INTRODUCTION
In these modern times we do not think much about kings except with respect to a few foreign cultures that continue to hold on to ancient traditions regarding monarchies. Those of us who live in advanced (more or less) democratic cultures find it difficult to understand how these other cultures can place their trust (more or less) in kings and queens who govern for life and who are replaced by their natural children when they die. On the surface it seems less civilized and modern than systems in which leaders are democratically elected and given authority to govern for a defined period of time.
When reading the Bible, these images of kings and kingdoms tend to confuse our understanding of what God had in mind when he used the concept of royalty and kingdoms to communicate spiritual truth to us. We can accept that the Messiah is a king in the House of David. But beyond that, those of us who do not live in a culture that practices monarchical government tend to dismiss whatever God has to say about kings and lesser levels of royalty. Neither can we see ourselves functioning as royalty in the classical sense and we have no idea of what it means to function as a king spiritually. Nor can we imagine submitting ourselves to a human with royal authority. It all seems so backward and unsophisticated.
Therefore, we tend to consider scriptures with stories about kings, queens and princes only for their historical value. And we all but dismiss what God says about us being kings. We have a hard time thinking that they might apply to us because we do not live in that kind of governmental system. We are smugly confident about our enlightened, modern ways and look down our spiritual noses at backward cultures who made mistakes that we would never make.
By looking at kings, queens and princes historically and as royalty in archaic governmental structures, however, we deny what God said about the effectiveness of all scripture for training in righteousness. With this attitude firmly in place, we tend to miss the symbolic meaning of kings, queens and princes which we see as follows:
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With this understanding of kingdoms and rulers of kingdoms, we can see that there is a very real application of scriptures about kings, queens and princes to modern day life.
We, like Israel, are surrounded by religion. Even religions that freely use God’s name are religious kingdoms that are the enemies of God because they have kings, queens and princes who exercise authority over God’s chosen people.
AUTHORS’ NOTE: See Gods at war, Religion is the Enemy, Cities, Kingdoms and Nations, and Religion is Idolatry for topics that relate to Kings, Queens and Princes.
If we say that scriptures about kings do not apply to us in these modern times, we have effectively subtracted from the word of God. We say, in effect, that there is no way scriptures about kings can apply to us. With that in mind, we will study here how we might understand and apply what God says about what will happen when we give a king authority over us:
1 Samuel 8 1 When Samuel became old, he made his sons judges over Israel. 2 The name of his first-born son was Jo’el, and the name of his second, Abi’jah; they were judges in Beer-sheba. 3 Yet his sons did not walk in his ways, but turned aside after gain; they took bribes and perverted justice. 4 Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah, 5 and said to him, “Behold, you are old and your sons do not walk in your ways; now appoint for us a king to govern us like all the nations.” 6 But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, “Give us a king to govern us.” And Samuel prayed to the LORD.
7 And the LORD said to Samuel, “Hearken to the voice of the people in all that they say to you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them. 8 According to all the deeds which they have done to me, from the day I brought them up out of Egypt even to this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are also doing to you. 9 Now then, hearken to their voice; only, you shall solemnly warn them, and show them the ways of the king who shall reign over them.”
10 So Samuel told all the words of the LORD to the people who were asking a king from him. 11 He said, “These will be the ways of the king who will reign over you: he will take your sons and appoint them to his chariots and to be his horsemen, and to run before his chariots; 12 and he will appoint for himself commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and some to plow his ground and to reap his harvest, and to make his implements of war and the equipment of his chariots. 13 He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. 14 He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive orchards and give them to his servants. 15 He will take the tenth of your grain and of your vineyards and give it to his officers and to his servants. 16 He will take your menservants and maidservants, and the best of your cattle and your asses, and put them to his work. 17 He will take the tenth of your flocks, and you shall be his slaves.
18 And in that day you will cry out because of your king, whom you have chosen for yourselves; but the LORD will not answer you in that day.” 19 But the people refused to listen to the voice of Samuel; and they said, “No! but we will have a king over us, 20 that we also may be like all the nations, and that our king may govern us and go out before us and fight our battles.” 21 And when Samuel had heard all the words of the people, he repeated them in the ears of the LORD. 22 And the LORD said to Samuel, “Hearken to their voice, and make them a king.” Samuel then said to the men of Israel, “Go every man to his city.”
COMMENTARY: In God’s view, a king is a person, man or woman, whom we have placed in spiritual authority in our lives. In God’s view, a king is the equivalent of an “other god” that people voluntarily choose as their spiritual leader. And by doing this, we have violated the First Commandment in Exodus 20:3-6:
“You shall have no other gods before * Me. 4 “You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above * or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. 5 “You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, 6 but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.
Thus, in choosing to have a king rule over them like other nations have kings that rule over them, Israel chose to insert a human ruler between itself and God. That is a problem, of course, because anything or any person who occupies that place between God and man is considered to be an idol by God. Thus, we see Israel willfully violating God’s command that they should have no other gods before them.
Persons in these positions are not idols that made out of wood or stone as we typically understand idols, but, in God’s way of thinking, they are idols nonetheless because people listen to them instead of listening to God. This is a hard concept to accept because it does not line up with our conventional understanding of idols. But we should not ever try to interpret the Bible according to our understanding anyway. We have discussed this in some detail in Religion is Idolatry.
When Israel said it wanted a king so that it could be like all the other nations, it also violated a prohibition to not follow the practices of other nations. One of the common practices of all nations in ancient times was that kings were considered to be like gods. As such, they were worshiped and revered as spiritual beings as well as men. This was also true in the case of queens in the absence of a king. As gods, they were spiritual leaders of their nations. Not only did they rule in all matters of government (i.e. making and enforcing laws) and national security (i.e. war), they also had very close connections with the priestly class of the prevailing religious system.