The End Time Church: from the Cathedrals to the Catacombs

By Dan L. White

Copyright ©2016 by Dan L. White, all rights reserved.

Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible (WEB) which is in the public domain.

Chapter 16

Kings of Judah

Israel had 19 kings, all losers. Judah also had 19 kings. How did they do?

Judah also had one queen, self appointed. That’s not a good sign.

Unlike Israel, with its nine different dynasties, all the kings of Judah were of one family, the descendants of David. The first king of Judah was Solomon’s son Rehoboam, and he began well.

2 Chronicles 11:16-17
16)  After them, out of all the tribes of Israel, those who set their hearts to seek Yahweh, the God of Israel, came to Jerusalem to sacrifice to Yahweh, the God of their fathers.
(17)  So they strengthened the kingdom of Judah, and made Rehoboam the son of Solomon strong for three years; for they walked three years in the way of David and Solomon.

But that old bugaboo of human kings — human nature — bore down on Rehoboam.

2 Chronicles 12:1
(1)  When the kingdom of Rehoboam was established and he was strong, he abandoned Yahweh’s law, and all Israel with him.

1 Kings 14
(22)  Judah did that which was evil in Yahweh’s sight, and they provoked him to jealousy with their sins which they committed, above all that their fathers had done.
(23)  For they also built for themselves high places, sacred pillars, and Asherah poles on every high hill and under every green tree.
(24)  There were also sodomites in the land. They did according to all the abominations of the nations which Yahweh drove out before the children of Israel.

Amazingly, in the time of David’s grandson, Judah was already acting like Sodom. When Judah did that, God did this.

(25)  In the fifth year of king Rehoboam, Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem,
(26)  and he took away the treasures of Yahweh’s house, and the treasures of the kings house. He even took away all of it, including all the gold shields which Solomon had made.

So Rehoboam was a reprobate. Then his son Abijah was a chip off the old block.

1 Kings 15:3
(3)  He walked in all the sins of his father, which he had done before him; and his heart was not perfect with Yahweh his God, as the heart of David his father.

At this point we have looked at the three kings of the united monarchy, then nineteen kings of the ten tribes, and now two kings of Judah, and we have only seen one good king, David.

Then a most unusual thing happened.

Another good king came along.

1 Kings 15:11-14
(11)  Asa did that which was right in Yahweh’s eyes, as David his father did.
(12)  He put away the sodomites out of the land, and removed all the idols that his fathers had made.
(13)  He also removed Maacah his [grand]mother from being queen, because she had made an
bominable image for an Asherah. Asa cut down her image and burned it at the brook Kidron.
(14)  But the high places were not taken away. Nevertheless the heart of Asa was perfect with Yahweh all his days.

Asa was a good king, somewhat like his great-great-grandfather David, and totally unlike all of the ten tribe kings. But, believe it or not, Asa was human, so it was inevitable that sometime during his reign, he would make an Asa out of himself.

2 Chronicles 16:1-10
(1)  In the thirty-sixth year of Asa’s reign, Baasha king of Israel went up against Judah, and built Ramah, that he might not allow anyone to go out or come in to Asa king of Judah.
(2)  Then Asa brought out silver and gold out of the treasures of Yahweh’s house and of the king’s house, and sent to Ben Hadad king of Syria, who lived at Damascus, saying,
(3)  “Let there be a treaty between me and you, as there was between my father and your father. Behold, I have sent you silver and gold. Go, break your treaty with Baasha king of Israel, that he may depart from me.”
(4)  Ben Hadad listened to king Asa, and sent the captains of his armies against the cities of Israel; and they struck Ijon, Dan, Abel Maim, and all the storage cities of Naphtali.

(7)  At that time Hanani the seer came to Asa king of Judah, and said to him, “Because you have relied on the king of Syria, and have not relied on Yahweh your God, therefore the army of the king of Syria has escaped out of your hand.
(8)  Weren’t the Ethiopians and the Lubim a huge army, with chariots and horsemen exceeding many? Yet, because you relied on Yahweh, he delivered them into your hand.
(9)  For Yahweh’s eyes run back and forth throughout the whole earth, to show himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him. You have done foolishly in this; for from now on you will have wars.”
(10)  Then Asa was angry with the seer, and put him in the prison; for he was in a rage with him because of this thing. Asa oppressed some of the people at the same time.

Notice that when a king has problems, the people have problems and Asa oppressed the people. But overall, human as he was, Asa was an obedient king.

Asa’s son Jehoshaphat was a good king, too.

2 Chronicles 17:3-4
(3)  Yahweh was with Jehoshaphat, because he walked in the first ways of his father David, and didn’t seek the Baals,
(4)  but sought to the God of his father, and walked in his commandments, and not in the ways of Israel.

Jehoshaphat even sent princes and Levites throughout his kingdom of Judah to teach his people Yahweh’s law. However, the troubles in Jehoshaphat’s life came from:

1. Trying to spell his name;
2. Being buddies with Ahab.

Jehoshaphat tried to keep the family of Israel together, and he befriended Ahab the Baal loving king of Israel.

2 Chronicles 18:1
(1)  Now Jehoshaphat had riches and honor in abundance; and he allied himself with Ahab.

Jehoshaphat generally obeyed God’s law himself, but he did not stand against those who hated Yahweh and that was the great sin in his life.

2 Chronicles 19:1-2
(1)  Jehoshaphat the king of Judah returned to his house in peace to Jerusalem.
(2)  Jehu the son of Hanani the seer went out to meet him, and said to king Jehoshaphat, “Should you help the wicked, and love those who hate Yahweh? Because of this, wrath is on you from before Yahweh.

Judah had seen two good kings in a row, but because of Jehoshaphat’s buddying up to Ahab, the whole royal line of David was almost ended.

Jehoshaphat married his son Jehoram to Ahab daughter Athaliah.

2 Chronicles 21:4-6
(4)  Now when Jehoram had risen up over the kingdom of his father, and had strengthened himself, he killed all his brothers with the sword, and also some of the princes of Israel.
(5)  Jehoram was thirty-two years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eight years in Jerusalem.
(6)  He walked in the way of the kings of Israel, as did Ahab’s house; for he had Ahab’s daughter as his wife. He did that which was evil in Yahweh’s sight.

Jehoram had a gut wrenching reign of eight years, that ended with his gut wrenching.

2 Chronicles 21:18-20
(18)  After all this Yahweh struck him in his bowels with an incurable disease.
(19)  In process of time, at the end of two years, his bowels fell out by reason of his sickness, and he died of severe diseases. His people made no burning for him, like the burning of his fathers.
(20)  He was thirty-two years old when he began to reign, and he reigned in Jerusalem eight years. He departed without being missed; and they buried him in David’s city, but not in the tombs of the kings.

Jehoram’s son Ahaziah ruled for only one year — not a good year.

2 Kings 8:26-27
(26)  Ahaziah was twenty-two years old when he began to reign; and he reigned one year in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Athaliah the daughter [granddaughter] of Omri king of Israel.(27)  He walked in the way of Ahab’s house, and did that which was evil in Yahweh’s sight, as did Ahab’s house; for he was the son-in-law of Ahab’s house.

This was a strange situation, because Ahaziah was a descendant of good King David and the grandson of filthy King Ahab. Jehu of Israel also killed Ahaziah of Judah when he eliminated the others of Ahab’s line. With her son gone, Athaliah, the daughter of Ahab, took over as queen and killed off all her competition, including her own grandchildren.

That’s what evil rulers do. They do not leave their position in God’s hands. Instead they try to lay hands on any possible threat.

Except Athaliah missed one.

2 Chronicles 22:10-12
(10)  Now when Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she arose and destroyed all the royal offspring of the house of Judah.
(11)  But Jehoshabeath, the king’s daughter, took Joash the son of Ahaziah, and stealthily rescued him from among the king’s sons who were slain, and put him and his nurse in the bedroom. So Jehoshabeath, the daughter of king Jehoram, the wife of Jehoiada the priest (for she was the sister of Ahaziah), hid him from Athaliah, so that she didn’t kill him.
(12)  He was with them hidden in God’s house six years while Athaliah reigned over the land.

When Joash, that little boy, was seven, he was crowned king and Athaliah was executed. Then King Joash was obedient as long as Jehoiada, the man who raised him, was alive. When Jehoiada died, though, Joash turned his coat inside out.

2 Chronicles 24:17-18
(17)  Now after the death of Jehoiada, the princes of Judah came, and bowed down to the king. Then the king listened to them.
(18)  They abandoned the house of Yahweh, the God of their fathers, and served the Asherah poles and the idols, so wrath came on Judah and Jerusalem for this their guiltiness.

Consequently Joash was assassinated by his own servants, and then his son Amaziah ruled.

2 Chronicles 25:2
(2)  He did that which was right in Yahweh’s eyes, but not with a perfect heart.

After God gave Amaziah a great victory over Edom, he then brought home the losing gods.

2 Chronicles 25:14
(14)  Now after Amaziah had come from the slaughter of the Edomites, he brought the gods of the children of Seir, and set them up to be his gods, and bowed down himself before them, and burned incense to them.

His reign ended when he, too, was assassinated.

At this point, eight kings had ruled over Judah. Only two, Asa and Jehoshaphat, were steadily obedient, notwithstanding their problems. The ninth king was Uzziah, and he was dependably obedient.

Especially after he got leprosy.

2 Chronicles 26:5
(5)  He set himself to seek God in the days of Zechariah, who had understanding in the vision of God; and as long as he sought Yahweh, God made him prosper.

However, whose vanity can take being in the position of a king?

2 Chronicles 26:16-19
(16)  But when he was strong, his heart was lifted up, so that he did corruptly, and he trespassed against Yahweh his God; for he went into Yahweh’s temple to burn incense on the altar of incense.
(17)  Azariah the priest went in after him, and with him eighty priests of Yahweh, who were valiant men.
(18)  They resisted Uzziah the king, and said to him, “It isn’t for you, Uzziah, to burn incense to Yahweh, but for the priests the sons of Aaron, who are consecrated to burn incense. Go out of the sanctuary, for you have trespassed. It will not be for your honor from Yahweh God.”
(19)  Then Uzziah was angry. He had a censer in his hand to burn incense, and while he was angry with the priests, the leprosy broke out on his forehead before the priests in Yahweh’s house, beside the altar of incense.

Uzziah was a good king, like Asa and Jehoshaphat, and like those kings, he had human nature that got away from him. The position of a king is hardest on the king himself. Political and religious rulers alike can hardly restrain themselves from burning the incense.

Uzziah’s son Jotham was just good old Jo.

2 Chronicles 27:1-2
(1)  Jotham was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Jerushah the daughter of Zadok.
(2)  He did that which was right in Yahweh’s eyes, according to all that his father Uzziah had done. However he didn’t enter into Yahweh’s temple. The people still acted corruptly.

Not a lot is said about Jotham. He didn’t enter the temple like a priest, as his father had done. Lesson learned there. But under good old Jo —

The people still acted corruptly.

Interesting point. Judah had a good king, Jotham. In fact, she had experienced two good kings in a row. Yet under those good kings, The people still acted corruptly.

Obviously, the bad kings did not protect the flock from evil but led them to evil. We see here, though, that even the good kings did not protect the flock. Kings — even good kings — cannot force their people to have obedient hearts. Whether by leadership example or force of might, one man cannot change another man’s heart.

Isaiah 1:1-6
(1)  The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.
(2)  Hear, heavens, and listen, earth; for Yahweh has spoken: “I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me.
(3)  The ox knows his owner, and the donkey his master’s crib; but Israel doesn’t know, my people don’t consider.”
(4)  Ah sinful nation, a people loaded with iniquity, offspring of evildoers, children who deal corruptly! They have forsaken Yahweh. They have despised the Holy One of Israel. They are estranged and backward.
(5)  Why should you be beaten more, that you revolt more and more? The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.
(6)  From the sole of the foot even to the head there is no soundness in it: wounds, welts, and open sores. They haven’t been closed, neither bandaged, neither soothed with oil.

Three of those four kings in Isaiah’s time were good kings, yet Judah was still a sinful nation.

Ahaz was the one king of those four who was not good.

2 Chronicles 28:1-5
(1)  Ahaz was twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. He didn’t do that which was right in Yahweh’s eyes, like David his father,
(2)  but he walked in the ways of the kings of Israel, and also made molten images for the Baals.
(3)  Moreover he burned incense in the valley of the son of Hinnom, and burned his children in the fire, according to the abominations of the nations whom Yahweh cast out before the children of Israel.
(4)  He sacrificed and burned incense in the high places, and on the hills, and under every green tree.
(5)  Therefore Yahweh his God delivered him into the hand of the king of Syria. They struck him, and carried away from him a great multitude of captives, and brought them to Damascus. He was also delivered into the hand of the king of Israel, who struck him with a great slaughter.

Again we see the pattern of the time of the judges repeated. The type of human government did not make one hill of beans difference. All that mattered was being close to God.

Ahaz was one of the very worst kings of Judah, yet he was the son of good old Jo — Jotham — and was the father of Hezekiah, one of the best kings of Judah. Everyone is an individual.

2 Chronicles 29:1-10
(1)  Hezekiah began to reign when he was twenty-five years old, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Abijah, the daughter of Zechariah.
(2)  He did that which was right in Yahweh’s eyes, according to all that David his father had done.
(3)  In the first year of his reign, in the first month, he opened the doors of Yahweh’s house, and repaired them.
(4)  He brought in the priests and the Levites, and gathered them together into the wide place on the east,
(5)  and said to them, “Listen to me, you Levites! Now sanctify yourselves, and sanctify Yahweh, the God of your fathers’ house, and carry the filthiness out of the holy place.
(6)  For our fathers were unfaithful, and have done that which was evil in Yahweh our God’s sight, and have forsaken him, and have turned away their faces from the habitation of Yahweh, and turned their backs.
(7)  Also they have shut up the doors of the porch, and put out the lamps, and have not burned incense nor offered burnt offerings in the holy place to the God of Israel.
(8)  Therefore Yahweh’s wrath was on Judah and Jerusalem, and he has delivered them to be tossed back and forth, to be an astonishment, and a hissing, as you see with your eyes.
(9)  For, behold, our fathers have fallen by the sword, and our sons and our daughters and our wives are in captivity for this.
(10)  Now it is in my heart to make a covenant with Yahweh, the God of Israel, that his fierce anger may turn away from us.

After Hezekiah led the people in a tremendous double long Passover feast, this is what happened.

2 Chronicles 30:27
(27)  Then the priests the Levites arose and blessed the people. Their voice was heard, and their prayer came up to his holy habitation, even to heaven.

That’s a good prayer. Their voice was heard and their prayer went up to heaven. Hezekiah was a good king!

2 Chronicles 31:21
(21)  In every work that he began in the service of God’s house, in the law, and in the commandments, to seek his God, he did it with all his heart, and prospered.

However, even Hezekiah’s heart was lifted up.

2 Chronicles 32:22-26
(22)  Thus Yahweh saved Hezekiah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem from the hand of Sennacherib the king of Assyria and from the hand of all others, and guided them on every side.
(23)  Many brought gifts to Yahweh to Jerusalem, and precious things to Hezekiah king of Judah; so that he was exalted in the sight of all nations from then on.
(24)  In those days Hezekiah was terminally ill, and he prayed to Yahweh; and he spoke to him, and gave him a sign.
(25)  But Hezekiah didn’t reciprocate appropriate to the benefit done for him, because his heart was lifted up. Therefore there was wrath on him, and on Judah and Jerusalem.
(26)  Notwithstanding Hezekiah humbled himself for the pride of his heart, both he and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that Yahweh’s wrath didn’t come on them in the days of Hezekiah.

And that heart of Hezekiah’s, which sought God so diligently, had still more problems.

2 Chronicles 32:31
(31)  However concerning the ambassadors of the princes of Babylon, who sent to him to inquire of the wonder that was done in the land, God left him, to try him, that he might know all that was in his heart.

2 Kings 20:12-15
(12)  At that time Berodach Baladan the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a present to Hezekiah; for he had heard that Hezekiah had been sick.
(13)  Hezekiah listened to them, and showed them all the storehouse of his precious things, the silver, the gold, the spices, and the precious oil, and the house of his armor, and all that was found in his treasures. There was nothing in his house, or in all his dominion, that Hezekiah didn’t show them.
(14)  Then Isaiah the prophet came to king Hezekiah, and said to him, “What did these men say? From where did they come to you?” Hezekiah said, “They have come from a far country, even from Babylon.”
(15)  He said, “What have they seen in your house?” Hezekiah answered, “They have seen all that is in my house. There is nothing among my treasures that I have not shown them.”

Show off!

Hezekiah was absolutely one of the best kings of Judah, diligent and dedicated, yet he still had self-exalting human nature. So where does that leave us who are not so diligent and dedicated? And where does that leave modern religious leaders, who are also not at the spiritual level of Hezekiah?

When Hezekiah was sick to the point of death and was then given fifteen more years to live, he begat his son Manasseh during that fifteen years. And when he was grown, Manasseh begat the destruction of Jerusalem.

2 Chronicles 33:1-13
(1)  Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem.
(2)  He did that which was evil in Yahweh’s sight, after the abominations of the nations whom Yahweh cast out before the children of Israel.
(3)  For he built again the high places which Hezekiah his father had broken down; and he raised up altars for the Baals, made Asheroth, and worshiped all the army of the sky, and served them.
(4)  He built altars in Yahweh’s house, of which Yahweh said, “My name shall be in Jerusalem forever.”
(5)  He built altars for all the army of the sky in the two courts of Yahweh’s house.
(6)  He also made his children to pass through the fire in the valley of the son of Hinnom. He practiced sorcery, divination, and witchcraft, and dealt with those who had familiar spirits, and with wizards. He did much evil in Yahweh’s sight, to provoke him to anger.
(7)  He set the engraved image of the idol, which he had made, in God’s house, of which God said to David and to Solomon his son, “In this house, and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I will put my name forever.
(8)  I will not any more remove the foot of Israel from off the land which I have appointed for your fathers, if only they will observe to do all that I have commanded them, even all the law, the statutes, and the ordinances given by Moses.”
(9)  Manasseh seduced Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that they did more evil than did the nations whom Yahweh destroyed before the children of Israel.
(10)  Yahweh spoke to Manasseh, and to his people; but they didn’t listen.
(11)  Therefore Yahweh brought on them the captains of the army of the king of Assyria, who took Manasseh in chains, bound him with fetters, and carried him to Babylon.
(12)  When he was in distress, he begged Yahweh his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers.
(13)  He prayed to him; and he was entreated by him, and heard his supplication, and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that Yahweh was God.

