“He was king over Jeshurun
when the leaders of the people assembled,
along with the tribes of Israel.”
-Deuteronomy 33:5
In verse 5 we run into an interesting word that refers to Israel: JESHURUN.
Literally, this translates to “the upright one”.
This is a somewhat cryptic verse.
It is actually referring to the day when Hashem was made king of Israel by the tribal leaders of Israel when the covenant was given at Mount Sinai.
Back in the book of Exodus, all the people including the mixed multitude told the Lord that they did not want a human king like the nations had, instead they wanted Hashem to be their king.
The reason why was because they had just escaped from the king of Egypt and that had been anything but a positive experience.
The people just couldn’t stomach having another human ruler over them at the time.
So they chose God.
Although their decision wasn’t driven by the most Godly of reasons it was the correct choice nevertheless.
Of course, I’m sure there were some folks who chose Hashem to be their king based on noble motives and having absolute trust in His ability to take care of them especially after witnessing the power He demonstrated in Egypt.
But again, as I just said, for the most part, the thought of having another human king who could possibly turn into another pharaoh was just too much for the people to take at the time.
Another reality of the day we need to take into account was how tribalism worked in the ancient Middle East.
Among the 12 tribes of Israel it would have been a major political challenge for them to decide from which tribe the king should come.
Because the nature of tribalism is such that each tribe holds the well being of its members over all the other tribes.
Thus, naturally the tribe from which the king hailed would always be given special care, protection, special political favors and simply just have much more power in Israel.
That is why tribes end up fighting each other in the first place.
They want their tribe to be the one who produces the ruler over the whole region.
We see this exact same phenomenon in the Middle East today even though most Westerners don’t recognize it.
All of those wars we hear about between fellow muslims in the Middle East are basically tribal wars of one extended family fighting another extended family.
I’ve said this before but understanding tribalism is key to understanding Scripture.
A lot of the conspiracies and murders we read about among the leaders of Israel in Scripture are rooted in tribal conflict that intensified once the people decided that instead of a divine king they wanted a human one.
And that folks is why the world is in such messed up shape today.
It is because every nation is ruled by flawed human leaders.
Until Messiah returns and establishes torah rule among Israel and the nations, the whole world will continue to be on a crash course destined for hell.
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