THE RECORD OF THE KINGS 2 [ANSWERS]

Last week was an interesting one. On Monday, we opened a series that was supposed to set us on a journey of questions on the events in 1 and 2 Samuel. The plan was to move on to the next set of questions, but after receiving some extremely interesting feedback on our introductory questions within the week, I have decided to share their answers/perspectives with you so that we’re not merely carried away by the questioning but actually make efforts to be like the noble men of Berea and search the scriptures.

In The Record of the King 1 [read here], we see how God is displeased with the Israelites’ request for a king. We asked a few questions:

Was the idea of kingship really one birthed by the Israelites’ discontentment?

In the absence of what seemed to have been a selfish request by the Israelites, how would the royalty and kingship of the Messiah (which later became one of the most crucial means of identification of the Messiah particularly among Jews) have been symbolised among men when it was time for the Messiah to become man?

Could it be that the real problem was the timing and motive of their request, rather than the request itself? Could the real hesitation be about the initiator of the establishment of royalty?

Was the identity of Jesus as a king of a kingdom which had no end only an afterthought after the establishment of royalty which was initiated by the hardheartedness of the people of Israel? Could it be that God already intended to establish the same or similar institution but didn’t want to establish it at the whim of these hard-hearted men?

We asked, and we received! I share two main responses in this piece and leave you to do with them as you please.

LampedFeeter 1 (LF1): The questions in the episode made me smile because most of the preaching you hear on this is usually one that condemns the people for asking for a king as if it was never in God’s plan for them to have a king. And that is why king Saul later messed up. But that teaching is contrary to the totality of scripture. Your write up draws attention to an important teaching we’ve overlooked.

Me: Why is that teaching contrary to scripture?

LF1: Jacob in blessing his 12 sons in Genesis 49 prophetically declared that the sceptre (which is a symbol of rulership) shall not depart from Judah. It is that prophetic word that ensured that the Messiah must come from Judah’s line.

But Judah committed incest with his daughter in law Tamah and gave birth to twins. That was considered an abomination and the twins were considered as bastards. The scriptures say that the bastard shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord even to the tenth Generation – Deutronomy 23:2. Pharez who was one of the twins is the direct line of Jesus. From the Genealogy of Jesus in Matthew 1:3-6, David is the tenth generation from Pharez. And it was at that point that the family of Judah was eligible to produce a king and not before.

Me: Interesting. Could rulership have been leadership as a priest and prophet instead of a king?

LF1: The Messiah is all three so prophetically David played all three roles. Saul attempted playing the priesthood role when he offered the sacrifice and incurred God’s wrath. David offered a sacrifice and God was pleased.

Me: Yeah, that’s in one of the episodes. But my question really is the sceptre…how do we know it necessarily meant kingship?

LF1: The ancient kings had sceptres as a symbol of authority. King Ahasuerus extended his sceptre to Esther before she could approach him.

The concept of rulership in God’s plans is 3 fold; King, prophet and priest (David’s reign typified it so well. He was the king, he had a prophet (Nathan) and he had a priest (Abiathar).

The priesthood was assigned to the sons of Levi. But the priesthood was not immediately established until the exodus from Egypt. Aaron, Moses and Mariam were from the line of Levi.

For the prophet’s office, it wasn’t assigned to any particular family. It was left to God’s discretion to choose the individual who will be his mouthpiece per time.

The kingship was assigned to Judah. But that was also not immediately established.

Me: Interesting. So Jacob prophesied kingship in Israel.

LF1: I did these studies some 7-8 years ago and if my memory serves me right, the issue of kingship was spoken of by God much earlier than in 1 Samuel. I found scriptures that talked about kingship in some of the books preceding 1 Samuel not just in terms of arrangement in the bible but predates it in terms of time.

Me: But can we say that was God’s initiative still? Could it not be that Jacob also just looked at the neighbouring nations and blessed him along those lines?

LF1: That argument can still be made.

And everything Jacob said about his sons came to pass. Reuben’s line was almost extinguished because of his father’s pronouncement. It took Moses to intercede for them that “let not Reuben die and let not his people be few”.

When he cursed the anger of Levi and Simeon, that spirit of anger run through Levi’s line to Moses and was the reason Moses couldn’t enter the promised land.

So Genesis 49 was not just Jacob’s words. They were prophetic in nature.

Me: But again, could we not say it’s just the power of the tongue and a father’s declaration over his sons? That would negate the prophecy argument.

LF1: Jacob was not just a biological father. He is a major patriarch. He was also considered a prophet based on his prophetic encounters with God on his way to Laban and on his return from Laban.

He was the only one who understood his son Joseph’s dreams when the boy didn’t even understand them.

Me: Interesting. So why was God upset about their request then? The timing? Or their motive?

LF1: Both the timing and the motive. As I said, the sceptre was with Judah. Saul is from the line of Benjamin. They didn’t have the mandate to produce kings (so when God was choosing him as the first king, you realize that the qualifications He gave were physical).

But when the timing was right for Judah to now produce the king (David) the qualities were not physical but spiritual. And the shift from the physical qualities to spiritual qualities even confused a seasoned prophet like Samuel.