Even though Manasseh personally repented, the people did not. The nation had gone too far and the line of ultimate destruction had been crossed. During the later reign of good king Josiah, the Manasseh effect was still in effect.

2Kings 23:26
(26)  Notwithstanding, Yahweh didn’t turn from the fierceness of his great wrath, with which his anger burned against Judah, because of all the provocation with which Manasseh had provoked him.

Manasseh reigned 55 years, but his son Amon only reigned for two years.

Fortunately.

2 Chronicles 33:21-24
(21)  Amon was twenty-two years old when he began to reign; and he reigned two years in Jerusalem.
(22)  He did that which was evil in Yahweh’s sight, as did Manasseh his father; and Amon sacrificed to all the engraved images which Manasseh his father had made, and served them.
(23)  He didn’t humble himself before Yahweh, as Manasseh his father had humbled himself; but this same Amon trespassed more and more.
(24)  His servants conspired against him, and put him to death in his own house.

Each person is an individual, with his own character for good or evil. Hezekiah had Manasseh, who was evil but then repented. Manasseh had Amon, who was evil and did not repent. And Amon had Josiah.

2 Kings 22:2
(2)  He did that which was right in Yahweh’s eyes, and walked in all the way of David his father, and didn’t turn away to the right hand or to the left.

Josiah delayed the destruction of Jerusalem, which was set from the time of Manasseh.

2 Kings 22:16-20
(16)  “Yahweh says, ‘Behold, I will bring evil on this place, and on its inhabitants, even all the words of the book which the king of Judah has read.
(17)  Because they have forsaken me, and have burned incense to other gods, that they might provoke me to anger with all the work of their hands, therefore my wrath shall be kindled against this place, and it will not be quenched.’”
(18)  But to the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of Yahweh, tell him, “Yahweh the God of Israel says, ‘Concerning the words which you have heard,
(19)  because your heart was tender, and you humbled yourself before Yahweh, when you heard what I spoke against this place, and against its inhabitants, that they should become a desolation and a curse, and have torn your clothes, and wept before me; I also have heard you,’ says Yahweh.
(20)  ‘Therefore behold, I will gather you to your fathers, and you will be gathered to your grave in peace. Your eyes will not see all the evil which I will bring on this place.’”’” So they brought this message back to the king.

Josiah was a whole-hearted God seeker.

2 Chronicles 34:3-7
(3)  For in the eighth year of his reign, while he was yet young, he began to seek after the God of David his father; and in the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem from the high places, the Asherah poles, the engraved images, and the molten images.
(4)  They broke down the altars of the Baals in his presence; and he cut down the incense altars that were on high above them. He broke the Asherah poles, the engraved images, and the molten images in pieces, made dust of them, and scattered it on the graves of those who had sacrificed to them.
(5)  He burned the bones of the priests on their altars, and purged Judah and Jerusalem.
(6)  He did this in the cities of Manasseh, Ephraim, and Simeon, even to Naphtali, around in their ruins.
(7)  He broke down the altars, and beat the Asherah poles and the engraved images into powder, and cut down all the incense altars throughout all the land of Israel, then returned to Jerusalem.

This king even made all his subjects serve Yahweh.

2 Chronicles 34:31-33
(31)  The king stood in his place, and made a covenant before Yahweh, to walk after Yahweh, and to keep his commandments, and his testimonies, and his statutes, with all his heart, and with all his soul, to perform the words of the covenant that were written in this book.
(32)  He caused all who were found in Jerusalem and Benjamin to stand. The inhabitants of Jerusalem did according to the covenant of God, the God of their fathers.
(33)  Josiah took away all the abominations out of all the countries that belonged to the children of Israel, and made all who were found in Israel to serve, even to serve Yahweh their God. All his days they didn’t depart from following Yahweh, the God of their fathers.

Yet in Josiah’s time, this is how the people of Judah really were.

Jeremiah 5:1-5
(1)  “Run back and forth through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now, and know, and seek in its wide places, if you can find a man, if there is anyone who does justly, who seeks truth, then I will pardon her.
(2)  Though they say, ‘As Yahweh lives,’ surely they swear falsely.”
(3)  O Yahweh, don’t your eyes look on truth? You have stricken them, but they were not grieved. You have consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction. They have made their faces harder than a rock. They have refused to return.
(4)  Then I said, “Surely these are poor. They are foolish; for they don’t know the way of Yahweh, nor the law of their God.
(5)  I will go to the great men, and will speak to them; for they know the way of Yahweh, and the law of their God.” But these with one accord have broken the yoke, and burst the bonds.

Yet Josiah, too, had a human nature glitch, when he unwisely confronted the Pharaoh of Egypt, and so ended his life.

After Josiah came the final four kings. In sports, the final four is the best of the lot. Judah’s final four kings, though, were all losers.

First, Josiah’s son Jehoahaz.

2 Kings 23:32-34
(32)  He [Jehoahaz] did that which was evil in Yahweh’s sight, according to all that his fathers had done.
(33)  Pharaoh Necoh put him in bonds at Riblah in the land of Hamath, that he might not reign in Jerusalem; and put the land to a tribute of one hundred talents of silver, and a talent of gold.
(34)  Pharaoh Necoh made Eliakim the son of Josiah king in the place of Josiah his father, and changed his name to Jehoiakim; but he took Jehoahaz away, and he came to Egypt and died there.

Next, Josiah’s son Jehoiakim.

2 Chronicles 36:5-6
(5)  Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. He did that which was evil in Yahweh his God’s sight.
(6)  Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up against him, and bound him in fetters to carry him to Babylon.

Then Josiah’s grandson Jehoiachin ruled for three months.

2 Kings 24:8-9
(8)  Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he began to reign, and he reigned in Jerusalem three months. His mother’s name was Nehushta the daughter of Elnathan of Jerusalem.
(9)  He did that which was evil in Yahweh’s sight, according to all that his father had done.

Finally another son of Josiah brought up the rear.

2 Chronicles 36:11-12
(11)  Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem.
(12)  He did that which was evil in Yahweh his God’s sight. He didn’t humble himself before Jeremiah the prophet speaking from Yahweh’s mouth.

And that was it.

Those were the nineteen kings of Judah. Asa and Jehoshaphat were good, Jotham and Uzziah were good, Joash was good then bad, Amaziah was good then worshiped the losing gods, Manasseh was bad then good, and Hezekiah and Josiah were outstanding. And queen (small q) Athaliah wasn’t really queen at all.

The kings of Judah were numerically better than the kings of Israel, they did have some good kings, but in the end Judah was even worse than Israel.

Ezekiel 16:51
(51)  Samaria hasn’t committed half of your sins; but you have multiplied your abominations more than they, and have justified your sisters by all your abominations which you have done.

So how did putting another government in place of God work out?

Psalms 47:1-9
For the Chief Musician. A Psalm by the sons of Korah.

(1)  Oh clap your hands, all you nations. Shout to God with the voice of triumph!
(2)  For Yahweh Most High is awesome. He is a great King over all the earth.
(3)  He subdues nations under us, and peoples under our feet.
(4)  He chooses our inheritance for us, the glory of Jacob whom he loved. Selah.
(5)  God has gone up with a shout, Yahweh with the sound of a trumpet.
(6)  Sing praises to God, sing praises. Sing praises to our King, sing praises.
(7)  For God is the King of all the earth. Sing praises with understanding.
(8)  God reigns over the nations. God sits on his holy throne.
(9)  The princes of the peoples are gathered together, the people of the God of Abraham. For the shields of the earth belong to God. He is greatly exalted!

The End Time Church: from the Cathedrals to the Catacombs

By Dan L. White

Copyright ©2016 by Dan L. White, all rights reserved.

Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible (WEB) which is in the public domain.

Chapter 15

Kings of Israel

Can you flip a coin and get tails 19 times in a row?

If my meager math is right, I think there is about one chance in half a million of doing that.

How about having 19 bad kings in a row?

Because of Solomon’s sins, ten tribes of Israel were taken away from his line and set up in a separate kingdom, the Kingdom of Israel. That kingdom had 19 kings. A king can either be basically good or basically bad, like heads or tails. So the chance of having 19 bad kings in a row is about like flipping 19 heads in a row, right?

1. Jeroboam’s Line

Jeroboam took Solomon’s place as king over ten tribes of Israel, with Judah still left under Solomon’s son Rehoboam because of God’s promise to David. Jeroboam was chosen as king by Yahweh himself to lead God’s chosen people. However, instead of serving God and those chosen people, Jeroboam decided to serve himself .

1 Kings 12:20-32
(20)  When all Israel heard that Jeroboam had returned, they sent and called him to the congregation, and made him king over all Israel. There was no one who followed David’s house, except for the tribe of Judah only.
(21)  When Rehoboam had come to Jerusalem, he assembled all the house of Judah and the tribe of Benjamin, a hundred and eighty thousand chosen men, who were warriors, to fight against the house of Israel, to bring the kingdom again to Rehoboam the son of Solomon.
(22)  But the word of God came to Shemaiah the man of God, saying,
(23)  “Speak to Rehoboam the son of Solomon, king of Judah, and to all the house of Judah and Benjamin, and to the rest of the people, saying,
(24)  ‘Yahweh says, “You shall not go up or fight against your brothers, the children of Israel. Everyone return to his house; for this thing is from me.”’” So they listened to Yahweh’s word, and returned and went their way, according to Yahweh’s word.
(25)  Then Jeroboam built Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim, and lived in it; and he went out from there, and built Penuel.
(26)  Jeroboam said in his heart, “Now the kingdom will return to David’s house.
(27)  If this people goes up to offer sacrifices in Yahweh’s house at Jerusalem, then the heart of this people will turn again to their lord, even to Rehoboam king of Judah; and they will kill me, and return to Rehoboam king of Judah.”
(28)  So the king took counsel, and made two calves of gold; and he said to them, “It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Look and behold your gods, Israel, which brought you up out of the land of Egypt!”
(29)  He set the one in Bethel, and the other put he in Dan.
(31)  He made houses of high places, and made priests from among all the people, who were not of the sons of Levi.
(32)  Jeroboam ordained a feast in the eighth month, on the fifteenth day of the month, like the feast that is in Judah, and he went up to the altar. He did so in Bethel, sacrificing to the calves that he had made, and he placed in Bethel the priests of the high places that he had made.

Notice Jeroboam’s thinking. Yahweh took the ten tribes away from Rehoboam and set Jeroboam up as king over them. Jeroboam then figured — totally leaving God out of the picture — ‘If the people go to Jerusalem to worship Yahweh at the feast, then they will go back to Rehoboam.’ Jeroboam only thought of himself. Once he got his kingly position, the prime thing in his life was keeping his kingly position.

Almost all kings, whether political or religious, fall into that same trap.

Jeroboam, though, missed the obvious. God put Jeroboam in his position, and God, not the people, would keep him there or remove him.

And that’s what happened. When Jeroboam set up his own festival to compete with Yahweh’s festival, God ended Jeroboam’s line. He ruled for twenty-two years, then his son Nadab in only his second year was assassinated by Baasha, who also killed all male descendants of Jeroboam. Because Jeroboam changed God’s feast, the animals in Jeroboam’s kingdom had a feast.

1Kings 14:11
(11)  The dogs will eat he who belongs to Jeroboam who dies in the city; and the birds of the sky will eat he who dies in the field: for Yahweh has spoken it.

So Jeroboam was like the first coin flip.

Tails.

His son Nadab was not one dab better. The only good thing about his reign was its brevity. Two tails in a row.

2. Baasha’s Line

Baasha ruled for twenty-four years. His son Elah ruled for one, when he was assassinated and Baasha’s line was ended, as he had ended Jeroboam’s line.

1Kings 16:3-4
(3)  Behold, I will utterly sweep away Baasha and his house; and I will make your house like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat.
(4)  The dogs will eat Baasha’s descendants who die in the city; and he who dies of his in the field the birds of the sky will eat.

At this point in the kingdom of Israel, with two dynasties and four kings, the animals are faring way better than the people.

Four kings, four tails.

3. Zimri’s Seven Day Line

Zimri was the one who eliminated Baasha’s family, but his rule lasted only one week. Then there was civil war among the ten tribes, and Omri prevailed as king.

This human king thing was not going too well for the ten tribes. In fifty years they had five kings, three coups, and one civil war.

The new king Omri, though, was industrious, energetic — and incorrigibly wicked.

4. Omri’s Line

1Kings 16:25
(25)  Omri did that which was evil in Yahweh’s sight, and dealt wickedly above all who were before him.

The sixth king Omri was worse than all before him. The more kings Israel had, the worse they got!

Until Ahab.

Omri’s son Ahab was the seventh king of Israel. Seven in the Bible is the number of perfection. In Ahab’s case, that went the other way. Like matter and anti-matter, Ahab was anti-perfection. He was the worst of the whole lot of the kings of Israel.

1Kings 16:30-33
(30)  Ahab the son of Omri did that which was evil in Yahweh’s sight above all that were before him.
(31)  As if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, he took as wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and went and served Baal, and worshiped him.
(32)  He raised up an altar for Baal in the house of Baal, which he had built in Samaria.
(33)  Ahab made the Asherah; and Ahab did more yet to provoke Yahweh, the God of Israel, to anger than all the kings of Israel who were before him.

Ahab was the first king to openly introduce and practice Baal worship, yet he named his sons after Yahweh. He thought there was value in all religions and that they all must be equally respected.

God didn’t have much respect for that idea and sent a forty-two month drought on Ahab’s kingdom. The ten tribes of Israel who had so strongly yearned for a king then yearned just for something to eat.

Finally Ahab tricked his friend Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, into going into battle dressed as a king, while Ahab went dressed as a common soldier.

Clever, right?

Almost. The Syrian attackers would have killed Jehoshaphat, except for God delivering him, and Ahab would have escaped harm, except for an arrow with eyes.

1Kings 22:34-35
(34)  A certain man drew his bow at random, and struck the king of Israel between the joints of the armor. Therefore he said to the driver of his chariot, “Turn your hand, and carry me out of the battle; for I am severely wounded.”
(35)  The battle increased that day. The king was propped up in his chariot facing the Syrians, and died at evening. The blood ran out of the wound into the bottom of the chariot.

After Ahab’s death, Omri’s dynasty continued a bit longer, with Ahab’s son Ahaziah.

1Kings 22:51-53
(51)  Ahaziah the son of Ahab began to reign over Israel in Samaria in the seventeenth year of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, and he reigned two years over Israel.
(52)  He did that which was evil in Yahweh’s sight, and walked in the way of his father, and in the way of his mother, and in the way of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, in which he made Israel to sin.
(53)  He served Baal and worshiped him, and provoked Yahweh, the God of Israel, to anger, in all the ways that his father had done so.

That was followed by another son of Ahab, Jehoram, who unfortunately had the same name as the king who reigned in Judah at the same time. The only good thing about Jehoram is that he wasn’t as bad as his predecessors. However, that’s still not good, simply because they were all so bad.

2Kings 3:1-3
(1)  Now Jehoram the son of Ahab began to reign over Israel in Samaria in the eighteenth year of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, and reigned twelve years.
(2)  He did that which was evil in Yahweh’s sight, but not like his father, and like his mother, for he put away the pillar of Baal that his father had made.
(3)  Nevertheless he held to the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, with which he made Israel to sin. He didn’t depart from them.

Jehu overthrew Jehoram, so the dynasty of Omri ended after four kings.

At this point, Israel had suffered through nine kings from four families, repeated coups and civil wars, and extensive wars with the kings of the other nations — all of this in only about a century!

Have you noticed that all those nine kings were tails?

5. Jehu’s Line

Surely the tenth king would come up heads!

It looked like it. Jehu got rid of the Omri/Ahab line, just as Yahweh instructed, and he messed up Jezebel’s makeup by having her thrown out a window, so God gave him this promise.

2Kings 10:30-31
(30)  Yahweh said to Jehu, “Because you have done well in executing that which is right in my eyes, and have done to Ahab’s house according to all that was in my heart, your descendants shall sit on the throne of Israel to the fourth generation.”

But Jehu forgot to obey God in other things.

(31)  But Jehu took no heed to walk in the law of Yahweh, the God of Israel, with all his heart. He didn’t depart from the sins of Jeroboam, with which he made Israel to sin.

Tails.

Then Jehu’s son was the eleventh tail.

2Kings 13:1-6
(1)  In the twenty-third year of Joash the son of Ahaziah, king of Judah, Jehoahaz the son of Jehu began to reign over Israel in Samaria for seventeen years.
(2)  He did that which was evil in Yahweh’s sight, and followed the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, with which he made Israel to sin. He didn’t depart from it.
(3)  Yahweh’s anger burned against Israel, and he delivered them into the hand of Hazael king of Syria, and into the hand of Benhadad the son of Hazael, continually.
(4)  Jehoahaz begged Yahweh, and Yahweh listened to him; for he saw the oppression of Israel, how the king of Syria oppressed them.
(5)  (Yahweh gave Israel a savior, so that they went out from under the hand of the Syrians; and the children of Israel lived in their tents as before.
(6)  Nevertheless they didn’t depart from the sins of the house of Jeroboam, with which he made Israel to sin, but walked in them; and the Asherah also remained in Samaria.)

Oppression by a foreign king, then Yahweh raising up someone to deliver Israel — What does that sound like?

Ah! It sounds like the time of the judges, when Israel suffered for disobedience. Under a different government, Israel was still disobedient, and still suffered the same way. The type of human government did not matter as much as obedience to God.

Furthermore, the king did not protect the flock. In fact, the kingly leader infected the flock with his own human shortcomings – “Nevertheless they didn’t depart from the sins of the house of Jeroboam.”

Then came Jehu’s grandson.

2Kings 13:10-11
(10)  In the thirty-seventh year of Joash king of Judah, Jehoash the son of Jehoahaz began to reign over Israel in Samaria for sixteen years.
(11)  He did that which was evil in Yahweh’s sight. He didn’t depart from all the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, with which he made Israel to sin; but he walked in them.

