within thy gates, and when a matter in judgment between blood and blood, plea and plea, and stroke and stroke was too hard for local judgment after a first hearing at the gate, God provided for it to be sent up to a higher body and judges for decision and final settlement. The difficult matter is to be brought to the place the Lord chooses and submitted to the priests and the judge serving there, calling upon them to know what the sentence of the law should be in the case as taught from the law. Their judgment is binding and the people must abide by it and not turn aside from it. A person who presumptuously refuses to obey is to be put to death, so that the people will fear and cease acting presumptuously.

Rule in the church under this testimony is not kingly lordship by one man but mutual government in which elders stand at the head to lead, teach, oversee, and judge all matters of differences and controversy according to the Bible. While the elders thus judge, the people in all cases executed the punishment and the church has power to execute the penalty. The same order holds in the New Testament, where it is for the church to enforce discipline in all cases. This provision for judges is part of Israel's system of government by judges as God's plan, and its failure resulted from the people's lack of self-government, not from a defect in the system.