kingship in the old testament

In the next post we will look at how God’s kingdom develops in the Old Testament, beginning with Abraham, moving on to kingship in Israel, and ending with the exile of the northern and southern kingdoms. He is given control over all plant life (1:29) and again over every animal on the earth (1:30). In the New Testament the kingship theme is carried forward and its ambiguities resolved. To do this requires the late dating of explicit statements of Yahweh's kingship in texts such as Exodus 15:18; Numbers 23:21; Deuteronomy33:5; Judges 8:23; and 1 Samuel 8:7; 10:19; 12:12. The aim of this paper is to explore the concept of kingship in the Ancient Near Eastern civilizations, understand the implications of the office and the function of kings before to see its application to the time of the Old Testament world. Chronology of the Old Testament Kings The following table provides a harmony of the chronologies of the kings of Israel and Judah following the kingdom dividing after Solomon’s death. This is seen most clearly in the commission that God gives to Adam in Genesis 1:26-30 (and repeated in Gen 2:15-17): Kingship is at the heart of the commission that God gives to Adam: he is granted dominion over all animal life on the earth (1:26); he is told to have many children in order to subdue the earth and take dominion over it (1:28). king) designate the person who holds supreme authority over a nation or city. First, God is king over all of creation. of Much of 1-2 Samuel, 1-2 Kings, and 1-2 Chronicles describes matters pertaining to the lives and reigns of these kings. Salem Media Group. The Next 500 Years: 2017 National Conference, The Battle for the Beginning: Creation, Evolution and the Bible, God in Our Midst: The Tabernacle and Our Relationship with God, Naming Ligonier the Beneficiary of a Bank or Investment Account, Gifts That Provide Income and Tax Benefits, The Kingdom of God in the Old Testament: From Abraham to Israel, The Kingdom of God in the Old Testament: The Prophetic Hope, The Kingdom of God in the Old Testament: Kingship and Creation. Parallels in literary structure between the Sinai covenant and certain international treaties drawn up by the kings of the Hittite Empire in the fourteenth century b.c. The mission, passion and purpose of Ligonier Ministries is to proclaim the holiness of God Arthur E. Cundall, “Sacral Kingship―The Old Testament Background,” Vox Evangelica 6 (1969): 31-41. 19:16) is an essential aspect of the gospel we believe. Kingship in Israel and other ancient Near Eastern societies is a major focus of modern scholarship and has produced fascinating results. For the most part the history of the kings of Israel and Judah is a history of failure to live up to the covenantal ideal. In fact, God built human kingship into creation itself. 11, 12), but in contrast to Saul when Nathan, the prophet, confronted him, he repented and sought the Lord's forgiveness ( 2 Sam 12:13 ; Psalm 51 ). Jesus is the one who fulfilled the royal messianic promises of the Old Testament. It is part of my biblical-theological analysis of the theology of War in the Bible.You can find my initial summary of the OT theology of war here.. King, Kingship The terms "king" and "kingship" are common biblical words, occurring over 2, 500 times in the Old Testament and 275 times in the New Testament. But more important, there is a strong and conspicuous emphasis on the kingship of God, the "Great King" who rules over his people ( Exod 15:18 ; Deut 33:5 ; 1 Sam 8:7 ; 12:12 ; 1 Chron 17:14 ; 28:5 ; Psalm 114:2 ). He is to spread God’s own dominion outside the boundaries of the ordered garden of Eden so that it branches out to the farthest reaches of creation. Category: Articles. For these scholars the establishment of the monarchy represented a return to the social model of the old Bronze Age paganism of the Canaanites, and a rejection of religious foundations derived from the Mosaic formulations of the Sinai covenant. Sacred kingship, religious and political concept by which a ruler is seen as an incarnation, manifestation, mediator, or agent of the sacred or holy (the transcendent or supernatural realm). Simply put, God is the sovereign ruler of the universe. How was Israel to understand the relationship between their obligation to Yahweh, the divine King, on the one hand, and their obligation to the human king on the other? The Greek word translated "Christ" in our English versions of the Bible is a translation of the Hebrew term for Messiah (the anointed one). As the profile of this king slowly develops it is clear that he will come as the fulfillment of the promise of an eternal dynasty to David ( 2 Sam 7 ; 23:1-7 ; Psalm 89 ; 132:11-12 ; Isa 55:3-5 ). In Psalm 2, this Sonship is related strongly to the Messiah’s Kingship. 