After Jehoash or Joash came another Jeroboam, the thirteenth king. Israel had gone through twelve kings, from one Jeroboam to a second, and they were all like the first Jeroboam — self-seeking despots.

Jeroboam II reigned the longest of any king of the ten tribes.

2Kings 14:23-26
(23)  In the fifteenth year of Amaziah the son of Joash king of Judah, Jeroboam the son of Joash king of Israel began to reign in Samaria for forty-one years.
(24)  He did that which was evil in Yahweh’s sight. He didn’t depart from all the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, with which he made Israel to sin.
(25)  He restored the border of Israel from the entrance of Hamath to the sea of the Arabah, according to Yahweh, the God of Israel’s word, which he spoke by his servant Jonah the son of Amittai, the prophet, who was from Gath Hepher.
(26)  For Yahweh saw the affliction of Israel, that it was very bitter; for all, slave and free, and there was no helper for Israel.

Jehu had begun well, and was then promised four generations of kings, but four was all, and that fourth king, Zechariah, lasted only six months.

2Kings 15:8-12
(8)  In the thirty-eighth year of Azariah king of Judah, Zechariah the son of Jeroboam reigned over Israel in Samaria six months.
(9)  He did that which was evil in Yahweh’s sight, as his fathers had done. He didn’t depart from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, with which he made Israel to sin.
(10)  Shallum the son of Jabesh conspired against him, and struck him before the people, and killed him, and reigned in his place.
(11)  Now the rest of the acts of Zechariah, behold, they are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel.
(12)  This was Yahweh’s word which he spoke to Jehu, saying, “Your sons to the fourth generation shall sit on the throne of Israel.” So it came to pass.

So ended the fifth dynasty of Israel’s kings. Fourteen kings and not one came up heads.

6. Shallum’s One Month Line

2Kings 15:13-14
(13)  Shallum the son of Jabesh began to reign in the thirty-ninth year of Uzziah king of Judah, and he reigned for a month in Samaria.
(14)  Menahem the son of Gadi went up from Tirzah, came to Samaria, struck Shallum the son of Jabesh in Samaria, killed him, and reigned in his place.

Shallum ruled for one month. Shalom is goodbye in Hebrew, so the obvious thing to say about that is Shalom, Shallum!

7. Menahem’s Line

Menahem had to tax the people heavily to pay off one of those kings of all the other nations that Israel so admired.

2Kings 15:17-20
(17)  In the thirty ninth year of Azariah king of Judah, Menahem the son of Gadi began to reign over Israel for ten years in Samaria.
(18)  He did that which was evil in Yahweh’s sight. He didn’t depart all his days from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, with which he made Israel to sin.
(19)  Pul the king of Assyria came against the land, and Menahem gave Pul one thousand talents of silver, that his hand might be with him to confirm the kingdom in his hand.
(20)  Menahem exacted the money from Israel, even from all the mighty men of wealth, from each man fifty shekels of silver, to give to the king of Assyria. So the king of Assyria turned back, and didn’t stay there in the land.

Menahem’s dynasty lasted only twelve years total. His son Pekahiah was put out by Pekah.

2Kings 15:23-25
(23)  In the fiftieth year of Azariah king of Judah, Pekahiah the son of Menahem began to reign over Israel in Samaria for two years.
(24)  He did that which was evil in Yahweh’s sight. He didn’t depart from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, with which he made Israel to sin.
(25)  Pekah the son of Remaliah, his captain, conspired against him and attacked him in Samaria, in the fortress of the king’s house, with Argob and Arieh; and with him were fifty men of the Gileadites. He killed him, and reigned in his place.

8. Pekah’s Line

Pekah made a boo-boo — he didn’t obey God, either. Actually, that was a Pekah boo-boo.

2Kings 15:27-30
(27)  In the fifty-second year of Azariah king of Judah, Pekah the son of Remaliah began to reign over Israel in Samaria for twenty years.
(28)  He did that which was evil in Yahweh’s sight. He didn’t depart from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, with which he made Israel to sin.
(29)  In the days of Pekah king of Israel, Tiglath Pileser king of Assyria came and took Ijon, Abel Beth Maacah, Janoah, Kedesh, Hazor, Gilead, and Galilee, all the land of Naphtali; and he carried them captive to Assyria.
(30)  Hoshea the son of Elah made a conspiracy against Pekah the son of Remaliah, attacked him, killed him, and reigned in his place, in the twentieth year of Jotham the son of Uzziah.

9. Hoshea’s Line

At this point Israel had suffered through eighteen kings, all bad. Eighteen tails, no heads.

Guess what?

The nineteenth king was the best.

However, being the best of the bad is still not good, so under the nineteenth king Hoshea, the Kingdom of Israel ceased to exist and its people were forcibly deported from the Holy Land.

2Kings 17:1-12
(1)  In the twelfth year of Ahaz king of Judah, Hoshea the son of Elah began to reign in Samaria over Israel for nine years.
(2)  He did that which was evil in Yahweh’s sight, yet not as the kings of Israel who were before him.
(3)  Shalmaneser king of Assyria came up against him, and Hoshea became his servant, and brought him tribute.
(4)  The king of Assyria found conspiracy in Hoshea; for he had sent messengers to So king of Egypt, and offered no tribute to the king of Assyria, as he had done year by year. Therefore the king of Assyria seized him, and bound him in prison.
(5)  Then the king of Assyria came up throughout all the land, went up to Samaria, and besieged it three years.
(6)  In the ninth year of Hoshea the king of Assyria took Samaria, and carried Israel away to Assyria, and placed them in Halah, and on the Habor, the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.
(7)  It was so because the children of Israel had sinned against Yahweh their God, who brought them up out of the land of Egypt from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and had feared other gods,
(8)  and walked in the statutes of the nations whom Yahweh cast out from before the children of Israel, and of the kings of Israel, which they made.
(9)  The children of Israel secretly did things that were not right against Yahweh their God; and they built high places for themselves in all their cities, from the tower of the watchmen to the fortified city;
(10)  and they set up for themselves pillars and Asherah poles on every high hill, and under every green tree;
(11)  and there they burned incense in all the high places, as the nations whom Yahweh carried away before them did; and they did wicked things to provoke Yahweh to anger;
(12)  and they served idols, of which Yahweh had said to them, “You shall not do this thing.”

Notice that Yahweh had brought Israel out “from under the hand of Pharaoh” where they had feared other gods. Then they chose to put themselves under the hand of another type of Pharaoh and did the same thing.

Israel had nineteen different kings from nine different families, and not a single king was good. The chance of flipping a coin and getting nineteen tails in a row is about one in half a million, yet Israel came up with nineteen tails in a row. To defy mathematical odds like that must mean —

There must be a problem with human nature!

Therefore there is always a problem with following human rulers instead of following God directly. This applies to all humans in all types of governments —

Because they’re all human!

Israel suffered constant wars, frequent oppression by foreign kings, repeated coups and civil wars, droughts and famines. Finally one of those kings from those other nations that Israel admired so much ended the kingdom that shouldn’t have been in the first place.

The kings of Israel did not protect the flock but polluted the flock. They did not bring unity but brought chaos. They did not get more done for the work of God because God wasn’t personally leading their work. They were following men.

Perhaps Israel would have been better off just following God directly, instead of putting a carnal human king between him and them?

 The End Time Church: from the Cathedrals to the Catacombs

By Dan L. White

Copyright ©2016 by Dan L. White, all rights reserved.

Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible (WEB) which is in the public domain.

Chapter 14

Solomon, the Tired Tyrant

He started so high. He fell so far.

He was the wisest man in the world, yet he overtaxed his people to pay for his own excesses; he turned the Mount of Olives into a pagan shrine; and like Saul, he tried to murder the man who would replace him.

That was Solomon, the tyrant.

Beethoven tore the title page off his third symphony when he found out that his hero Napoleon was a tyrant.

Portrait of Ludwig van Beethoven (1803), Horneman

“In 1803 Beethoven composed his third symphony (now known as the Sinfonia Eroica [Hero Symphony]) in Heiligenstadt, a village about one and a half hours from Vienna….In writing this symphony Beethoven had been thinking of Buonaparte, but Buonaparte while he was First Consul. At that time Beethoven had the highest esteem for him and compared him to the greatest consuls of ancient Rome. Not only I, but many of Beethoven¹s closer friends, saw this symphony on his table, beautifully copied in manuscript, with the word “Buonaparte” inscribed at the very top of the title-page and “Luigi van Beethoven” at the very bottom.  Whether or how the intervening gap was to be filled out I do not know. I was the first to tell him the news that Buonaparte had declared himself Emperor, whereupon he broke into a rage and exclaimed, “So he is no more than a common mortal! Now, he too will tread under foot all the rights of man, indulge only his ambition; now he will think himself superior to all men, become a tyrant!” Beethoven went to the table, seized the top of the title-page, tore it in half and threw it on the floor. The page was later re-copied and it was only now that the symphony received the title ‘Sinfonia Eroica.’” From Biographische Notizen über Beethoven, F. Wegeler and F. Ries, 1838.

Napoleon began his rise to power as part of the French Republic, with government supposedly vested in representatives of the people, and wound up crowning himself as lifetime emperor. Like so many others, Napoleon became a tyrant and the title of the third symphony was ripped apart.

And so was Solomon.

Solomon, a son of David by Bathsheba, had a great start.

1 Kings 3:5
(5)  In Gibeon, Yahweh appeared to Solomon in a dream by night; and God said, “Ask for what I should give you.”

In that dream, this is what Solomon answered.

1 Kings 3:7-14
(7)  Now, Yahweh my God, you have made your servant king instead of David my father. I am just a little child. I don’t know how to go out or come in.
(8)  Your servant is among your people which you have chosen, a great people, that can’t be numbered or counted for multitude.
(9)  Give your servant therefore an understanding heart to judge your people, that I may discern between good and evil; for who is able to judge this great people of yours?”

 Instead of seeking something for himself, Solomon asked for wisdom so that, as king, he could serve the people.

(10)  This request pleased the Lord, that Solomon had asked this thing.
(11)  God said to him, “Because you have asked this thing, and have not asked for yourself long life, nor have you asked for riches for yourself, nor have you asked for the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to discern justice;
(12)  behold, I have done according to your word. Behold, I have given you a wise and understanding heart; so that there has been no one like you before you, and after you none will arise like you.
(13)  I have also given you that which you have not asked, both riches and honor, so that there will not be any among the kings like you for all your days.
(14)  If you will walk in my ways, to keep my statutes and my commandments, as your father David walked, then I will lengthen your days.”

God granted Solomon wisdom, more than any man on earth at that time.

1 Kings 10:23-24
(23)  So king Solomon exceeded all the kings of the earth in riches and in wisdom.
(24)  All the earth sought the presence of Solomon, to hear his wisdom, which God had put in his heart.

The kingdom was blessed by that wisdom.

1 Kings 4:20
(20)  Judah and Israel were numerous as the sand which is by the sea in multitude, eating and drinking and making merry.

(25)  Judah and Israel lived safely, every man under his vine and under his fig tree, from Dan even to Beersheba, all the days of Solomon.

Solomon was the king on Yahweh’s throne. Nevertheless Solomon brought unity, for a while.

1Ch 29:23
Then Solomon sat on the throne of Yahweh as king instead of David his father, and prospered; and all Israel obeyed him.

Again it appeared that Israel had made the right decision in trading God’s leadership for that of a human leader, who was the wisest man on earth. But there was a problem.

Solomon was human.

Uh-oh.

In the book that he wrote, Solomon spoke of his wisdom.

Ecclesiastes 1:16
(16)  I said to myself, “Behold, I have obtained for myself great wisdom above all who were before me in Jerusalem. Yes, my heart has had great experience of wisdom and knowledge.”

Then Solomon wrote of how he did not deny himself.

Ecclesiastes 2:1-10
(1)  I said in my heart, “Come now, I will test you with mirth: therefore enjoy pleasure;” and behold, this also was vanity.
(2)  I said of laughter, “It is foolishness;” and of mirth, “What does it accomplish?”
(3)  I searched in my heart how to cheer my flesh with wine, my heart yet guiding me with wisdom, and how to lay hold of folly, until I might see what it was good for the sons of men that they should do under heaven all the days of their lives.
(4)  I made myself great works. I built myself houses. I planted myself vineyards.
(5)  I made myself gardens and parks, and I planted trees in them of all kinds of fruit.
(6)  I made myself pools of water, to water from it the forest where trees were reared.
(7)  I bought male servants and female servants, and had servants born in my house. I also had great possessions of herds and flocks, above all who were before me in Jerusalem;
(8)  I also gathered silver and gold for myself, and the treasure of kings and of the provinces. I got myself male and female singers, and the delights of the sons of men—musical instruments, and that of all sorts.
(9)  So I was great, and increased more than all who were before me in Jerusalem. My wisdom also remained with me.
(10)  Whatever my eyes desired, I didn’t keep from them. I didn’t withhold my heart from any joy, for my heart rejoiced because of all my labor, and this was my portion from all my labor.

But in his self indulgence, Solomon disobeyed God’s instructions to kings.

Deuteronomy 17:16-17
(16)  Only he shall not multiply horses to himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt, to the end that he may multiply horses; because Yahweh has said to you, “You shall not go back that way again.”
(17)  He shall not multiply wives to himself, that his heart not turn away. He shall not greatly multiply to himself silver and gold.

Solomon did multiply horses and gold and silver.

1 Kings 10:27-28
(27)  The king made silver as common as stones in Jerusalem, and cedars as common as the sycamore trees that are in the lowland.
(28)  The horses which Solomon had were brought out of Egypt. The king’s merchants received them in droves, each drove at a price.

As God predicted, the people had to pay a certain price for living under a kingly government. Governments require taxes! Later the people complained to Rehoboam about his father Solomon. While Solomon lived in splendor, the people struggled under a burdensome yoke.

1 Kings 12:4
(4)  “Your father made our yoke difficult. Now therefore make the hard service of your father, and his heavy yoke which he put on us, lighter, and we will serve you.”

However, the horses and wealth that Solomon multiplied to himself did not cause nearly as much trouble as the wives he multiplied to himself. He had a thousand wives and concubines.

Many people have heard about Solomon’s thousand women, without considering the mathematical implications of such an arrangement. If Solomon had a different woman every night, and only one a night, he wouldn’t see the first woman again until almost three years later.

And that’s if he never took a night off.

And that was way before sildenafil citrate, if you can guess what that is.

And what would Solomon say to that first wife when he saw her again three years later, after having the other 999 women?

“Oh, no! It’s you again!”

Moreover, those wives that Solomon took were not all God fearers. Some were open idolaters.

Paul wrote this long after Solomon, but the principle applied to Solomon.

2 Corinthians 6:14-17
(14)  Don’t be unequally yoked with unbelievers, for what fellowship have righteousness and iniquity? Or what fellowship has light with darkness?
(15)  What agreement has Christ with Belial? Or what portion has a believer with an unbeliever?
(16)  What agreement has a temple of God with idols? For you are a temple of the living God. Even as God said, “I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they will be my people.”
(17)  Therefore “‘Come out from among them, and be separate,’ says the Lord. ‘Touch no unclean thing. I will receive you.

So when Solomon joined himself to darkness, some of his light went out.

1 Kings 11:1-13
1)  Now king Solomon loved many foreign women, together with the daughter of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians, and Hittites;
(2)  of the nations concerning which Yahweh said to the children of Israel, “You shall not go among them, neither shall they come among you; for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods.” Solomon joined to these in love.
(3)  He had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines; and his wives turned away his heart.
(4)  When Solomon was old, his wives turned away his heart after other gods; and his heart was not perfect with Yahweh his God, as the heart of David his father was.
(5)  For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites.
(6)  Solomon did that which was evil in Yahweh’s sight, and didn’t go fully after Yahweh, as David his father did.
(7)  Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, on the mountain that is before Jerusalem, and for Molech the abomination of the children of Ammon.
(8)  So he did for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and sacrificed to their gods.
(9)  Yahweh was angry with Solomon, because his heart was turned away from Yahweh, 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 didn’t keep that which Yahweh commanded.
(11)  Therefore Yahweh said to Solomon, “Because this is done by you, and you have not kept my covenant and my statutes, which I have commanded you, I will surely tear the kingdom from you, and will give it to your servant.
(12)  Nevertheless, I will not do it in your days, for David your father’s sake; but I will tear it out of your son’s hand.
(13)  However I will not tear away all the kingdom; but I will give one tribe to your son, for David my servant’s sake, and for Jerusalem’s sake which I have chosen.”

The Mount of Olives is “the mountain that is before Jerusalem,” the hill that is just east of the hill where the temple was. When good King Josiah came along about 300 years later, he tore down Solomon’s idols. Solomon had turned the lovely Mount of Olives into the mountain of corruption, a pagan high place right next to the temple mount and that spiritual cancer festered there for three centuries.

2 Kings 23:10-13
(10)  He [Josiah] defiled Topheth, which is in the valley of the children of Hinnom, that no man might make his son or his daughter to pass through the fire to Molech.
(11)  He took away the horses that the kings of Judah had given to the sun, at the entrance of Yahweh’s house, by the room of Nathan Melech the officer, who was in the court; and he burned the chariots of the sun with fire.
(12)  The king broke down the altars that were on the roof of the upper room of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and the altars which Manasseh had made in the two courts of Yahweh’s house, and beat them down from there, and cast their dust into the brook Kidron.
(13)  The king defiled the high places that were before Jerusalem, which were on the right hand of the mountain of corruption, which Solomon the king of Israel had built for Ashtoreth the abomination of the Sidonians, and for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and for Milcom the abomination of the children of Ammon.

Solomon’s conclusion in Ecclesiastes is:

Ecclesiastes 12:13-14
(13)  This is the end of the matter. All has been heard. Fear God, and keep his commandments; for this is the whole duty of man.
(14)  For God will bring every work into judgment, with every hidden thing, whether it is good, or whether it is evil.

Because of that conclusion, some believe that Solomon repented of his wifery wickedness. That’s not so.

Had Solomon repented, God would have forgiven him and not given him such judgment. God always accepts true repentance.

