We Need a King

Intro

a) Today I want to wrap up our series on Judges by looking at 1 verse. It’s a phrase that was repeated 4x in Judges & it’s also the last verse of Judges: “In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” This verse is a summary of the entire book.

b) Last week we saw what happened when human autonomy reigned supreme & Israel did what was right in their own eyes. But today, I want to look at the 1st part of that verse: “In those days there was no king in Israel.” What does that mean? Why did Israel need a King? Who is that King?

To understand why Israel needed a King, we have to go all the way back to the beginning.

a) The 1st 2 chapters of Scripture, Gen. 1-2, reveals that God is the King of Creation. Our God & King is so powerful, & His word is so authoritative, that He simply speaks & calls things into existence. Gen. 1-2 show us our God & King creating a realm over which He ruled.

b) And when God made all things, everything functioned in perfect harmony & in perfect submission to His rule. The opening pages of Scripture give us a beautiful picture of what the world looks like under this King’s reign. And we also see why our God & King created humanity in Gen. 1:26-28:

c) “Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea & over the birds of the heavens & over the livestock & over all the earth & over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.’ So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male & female He created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, ‘Be fruitful & multiply & fill the earth & subdue it & have dominion over the fish of the sea & over the birds of the heavens & over every living thing that moves on the earth’.”

d) God created humanity to rule on His behalf. Those made in His image were to rule on earth as He rules over all creation. Adam had all the power of a king. He was to exercise authority & dominion over creation. He named animals. He & Eve were able to eat their fill.

e) But even w/ all these great privileges, they still had a King ruling over them. God gave them commands to be obeyed. They were to be fruitful & multiply & fill the earth. They were to subdue the earth, have dominion over creation. They were to work & keep or protect the garden.

f) They were told they could eat of every tree in the garden,except for the tree of the knowledge of good & evil. The King told them what would happen if they ate of that tree: “you shall surely die.” See it wasn’t just about eating a piece of fruit, but about God’s rightful rule over them as King.

g) But despite all the gifts they enjoyed, humanity wanted more. They wanted to be their own King. They wanted to be like God. They wanted to do what was right in their own eyes. And their rejection of God as King & His rightful rule over them had consequences.

h) Their relationship w/ 1 another & w/ creation itself & w/ God was fractured. Humanity was removed from God’s presence in the garden. God’s people were removed from His land & from His presence. But Gen. 3 doesn’t end w/ the curses of the fall.

i) After the fall, we are told that Adam named his wife Eve, which means mother of all living things. Why is that significant? B/c it was after God cursed the serpent & said this in Gen. 3:15:

j) “I will put enmity between you & the woman, & between your offspring & her offspring; he shall bruise your head, & you shall bruise his heel.” God declared an offspring of the woman would 1 day come & crush the serpent. So when Adam named Eve, it revealed his faith in God’s promise.

k) Adam believed God’s promise & was fruitful & multiplied & brought forth offspring. And as offspring came forth, we also see the promised hostility between the offspring of the woman & the serpent. Some offspring wouldn’t follow God as their King.

l) In Gen. 4 we know Cain rose up & killed his brother Abel. Several generations later, humanity was so evil God declared He would destroy all flesh. Yet, He mercifully spared Noah & his family. And after the flood what did God command Noah: “be fruitful & multiply.”

m) God promised He would never again curse the ground b/c of man, nor would he strike down every living creature. But once again after the flood, we see that some of Noah’s offspring are offspring of the serpent. In Gen. 9, 1 of Noah’s sons (Ham), saw his father’s nakedness & told his brothers.

n) We aren’t given details but Ham sinned & dishonored his father. In Gen. 9:25, just as God cursed the serpent & Cain, He said: “Cursed be Canaan.” Gen. 9:22 says Ham was Canaan’s father. That’s why God commanded Israel to come into the land & devote the Canaanites to destruction.

o) They were a wicked, cursed people. They were the offspring of the serpent. But we are told Noah’s other sons, Shem & Japheth, honored their father & didn’t uncover his nakedness. Gen. 10 lists the nations that descended from them. Gen. 11 tells us that 1 of Shem’s descendants was Abram.

p) In Gen. 12 God called Abram to leave his father’s country & go to a land the Lord would show him. The Lord promised to bless him w/ a people, a place & God’s presence. God’s covenant w/ Abram was a promise to reverse the curse of Gen. 3. Then in Gen. 12:3 God promised Abram:

q) “in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” In Gen. 17:6 God said: “I will make you very fruitful; I will make nations of you, & kings will come from you.” How would all of the families of the earth be blessed? Through 1 of Abram’s offspring, a King, who would undo the curse of Gen. 3

r) And although Abraham was old & his wife was barren, Abraham (like Adam) believed God’s promise. And those same promises were then repeated to Abraham’s son of promise (Isaac) & to 1 of Isaac’s sons (Jacob), who was later renamed Israel.

