People’s King vs YHVH’s King
In Deuteronomy 17:15 – 20, Moses tells the Children of Israel the qualifications they should look for in a king. He foreshadows the motive behind Israel’s desire to have a king.
“I will set a king over myself, like all the nations that are around me”
They will choose a king, but YHVH will choose.
The king must be one of the brethren
The king shall not be a foreign man, who is not your brother.
The king shall not have too many horses, so that he will not return the people to Egypt in order to increase horses.
The king shall not have too many wives, so that his heart not turn astray;
The king shall not greatly increase silver and gold for himself
When he sits on the throne, he shall write for himself two copies of the Torah in a book, from before the Kohanim, the Levites. It shall be with him and he shall read from it all the days of his life. To prolong years over his kingdom, he and his sons amid Israel
In 1 Samuel 8:5-22 the children of Israel ask Samuel to appoint them a king. They wanted to be like the other nations to have a king. Samuel tries to forewarn the people as YHVH says, they have rejected Him and remind them of the protocol of a King. Samuel says this to them:
The king will take away your sons and place them in his chariots and calvary and they will run before his chariot.
He will appoint captains of 1000s and 50s to plow his furrow, reap his harvest, and produce implements of battle and furnings of his chariot
Take daughters and turn them into perfumers, cooks, bakers.
Confiscate best fields, vineyards, olive trees, and give to his servants
Take 1/10 of your grain and vines and give to his officers, servants
Take your servants, maidservants, young men, donkeys and press them into his service
Take 1/10 of sheep and you will be his slave
The children of Israel say, “Our king will judge us, and go forth before us, and fight our wars!”
Now YHVH’s king for Israel, 1 Sam 13:14, “A man after His own heart”.
YHVH removes the people’s king, 1 Sam 15:22-23, “Behold! – to obey is better than a choice offering, to be attentive than the fat of rams. For rebelliousness is like the sin of sorcery and verbosity is like the iniquity of idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of God, He has rejected you as king!”
YHVH warns us of the appearance of a man, and to not choose a king based on his outward appearance.
1 Samuel 16:7, “…Do not look at his appearance or at his tall stature, for I have rejected him. For it is not as man sees – man sees what his eyes behold, but YHVH sees into the heart.”
With our pending elections, I see the people choosing a people king and still rejecting YHVH as King over this nation.