Had Solomon repented, he would have torn down the corruption on the Mount of Olives, as Josiah did.

Had Solomon repented, he would have accepted God’s judgment, as David did in Psalm 51. Instead, he did this to the man who would replace him as king over ten tribes.

1 Kings 11:37-40
(37)  I will take you, and you shall reign according to all that your soul desires, and shall be king over Israel.
(38)  It shall be, if you will listen to all that I command you, and will walk in my ways, and do that which is right in my eyes, to keep my statutes and my commandments, as David my servant did; that I will be with you, and will build you a sure house, as I built for David, and will give Israel to you.
(39)  I will afflict the offspring of David for this, but not forever.’”
(40)  Therefore Solomon sought to kill Jeroboam; but Jeroboam arose, and fled into Egypt, to Shishak king of Egypt, and was in Egypt until the death of Solomon.

Instead of accepting God’s judgment as David did, Solomon did as Saul did, and tried to kill the man that Yahweh picked to replace him. That is the same as directly fighting God.

Like Napoleon and Saul, Solomon became a tyrant. Instead of serving God and God’s people, he became self serving.

So those were the first three guys who were to replace God.

The first was the best looking man in the nation, who turned out to be a self serving tyrant.

The second was a man after God’s own heart, who committed adultery and murder.

And the third was the wisest man in the world, who ended his life honoring Ashtoreth, a statue with big breasts. You would think that, with a thousand women, he had seen enough breasts.

Ancient sculpture of Asherah

Now which human leader do you want to follow in place of God Almighty?

The End Time Church: from the Cathedrals to the Catacombs

By Dan L. White

Copyright ©2016 by Dan L. White, all rights reserved.

Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible (WEB) which is in the public domain.

Chapter 13

Good King David, Adulterer, Murderer, Repenter

The Tower of David towers in my memory.

The Tower of David has nothing to do with David at all.

It was first built in Jerusalem by Hezekiah, then fortified by others much later. The Crusaders mistakenly named that citadel after David, thinking it was his palace. In modern times, it’s the scene of a light show, where Israel’s history is projected onto the old stone walls. David was a man after God’s own heart, you know, and many years ago, watching that light show together, I began to steal the heart of the young lady who became my life wife. Hooray for the Tower of David!

The Night Spectacular Show at the Tower of David – gojerusalem.com

David, the man after God’s own heart, was the second human king of Israel, and he was simply the best human king.

It was a great honor to be called the son of David.

Mat 1:1
The book of the genealogy of Yeshua Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.

Mat 20:29-31
As they went out from Jericho, a great multitude followed him. Behold, two blind men sitting by the road, when they heard that Yeshua was passing by, cried out, Lord, have mercy on us, you son of David! The multitude rebuked them, telling them that they should be quiet, but they cried out even more, Lord, have mercy on us, you son of David!

Mat 21:8-9
A very great multitude spread their clothes on the road. Others cut branches from the trees, and spread them on the road. The multitudes who went in front of him, and those who followed, kept shouting, Hosanna to the son of David!…

In Revelation 22:16, the Messiah said “I am the root and offspring of David.” David came from him and he came from David.

The Messiah will be given the throne of David.

Luk 1:31-32
Behold, you will conceive in your womb, and give birth to a son, and will call his name ‘Yeshua.’ He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father, David,…

That’s how good a king David was. He was the best human king.

But he was human.

David had many great exploits recorded in the Bible, such as the battle with Goliath. He also had two great sins recorded in the Bible.

The first was when David saw Bathsheba bathing. He took her, even though she was Uriah’s wife. Then he had Uriah killed by placing him in a suicidal position in a battle.

Those were enormous sins, adultery and murder. Yet King David, probably because of his lofty position, did not even see his sin! After all, he was the king. He could do whatever he wanted, couldn’t he?

2Sa 12:1-13
Yahweh sent Nathan to David. He came to him, and said to him, There were two men in one city; the one rich, and the other poor. The rich man had very many flocks and herds, but the poor man had nothing, except one little ewe lamb, which he had bought and raised. It grew up together with him, and with his children. It ate of his own food, drank of his own cup, and lay in his bosom, and was like a daughter to him. A traveler came to the rich man, and he spared to take of his own flock and of his own herd, to prepare for the wayfaring man who had come to him, but took the poor man’s lamb, and prepared it for the man who had come to him.

David’s anger burned hot against the man, and he said to Nathan, As Yahweh lives, the man who has done this deserves to die! He must restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity!

David still did not see his sin, great as it was, until it was pointed out to him.

Nathan said to David, You are the man. This is what Yahweh, the God of Israel, says: ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you out of the hand of Saul. I gave you your master’s house, and your master’s wives into your bosom, and gave you the house of Israel and of Judah; and if that would have been too little, I would have added to you many more such things. Why have you despised Yahweh’s word, to do that which is evil in his sight? You have struck Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and have taken his wife to be your wife, and have slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon. Now therefore the sword will never depart from your house, because you have despised me, and have taken Uriah the Hittite’s wife to be your wife.’

This is what Yahweh says: ‘Behold, I will raise up evil against you out of your own house; and I will take your wives before your eyes, and give them to your neighbor, and he will lie with your wives in the sight of this sun. For you did this secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel, and before the sun.’

When David was confronted with his crimes, he responded with utmost repentance.

David said to Nathan, I have sinned against Yahweh.

Then because of that repentance, Yahweh did the opposite of what he did with Saul.

Nathan said to David, Yahweh also has put away your sin. You will not die.

Human kings almost always think like kings. They get full of themselves. When a leader thinks he’s been put in power by divine right, he gets to thinking that he is right divine. Yahweh warned Israel against the excesses of kings, because kings tend to have them in excess. David was temporarily polluted by his power. He knew he could reach out and take that woman and have her husband killed, so he did it and didn’t think twice about it. That’s what kings do.

Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority; still more when you superadd the tendency of the certainty of corruption by authority, John Dalberg-Acton.

When Saul did not wait for Samuel to offer a sacrifice to Yahweh and offered it himself, this was Saul’s reaction.

1Sa 13:10-12
It came to pass that as soon as he had finished offering the burnt offering, behold, Samuel came; and Saul went out to meet him, that he might greet him.

Samuel said, What have you done?

Saul said, Because I saw that the people were scattered from me, and that you didn’t come within the days appointed, and that the Philistines assembled themselves together at Michmash; therefore I said, ‘Now the Philistines will come down on me to Gilgal, and I haven’t entreated the favor of Yahweh.’ I forced myself therefore, and offered the burnt offering.

Saul did not have a morsel of remorse. Instead he just excused himself. I forced myself and offered the burnt offering. To him, his disobedience was noble; he was just doing everybody a favor. And when Samuel told Saul that his dynasty would end, the Bible records no hint of repentance in the king.

On the other hand, this was David’s reaction when he was confronted, confounded and convicted by his sin.

Psalms 51:1-10
For the Chief Musician. A Psalm by David, when Nathan the prophet came to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba.

Have mercy on me, God, according to your loving kindness. According to the multitude of your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity. Cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions. My sin is constantly before me. Against you, and you only, I have sinned, and done that which is evil in your sight; that you may be proved right when you speak, and justified when you judge.

Behold, I was born in iniquity. In sin my mother conceived me.

Behold, you desire truth in the inward parts. You teach me wisdom in the inmost place.

Purify me with hyssop, and I will be clean. Wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.

Let me hear joy and gladness, That the bones which you have broken may rejoice. Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all of my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a right spirit within me.

Notice that David said that Yahweh was justified when he judged. David did not pout, even though he was under a lifelong punishment of the sword not departing from his house.

David had another great sin. It does not seem as bad as taking Bathsheba and killing Uriah, but it may have been worse, because instead of attacking a man, it was a sin against God himself. This sin came directly from Satan.

1Ch 21:1-17
Satan stood up against Israel, and moved David to take a census of Israel.

David said to Joab and to the princes of the people, Go, count Israel from Beersheba even to Dan; and bring me word, that I may know how many there are.

Joab said, May Yahweh make his people a hundred times as many as they are. But, my lord the king, aren’t they all my lord’s servants? Why does my lord require this thing? Why will he be a cause of guilt to Israel?

Joab was David’s head general, and a man not without great problems himself, yet Joab had the wisdom to see the sin in the census and tried to talk some sense into David.

Nevertheless the king’s word prevailed against Joab.

Therefore Joab departed, and went throughout all Israel, then came to Jerusalem. Joab gave up the sum of the census of the people to David. All those of Israel were one million one hundred thousand men who drew a sword; and in Judah were four hundred seventy thousand men who drew a sword. But he didn’t count Levi and Benjamin among them; for the king’s word was abominable to Joab.

David’s army was over a million and a half strong. Wow! Wasn’t that king great! Look how big the work of God is! See what God is doing through us! Look at our building!

God was displeased with this thing; therefore he struck Israel.

David did not see his sin when Joab warned him ahead of time. He only saw it when the curse fell. And again, David’s reaction was profound repentance.

David said to God, I have sinned greatly, in that I have done this thing. But now put away, I beg you, the iniquity of your servant; for I have done very foolishly.

Yahweh spoke to Gad, David’s seer, saying, Go and speak to David, saying, ‘Yahweh says, I offer you three things. Choose one of them, that I may do it to you.’

So Gad came to David, and said to him, Yahweh says, ‘Take your choice: either three years of famine; or three months to be consumed before your foes, while the sword of your enemies overtakes you; or else three days the sword of Yahweh, even pestilence in the land, and Yahweh’s angel destroying throughout all the borders of Israel. Now therefore consider what answer I shall return to him who sent me.’

When Israel heard God speak the Ten Commandments, they wanted to get away from God. David, though, even when being punished, still sought God. Again, he did not pout.

David said to Gad, I am in distress. Let me fall, I pray, into Yahweh’s hand; for his mercies are very great. Don’t let me fall into man’s hand. So Yahweh sent a pestilence on Israel, and seventy thousand men of Israel fell. God sent an angel to Jerusalem to destroy it.

As he was about to destroy, Yahweh saw, and he relented of the disaster, and said to the destroying angel, It is enough. Now withdraw your hand.

Yahweh’s angel was standing by the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. David lifted up his eyes, and saw Yahweh’s angel standing between earth and the sky, having a drawn sword in his hand stretched out over Jerusalem. Then David and the elders, clothed in sackcloth, fell on their faces. David said to God, Isn’t it I who commanded the people to be counted? It is even I who have sinned and done very wickedly; but these sheep, what have they done? Please let your hand, O Yahweh my God, be against me, and against my father’s house; but not against your people, that they should be plagued.

Then Yahweh’s angel commanded Gad to tell David that David should go up and raise an altar to Yahweh on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.

In contrast, notice Saul’s reaction to his second great sin.

1 Samuel 15:19-31
Why then didn’t you obey Yahweh’s voice, but took the plunder, and did that which was evil in Yahweh’s sight?

Saul said to Samuel, But I have obeyed Yahweh’s voice, and have gone the way which Yahweh sent me, and have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites. But the people took of the plunder, sheep and cattle, the chief of the devoted things, to sacrifice to Yahweh your God in Gilgal.

David was quick to admit his guilt but Saul was quick to shift his. It was the people, Saul said, who took the forbidden plunder. And they did it just to have a sacrifice to offer! Noble!

Samuel said, Has Yahweh as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying Yahweh’s voice? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as idolatry and teraphim. Because you have rejected Yahweh’s word, he has also rejected you from being king.

When Saul was told he was out as king, then he did admit his sin, but he still did not repent of himself.

Saul said to Samuel, I have sinned; for I have transgressed the commandment of Yahweh, and your words, because I feared the people, and obeyed their voice. Now therefore, please pardon my sin, and turn again with me, that I may worship Yahweh.

Saul was still interested in showing off his position and he did not want Samuel to reject him in front of the people.

Samuel said to Saul, I will not return with you; for you have rejected Yahweh’s word, and Yahweh has rejected you from being king over Israel.

As Samuel turned around to go away, Saul grabbed the skirt of his robe, and it tore. Samuel said to him, Yahweh has torn the kingdom of Israel from you today, and has given it to a neighbor of yours who is better than you. Also the Strength of Israel will not lie nor repent; for he is not a man, that he should repent.

Then he said, I have sinned; yet please honor me now before the elders of my people, and before Israel, and come back with me, that I may worship Yahweh your God. So Samuel went back with Saul; and Saul worshiped Yahweh.

Look at that guy! He had just been told he was disqualified as king, yet the important thing to him was that he be honored before the people. He was disqualified as king because of his love for himself, and upon learning that, he still showed it.

So the first two kings each had two great sins. David’s were adultery/murder and pride. Saul’s were presumptuousness in offering the sacrifice and overruling God’s instructions.

Whose sins were worse?

Humanly we would think David’s sins were far worse than Saul’s, yet David’s kingly line continues forever, while Saul’s ended in ignominy.

Why?

David repented of himself.

Saul justified himself.

Psalms 7:12-16, written by David.
If a man doesn’t repent, he will sharpen his sword; he has bent and strung his bow. He has also prepared for himself the instruments of death. He makes ready his flaming arrows. Behold, he travails with iniquity. Yes, he has conceived mischief, and brought out falsehood. He has dug a hole, and has fallen into the pit which he made. The trouble he causes shall return to his own head. His violence shall come down on the crown of his own head.

We can’t help but notice that even David, the very best king of Israel, had some very human, rotten problems. From his rot came repentance, and he then humbled himself before God — the real king of Israel.

The big point about David the human king is not how good he was, but that he admitted how bad he was.

The fact is that human kings just can’t take being kings very well. Even the very best are far short of perfect. It takes a different kind of being to be a perfect king, and to always be a servant instead of a show-off.

Luk 22:25-26
He said to them, The kings of the nations lord it over them, and those who have authority over them are called ‘benefactors.’ But not so with you. But one who is the greater among you, let him become as the younger, and one who is governing, as one who serves.

So where can you find a king who is a perfect servant?

The End Time Church: from the Cathedrals to the Catacombs

By Dan L. White

Copyright ©2016 by Dan L. White, all rights reserved.

Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible (WEB) which is in the public domain.

 

Chapter 12

King Saul, the Hunkering Hunk

King Tut was really an ugly pharaoh.

Almost everyone has seen a picture of Pharaoh Tutankhamun’s mummy mask, a depiction of him that was stored with his mummy. In that mask, the king has perfect features with a fine straight nose, a perfectly shaped beard and a handsome face.

Golden Mask of Tutankhamun in the Egyptian Museum[1]

However, Italian researchers recently performed 2000 digital scans of the pharaoh’s mummy and created a digital King Tut, an electronic image of the ancient Egyptian ruler. This virtual Tut doesn’t look anything like his mummy mask. It shows that the real King Tut had “girlish hips, a club foot and buck teeth.”[2]

Then why did the Egyptians make his mask to look so handsome when the real king was an eyesore?

The Egyptians did not want an ugly king.

Neither did Israel. They wanted a handsome hunk. And they got one.

Human kings are supposed to do God’s work better the he can, with everybody in line behind the king.

Remember that’s what Bible commentators think.

Only a strong and permanent leadership of the whole people would suffice! Thus the rule of the Judges gave way to the monarchy! ISBE article “Judges.”

Nothing contributes more, under God, to the support of religion in the world, than the due administration of those two great ordinances, magistracy and ministry, Matthew Henry, Judges 17:6 comment.

Israel thought God’s people would be better off with a human king, instead of being led by God directly. And of course, nobody wants an ugly Tut for a king.

So what happened with those human kings?

First there were three.

Three sons of Adam — Cain, Abel and Seth — are named as the first sons of mankind. Three sons of Noah — Shem, Ham and Japheth — repopulated the world after the Flood. Three patriarchs- Abraham, Isaac and Jacob — began God’s chosen people. And the united kingdom of all twelve tribes of Israel had three kings — Saul, David and Solomon.

Those who saw Saul were in awe.

1Sa 9:1-2
Now there was a man of Benjamin, whose name was Kish, the son of Abiel, the son of Zeror, the son of Becorath, the son of Aphiah, the son of a Benjamite, a mighty man of valor. He had a son, whose name was Saul, an impressive young man; and there was not among the children of Israel a better person than he. From his shoulders and upward he was taller than any of the people.

There is a certain irony there. When Israel wanted a human king, Yahweh gave them the best looking man in the country. God himself picked the king, but he gave the people exactly what they wanted – a regal ruler.

However, their regal ruler had one real problem.

1Sa 10:17-24
Samuel called the people together to Yahweh to Mizpah; and he said to the children of Israel, Yahweh, the God of Israel, says ‘I brought Israel up out of Egypt, and I delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians, and out of the hand of all the kingdoms that oppressed you.’ But you have today rejected your God, who himself saves you out of all your calamities and your distresses; and you have said to him, ‘No! Set a king over us.’

Samuel had already anointed Saul as king, but this was a formal ceremony to present the new king to  the multitudes of Israel. A selection service was held, to show who Yahweh had picked for their king.

Now therefore present yourselves before Yahweh by your tribes, and by your thousands.

So Samuel brought all the tribes of Israel near, and the tribe of Benjamin was chosen. He brought the tribe of Benjamin near by their families; and the family of the Matrites was chosen. Then Saul the son of Kish was chosen; but when they looked for him, he could not be found.

The selection process showed the tribe, Benjamin; then the family, Kish; and finally the man, Saul. But that man was missing. So they asked God, When is this guy going to get here?

Therefore they asked of Yahweh further, Is there yet a man to come here?

And Yahweh, the king they rejected, said somewhat cheekily —

Behold, he has hidden himself among the baggage.

Ah!

A look of surprise passed from face to face. The protector of Israel was hiding — to protect himself. Their new king was buried in the baggage. Their leader was in the luggage. He had stuffed himself in with the stuff.

Bold leader!

What to do?

Get him out.

They ran and got him there.

What a curious scene that must have been, when the leaders of Israel, so excited about the new government they had demanded, so full of optimism and confidence, so swept up in their campaign of Hope and Change —

What a curious scene that must have been when they had to rush over to where their hunk was hunkered down and pull him out.

Can you see them there, searching through the piles of stuff, then staring down at their cowering cowardly king?