s) But 400 years after the Lord made these great promises to Abraham, the 12 sons or tribes of Israel, were slaves in Egypt serving Pharaoh, who ruled over them as a king. But God miraculously brought them out to serve the One True King & to live under His righteous rule.

t) Once again God made promises to Moses: He would be their God & they would be His people. God promised to give them a land & that His presence would go w/ them & be w/ them. And God as their King gave them His law so they would know how relate to Him & to 1 another.

u) But God also gave them sacrifices to make if they broke His law. He showed them that their sin could be forgiven by the shedding of blood by a sacrifice or a substitute.

v) But Moses & that entire wilderness generation died before they came into the land. But Joshua brought the next generation into the land which is where Judges picks up the story. And Judges began by telling us that Joshua & all the other leaders of his generation died.

w) And we saw the results of this lack of godly leadership throughout Judges: Israel abandoned their God & King.

But the good news we saw throughout Judges is that God had not abandoned them.

a) “In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” Not only does this indicate Israel ignored God’s laws, but they also had rejected God as their King. But every time Israel sinned & called upon God, He raised up a Judge or Deliverer to rescue them.

b) But as Judges comes to an end, it looked as if God’s kingdom would never be fully established in Israel. If the Kingdom was going to come, God’s people needed a King. Then in the very next book of the Hebrew Bible (1 Samuel), Israel demanded that God give them a king like the nations.

c) But here was the problem: Israel wasn’t called to be like the other nations. They were set apart by, to & for God. Their desire to have a king like the nations & to be like the nations was a step in the wrong direction. When Israel demanded a king like the nations God gave them their hearts desired.

d) God had Samuel, the last & final Judge, appoint Saul as the king of Israel. And here’s why that’s so interesting. Throughout Judges we see a pro-Judah & anti-Benjamin theme. Think back to Judg. 1. The author gave us 19 verses about how the tribe of Judah had success in taking their territory.

e) But then we saw only 1 verse about the tribe of Benjamin, as they failed to obey & fully occupy their territory & instead dwelt w/ the Canaanites. Now think back to how Judges ended in Ch. 19-21. We saw the tribe of Benjamin in the city of Gibeah committing the sin of Sodom.

f) We saw all of Israel devote the tribe of Benjamin to destruction. Don’t miss what was happening. When Israel asked for a king like the nations in 1 Sam. 8:5, we should be horrified w/ Saul’s selection. Why? He was a man from the tribe of Benjamin & from the town of Gibeah.

g) If there was a king who fulfilled Israel’s request to be like the nations, it was Saul. So based on what we saw in Judges, it shouldn’t surprise us that Saul failed miserably as Israel’s king. Dt. 17 said Israel’s king should write out the law & read God’s law & learn to obey & fear the Lord.

h) But Saul was a law unto Himself. The people learned firsthand what it was like to have a king like the nations. But God still hadn’t abandoned his people. When God rejected Saul as king, He called Samuel to anoint David as Israel’s next king. Now yes, David was far from perfect.

i) But 1 Sam. 13:14 describes him as a “man after God’s own heart.” He set the ideal for what the king of Israel should look like: hearing & fearing God & His word. Trusting God. But the significance of what God accomplished through David is God’s covenant w/ Him in 2 Sam. 7.

j) This covenant built upon the covenants God made w/ Abraham & Moses & also expanded them. Like God’s covenant w/ Abraham, God promised in 2 Sam. 7:9 to make David’s name great.

k) Like God’s covenant w/ Abraham, God promised in 2 Sam. 7:10 to appoint a place for Israel to dwell. But God also promised David in 2 Sam. 7:16 that He would raise up an offspring of David whose kingdom & throne would be established forever.

l) Gods’ covenant w/ David pointed forward to a greater King. David & his descendants’ imperfect obedience & leadership would leave God’s people longing & waiting for a greater King. And Isreal’s prophets continued to revisit the idea of this coming King who would rule over Israel.

m) Isa. 11:1-2 described this King as a “shoot from the stump of Jesse” whom “the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him, the Spirit of wisdom & understanding, the Spirit of counsel & might, the Spirit of knowledge & the fear of the Lord.” This coming King would rule Israel & the nations perfectly.

