Today, let’s talk a little bit about why God did NOT want Israel to have an earthly king.
The reason why is because installing a typical gentile monarchy into Israel would have radically altered the Lord’s relationship with His People.
In other words, the people would have become divided in their loyalties.
Remember, Yeshua said…“No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other…”-Matthew 6:24
An earthly king would have demanded the loyalty of his people but God’s plan was to have Israel loyal only to him.
So introducing a king according to the typical gentile model would have been like throwing a monkey wrench into God’s perfect plan.
When we look at the history of the earthly kings of Israel, we can see they were far from perfect.
The first king of Israel called Saul turned out to be a disaster of gargantuan proportions.
He was an ego-driven ruler who ended up losing his mind, not to mention the fact that he really didn’t know how to properly govern the people in the first place.
King David, who took over after Saul was much better and was the pattern for the Messiah to come afterwards.
David provided strong leadership but was far from perfect.
He turned out to be both an adulterer and a murderer, yet he never fell into idolatry.
King David was truly a man who was after God’s heart in spite of all his imperfections.
Solomon, who was the son of King David, was also not without his imperfections.
Like his father before him, Solomon truly loved God and cared for the common people.
However, in order to centralize his power, he forced the people to pay heavy taxes and entered into alliances with his neighbors that compromised his relationship with Hashem.
Also, there’s something a lot of folks don’t know about King Solomon (and when I say a lot of folks, I’m talking about both Jews and non-Jews).
The books about King Solomon actually demonstrate he was NOT a good king and…
…show he was a ruler who did not follow the ways of the Lord as directed in Torah.
It seems like each king of Israel, one after another, increasingly demanded more from the people while giving back less in return.
The reason why is actually quite mind-blowing.
Here’s the thing: Each king of Israel became increasingly jealous of the people’s faithfulness and loyalty to God.
In fact, they became so jealous that in order to destroy the people’s connection to Hashem, some of the more evil kings of Israel tried to get the people to worship false gods.
I’m not even kidding man!
Can you believe that?!
Anyway, let me close with this one point.
In the Lord’s equation, who owns the land and…
…who a believer (whether a Jew or a grafted in gentile) gives his or her loyalty to…
…is EVERYTHING.
Let’s not forget that the so-called Battle of Armageddon is nothing more nor less than the final battle to take the whole Land of Canaan which is something that Joshua and all the leaders of Israel who came after him failed to do.
However, when the second Y’hoshua returns, he won’t just be taking back the land of Canaan.
He’s coming back to conquer the whole world!
When this happens, God will once again be king over the whole planet as it was to be from the very beginning.
From that point onward into eternity, no human or earthly king will ever again rule over planet earth.
And what’s exciting as all hell is that the launching point for all of this starts right here in the Book of Joshua…what we’re studying right now!
NEXT TIME WE BEGIN JOSHUA CHAPTER 13
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