And there he was! Saul looked up at them, all those faces looked down at him —

Come on out, we got’cha.

How great it was to have a human king!

But when Saul did come out and stood up, he still looked dang good. When the hunk didn’t hunker, he was sure handsome.

When he stood among the people, he was higher than any of the people from his shoulders and upward. Samuel said to all the people, Do you see him whom Yahweh has chosen, that there is no one like him among all the people? All the people shouted, and said, Long live the king!

Long live the king?

Yep. Long live the king! the people shouted.

Now isn’t that kinda dumb?

Dan 7:9-10
I saw until thrones were placed, and one who was ancient of days sat: his clothing was white as snow, and the hair of his head like pure wool; his throne was fiery flames, and its wheels burning fire. A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him: thousands of thousands ministered to him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him: the judgment was set, and the books were opened.

Israel traded the Ancient of Days, who has no beginning and no end, for a guy they had to pull out of the baggage, and who they hoped would live a long time. Long live the king!

So Saul was the guy who was to lead the people instead of Yahweh.

And what did God do with Saul?

1Sa 10:9-12
It was so, that when he had turned his back to go from Samuel, God gave him another heart; and all those signs happened that day. When they came there to the hill, behold, a band of prophets met him; and the Spirit of God came mightily on him, and he prophesied among them.

When all who knew him before saw that, behold, he prophesied with the prophets, then the people said to one another, What is this that has come to the son of Kish? Is Saul also among the prophets? One of the same place answered, Who is their father? Therefore it became a proverb, Is Saul also among the prophets?

Notice that when Israel set up a government between them and God, God did not immediately desert them. When they rejected Him, He stayed with them. Yahweh gave the guy who replaced him the spirit of God. Saul had the power that upholds the universe with him, yet it was right after that when he hid himself.

Not a good sign!

Saul had a good start in battle, though.

1Sa 11:1-15
Then Nahash the Ammonite came up, and encamped against Jabesh Gilead: and all the men of Jabesh said to Nahash, Make a covenant with us, and we will serve you.

Nahash the Ammonite said to them, On this condition I will make it with you, that all your right eyes be gouged out. I will make this dishonor all Israel.

The threat of Nahash was one of the reasons Israel wanted a human government. Soon after Saul became Israel’s king, Nahash wanted to enslave part of Israel, and put out their right eyes as their mark of servitude to him.

The elders of Jabesh said to him, Give us seven days, that we may send messengers to all the borders of Israel; and then, if there is no one to save us, we will come out to you.

Then the messengers came to Gibeah of Saul, and spoke these words in the ears of the people, then all the people lifted up their voice, and wept.

At that point, even after being picked as king, Saul was still a farmer, following the oxen. Most kings, political or religious, would probably be better off if they spent more time following oxen.

Behold, Saul came following the oxen out of the field; and Saul said, What ails the people that they weep? They told him the words of the men of Jabesh. God’s Spirit came mightily on Saul when he heard those words, and his anger burned hot. He took a yoke of oxen, and cut them in pieces, and sent them throughout all the borders of Israel by the hand of messengers, saying, Whoever doesn’t come out after Saul and after Samuel, so shall it be done to his oxen.

Saul was led by the spirit of God, and that trickled down to the people.

The dread of Yahweh fell on the people, and they came out as one man. He counted them in Bezek; and the children of Israel were three hundred thousand, and the men of Judah thirty thousand.

They said to the messengers who came, Tell the men of Jabesh Gilead, ‘Tomorrow, by the time the sun is hot, you will be rescued.’

The messengers came and told the men of Jabesh; and they were glad. Therefore the men of Jabesh said, Tomorrow we will come out to you, and you shall do with us all that seems good to you.

On the next day, Saul put the people in three companies; and they came into the middle of the camp in the morning watch, and struck the Ammonites until the heat of the day. Those who remained were scattered, so that no two of them were left together.

Some had mocked King Saul when he was first selected. After this great victory, others wanted to murder those mockers.

The people said to Samuel, Who is he who said, ‘Shall Saul reign over us?’ Bring those men, that we may put them to death!

Saul, though, had the wisdom to not avenge himself.

Saul said, No man shall be put to death today; for today Yahweh has rescued Israel.

Then Samuel said to the people, Come! Let’s go to Gilgal, and renew the kingdom there.

All the people went to Gilgal; and there they made Saul king before Yahweh in Gilgal. There they offered sacrifices of peace offerings before Yahweh; and there Saul and all the men of Israel rejoiced greatly.

Why did they rejoice greatly?

Because their king, whom they thought would protect the flock and give them unity, had done just that.

The threat from Nahash was one of the reasons that Israel wanted a guy like Saul. When Saul led them to victory over Nahash, it seemed that Israel had made an immensely wise decision in putting Saul in place of God, even though it was God who had actually given them the victory.

For a short while, it looked like Israel had made a good trade in kings. Then things started to unravel.

Or rather, then Saul just showed that he was human.

The Philistines oppressed Israel, and wouldn’t even let them have swords and spears. Saul gathered several thousand Israelites together, but they faced Philistines as numerous as the sand on the seashore. Israel and Saul were very scared so when Samuel did not show at the set time to offer a sacrifice, Saul ‘forced himself’ and did it.

But offering that sacrifice was not Saul’s job. And that show of arrogance cost him his dynasty.

Then Saul’s son Jonathan and his armor bearer, who were not afraid, attacked and routed the Philistines, not knowing that Saul had declared a fast day on their day of battle. When Jonathan ate a little honey, Saul wanted to kill his son.

Israel overruled their leader on that one. After all, he was only human.

When Saul was sent to strike Amalek and not spare, he spared. He simply used his better judgment, and being just a human, his better judgment wasn’t the best.

That little episode cost him his kingdom.

1Sa 15:34-35
Then Samuel went to Ramah; and Saul went up to his house to Gibeah of Saul. Samuel came no more to see Saul until the day of his death; for Samuel mourned for Saul: and Yahweh grieved that he had made Saul king over Israel.

Saul ruled for forty years, and a good bit of that time was spent trying to kill the man who would replace him. Saul, who had hidden in the stuff, turned into a full fledged tyrant.

Even at the very end of his life, Saul repeated his vicissitudes and vacillations. He had ordered all demonic diviners put out of the country, because of this law.

Leviticus 20:6
The person that turns to those who are mediums, and to the wizards, to play the prostitute after them, I will even set my face against that person, and will cut him off from among his people.

Just as when he offered the forbidden sacrifice, though, when things didn’t go Saul’s way, then he went his own way.

1Sa 28:4-10, 14-19
The Philistines gathered themselves together, and came and encamped in Shunem; and Saul gathered all Israel together, and they encamped in Gilboa. When Saul saw the army of the Philistines, he was afraid, and his heart trembled greatly. When Saul inquired of Yahweh, Yahweh didn’t answer him by dreams, by Urim, or by prophets.

Then Saul said to his servants, Seek for me a woman who has a familiar spirit, that I may go to her, and inquire of her.

His servants said to him, Behold, there is a woman who has a familiar spirit at Endor.

Saul disguised himself and put on other clothing, and went, he and two men with him, and they came to the woman by night. Then he said, Please consult for me by the familiar spirit, and bring me up whomever I shall name to you.

The woman said to him, Behold, you know what Saul has done, how he has cut off those who have familiar spirits, and the wizards, out of the land. Why then do you lay a snare for my life, to cause me to die?

Saul had done what was right by getting rid of the spiritists, but when no one was watching, Saul did not oppose the witch of Endor.

Saul swore to her by Yahweh, saying, As Yahweh lives, no punishment will happen to you for this thing.

So the spiritist did her thing.

She said, An old man comes up. He is covered with a robe. Saul perceived that it was Samuel, and he bowed with his face to the ground, and showed respect. Samuel said to Saul, Why have you disturbed me, to bring me up? Saul answered, I am very distressed; for the Philistines make war against me, and God has departed from me, and answers me no more, by prophets, or by dreams. Therefore I have called you, that you may make known to me what I shall do.

Saul was self willed. When God did not answer him, he simply went to another source.

Samuel said, Why then do you ask me, since Yahweh has departed from you and has become your adversary? Yahweh has done to you as he spoke by me. Yahweh has torn the kingdom out of your hand, and given it to your neighbor, even to David. Because you didn’t obey Yahweh’s voice, and didn’t execute his fierce wrath on Amalek, therefore Yahweh has done this thing to you today. Moreover Yahweh will deliver Israel also with you into the hand of the Philistines; and tomorrow you and your sons will be with me. Yahweh will deliver the army of Israel also into the hand of the Philistines.

The problem with all human governments is humans. Saul became a full fledged tyrant. He wouldn’t kill Agag, whom Yahweh told him to kill, but he spent the last part of his life trying to kill David, whom Yahweh had picked to take his place.

Saul was not that bad of a guy. He went from plowing behind oxen to ruling with the power of a king and he just flat out couldn’t take it. This almost always happens to all kings, whether political or religious.

Well, yes, Saul was that bad of a guy. He was a normal human.

Saul had the spirit of God to join with his human spirit, yet he yielded to his human spirit and ignored the divine spirit, which he then lost.

That’s just what Israel had done when they wanted a human king in place of God. Their king was just repeating their mistake. And their great king just became one more tyrant in the scrolls of history, who spent years trying to kill David, who had done him no wrong at all.

Rush Limbaugh said it succinctly.

The history of the world is tyranny. Human beings are viciously mean to each other. The history of humanity is tyranny, torture, dungeons, dictatorship, fear. The exception has been the United States of America.[3]

In the end, King Saul did not protect the flock.

1Sa 31:1-7
Now the Philistines fought against Israel; and the men of Israel fled from before the Philistines, and fell down slain on Mount Gilboa. The Philistines overtook Saul and on his sons; and the Philistines killed Jonathan, Abinadab, and Malchishua, the sons of Saul. The battle went hard against Saul, and the archers overtook him; and he was greatly distressed by reason of the archers. Then Saul said to his armor bearer, Draw your sword, and thrust me through with it, lest these uncircumcised come and thrust me through, and abuse me! But his armor bearer would not; for he was terrified. Therefore Saul took his sword, and fell on it. When his armor bearer saw that Saul was dead, he likewise fell on his sword, and died with him. So Saul died, and his three sons, and his armor bearer, and all his men, that same day together. When the men of Israel who were on the other side of the valley, and those who were beyond the Jordan, saw that the men of Israel fled, and that Saul and his sons were dead, they abandoned the cities and fled; and the Philistines came and lived in them.

Israel’s protection — protecting the flock — ultimately came not from kings, but only from Almighty God.

Psa 62:5-9 CEV
Only God gives inward peace, and I depend on him. God alone is the mighty rock that keeps me safe, and he is the fortress where I feel secure. God saves me and honors me. He is that mighty rock where I find safety. Trust God, my friends, and always tell him each one of your concerns. God is our place of safety. We humans are only a breath; none of us are truly great. All of us together weigh less than a puff of air.

You must never follow a person instead of God.

Why not?

Because he isn’t.

When Saul hid in the baggage, apparently he didn’t really think he should be king. He was right. Later, though, he would do anything to keep his throne. In the position of king, his human nature had done him in. He was better off stepping in ox pies.

There is no sign that Saul ever really repented. Few kings do. Kings don’t usually humble themselves, because, after all, they’re kings. Which is perhaps the worst political or religious position that any person can possibly be in.

[1] Carsten Frenzl, “King Tut,” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Commons.

[2] http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/10/digital-autopsy-shows-king-tut-was-really-ugly.html

[3] http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2009/07/31/obamacare_it_s_all_about_control

The End Time Church: from the Cathedrals to the Catacombs

By Dan L. White

Copyright ©2016 by Dan L. White, all rights reserved.

Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible (WEB) which is in the public domain.

Chapter 11

The Sin of Kicking God Upstairs

Sometimes a business corporation wants a new Chief Executive Officer, but they don’t want to appear to be against the current CEO. So what do they do? They kick him upstairs, and move him from the executive post to the corporate board, where he doesn’t lead the company, but only advises it and sometimes casts a vote on big matters.

Jerry Yang co-founded Yahoo. He was born in Taiwan and in traditional Chinese his name is 楊致遠. However, in simplified Chinese his name is written simply as 杨致远, and you can see that’s a lot easier to understand.

He served as Chief Executive Officer of Yahoo from 2007 to 2009, but after running into criticism from Yahoo investors, Yang resigned as CEO of the company. He remained on the company’s board of directors and his official title was ‘Chief Yahoo,’ but the Chief Yahoo no longer ran Yahoo on a day to day basis. He had been kicked upstairs. Three years later the yin got the better of Yang and he left the company entirely.

And that’s what Israel did when they got a human king. They kicked God upstairs.

1 Samuel 8:4-5
Then all the elders of Israel gathered themselves together, and came to Samuel to Ramah; and they said to him, Behold, you are old, and your sons don’t walk in your ways: now make us a king to judge us like all the nations.

Samuel knew that Israel sinned in their demand.

1 Samuel 8:6-8
But the thing displeased Samuel, when they said, Give us a king to judge us.

Samuel prayed to Yahweh.

Yahweh said to Samuel, Listen to the voice of the people in all that they tell you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me as the king over them. According to all the works which they have done since the day that I brought them up out of Egypt even to this day, in that they have forsaken me, and served other gods, so they also do to you.

When you put another government between you and God, you are rejecting God as your governor, even if you tell yourself you’re only kicking him upstairs.

God then made a point of telling Israel all the trouble that a human government would cause.

1 Samuel 8:9-17
Now therefore listen to their voice. However you shall protest solemnly to them, and shall show them the way of the king who will reign over them.

Samuel told all Yahweh’s words to the people who asked him for a king.

He said, This will be the way of the king who shall reign over you: he will take your sons, and appoint them as his servants, for his chariots, and to be his horsemen; and they will run before his chariots. He will appoint them to him for captains of thousands, and captains of fifties; and he will assign some to plow his ground, and to reap his harvest, and to make his instruments of war, and the instruments of his chariots. He will take your daughters to be perfumers, to be cooks, and to be bakers. He will take your fields, your vineyards, and your olive groves, even their best, and give them to his servants. He will take one tenth of your seed, and of your vineyards, and give it to his officers, and to his servants. He will take your male servants, your female servants, your best young men, and your donkeys, and assign them to his own work. He will take one tenth of your flocks; and you will be his servants.

Welcome to big government, folks!

When Israel got a human king, they lost personal freedoms. They had to pay taxes to that king and so lost the choice of what they would do with that part of their income. Some had to serve the king as soldiers and servants, and they lost the choice of what they would do with their lives. Everyone had to pay deference to that king, regardless of what they thought of him or his policies, so they lost some freedom of speech.

Israel, however, wanted to trade individual responsibility for collective responsibility. They wanted less freedom and more government.

There was one more little point that Yahweh threw in.

1Sa 8:18
You shall cry out in that day because of your king whom you shall have chosen you; and Yahweh will not answer you in that day.

Uh-oh.

When Israel put another government between them and Yahweh, there would be a time when they would cry out to God and he would not answer.

It was almost as if something had come between them and God!

But you know what?

Big governments look good! They are very visible!

A king with his horsemen and chariots and captains of thousands and captains of fifties looks impressive, like he’s getting a lot done, really doing the work of God! But all the king’s wealth is taken from the people, as God so astutely pointed out to Israel.

The bigger government gets, the bigger government gets. This is true whether it is a national government or a local government or a church government. Bureaucracies are inherently burdensome, often get in the way of what they want to accomplish, and hinder what they aim to help. In the primary campaign before the 2016 presidential election, Democrat candidate Hillary Clinton spoke of how much she had traveled in her many years in government. Republican candidate Carly Fiorina then said this to Hillary: “…flying is an activity, not an accomplishment .”

That statement indicts all governments, whether political or religious. They always have more activity than accomplishment. John Wooden, the greatest college basketball coach, said, “You never want to confuse activity with accomplishment.”

Government activities come with a cost. Many US state governments now run lotteries. They do this to get more money from their people. A few people win a lot of money. A lot of people lose a little money. The government takes in the most money. A lottery is simply a stealth tax, in addition to all other taxes.

Colorado legalized the sale of marijuana. Their ultimate purpose is not to get the people stoned, but to steal the people’s money. If you buy pot in Denver, 30% of the price is taxes.[1] Bureaucrats get high on that. Now there is a nationwide movement in America to legalize marijuana, simply because the government can collect so many tax dollars on its sale.

The US was begun with a government that was of the people, for the people and by the people. Today the richest population area in America is the zip code around Washington, D.C. Now we have a government that is of the bureaucrats, for the bureaucrats and by the bureaucrats.

It’s easy to see that government takes physical resources from its people. What’s not often seen is that most of all, a government takes spiritual resources away from its people.

By standing between God and the governed, a government also places a spiritual tax on the people. They get less God, because the human government always gets in the way.

Human governments of whatever kind tend to cut people off from God. If you want heat from a fireplace, then don’t stand behind somebody else. Just get closer to the fire.

Israel wanted their human government, though.

1Sa 8:19-20
But the people refused to listen to the voice of Samuel; and they said, No: but we will have a king over us, 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.

Israel persisted in their insistence that they have a visible government of God run by people instead of just God. And Israel sinned in setting up that go-between government.

What was that?

In spite of what almost all Bible commentators say, when Israel set up a king between them and God —

THEY SINNED!

1Sa 12:12-19
When you saw that Nahash the king of the children of Ammon came against you, you said to me, ‘No, but a king shall reign over us;’ when Yahweh your God was your king.

Now therefore see the king whom you have chosen, and whom you have asked for. Behold, Yahweh has set a king over you. If you will fear Yahweh, and serve him, and listen to his voice, and not rebel against the commandment of Yahweh, then both you and also the king who reigns over you are followers of Yahweh your God. But if you will not listen to Yahweh’s voice, but rebel against the commandment of Yahweh, then Yahweh’s hand will be against you, as it was against your fathers.

Now therefore stand still and see this great thing, which Yahweh will do before your eyes. Isn’t it wheat harvest today? I will call to Yahweh, that he may send thunder and rain; and you will know and see that your wickedness is great, which you have done in Yahweh’s sight, in asking for a king.

So Samuel called to Yahweh; and Yahweh sent thunder and rain that day. Then all the people greatly feared Yahweh and Samuel.