1–24) His rise to power was ordained by God, and his life showed lots of promise during the early years of his rule as king. king) and basileus [basileuv"](Gk. Saul of the Old Testament, King. David was an imperfect but true representative of the ideal of the covenantal king. For usage information, please read the Baker Book House Copyright Statement. Kingship was subordinated to covenant.Israel's king was to be a covenantal king. In your hand are power and might, so that none is able to withstand you.” Or consider King Hezekiah’s exultation in Isaiah 37:16: “O Lord of hosts, God of Israel, enthroned above the cherubim, you are the God, you alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; you have made heaven and earth.” See also Psalms 93:1-2; 95:3-6; 96:10; 104; 136:1-9. In 1 Samuel 12 the prophet Samuel rebukes Israel for desiring a king that would be just like the greedy, self-serving kings of the nations surrounding Israel. The elders of Israel asked Samuel to give them a "king like the nations"around them ( 1 Sam8:20a ). God had even provided for it in antecedent revelation. In fact, significant sections of the writings of the prophets and poets also involve the actions of the various kings of Israel and Judah. The … Then Samuel sent all the people away, each to his home. In Jesus the duality of sovereigns present in the Old Testament period is eliminated. 2 Timothy 2:12. The Old Testament spells this out in two main ways. David is thus termed a "man after God's own heart" ( 1 Sam 13:14 ; Acts 13:22 ), and the writer of Kings makes his reign the standard by which to assess the reigns of subsequent kings. Because of this the Lord rejected him from being king ( 1 Sam 15:23 ), and sent Samuel to annoint David in his place (1 Sam. It is important to understand the way in which the Old Testament presents the relationship between divine and human kingship. There are no records of his life or reign outside the Bible — odd, if he was that important. He disobeyed the word of the Lord and rebelled against the Lord (1 Sam. Article Images Copyright © 2020 Getty Images unless otherwise indicated. David’s Successors: Kingship in the Old Testamentargues for a new reading of kingship in the Old Testament. King Saul was Israel’s first king and monarch. As Psalm 10:16 says: “The LORD is king forever and ever; the nations perish from his land.” Or as King Jehoshaphat confesses in 2 Chronicles 20:6: “O Lord, God of our fathers, are you not God in heaven? He will not only be a descendant of David, but is also identified with deity ( Isa 7:14 ; 9:6-7 ; Jer 23:5-6 ; Ezek 36:24-28 ).During his reign wars will cease and peace and justice will be established in the earth ( Isa 2:1-5 ; 11:1-10 ; Amos 9:11-15 ).This future king came to be known as the "Messiah" (in Hebrew, "the anointed one") and longing for his appearance came to be known as messianic expectation. Your gift enables our worldwide outreach. All of this suggests, very clearly, that Israel recognized Yahweh as her Great King long before kingship was established in Jerusalem. To do this also denies the close relationship that exists between the establishment of the Sinai covenant and the acknowledgment of Yahweh's kingship over Israel. Samuel proclaimed to the people the rights of kingship. Solomon was born in Jerusalem, the second born child of David and his wife Bathsheba, widow of Uriah the Hittite. The longest reigning king of the Kingdom of Israel was Jeroboam II, who ruled for 41 years.The shortest was Zimri, who ruled only 7 days.In the Kingdom of Judah, King Manasseh ruled the longest with 55 years. Proud member 16). The prophets (before, during, and after the exile), however, make it clear that even with the exile God would not, and did not, abandon His intention to … HISTORY OF THE ISRAELITE KINGDOMS David is revered as the most powerful and important king of Israel during biblical times. in the south. In this sense, God reigns over His creation in and through Adam. Late in his reign he sinned again in taking the census of his fighting men, but again he sought theLord's forgiveness ( 2Sam 24 ). After Solomon's death the kingdom divided into northern (Israel) and southern (Judah) segments. 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