n) In Jer. 23:5–6 God declared, “Behold the days are coming...when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch & He shall reign as king & deal wisely & shall execute justice & righteousness in the land.” Jer. 23:6 said his name would be: “The Lord is our righteousness.”

o) In Eze. 34:15-16 God made this promise: “I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, & I myself will make them lie down, declares the Lord God. I will seek the lost & I will bring back the strayed & I will bind up the injured & I will strengthen the weak.”

p) Shepherd was a common metaphor for a king in the ANE & OT. A shepherd cared for & nurtured His sheep. He led them out & defended them against their enemies. That’s why David confessed in Ps. 23: The Lord is my shepherd or King…His rod & staff or royal scepter comfort me.

q) Ezek. 37:24-28: “My servant David shall be king over them, & they shall all have 1 shepherd. They shall walk in my rules & be careful to obey my statutes. They shall dwell in the land that I gave to my servant Jacob, where your fathers lived. They & their children & their children’s children shall dwell there forever, & David my servant shall be their prince forever. I will make a covenant of peace w/ them. It shall be an everlasting covenant w/ them. And I will set them in their land & multiply them & will set my sanctuary in their midst forevermore. My dwelling place shall be w/ them & I will be their God & they shall be my people. Then the nations will know that I am the Lord who sanctifies Israel, when my sanctuary is in their midst forevermore.”

r) After the reign of King David, Israel had a disappointing line of kings. Eventually, the kingdom of Israel grew so wicked God sent them into exile out of the Promised Land into exile. Ezra & Nehemiah record a partial return of God’s people from exile, but there was still no kingdom.

s) The prophet Daniel promised the kingdom would come through a Son of Man who would rule the nations. So now consider what happened when Jesus came onto the scene. He declared this in Mk. 1:14-15: “The time is fulfilled & the kingdom of God is at hand; repent & believe in the gospel.”

t) The promised King & kingdom had finally come! Jesus, God in the flesh, was that King. From the moment Jesus’ birth was announced, it was clear He was that coming King. He was the offspring of Gen. 3:15 & of Abraham & of David who would bring God’s kingdom.

u) Think about when the angel announced His birth in Lk. 1:31-33. What we see there is a clear link to the covenant promise God made w/ David:

v) “You will conceive in your womb & bear a son & you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great & will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David & he will reign over the house of Jacob forever & of his kingdom there will be no end.”

See most of us are more familiar w/ the NT, but the OT helps us see what the NT is saying.

a) Ultimately, both the OT & NT are about Jesus Christ. That term Christ is a title or last name. It’s actually the Greek translation of the Hebrew word for Messiah or Anointed 1. When Jesus came onto the scene, He came as the anointed King of Israel. He came as the promised offspring & King.

b) And this was no ordinary King. The Son of God stepped into human history in the person of Jesus. The Incarnation is proof God had not forgot or abandoned His wayward people. The kingdom of God had come. Jesus the King had come to reverse the curse of Gen. 3.

c) This King is the King of the Universe. He is perfect, yet all powerful. He is just, yet loving & merciful & full of grace. He can’t be bribed. He doesn’t just do good — He is good. Jesus said in Rev. 1:17-18, “Fear not, I am the 1st & the last & the living one. I died & behold I am alive forevermore & I have the keys of Death & Hades.”

d) The message of the OT & the message of Judges & the message of the NT is we need this King. He is the promised offspring of Gen. 3:15 who came & crushed the serpent. See, it’s no coincidence that Rev. 12 pictures redemptive as a dragon pursuing the child of a woman.

e) Jesus the King was born to die for us. Jesus the King died to be raised to new life for us. Jesus the King was raised to new life to rule & reign forever over us & 1 day w/ us. Jesus the King’s victory is our victory. Jesus the King’s kingdom is our kingdom.

f) And just like Adam & Noah & Abraham & Moses & David, we come to this King & belong to Him by faith. And by faith through grace we will be w/ this King forever. He promises to never leave us or forsake us. He alone can bring us into God’s presence.

g) He alone can bring us into God’s Kingdom & the place God has prepared for His people: the new heavens & new earth where sin & death are no more. But until that time, make no mistake. Whether we see it or not, this King is ruling & reigning from heaven over all heaven & earth.

h) As Jesus said in the Great Commission as the resurrected & glorified King: “All authority in heaven & on earth has been given to me.” As Heb. 8:1 says, He is “seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven.” He is our perfect, Prophet, Priest & King & He’s coming again.