All the people said to Samuel, Pray for your servants to Yahweh your God, that we not die; for we have added to all our sins this evil, to ask for a king.

God sent thunder and rain, just so Israel would see that their wickedness was great in asking for a king.

Notice that this was at the time of the wheat harvest.

Israel had three feast seasons, which were three harvest seasons.

Exodus 23:15-16
You shall observe the feast of unleavened bread. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you, at the time appointed in the month Abib (for in it you came out of Egypt), and no one shall appear before me empty. And the feast of harvest, the first fruits of your labors, which you sow in the field; and the feast of ingathering, at the end of the year, when you gather in your labors out of the field.

Barley was the first harvest, in early spring, at Passover/Unleavened Bread. Wheat was the second harvest, in late spring, at Pentecost. The last harvest was a general ingathering, about the time autumn began, at Tabernacles.

When Israel demanded another king and rejected Yahweh, that was during the wheat harvest.

Exodus 34:22
You shall observe the feast of weeks with the first fruits of wheat harvest, and the feast of harvest at the year’s end.

The feast of weeks, commonly called Pentecost, is about seven weeks from Unleavened Bread. Isn’t it wheat harvest today? Samuel asked at the coronation ceremony. Israel rejected their King during the wheat harvest or general season of Pentecost.

The Pentecost season also saw another big thunder boomer.

Exodus 19:1-2
In the third month after the children of Israel had gone out of the land of Egypt, on that same day they came into the wilderness of Sinai. When they had departed from Rephidim, and had come to the wilderness of Sinai, they encamped in the wilderness; and there Israel encamped before the mountain.

Israel camped before Mt. Sinai at the time of Pentecost, the third month, and when Yahweh spoke the Ten Commandments with his own voice —

There was thunder!

Exodus 19:16
On the third day, when it was morning, there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud on the mountain, and the sound of an exceedingly loud trumpet; and all the people who were in the camp trembled.

Exodus 20:18
All the people perceived the thunderings, the lightnings, the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking. When the people saw it, they trembled, and stayed at a distance.

At that point, Yahweh God Almighty was Israel’s direct ruler. He taught them personally. And in the Holy Land, he sent them rain in due season.

Deuteronomy 11:10-14
For the land, where you go in to possess, isn’t like the land of Egypt, that you came out of, where you sowed your seed, and watered it with your foot, as a garden of herbs; but the land, where you go over to possess it, is a land of hills and valleys which drinks water from the rain of the sky, a land which Yahweh your God cares for. Yahweh your God’s eyes are always on it, from the beginning of the year even to the end of the year. It shall happen, if you shall listen diligently to my commandments which I command you today, to love Yahweh your God, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul, that I will give the rain of your land in its season, the former rain and the latter rain, that you may gather in your grain, your new wine, and your oil.

Israel has a unique geography and climate. They do not get rain every month. They get an early rain, up until the wheat harvest, and a latter rain, after the last harvest.

James 5:7
Be patient therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. Behold, the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient over it, until it receives the early and late rain.

They get the early rain and the late rain, but it does not rain in the summer.

Many years ago as a college student I worked for a summer in Israel. We had heard that it never rained during the summer in Jerusalem. One evening, sitting on the patio of our hotel, big cumulus clouds rolled in. It looked like a Texas toadstrangler was about to burst forth and I thought I was going to view the rare occurrence of a summer rain shower in Jerusalem.

However, all of those ugly clouds —

What is that word that the TV weather people use?

Dissipated.

The clouds dried up. There was no rain shower. It does not rain in Israel in the summer.

Notice again what Samuel said.

Now therefore stand still and see this great thing, which Yahweh will do before your eyes. Isn’t it wheat harvest today?

Meaning that it was not supposed to rain at that season.

I will call to Yahweh, that he may send thunder and rain; and you will know and see that your wickedness is great, which you have done in Yahweh’s sight, in asking for a king.

So Samuel called to Yahweh; and Yahweh sent thunder and rain that day. Then all the people greatly feared Yahweh and Samuel.

Wow! It rained! God made it rain there between the early and late rains.

Why did Yahweh make that miracle?

Just so you will know and see that your wickedness is great, which you have done in Yahweh’s sight, in asking for a king.

And then the people did know it.

All the people said to Samuel, Pray for your servants to Yahweh your God, that we not die; for we have added to all our sins this evil, to ask for a king.

It was evil for Israel to reject God as their direct ruler. It was wickedness to put someone else between Him and them. At the Pentecost season, when Israel should have remembered God speaking to them personally, they personally rejected Him.

Understand this point, which Bible commentators do not get, and which almost no Christians get. It is wrong to put someone else between you and God. Israel sinned in doing that and did great wickedness. If that was wrong for them, then it’s wrong for you.

Gilgal.

Remember that name?

Gilgal was where Israel first camped after crossing the Jordan River, which conveniently dried up for them.

Joshua 4:15-24
Yahweh spoke to Joshua, saying, Command the priests who bear the ark of the testimony, that they come up out of the Jordan.

Joshua therefore commanded the priests, saying, Come up out of the Jordan! When the priests who bore the ark of Yahweh’s covenant had come up out of the middle of the Jordan, and the soles of the priests’ feet had been lifted up to the dry ground, the waters of the Jordan returned to their place, and went over all its banks, as before.

The people came up out of the Jordan on the tenth day of the first month, and encamped in Gilgal, on the east border of Jericho. Joshua set up those twelve stones, which they took out of the Jordan, in Gilgal. He spoke to the children of Israel, saying, When your children ask their fathers in time to come, saying, ‘What do these stones mean?’ Then you shall let your children know, saying, ‘Israel came over this Jordan on dry land. For Yahweh your God dried up the waters of the Jordan from before you, until you had crossed over, as Yahweh your God did to the Red Sea, which he dried up from before us, until we had crossed over; that all the peoples of the earth may know that Yahweh’s hand is mighty; that you may fear Yahweh your God forever.’

At Gilgal, the men of Israel were circumcised and God took away the reproach of Egypt from them.

Joshua 5:9-15
Yahweh said to Joshua, Today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you. Therefore the name of that place was called Gilgal, to this day. The children of Israel encamped in Gilgal. They kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the month at evening in the plains of Jericho. They ate unleavened cakes and parched grain of the produce of the land on the next day after the Passover, in the same day.

The manna ceased on the next day, after they had eaten of the produce of the land. The children of Israel didn’t have manna any more; but they ate of the fruit of the land of Canaan that year.

When Joshua was by Jericho, he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, a man stood in front of him with his sword drawn in his hand. Joshua went to him and said to him, Are you for us, or for our enemies? He said, No; but I have come now as commander of Yahweh’s army. Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and worshiped, and asked him, What does my lord say to his servant? The prince of Yahweh’s army said to Joshua, Take off your shoes; for the place on which you stand is holy. Joshua did so.

And at Gilgal, Israel went back to the government of Egypt.

1 Samuel 11:14-15
Then Samuel said to the people, Come! Let’s go to Gilgal, and renew the kingdom there. All the people went to Gilgal; and there they made Saul king before Yahweh in Gilgal. There they offered sacrifices of peace offerings before Yahweh; and there Saul and all the men of Israel rejoiced greatly.

When Saul was crowned king at Gilgal, the people rejoiced. Yahweh, though, would look back at Israel’s wickedness at Gilgal in a far different way.

[1] http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/02/12/colorado-s-pot-revenue-
goes-up-in-smoke.html

The End Time Church: From the Cathedrals to the Catacombs

Chapter 10

Hope and Change!

So what should you do when you have a corrupt government?

This is what some folks did, back in 1776.

The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

Then the authors of that Declaration proceeded to list numerous injuries and usurpations of the king, and they concluded with these.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In view of those injuries and usurpations, the fifty-six men assembled from the  thirteen American colonies of Great Britain declared a change in government.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

Nearly three millennia before that, the men of Israel made a similar move, for a similar reason.

1 Samuel 8:1-3

It happened, when Samuel was old, that he made his sons judges over Israel. Now the name of his firstborn was Joel; and the name of his second, Abijah: they were judges in Beersheba. His sons didn’t walk in his ways, but turned aside after lucre, and took bribes, and perverted justice.

Samuel’s sons were reprobates, which was a very real problem. The people who were supposed to teach others about God’s law were themselves lawless, so Israel demanded a change in government.

That wasn’t the first time that the sons of a judge were corrupt. Eli was the judge right before Samuel, and Samuel was picked to take Eli’s place. Eli’s sons desecrated the position they had as priests.

1 Samuel 2:12-17

Now the sons of Eli were base men; they didn’t know Yahweh.

The custom of the priests with the people was that when any man offered sacrifice, the priest’s servant came, while the flesh was boiling, with a fork of three teeth in his hand; and he struck it into the pan, or kettle, or caldron, or pot; all that the fork brought up the priest took therewith. So they did in Shiloh to all the Israelites who came there.

Yes, before they burnt the fat, the priest’s servant came, and said to the man who sacrificed, “Give meat to roast for the priest; for he will not accept boiled meat from you, but raw.”

If the man said to him, “Let the fat be burned first, and then take as much as your soul desires;” then he would say, “No, but you shall give it to me now; and if not, I will take it by force.”

The sin of the young men was very great before Yahweh; for the men despised the offering of Yahweh.

Hustling a steak may seem like a small thing. With God, though, there is no small disobedience. You are either obedient or disobedient.

A little disobedience always comes from a big ego. No one who is full of the fear of Yahweh purposely disobeys in any little thing at all. People who disobey in ‘little’ things also disobey in ‘big’ things.

As Eli’s sons did. Not only did they hustle steaks; they hustled women.

1 Samuel 2:22-25

Now Eli was very old; and he heard all that his sons did to all Israel, and how that they lay with the women who served at the door of the Tent of Meeting.

He said to them, “Why do you do such things? for I hear of your evil dealings from all this people. No, my sons; for it is no good report that I hear: you make Yahweh’s people disobey. If one man sin against another, God shall judge him; but if a man sin against Yahweh, who shall entreat for him?”

Notwithstanding, they didn’t listen to the voice of their father, because Yahweh intended to kill them.

Eli did not do such sins himself, and Eli did tell his sons to stop; but his great sin was that he did not stop them from defiling God’s service. He was the priest over them. He could have defrocked them and ordered them to go out into the fields to work for a living. He didn’t do that. Instead Eli just indulged their indulgences.

After all, they were his little boys, so he put them above God.

Because of Eli’s sins with his sons, Samuel was called to take his place as judge. Yet to some degree Samuel repeated Eli’s mistake of indulging his sons.

Perhaps Samuel had human nature, too?

Read again —

1 Samuel 8:1-3

It happened, when Samuel was old, that he made his sons judges over Israel. Now the name of his firstborn was Joel; and the name of his second, Abijah: they were judges in Beersheba. His sons didn’t walk in his ways, but turned aside after lucre, and took bribes, and perverted justice.

Samuel sons did not commit the exact same sins as Eli’s sons, but they had the same attitude. And apparently Samuel, like Eli, thought that his little boys couldn’t be that bad.

But they were bad. Just as in the previous generation, those who were to teach God’s laws were worst in breaking God’s laws. Therefore Israel demanded a change in government. Just as the American colonists refused to be under King George, so Israel refused to be under King Yahweh.

However, there was one slight difference in the situations.

King George was corrupt, to whatever degree, and had committed injuries and usurpations, to whatever degree.

King Yahweh had not committed any injuries and usurpations against Israel.

The injuries to Israel came from Samuel’s sons, not from God. God was not causing the problem. People were the problem. But the people blamed God for their evil. That’s like modern hedonists who demand the freedom to practice their own self indulgent lasciviousness, then self-righteously ask, “Why does God allow all this evil?”

Israel forgot what God had done with Eli and his sons to correct that problem. This was Eli’s reward for being an indulgent, non-disciplinarian father.

1 Samuel 2:29-34

Why do you kick at my sacrifice and at my offering, which I have commanded in my habitation, and honor your sons above me, to make yourselves fat with the best of all the offerings of Israel my people?’

“Therefore Yahweh, the God of Israel, says, ‘I said indeed that your house, and the house of your father, should walk before me forever.’ But now Yahweh says, ‘Be it far from me; for those who honor me I will honor, and those who despise me shall be lightly esteemed. Behold, the days come, that I will cut off your arm, and the arm of your father’s house, that there shall not be an old man in your house. You shall see the affliction of my habitation, in all the wealth which I shall give Israel; and there shall not be an old man in your house forever. The man of yours, whom I shall not cut off from my altar, shall consume your eyes, and grieve your heart; and all the increase of your house shall die in the flower of their age.

“This shall be the sign to you, that shall come on your two sons, on Hophni and Phinehas: in one day they shall both die.”

What Israel overlooked is that God takes care of problems, in his own time and in his own way, just as he did with the whole nation of Israel when they disobeyed. Not only did Hophni and Phinehas die in one day, but Eli died that same day, right after hearing that his sons were dead.

1 Samuel 4:10-18

(10)  The Philistines fought, and Israel was defeated, and each man fled to his tent. There was a very great slaughter; for thirty thousand footmen of Israel fell.

(11)  God’s ark was taken; and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were slain.

(12)  A man of Benjamin ran out of the army, and came to Shiloh the same day, with his clothes torn, and with dirt on his head.

(13)  When he came, behold, Eli was sitting on his seat by the road watching; for his heart trembled for God’s ark. When the man came into the city and told about it, all the city cried out.

(14)  When Eli heard the noise of the crying, he said, “What does the noise of this tumult mean?” The man hurried, and came and told Eli.

(15)  Now Eli was ninety-eight years old. His eyes were set, so that he could not see.

(16)  The man said to Eli, “I am he who came out of the army, and I fled today out of the army.” He said, “How did the matter go, my son?”

(17)  He who brought the news answered, “Israel has fled before the Philistines, and there has been also a great slaughter among the people. Your two sons also, Hophni and Phinehas, are dead, and God’s ark has been captured.”

(18)  When he made mention of God’s ark, Eli fell from off his seat backward by the side of the gate; and his neck broke, and he died; for he was an old man, and heavy. He had judged Israel forty years.

Every Israelite was individually responsible before God, and that included Eli and his sons. They had to ultimately answer directly to God. And they all did, all in the same day.

Hebrews 10:30-31

(30)  For we know him who said, “Vengeance belongs to me,” says the Lord, “I will repay.” Again, “The Lord will judge his people.”

(31)  It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

But Israel forgot the lesson of Eli’s sons. They did not believe that God could take care of the problems. So when Samuel’s sons walked the same path as Eli’s sons, Israel demanded a new king. Like the signers of the American Declaration of Independence, and like so many others all down through history, they demanded a change in government.

From The Discovery of Freedom, by Rose Wilder Lane, one of the three founding mothers of libertarianism in America.

The history of every group of men who ever obeyed a living Authority is a history of revolts against all forms of that Government.

Look at any available records of any people, living anywhere at any time in the whole history of the Old World.

They revolt against their King, and replace him by another King; they revolt against him, and set up another King. In time they revolt against monarchy; they set up another kind of living Authority. For generations or centuries, they revolt and change these rulers; then they revolt against that kind of Authority, and set up another kind.

From Nebuchadnezzar to Hitler, history is one long record of revolts against certain living rulers, and revolt against kinds of living Authority…

They replace the priest by a king, the king by an oligarchy, the oligarchs by a despot, the despot by an aristocracy, the aristocrats by a majority, the majority by a tyrant, the tyrant by oligarchs, the oligarchs by aristocrats, the aristocrats by a king, the king by a parliament, the parliament by a dictator, the dictator by a king, the king by—there’s six thousand years of it, in every language.

Every imaginable kind of living Authority has been tried, and is still being tried somewhere on earth now.

All these kinds have been tried, too, in every possible combination; the priest and the king, the king who is the priest, the king who is God, the king and a senate, the king and the senate and a majority, the senate and a tyrant, the tyrant and the aristocrats, a king and a parliament— Try to think of a combination; somewhere it has been tried.

At some point, all peoples demand a change in government. Hope and change!

And after a while, they always hope for a change from their Hope and Change government. Then they demand another government!

All nations under all human governments at some point have decided that their governments are bad. They then replace that imperfect government with another imperfect human government.

Those colonies that became the United States replaced imperfect King George with their own rather unique government. However, after two and a quarter centuries, that government has now led in the worldwide promulgation of evil, more than any government in the history of mankind. Barack Obama’s campaign of Hope and Change has changed America, apparently beyond hope.

Because of the sins of Samuel’s sons, Israel wanted to replace King Yahweh with a human king. That was not like replacing King George. There was a huge error in Israel’s thinking. God did not sin. The people did. So Israel thought they would cure the people problem in their government by putting people in charge of their government instead of God.

Over and over people think that society’s problems will be fixed if they can just get the right government. Hope and change! As Rose Wilder Lane wrote, they have tried every conceivable type of government — monarchy, oligarchy, despotism, nepotism, republicanism and democracy — and they have all wound up in the same quagmire. Even in religious governments, people can hardly conceive of being ruled only by God, so they almost always establish some human government between them and God, and these human governments always follow a certain pattern —

They’re human.

Each type of human government, whether political or religious, begins in anticipation of great things and ends in anger over mundane things, shouts of glee turn to groans of gloom, and the idealism of human theories fades under the realism of human nature.

Deuteronomy 32:1-4

(1)  Give ear, you heavens, and I will speak. Let the earth hear the words of my mouth.

(2)  My doctrine will drop as the rain. My speech will condense as the dew, as the misty rain on the tender grass, as the showers on the herb.

(3)  For I will proclaim Yahweh’s name. Ascribe greatness to our God!

(4)  The Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are just. A God of faithfulness who does no wrong, just and right is he.

The End Time Church: From the Cathedrals to the Catacombs

Chapter 9

Why Israel Wanted Another King

Israel returned to the religion of Egypt. So it’s no surprise that they wanted to return to the government of Egypt.

When Israel returned to the religion of Egypt, though, they came under the curse of Egypt.

