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Intro
Who’s going to lead God’s people?
You may think of kings or leaders as a “necessary evil” like police.
If there was no sin or evil in the world, we wouldn’t need police.
However, remember that there was authority structures before the fall, and they were good.
Even if there was no sin, we would still need leadership to make decisions.
What side of the road should we drive on?
Who’s going to do what jobs?
How will we order our society?
Even if everybody gets along and is accommodating, eventually someone has to make a call about life matters.
So asking the leadership question is important.
It’s not just a question from history, not just a question for us today, it is a question for eternity: Who’s going to lead God’s people?
That person will be king.
Not just a figurehead like you may be tempted to think of, but an active good leader and authority who protects and provides for His people.
This theme of kingship runs right through the Bible.
This may be familiar ground to those who have followed us through the our Psalms series last year.
The Psalms are heavily focused on messianic kingship.
Even so, this morning we are doing a sweeping overview of this topic.
It is the 5th, and second last of our series.
I hope you have been able to see some recurring themes across these different topics we have looked at.
Each of them have an unfolding picture that is built over the course of salvation history.
The Bible is not isolated moralistic stories, but a dense web of history, prophecy, wisdom and other literature that is knit together over thousands of years to form a cohesive message from God to humanity.
Each topic we look at creates shadows and patterns that all point to one man.
I hope this series has helped you see how the Bible fits together, giving you confidence to ask how the more obscure bits fit into the whole.
I hope you’re equipped to recognize the patterns that telegraph the meaning of God’s word to His people.
Speaking of patterns, lets briefly touch on some of the patterns of kingship that we will see pop up.
God’s Kings rule God’s people in God’s place
They usually follow a pattern -
Chosen
Anointed
Feats
Coronation
Rules by God’s Law
You won’t see this pattern all the time, especially for kings that only get a passing mention.
But it is a pattern that you will see in varying degrees and very clearly with key figures in Bible history.
Where should we start?
In the beginning!
Lets look at the succession kings across the Bible...
Proto-kings Adam & Patriarchs
Adam was like the first king.
not only is he given a dominion mandate, he is made in the image of God.
He was like a vassal king - he was to rule under the LORD, remaining loyal to him.
Gen 2 makes it clear Adam has primary responsibility for the task, but also that women were to play a vital role in supporting this mission.
Adam was to rule over God’s creation, made by God, life breathed by the HS
He along with Eve undermined their position and brought sin to the world.
Kingship is not really much of an issue in the first 5 books of the Bible, but we do start to see, some hints and patterns arising.
After the Fall, God chooses one family to start his plan of redemption.
This is God’s people.
There is a succession of patriarchs who lead God’s people, which works in the short term, but as generation follows generation and the people grow, what are you going to do?
As individual tribes form, there’s no longer just one patriarch.
So who’s going to lead God’s people?
Melchizedek, King of Salem
Intriguingly in this time period of the patriarchs, a strange king appears.
His presence is so brief, but so curious, because he is a figure to whom the patriarch Abraham gives deference.
This is Melchizedek.
Genesis 14:17–20 (ESV)
After his return from the defeat of Chedorlaomer ... Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine.
(He was priest of God Most High.)
And he blessed him and said, “Blessed be Abram by God Most High, Possessor of heaven and earth; and blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand!”
And Abram gave him a tenth of everything.
This strange King blesses Abraham, and gives him a voluntary tax.
Melchizedek literally means King of Righteousness, and he is also King of Salem, which literally means King of Peace.
King of Righteousness, and King of Peace blessing God’s people and receiving gifts of honor from them.
Although the text is not explicit, many people think that the place Salem is Jeru-salem, albeit 100s of years before it would become the capital of Israel.
But if true, this is an intriguing shadow of what is to come in the future.
So, who will reign over God’s people?
Is it this Melchizedek?
This powerful priestly servant of God?
Nope.
As fast as he appeared on the scene he is gone forever.
Judges & Saul
After the patriarchs, God raised up prophetic leaders like Moses and Joshua to lead God’s people for a time.
But they weren’t “royals”, they didn’t make dynasties or the like.
So who will lead God’s people into the future?
God rescued his people Israel from slavery in Egypt and brought them to Sinai.
There God entered into covenant with Israel and essentially offered to be their king.
He said would go with them and protect them.
And he did go with them as they wandered the desert and come to the promised land.
Yet, God knew that even though he was their ultimate king, eventually the people would ask for an earthly king to be their leader.
So the LORD set some ground rules...
So they could have a king, but it would be a king that God chooses, and definitely not someone who is not part of God’s people.
It is completely unacceptable that God’s people would be under the thumb of someone who is an enemy of God.
Now, one of the things this kings was to do was...
So the proper King over God’s people is one who is chosen by God who will know and govern in accordance with God’s law.
He essentially needs to copy out the Torah and study it so that he can be the kind of King that God’s people need.
But there was no king at that time.
They had these ground rules, but there was not king.
Instead, after they arrived at the promised land and each tribe received it’s inheritance, all the people split up and settled in their new home states.
There was no central leader or administration for their nation.
But God raised up a series of warlords to protect and help the nation.
These we call “Judges”.
They would gather armies and free the people of Israel from whatever trouble they had got themselves into.
After their mighty deeds they would often assume a kind of governorship in Israel for a time.
They were chosen by God, but not to be kings.
In fact there was one who tried to become king by force.
Gideon was judge that God raised up to deliver Israel, after his victory, they tried to make him king, but he declined.
Gideon left 70 sons behind when he died.
One son Abimelech conspired to not only take his fathers place of leadership, but to become king.
So he teed up the “votes” from the who’s who of community leaders and the went and slaughtered all his brothers so there was no competition.
Then they made him king.
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