Future King

Notes:

18-20:

Lessons:

Don’t worship the king.

Genesis 17:6 “6 I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make you into nations, and kings shall come from you.”

Genesis 49:9–12 “9 Judah is a lion’s cub; from the prey, my son, you have gone up. He stooped down; he crouched as a lion and as a lioness; who dares rouse him? 10 The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until tribute comes to him; and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples. 11 Binding his foal to the vine and his donkey’s colt to the choice vine, he has washed his garments in wine and his vesture in the blood of grapes. 12 His eyes are darker than wine, and his teeth whiter than milk.”

1 Samuel 8:19–20 “19 But the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel. And they said, “No! But there shall be a king over us, 20 that we also may be like all the nations, and that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles.””

Saul: From Benjamin: “The tribe that had proved by deed and disposition to be like the lowest of the nations. (Judg 19-21, Gen 19). “Ultimately he served as a foil for the one Yahweh had in mind from the beginning, the man after YHWH’s heart.” Block

1 Samuel 13:14 “14 But now your kingdom shall not continue. The Lord has sought out a man after his own heart, and the Lord has commanded him to be prince over his people, because you have not kept what the Lord commanded you.””

Saul versus David: Saul: Handsome, head taller, doomed from the start.

Solomon: Multiplied wealth and horses

1 Kings 4:26–28 “26 Solomon also had 40,000 stalls of horses for his chariots, and 12,000 horsemen. 27 And those officers supplied provisions for King Solomon, and for all who came to King Solomon’s table, each one in his month. They let nothing be lacking. 28 Barley also and straw for the horses and swift steeds they brought to the place where it was required, each according to his duty.”

I Kings 1:11: Now King Solomon loved many foreign women, along with the daughter of Pharaoh: Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women, 2 from the nations concerning which the Lord had said to the people of Israel, “You shall not enter into marriage with them, neither shall they with you, for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods.” Solomon clung to these in love. 3 He had 700 wives, who were princesses, and 300 concubines. And his wives turned away his heart.

Slavery: 1 Kings 5:13–18 “13 King Solomon drafted forced labor out of all Israel, and the draft numbered 30,000 men. 14 And he sent them to Lebanon, 10,000 a month in shifts. They would be a month in Lebanon and two months at home. Adoniram was in charge of the draft. 15 Solomon also had 70,000 burden-bearers and 80,000 stonecutters in the hill country, 16 besides Solomon’s 3,300 chief officers who were over the work, who had charge of the people who carried on the work. 17 At the king’s command they quarried out great, costly stones in order to lay the foundation of the house with dressed stones. 18 So Solomon’s builders and Hiram’s builders and the men of Gebal did the cutting and prepared the timber and the stone to build the house.”

1 Kings 11:9–13 “9 And the Lord was angry with Solomon, because his heart had turned away from the Lord, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice 10 and had commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not go after other gods. But he did not keep what the Lord commanded. 11 Therefore the Lord said to Solomon, “Since this has been your practice and you have not kept my covenant and my statutes that I have commanded you, I will surely tear the kingdom from you and will give it to your servant. 12 Yet for the sake of David your father I will not do it in your days, but I will tear it out of the hand of your son. 13 However, I will not tear away all the kingdom, but I will give one tribe to your son, for the sake of David my servant and for the sake of Jerusalem that I have chosen.””

1 Timothy 4:13–16 “13 Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching. 14 Do not neglect the gift you have, which was given you by prophecy when the council of elders laid their hands on you. 15 Practice these things, immerse yourself in them, so that all may see your progress. 16 Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers.”

Christ as King

Matthew 27:37 “37 And over his head they put the charge against him, which read, “This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.””

Priestly King: He is the Word Made Flesh King

Introduction:

What we want isn’t so bad.

It why we want it.

What a King Should Be

Desired by the People

Block: “In contrast to the offices of judge (16:18–20; 17:9), priest (17:9; 18:1–8), and prophet (18:9–22), the office of king is presented as optional, subject to the desire of the people. However, Moses reins in temptations to abuse the office by proscribing greed and ambition (vv. 16–17) and by prescribing an extraordinary spiritual and ethical standard for the king (vv. 18–20).”

King comes from democratic desire, not through military prowess.

Divinely Appointed

Elected People

Chosen Place for Worship

Chosen Man for King

Must be from among your brothers. Joke in our family that Mark and Deacon can’t become presidents because they weren’t born here.

Chosen by God, not a foreign king

What King Should not DO

Seek Military Strength

v.16: Only he must not acquire many horses for himself or cause the people to return to Egypt in order to acquire many horses, since the Lord has said to you, ‘You shall never return that way again.’

“In the early period, then, there seems to be a certain suspicion of the use of horses in military affairs, not because of any particular view about the animal itself, but because the horse represented the military tactics of Israel’s enemies, against whom their principal strength was God himself.” Craigie

Option #1: No trade relations with Egypt

Option #2: Don’t trade people for horses.

“You shall not return in this way again.”

Seek International Treaties

v. 17: “You shall not acquire many wives for himself lest his heart turn away, nor shall he acquire for himself excessive silver and gold.”

Block: “Whereas Moses has repeatedly spoken of the seductive force of Canaanite religious ideas, now he speaks of the seductive pull of Canaanite politeia.”

Desire and Diplomatic Reasons to have multiple wives.

“Lest his heart be turned away.”

Issue isn’t that he has wives, but how having so many wives will lead his heart astray.

Israel has one treaty: Covenant with the Lord

Warning against Idolatry (Deuteronomy 7:3–4 “3 You shall not intermarry with them, giving your daughters to their sons or taking their daughters for your sons, 4 for they would turn away your sons from following me, to serve other gods. Then the anger of the Lord would be kindled against you, and he would destroy you quickly.”).

Seek Excessive Wealth

Domestic Burden

Block: taxation. Wealth comes from the people.

Three major temptations: “lust for power, status, and wealth.” Block

Three fold repetition “for himself.”

Don’t worship a king who’s going to worry about what’s going on out there…

The people are already worried about that.

Remove the temptation of the WO)RLD and focus it in the WORD

What the KING SHOULD DO is get people centered around the Word…

What a King Should BE/DO

Be a Scribe:

“Our text says nothing about administrative gifts or persuasive talent.” Block

Record the Word

“Approved by the Levitical Priests”

Carry the Word

Read the Word

Should Also BE a Priest… From the Tribe of Judah, but also a priest

David’s Sons were priests!

From the line of Judah, and Priests!

Ideal King:

The Scribe King

“This law”: The Book of Deuteronomy? Or 12-26

Moses practiced what he preached: Deuteronomy 31:9 “9 Then Moses wrote this law and gave it to the priests, the sons of Levi, who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and to all the elders of Israel.”

Bible on one piece of jewelry gift

King should not view himself as superior.

“the Command”= Deuteronomy 5:31–32 “31 But you, stand here by me, and I will tell you the whole commandment and the statutes and the rules that you shall teach them, that they may do them in the land that I am giving them to possess.’ 32 You shall be careful therefore to do as the Lord your God has commanded you. You shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left.”

The King isn’t supposed to be up there making up his own laws. No, he just records GOD’S laws. Countercultural. He doesn’t make up things as he goes. He exemplifies for the people the need to depend on God’s Word.

Purpose:

Humility: 20 that his heart may not be lifted up above his brothers,

Love God with his whole mind, soul, strength.

and that he may not turn aside from the commandment, either to the right hand or to the left, so that he may continue long in his kingdom, he and his children, in Israel.

Christ Fulfilled

Our desire

Conclusion: So that he may continue long in his kingdom, he and his children, in Israel=over the church