(Judges 2:11-15)
The children of Israel did that which was evil in Yahweh’s sight, and served the Baals. They abandoned Yahweh, the God of their fathers, who brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods, of the gods of the peoples who were around them, and bowed themselves down to them; and they provoked Yahweh to anger. They abandoned Yahweh, and served Baal and the Ashtaroth. Yahweh’s anger burned against Israel, and he delivered them into the hands of raiders who plundered them. He sold them into the hands of their enemies all around, so that they could no longer stand before their enemies. Wherever they went out, Yahweh’s hand was against them for evil, as Yahweh had spoken, and as Yahweh had sworn to them; and they were very distressed.

God gave Israel many chances to go the right way, as the book of Judges details. There was no human king to force them to do right, so usually they chose not to.

(Jdg 3:7-9)
The children of Israel did that which was evil in Yahweh’s sight, and forgot Yahweh their God, and served the Baals and the Asheroth. Therefore Yahweh’s anger burned against Israel, and he sold them into the hand of Cushan Rishathaim king of Mesopotamia; and the children of Israel served Cushan Rishathaim eight years. When the children of Israel cried to Yahweh, Yahweh raised up a savior to the children of Israel, who saved them, even Othniel the son of Kenaz, Caleb’s younger brother.

(Jdg 3:11-15)
The land had rest forty years, then Othniel the son of Kenaz died. The children of Israel again did that which was evil in Yahweh’s sight, and Yahweh strengthened Eglon the king of Moab against Israel, because they had done that which was evil in Yahweh’s sight. He gathered the children of Ammon and Amalek to himself; and he went and struck Israel, and they possessed the city of palm trees. The children of Israel served Eglon the king of Moab eighteen years. But when the children of Israel cried to Yahweh, Yahweh raised up a savior for them, Ehud the son of Gera, the Benjamite, a left-handed man.

(Jdg 4:1-4)
The children of Israel again did that which was evil in Yahweh’s sight, when Ehud was dead. Yahweh sold them into the hand of Jabin king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor; the captain of whose army was Sisera, who lived in Harosheth of the Gentiles. The children of Israel cried to Yahweh, for he had nine hundred chariots of iron; and he mightily oppressed the children of Israel for twenty years. Now Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lappidoth, judged Israel at that time.

Barak was the military leader who defeated the Canaanites while Deborah was judge. But after that —

(Jdg 6:1-6)
The children of Israel did that which was evil in Yahweh’s sight: and Yahweh delivered them into the hand of Midian seven years. The hand of Midian prevailed against Israel; and because of Midian the children of Israel made themselves the dens which are in the mountains, and the caves, and the strongholds. So it was, when Israel had sown, that the Midianites, the Amalekites, and the children of the east came up against them. They encamped against them, and destroyed the increase of the earth, until you come to Gaza. They left no sustenance in Israel, and no sheep, ox, or donkey. For they came up with their livestock and their tents. They came in as locusts for multitude. Both they and their camels were without number; and they came into the land to destroy it. Israel was brought very low because of Midian; and the children of Israel cried to Yahweh.

So Gideon was raised up to lead Israel against Midian. Next —

(Jdg 8:33-35)
As soon as Gideon was dead, the children of Israel turned again, and played the prostitute following the Baals, and made Baal Berith their god. The children of Israel didn’t remember Yahweh their God, who had delivered them out of the hand of all their enemies on every side; neither did they show kindness to the house of Jerubbaal, that is, Gideon, according to all the goodness which he had shown to Israel.

Then Israel made Gideon’s son Abimelech king, who was killed after three years.

(Jdg 10:1-7)
After Abimelech, Tola the son of Puah, the son of Dodo, a man of Issachar, arose to save Israel. He lived in Shamir in the hill country of Ephraim. He judged Israel twenty-three years, and died, and was buried in Shamir. After him Jair, the Gileadite arose, and he judged Israel twenty-two years. He had thirty sons who rode on thirty donkey colts, and they had thirty cities, which are called Havvoth Jair to this day, which are in the land of Gilead. Jair died, and was buried in Kamon. The children of Israel again did that which was evil in Yahweh’s sight, and served the Baals, the Ashtaroth, the gods of Syria, the gods of Sidon, the gods of Moab, the gods of the children of Ammon, and the gods of the Philistines. They abandoned Yahweh, and didn’t serve him. Yahweh’s anger burned against Israel, and he sold them into the hand of the Philistines, and into the hand of the children of Ammon.

Jephthah was raised up to lead Israel against the Philistines. But then the Israelites wanted to fight each other.

(Jdg 12:1-4)
The men of Ephraim were gathered together, and passed northward; and they said to Jephthah, Why did you pass over to fight against the children of Ammon, and didn’t call us to go with you? We will burn your house around you with fire! Jephthah said to them, I and my people were at great strife with the children of Ammon; and when I called you, you didn’t save me out of their hand. When I saw that you didn’t save me, I put my life in my hand, and passed over against the children of Ammon, and Yahweh delivered them into my hand. Why then have you come up to me today, to fight against me? Then Jephthah gathered together all the men of Gilead, and fought with Ephraim.

After that civil war, guess what Israel did?

(Jdg 13:1)
The children of Israel again did that which was evil in Yahweh’s sight; and Yahweh delivered them into the hand of the Philistines forty years.

That was Samson’s time, who used his great physical strength to fight the Philistines.

In various other ignominious episodes —

The men of Gibeah in Benjamin raped and killed the Ephraimite’s concubine, and then Israel destroyed the tribe of Benjamin, except for six hundred men.

During the time of Ruth and Naomi, Israel suffered a severe famine, which led Naomi’s husband to leave Israel for Moab, which was not suffering a famine.

The Philistines oppressed Israel when Eli was judge and captured the Ark of the Covenant, much to their discomfort.

So that was Israel’s history during the period of the fourteen judges.

When they were ruled directly by God, Israel constantly got in trouble with God, because they disobeyed God. When they had individual freedom, they lacked individual self control.

That’s an incredible history of self-induced catastrophes, where Israel had repeated wars with other nations, civil war among themselves, and were often oppressed with their crops stolen by foreigners.

The nation was out of control because the people were out of control. Individual freedom requires individual responsibility. A people who do not have a government controlling them must control themselves. Under the very best government, the people were the worst. Maximum freedom led to maximum evil.

So again, there is this huge problem.

How do you control the people?

From the time of the first people, people were always getting out of control. When Cain killed Abel, God told him that —

(Gen 4:7)
… sin crouches at the door. Its desire is for you, but you are to rule over it.

During the time of the judges, Yahweh God their king did not force them to obey him. Most of the time, most of the people did not. As a people they could never make themselves stay on the right road.

So how in the world do you control the people?

The problem is an individual problem.

I sin.

The solution must be an individual solution.

I overcome.

People who are ruled and led directly by God do not need another ruler.

People who seek God with their whole hearts will not seek another king.

What Israel needed was individual repentance, leading to individual obedience. Israel, though, thought that they needed a collective solution to an individual problem.

The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia article “Judges, Period of,” discusses the chaos and calamities of that period. Then ISBE goes on to explain and mimic Israel’s thinking.

4. Need of Central Government:
   A great danger was needed before the people of Israel could be welded into unity and made to see the necessity of a strong central government. This came eventually from the Philistines, who twice defeated the Israelites in battle, captured the ark, and overran a large part of the country (1 Samuel 4 through 6). In the face of such a foe as this it was clear that only a strong and permanent leadership of the whole people would suffice ( 1 Samuel 9:15; 1 Samuel 10:1); and thus the rule of the Judges gave way to the monarchy.

You see, the writer of that article thought exactly like the Israelites. They didn’t need individual obedience. They needed more government! Only a strong and permanent leadership of the whole people would suffice! Thus the rule of the Judges gave way to the monarchy!

By that thinking, what Israel needed was socialism, communism, fascism. If the people couldn’t control themselves, then they needed a strong government to control them. God allowed the people free choice. He did not force them to obey. A human king would force his subjects to obey. Totalitarianism will totally control the people! Then their problems would be over!

Other Bible commentators say the same thing — that Israel needed a king to control the people.

Matthew Henry, on Judges 17:6
There was no king in Israel, no judge or sovereign prince to take cognizance of the setting up of these images (which, doubtless, the country about soon resorted to), and to give orders for the destroying of them, none to convince Micah of his error and to restrain and punish him, to take this disease in time, by which the spreading of the infection might have been happily prevented. Every man did that which was right in his own eyes, and then they soon did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord. When they were without a king to keep good order among them, God’s house was forsaken, his priests were neglected, and all went to ruin among them. See what a mercy government is, and what reason there is that not only prayers and intercessions, but giving of thanks, should be made for kings and all in authority, 1Ti_2:1, 1Ti_2:2. Nothing contributes more, under God, to the support of religion in the world, than the due administration of those two great ordinances, magistracy and ministry.

Notice again that last statement: Nothing contributes more, under God, to the support of religion in the world, than the due administration of those two great ordinances, magistracy and ministry.

We will qualify his statement this way: Nothing contributes more to the support of organized religion in the world than political and religious governments.

Notice, too, Henry’s conclusion. When they were without a king to keep good order among them, God’s house was forsaken, his priests were neglected, and all went to ruin among them. Henry concluded that if Israel had a human king instead of God, then God’s house will not be forsaken, his priests will not be neglected, and there will be no ruin among them.

Powerful conclusion! If Israel just has a human king, then the temple will not be forsaken, the priests will not be perverts, and the nation will not come to ruin.

Bible commentator Adam Clarke reached the same conclusion.

Adam Clarke – Judges 17:6
When a man’s own will, passions, and caprice, are to be made the rule of law, society is in a most perilous and ruinous state. Civil government is of God; and without it the earth must soon be desolated. There was a time when there was no king in England; and that was, in general, a time of scandal to religion, and oppression to men.

Clarke infers that once England got a king, they were free from scandal in religion and oppression of men.

Clarke lived in England for about seventy years, from 1760-62 to 1832. The American colonies revolted against King George during that time — because of the oppression of that king! In 1620, the Pilgrims came to America only and specifically because of the oppression of another British king — King James, he who had the presumptuousness to authorize his Bible for his church. Still earlier, King Henry VIII broke with Rome and set up the king’s church, so that he could do whatever he wanted with his wives. Henry had six: divorced two, executed two, one died after birthing a son, and one outlived Henry — and all this was approved by Henry’s church!

Is there not a hint of scandal there under the kings of England?

Isn’t it interesting how so many people agree that Israel needed to replace God their king with some guy down the road?

England had kings and all other nations had kings in some form. God’s people are not supposed to be like all those other nations. They had human kings. Israel had God. But just about everybody agrees that what Israel needed was to trade Yahweh their king for a human king so they could be like all those other nations.

And that’s exactly what Israel thought.

After three centuries of confusion and chaos, disarray and disunity, attacks and oppression from kings of other nations —

Israel decided they wanted a king, just like those other nations. They told Samuel:

… now make us a king to judge us like all the nations.

Why did Israel want to have a king like all the other nations?

1. Kings look good.

Somehow it’s easier to identify with a big organization than it is with a big God.

2. Unity.

Under the judges, Israel looked like a bunch of cats, each person doing what he wanted. Anarchy! A king or organization creates unity, by simply not allowing disunity. There is comfort in unity, a collective confirmation of correctness, the security of being part of a crowd, even if the crowd is wrong.

However, the king’s unity lasts only until the coup of another king, or a split in the organization. This is a false, temporary unity, by coercion and not conviction, unity not by the spirit, but by the spear.

3. Kings can get more done.

When everyone works together under a king or an organization, it appears that they get more done, because they have to do what the king or organization orders. At the same time, individual effort slackens, because it’s not individual effort. For a while, the Soviet Union looked great, until the people began to starve. And when sermons are given to please an organization, the people also starve.

4. A king can protect the flock.

When Israel asked for a king, they were about to be attacked by Nahash the king of Ammon.

(1 Samuel 12:11,12)
Yahweh sent Jerubbaal, and Bedan, and Jephthah, and Samuel, and delivered you out of the hand of your enemies on every side; and you lived in safety. When you saw that Nahash the king of the children of Ammon came against you, you said to me, No, but a king shall reign over us; when Yahweh your God was your king.

Because of Nahash, Israel wanted a king like Nahash. Samuel pointed out how many times God had protected them, but they said No. They believed that a king could protect God’s people better than God could.

So Israel wanted a king like all the other nations. Such an organization looked good, they were unified, they could get more done, and a king could protect the flock from outside attack.

Most of all, a king could control the people, as ISBE, Matthew Henry and Adam Clarke believed.

Israelites are often looked at as just a bunch of carnal clods. We assume that we could never be as carnal as they were. However, when Israel decided to put a human king in front of God, they thought just like normal people think, and like almost all Bible commentators think.

Could it be that almost all Christians think like that, too?

Israel had an enormous problem during the period of the judges. The problem was that the people were out of control. Their normal human nature was naturally disobedient to the spiritual law of the Creator and inevitably that brought catastrophe. Israel thought that the way to control their people and avoid catastrophe was to have more government control. So they demanded a human king.

What’s more, Israel had a really good excuse for kicking God upstairs.

The End Time Church: from the Cathedrals to the Catacombs

By Dan L. White

Copyright ©2016 by Dan L. White, all rights reserved.

Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible (WEB) which is in the public domain.

Chapter 8

“The King Saw His Coup Coming”

Amazingly, the King of Israel, Yahweh Almighty God himself, said that someday Israel would want another king instead of him.

Yes — God predicted that Israel would want to have a coup where they kicked out their Creator. God saw something in people that he knew would make them want to get rid of Him.

Actually, there was a time even farther back in time when someone else tried to dethrone the King.

Isaiah 14:12-14
How you have fallen from heaven, morning star, son of the dawn! How you are cut down to the ground, who laid the nations low! You said in your heart, “I will ascend into heaven! I will exalt my throne above the stars of God! I will sit on the mountain of assembly, in the far north! I will ascend above the heights of the clouds! I will make myself like the Most High!”

That didn’t work.

Luk 10:18
He [Christ] said to them, “I saw Satan having fallen like lightning from heaven.

God predicted that his chosen people, like Satan, would try to remove him as their direct ruler.

Deu 17:14
When you are come to the land which Yahweh your God gives you, and shall possess it, and shall dwell therein, and shall say, I will set a king over me, like all the nations that are around me;

God prophesied that Israel would want to copy the governments of “all the nations.”

Think about that — “all the nations.”

All nations on earth had one type of government. Israel had another type of government. This verse, Deuteronomy 17:14, by itself shows that God purposely meant for his people not to have a government like all the other peoples.

All other people followed a government of men. God’s people followed only him. God did not give them another king between him and them. With him, they did not need another king. God knew what he was doing when he set Israel up in the Holy Land. All this was part of a well designed plan. His people were not to be like other nations at all, in the way they lived or in the government they followed.

However, God also knew that people would not like that type of government, where they were directly under him, with maximum freedom and responsibility before their Creator.

Remember that people in all parts of the world had oppressive governments. Israel was the only people who did not. In all those kingdoms, or shiekdoms, or tribal councils, or politburos, the people served the government. The government never served the people.

And it was always thought that was the right way!

Government über alles!

Germans fought to the end in Berlin for Hitler when they had no chance of winning because they thought that was the honorable thing to do. They were not dedicated to the principle of individually doing what was right. They were dedicated to the principle that the state was right, regardless, and that the individual was to sacrifice himself for the state.

So they did!

At Napoleon’s last battle at Waterloo in 1815, some of the French army was surrounded by the Prussian army under Blücher. Those French soldiers faced certain death, so Blücher called a truce and offered them an honorable surrender. The doomed French soldiers refused and went ahead and fought a hopeless battle to the death because they were serving the emperor and the state, which was one and the same, just a little, paunchy, balding guy.

The state or the government — any government — is not just an abstract entity. It’s always just other people. Those people are elitist rulers who live on the backs of the population, like Hitler and his cronies, who sacrificed Germany for their own vain ambitions; or Napoleon, who led thousands of his fellow Frenchmen to their deaths, while they thought he was the grandest François ever; or Stalin or Chairman Mao, who preached dedication to the Communist government because they were the government.

People are taught to obey the government because the government is right. Not because the government is doing right, but because the government itself is right.

That puts the government in place of God!

Only God sets right and wrong. He did that with his Ten Commandments.

Romans 3:20, King James
…for by the law is the knowledge of sin.

1 John 3:4
…sin is the transgression of the law.

When people — remember that all human governments are people — say that what they do is right regardless of what they do, they are a law unto themselves. They are acting as God, setting right and wrong.

All governments — that is, the people who run all human governments — are sometimes right and sometimes wrong. No government, whether political or religious, stands in the place of God, because no people are like God. They’re all just people!

Governments preach that people exist for the government, instead of the government existing for the people, because those in government want to be served. Government should serve the people. Human governments, though, of all types, always turn that around and say the people should serve the government.

Which is to say, people should serve those people who run the government.

Human governments always become oppressive, with people serving the government instead of government serving the people. Yet the people always want to return to that type of government!

And God knew, way ahead of time, that there would come a time when Israel would want to have the type of oppressive government that all other nations had.

Oppressive —

Remember how Egypt oppressed Israel? They turned them into slaves.

Exodus 1:8-14
Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who didn’t know Joseph. He said to his people, “Behold, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we. Come, let us deal wisely with them, lest they multiply, and it happen that when any war breaks out, they also join themselves to our enemies, and fight against us, and escape out of the land.”

Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with their burdens. They built storage cities for Pharaoh: Pithom and Raamses. But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and the more they spread out. They were grieved because of the children of Israel.

The Egyptians ruthlessly made the children of Israel serve, and they made their lives bitter with hard service, in mortar and in brick, and in all kinds of service in the field, all their service, in which they ruthlessly made them serve.

And you will recall that when Moses told Pharaoh to let Israel go, then the Egyptians really got tough on them, making them collect their own straw for the bricks but still make the same number of bricks.

Oppressive!

Yet once Israel escaped the slavery of Egypt, the hardheaded Hebrews kept complaining about how good they had it back in Egypt!

Exodus 16:1-3
They took their journey from Elim, and all the congregation of the children of Israel came to the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after their departing out of the land of Egypt.

The whole congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron in the wilderness; and the children of Israel said to them, “We wish that we had died by the hand of Yahweh in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the meat pots, when we ate our fill of bread, for you have brought us out into this wilderness, to kill this whole assembly with hunger.”