Me: Yeahhh which is another issue I have with God in another episode😂 He set the precedent for him and then proceeded to scold him for following it.

LF1: God’s motive for giving them a king was to give them a typology of the promised Messiah and his reign. It wasn’t any of the things the people were expecting from their would-be king.

Me: So David probably would have been King anyway? Just on God’s own terms and timing…that’s what you’re suggesting?

LF1: Yhup

Me: Very interesting. this conversation will definitely be another piece. Very insightful. Thank you.

I was intrigued about this idea that kingship was originally God’s idea, long before the Israelites asked, so I put on my Berean cap and went searching, and you can be sure I found something interesting!

Deuteronomy was said to have been written in 1407-1406BC, about 400 years before the events that happened in 1 Samuel. In Deuteronomy 17:14-20, God mysteriously told the Israelites, 400 years before they asked for a king:

“You are about to enter the land the Lord your God is giving you. When you take it over and settle there, you may think, ‘We should select a king to rule over us like the other nations around us.’ If this happens, be sure to select as king the man the Lord your God chooses. You must appoint a fellow Israelite; he may not be a foreigner.

“The king must not build up a large stable of horses for himself or send his people to Egypt to buy horses, for the Lord has told you, ‘You must never return to Egypt.’ The king must not take many wives for himself, because they will turn his heart away from the Lord. And he must not accumulate large amounts of wealth in silver and gold for himself.

“When he sits on the throne as king, he must copy for himself this body of instruction on a scroll in the presence of the Levitical priests. He must always keep that copy with him and read it daily as long as he lives. That way he will learn to fear the Lord his God by obeying all the terms of these instructions and decrees.

This regular reading will prevent him from becoming proud and acting as if he is above his fellow citizens. It will also prevent him from turning away from these commands in the smallest way. And it will ensure that he and his descendants will reign for many generations in Israel.

Is it not interesting that 400 years before they asked for a king, God was giving instructions on who was qualified to be a king? While it appeared that God was only indulging what He knew would be a desire of His people in some time to come, even then, it appeared He intended a kingship…just not the kind that the Israelites or any other nation understood kingship to be. So while the Israelites desired a man who would be ‘superior’ to them, a man who would be both functionally and inherently ‘better’ than them, God was saying the exact opposite. In fact, He wanted so badly for the king himself to understand that his leadership did not mean worship that He insisted that this man ‘copy for himself this body of instruction on a scroll, keep that copy and read it daily to prevent him from becoming proud and acting as if he is above his fellow citizens’! (verses 19&20).

So it was interesting when another awesome LampedFeeter’s comment on last week’s episode tied it exactly with what I had been preparing to share this week! He said:

“Reading this, Mark 10:42-43 comes to mind. And with reference to many other parables where Jesus talks about servants given rulership over cities, it seems God’s idea about leadership is by “equal proportion” – and not handing over authority to a select group of people ‘better’ or ‘more deserving’ than some in a way that they needed to be served or worshipped – as you rightly mentioned.”

It couldn’t have been more apt, frankly!😅 Mark 10:35-45 [NLT] is the story of James and John seeking prominence at Jesus’ right and left in His glory. It’s interesting what Jesus tells them:

⁴¹ When the ten heard about this, they became indignant with James and John [meaning even they sought prominence and superiority!]. ⁴² Jesus called them together and said, “You know that the rulers in this world lord it over their people, and officials flaunt their authority over those under them. ⁴³ But among you, it will be different. Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant, ⁴⁴ and whoever wants to be first among you must be the slave of everyone else. ⁴⁵ For even the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Yet this is exactly the opposite of what the Israelites imagined, and for whatever ridiculously absurd reason, wanted. Because God warned them they would get the opposite (remember episode 1 and how He told them how selfish the king would be?), and yet they said ‘yet still, we want a king!’ [1 Samuel 8].

Before I leave you and the thoughts that may be running through your mind, let me share an extremely interesting opinion I saw on one of the pages I read from:

‘Solomon was the wisest king of all. Yet the Bible judges Solomon by God’s standards:

“Solomon had four thousand stalls for horses and chariots, and twelve thousand horses” (compare 2 Chron. 9:25 with Deut. 17:16a).

“The king [Solomon] made silver as common in Jerusalem as stones” (compare 2 Chron. 9:27 with Deut. 17:17b).

“The weight of the gold that Solomon received yearly was 666 talents” (compare 2 Chron. 9:13 with Deut.17:17b).

“He [Solomon] had seven hundred wives of royal birth and three hundred concubines [mistresses]” (compare 1 Kings 11:3 with Deut. 17:17a).

What a shock! The wisest human ruler who ever lived broke almost every command God gave for a king. We are left wanting something better. Matthew, the Jewish writer, voiced our need: “If this is the best the human race can provide, there must be someone else.” Then he remembered the words of Jesus: “… one greater than Solomon is here” (Matt. 12:42).

That is God’s final choice for the ideal king: Jesus the Messiah. He must be our choice as well.’

Profound, I say! Until our next set of questions, stay learning!

Love,

Rad!💖