Numbers 11:4-6
The mixed multitude that was among them lusted exceedingly: and the children of Israel also wept again, and said, “Who will give us flesh to eat? We remember the fish, which we ate in Egypt for nothing; the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlic; but now we have lost our appetite. There is nothing at all except this manna to look at.”

Numbers 14:1-4
All the congregation lifted up their voice, and cried; and the people wept that night. All the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron. The whole congregation said to them, “We wish that we had died in the land of Egypt, or that we had died in this wilderness! Why does Yahweh bring us to this land, to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will be captured or killed! Wouldn’t it be better for us to return into Egypt?”

They said one to another, “Let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt.”

Numbers 20:1-5
The children of Israel, even the whole congregation, came into the wilderness of Zin in the first month. The people stayed in Kadesh. Miriam died there, and was buried there.

There was no water for the congregation; and they assembled themselves together against Moses and against Aaron.

The people quarreled with Moses, and spoke, saying, “We wish that we had died when our brothers died before Yahweh! Why have you brought Yahweh’s assembly into this wilderness, that we should die there, we and our animals? Why have you made us to come up out of Egypt, to bring us in to this evil place? It is no place of seed, or of figs, or of vines, or of pomegranates; neither is there any water to drink.”

Over and over Israel wanted to go back to what Egypt was — the safety of enslavement.

No liberty and no responsibility.

God foresaw that free Israel, who wanted to go back to physical Egypt, would also want to return to the government of Egypt, ruled by a human king instead of God himself.

Even in the wilderness, Israel wanted to make themselves another king, as we just read.

“Let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt.”

In the same way, God saw that Israel would reject the maximum freedom and responsibility of standing only before God for the comfort, convenience and conspicuity of human government.

Comfort, convenience and conspicuity?

Contrast government schools with homeschooling.

Government schools are comfortable. The parent doesn’t have to do a thing, and his child will receive a “quality education.”

Government schools are convenient. They will pick your child up at your door, from preschool through young adulthood, keep him all day for almost all year, perhaps feed him breakfast and lunch and give him homework to keep him busy at home.

Government schools are conspicuous. Big expensive institutions sprawl and cluster in every town all across the land. To be part of that is to be conspicuously acceptable.

In return for that security, parents lose the liberty of where to teach the child, how to teach the child, what to teach the child, and ultimately often lose the child himself.

On the other hand. Homeschool parents have to do everything. They can never be comfortable. There is always more to do. Homeschooling is inconvenient. The parent has to pay for everything and has to make time, hours and days and weeks and months and years of time, for the child. Homeschooling is not conspicuous. Most of the time it is two parents at home with their children. Homeschool parents, though, take personal responsibility for their children, for teaching them, for protecting them, for loving them.

That is the difference between the safety of enslavement and the liberty of individual responsibility. And in education, almost every American chooses the safety of enslavement over the liberty of individual responsibility. That has inevitably led to America choosing the safety of enslavement in socialism in all other areas of life, not just education.

Again — Israel wanted the safety of enslavement. Can you see why? They did not want to do their own thinking and did not want to be individually responsible before God, just like modern government school parents. They wanted a government running their lives.

Reading from Deu 17:14 -17 again:
When you are come to the land which Yahweh your God gives you, and shall possess it, and shall dwell therein, and shall say, I will set a king over me, like all the nations that are around me; you shall surely set him king over yourselves, whom Yahweh your God shall choose: one from among your brothers you shall set king over you; you may not put a foreigner over you, who is not your brother.

Notice that God would allow Israel the freedom to reject him! They had free choice as to their government. But once they had human kings, they were told to follow certain principles of governing.

Only he shall not multiply horses to himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt, to the end that he may multiply horses; because Yahweh has said to you, You shall henceforth return no more that way. Neither shall he multiply wives to himself, that his heart not turn away: neither shall he greatly multiply to himself silver and gold.

So this human, fleshly king was not to multiply to himself wives, horses, silver and gold, etc.

Hey — It’s almost as if God had some doubts about this human king thing!

Israel’s human king was not to be self-serving.

Good luck with that, Israel!

So God predicted that Israel, with the freedom to live directly under God, would someday want to live indirectly under God, and under another government besides just him.

He foretold that Israel would do much the same that Satan tried to do — dethrone God.

How did he know that?

Okay, he is God. Good point.

But he must have known something about people that would make all people, even the chosen people from Abraham, never want to follow God directly and always want to put somebody else between him and them.

What God knew is this.

Rom 8:7
Because the carnal mind is enmity against God…

John Gill’s Bible commentary explains this enmity against God.

This enmity is universal, it is in all men in unregeneracy, either direct or indirect, hidden or more open; it is undeserved; it is natural and deeply rooted in the mind, and irreconcilable without the power and grace of God. It shows itself in an estrangedness from God; in holding friendship with the world, in harbouring the professed enemies of God, in living under the government of sin and Satan; in hating what God loves, and in loving what God hates; in omitting what God commands, and committing what he forbids; it manifests itself in their language, and throughout the whole of their conversations.

Human nature hates God. Human nature distrusts God. Human nature wants to put itself first, and not put God first. And human nature does not want to admit any of that.

Therefore human nature naturally wants to reject God as personal ruler. And God simply saw that the natural aversion and distrust that people, even his chosen people, have toward him would cause them to do this —

Deu 17:14
When you are come to the land which Yahweh your God gives you, and shall possess it, and shall dwell therein, and shall say, I will set a king over me, like all the nations that are around me;

Look at this. After the Flood, everybody knew that God had cursed and cleansed the earth. Everybody knew that God did not then set up human kings. Yet “all the other nations” wound up doing just that. None were content to follow God directly.

Then God picked the most obedient man on earth, Abraham, and from him made a nation, and Yahweh himself was their king. Yet those chosen people, too, like all the other nations, simply did not want to follow God alone.

Isn’t that amazing, astounding, and alarming?

There is something in me and you that does not want to stand directly before Him. This will naturally show itself in the way we treat other people, in the education we choose for our children, and in the political and ecclesiastical governments that we put in front of God.

Here is what God saw when he predicted Israel would want to dethrone him.

Your natural human nature naturally wants to reject God as the direct ruler of your life.

The End Time Church: from the Cathedrals to the Catacombs

By Dan L. White

Copyright ©2016 by Dan L. White, all rights reserved.

Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible (WEB) which is in the public domain.

Chapter 7

“No King in Israel”

Israel couldn’t control themselves enough to stay out of trouble.

Have you ever known anyone like that?

How about yourself?

After Moses and Joshua, the period of the judges lasted over three centuries. For much of that time, Israel was either oppressed by foreign kings or fighting with themselves. Their times of blessings and peace were limited because their obedience was limited. They followed their own hearts, instead of God’s heart.

(Judges 2:19)
“they didn’t cease from their doings, nor from their stubborn way…

They couldn’t control themselves enough to stay out of trouble.

So how could Israel stay out of trouble? How do you control the people?

Maybe Israel’s problem was that they didn’t have a strong king to control them.

Four times the book of Judges mentions that in those days there was no king in Israel.

The first two times involved the idolatry of a self appointed Levite priest. Levites were the tribe chosen to serve at the Tabernacle and later the Temple, but not all Levites were priests. Some had one job and some had another.

(Jdg 17:1-3)
There was a man of the hill country of Ephraim, whose name was Micah. He said to his mother, “The eleven hundred pieces of silver that were taken from you, about which you uttered a curse, and also spoke it in my ears, behold, the silver is with me. I took it.”

His mother said, “May Yahweh bless my son!”

He restored the eleven hundred pieces of silver to his mother, then his mother said, “I most certainly dedicate the silver to Yahweh from my hand for my son, to make a carved image and a molten image. Now therefore I will restore it to you.”

This seems like a weird family. First, the son stole a jackpot from his mother. Second, when he gave it back she praised him for returning it, but didn’t mention his thievery at all. Third, when she got the silver back, she wasted it by turning it into an idol.

All that is kinda different.

As happened before with Aaron and Gideon, this woman used her rogue religion to worship the true God. She dedicated the silver images to Yahweh. She intended for her religion to bring her closer to God, when it got between her and God.

(Jdg 17:4-5)
When he restored the money to his mother, his mother took two hundred pieces of silver, and gave them to a silversmith, who made a carved image and a molten image out of it. It was in the house of Micah. The man Micah had a house of gods, and he made an ephod, and teraphim, and consecrated one of his sons, who became his priest.

They really got religious, with multiple idols, a priestly ephod garment like the high priest wore when he communicated with Yahweh, and one son — ordained by them — as priest.

And they had the individual freedom to do all that. Again, they did not do those blasphemous things because they were trying to be carnal. They did them because they were so carnal. They were out of control. There was no king to control them, and left to themselves they went wild, without meaning to.

(Jdg 17:6)
In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did that which was right in his own eyes.

This statement is often taken to mean that Israel’s problem was that they didn’t have a king. As we have seen, Israel did have a king.

Psalm 149:2
Let Israel rejoice in him who made them. Let the children of Zion be joyful in their King.

He was the only king they had, and Yahweh the King purposely set them up that way. But Yahweh their king gave the people the individual freedom to obey or disobey, to be blessed or cursed, to live or die.

So when it says “there was no king in Israel,” it cannot mean that their problem was they didn’t have a king at all and that what they needed to control themselves was a human king.

What Israel did have was the individual freedom to do what they wanted. No human king forced them to do his way. Each person chose his own way, to do whatever was right in his own eyes, and followed his own heart. And that heart led these Israelites to set up their own religion, with religious paraphernalia and their own self made priest.

However, then they found a far better alternative for priest — an actual Levite. They knew that Levites were the one tribe specially set apart to be servants to Yahweh at the Tabernacle. Priests had to be Levites, but most Levites were not priests. And this one Levite, who just happened by, was a Lollapalooza Levite.

Judges 17:7-10
There was a young man out of Bethlehem Judah, of the family of Judah, who was a Levite; and he lived there. The man departed out of the city, out of Bethlehem Judah, to live where he could find a place, and he came to the hill country of Ephraim to the house of Micah, as he traveled.

Micah said to him, “Where did you come from?” He said to him, “I am a Levite of Bethlehem Judah, and I am looking for a place to live.”

Micah said to him, “Dwell with me, and be to me a father and a priest, and I will give you ten pieces of silver per year, a suit of clothing, and your food.”

So the Levite went in.

This Levite was not a priest of Yahweh, and it is not a good sign that he was just wandering around the country, looking for something to do. So when he was offered the opportunity to be a priest, he took it. The pay was good. (Later he became a televangelist.)

(Jdg 17:10-13)
The Levite was content to dwell with the man; and the young man was to him as one of his sons. Micah consecrated the Levite, and the young man became his priest, and was in the house of Micah.

Then Micah said, “Now know I that Yahweh will do good to me, since I have a Levite to my priest.”

With all that religion, Micah was certain that he was going to heaven, so to speak! His intentions were good. He meant for his actions to bring him closer to God.

However, Micah ignored what God actually said. Micah’s religion was based on what he wanted to do, instead of doing what God wanted. Therefore his religion did not bring him closer to God, but only got between him and God.

Any number multiplied by zero equals zero. Good intentions from a bad heart equals bad actions. Good intentions are good only if they lead to obedience to God’s word.

At the beginning of the next chapter, still in the middle of the story of the idolatrous priest, the phrase “no king in Israel” occurs again.

(Jdg 18:1)
In those days there was no king in Israel: and in those days the tribe of the Danites sought them an inheritance to dwell in; for to that day their inheritance had not fallen to them among the tribes of Israel.

This was early in the history of Israel in the Holy Land, not that long after Joshua’s time. Dan still did not have their land, so to get Yahweh on their side, they stole the counterfeit priest.

(Jdg 18:2-6)
The children of Dan sent of their family five men from their whole number, men of valor, from Zorah, and from Eshtaol, to spy out the land, and to search it; and they said to them, Go, search the land. They came to the hill country of Ephraim, to the house of Micah, and lodged there.

When they were by the house of Micah, they knew the voice of the young man the Levite; and they turned aside there, and said to him, Who brought you here? and what do you in this place? and what do you have here?

He said to them, Thus and thus has Micah dealt with me, and he has hired me, and I am become his priest.

They said to him, Ask counsel, please, of God, that we may know whether our way which we go shall be prosperous.

The priest said to them, Go in peace: before Yahweh is your way wherein you go.

All of this is just a bunch of baloney! This ‘priest’ was not a priest at all. He had no direct access to God. He only had some religious accouterments, but for the Danites that was good enough!

So then they stole the priest who stole the priesthood.

(Jdg 18:13-20)
They passed there to the hill country of Ephraim, and came to the house of Micah. Then the five men who went to spy out the country of Laish answered, and said to their brothers, “Do you know that there is in these houses an ephod, and teraphim, and an engraved image, and a molten image? Now therefore consider what you have to do.”

They turned aside there, and came to the house of the young man the Levite, even to the house of Micah, and asked him of his welfare. The six hundred men girt with their weapons of war, who were of the children of Dan, stood by the entrance of the gate. The five men who went to spy out the land went up, and came in there, and took the engraved image, and the ephod, and the teraphim, and the molten image: and the priest stood by the entrance of the gate with the six hundred men girt with weapons of war.

When these went into Micah’s house, and fetched the engraved image, the ephod, and the teraphim, and the molten image, the priest said to them, “What are you doing?”

They said to him, “Hold your peace, put your hand on your mouth, and go with us, and be to us a father and a priest. Is it better for you to be priest to the house of one man, or to be priest to a tribe and a family in Israel?”

Since the priest had taken his position because of the pay, when he was offered a better position, he took it.

The priest’s heart was glad, and he took the ephod, and the teraphim, and the engraved image, and went in the midst of the people.

Notice that this ‘priest’ is stealing Micah’s stuff!

All this religious stuff was a total farce. It was worse than nothing, because instead of getting people closer to God, all the religious garb actually hid God from them. But this religion looked so good — as religion usually does! — that those Israelites were about to fight each other over it!

(Jdg 18:21-31)
So they turned and departed, and put the little ones and the livestock and the goods before them. When they were a good way from the house of Micah, the men who were in the houses near to Micah’s house were gathered together, and overtook the children of Dan. They cried to the children of Dan. They turned their faces, and said to Micah, “What ails you, that you come with such a company?”

He said, “You have taken away my gods which I made, and the priest, and have gone away, and what more do I have? How then do you say to me, ‘What ails you?’”

The children of Dan said to him, “Don’t let your voice be heard among us, lest angry fellows fall on you, and you lose your life, with the lives of your household.”

The children of Dan went their way: and when Micah saw that they were too strong for him, he turned and went back to his house.

They took that which Micah had made, and the priest whom he had, and came to Laish, to a people quiet and secure, and struck them with the edge of the sword; and they burnt the city with fire. There was no deliverer, because it was far from Sidon, and they had no dealings with any man; and it was in the valley that lies by Beth Rehob. They built the city, and lived therein. They called the name of the city Dan, after the name of Dan their father, who was born to Israel: however the name of the city was Laish at the first.

The children of Dan set up for themselves the engraved image: and Jonathan, the son of Gershom, the son of Moses, he and his sons were priests to the tribe of the Danites until the day of the captivity of the land. So they set them up Micah’s engraved image which he made, all the time that God’s house was in Shiloh.

With this move, Dan then had their own religion, stolen from Micah, who had stolen his mother’s silver to start this whole charade. But this religious system linked directly to Moses!

The problem is —

Big Problem! —

The priesthood was through Aaron, not Moses. Moses was a great guy, and he did have direct access to God, but Moses descendants were not priests. That was not the way God set it up! Jonathan, the son of Gershom, the son of Moses had no more right to be a priest than did Yogi Berra, but it sure looked good.

So the first two instances of ‘no king in Israel’ are in that apostate priest example. The people had free choice as to what they would do. No king limited their personal freedom. Their actions were solely their own responsibility. No one forced them to obey.

So they didn’t.

The other two mentions of ‘no king in Israel’ involved the great sin of Gibeah of Benjamin, when they wanted to rape a male visitor, and did rape and murder his concubine. The tribe of Benjamin was almost wiped out by the other tribes of Israel because of their perversion. That whole story begins with this statement:

(Jdg 19:1)
It happened in those days, when there was no king in Israel, that there was a certain Levite sojourning on the farther side of the hill country of Ephraim, who took to him a concubine out of Bethlehem Judah.

Then after the tribe of Benjamin was nearly exterminated, except for 600 men, the story ends with this.

(Jdg 21:25)
In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes.

There was no human king, with his wealth and taxes and burdensome bureaucracy and standing army. So after the war with Benjamin, the army disappeared. Everybody went back home.

(Jdg 21:24)
The children of Israel departed from there at that time, every man to his tribe and to his family, and they each went out from there to his own inheritance.

Matthew Henry Commentary: Though God was their King, every man would be his own master, as if there was no king.

Every man would be his own master! But that requires every man to somehow master himself!

With the freedom and responsibility of individual obedience without government oppression, Israel failed to control their human natures. The people of Gibeah were about as evil as people can get, repeating the sins of Sodom. Under the government of God, they had the morals of Gaymorrah. During the period of the judges, each man did that which was right in his own eyes — instead of doing what was right in God’s eyes.

(Pro 3:5)
Trust in Yahweh with all your heart, and don’t lean on your own understanding.

(Isa 5:21)
Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight!

They did what was right in their own eyes, and what was right in their own eyes was wrong, and no king forced them to do right. God let them choose what they would do and they chose evil.

(Ecc 8:11)
Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.

The big point of “no king in Israel” is that when individuals had the personal freedom to do what they wanted, they wanted to do the wrong thing.

They did not intend to do wrong, but without seeking God with their whole hearts, they could not help but do wrong because of their own hearts. Their evil was not just something they did. Their evil was who they were. Astoundingly, this was the family of Abraham, the Father of the Faithful, yet they were inherently evil.

Where does that leave the rest of us?

So how do you control the people?

Israel couldn’t control themselves enough to stay out of trouble. Those who would be kings themselves often say that Israel needed a human king to control the people. Many people agree. They read those four verses with those four words “no king in Israel” and think that Israel’s problem was that they needed a human king.

And that’s exactly what carnal Israel thought.