{"id":57301,"date":"2019-06-12T23:14:21","date_gmt":"2019-06-12T20:14:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=57301"},"modified":"2023-01-03T11:41:30","modified_gmt":"2023-01-03T09:41:30","slug":"the-kingly-compromise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-kingly-compromise\/","title":{"rendered":"The Kingly Compromise?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"entry-content\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[444,835,458],"acf":{"old_id":"57301","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":56490,"related_cahpter":"240","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"If God is King - then who is that person they want on the throne?","content":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Notwithstanding military success against the Philistines and the secure leadership of Samuel (see ch. 6), the people clamor for a king. Most telling is their statement, \u201cWe must have a king over us, so that we may be like all the other nations\u201d (vv. 19-20). <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The expression \u201clike all the other nations\u201d reflects the reality of the ancient Near East. \u00a0All polities, large and small, from as large as Egypt (with the Pharaoh as king) to as small as Canaanite city-states (whose rulers used the title <\/span><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">melek<\/span><\/em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u2018king\u2019), were ruled by a king \u2013 but not Israel. Evidence for kings of Canaanite city-states is forthcoming from the Amarna letters (a collection of documents from the 14th century B.C.E.) and from the Bible itself. \u00a0See, for example, Genesis 14, where each of the five cities of the Dead Sea region has its own king; Gen 20:2, for Abimelech, king of Gerar; Josh 2:2-3 for the king of Jericho; and most revealingly the list of 31 kings, one for each city-state in Joshua 12:9-24.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This lack of a human king in Israel (until this point) has to do with the fundamental theological difference between Israel and its neighbors. In the ancient Near East, generally speaking, the gods operated in a separate realm, manifested in nature, at a distance from humanity. \u00a0In the Bible, the covenant concept creates a close relationship between Yhwh and His people Israel. As such, YHWH serves as king of the people, for which see the following long list of passages: Num 23:21; Deut 33:5; Isa 6:5, 33:22, 41:21, 43:15, 44:6; Jer 8:19, 10:7, 10, 46:18, 48:15, 51:57; Zeph 3:15; Zech 14:9, 16, 17; Mal 1:14; Ps 5:3, 10:16, 24:7, 8, 9, 10 (2x), 29:10, 47:3, 7, 8, 48:3, 68:25, 74:12, 84:4, 95:3, 98:6, 99:4, 145:1, 149:2. \u00a0Many of these passages were incorporated into later Jewish liturgy, including Zech 14:9 as the closing line of the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u02bfAlenu<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> prayer, Psalm 24 for the return of the Torah to the Ark on festival days, and Psalm 145 recited daily.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Samuel\u2019s opposition to the establishment of a human king was based on this core theological principle: only God could be king. In the end, though, the will of the people won the day. The monarchy was established (see ch. 9 for the introduction of Saul), and for the next 400-plus years the historical narrative of the Bible revolves mainly on the succession of kings, from Saul, David, and Solomon, down to the last king, Zedekiah, in 586 B.C.E. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As the long list of verses cited above demonstrates, however, at the same time, the poets and prophets of Israel continued to invoke the older theology of God as king \u2013 thereby constantly reminding the people that a human king was a compromise to true Israelite religious belief.<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":57303,"id":57303,"title":"isam8-king","filename":"isam8-king.png","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam8-king.png","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-kingly-compromise\/isam8-king\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"isam8-king","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":57301,"date":"2019-06-12 20:14:00","modified":"2022-08-23 15:05:12","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/png","type":"image","subtype":"png","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":755,"height":1280,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam8-king-150x150.png","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam8-king-177x300.png","medium-width":177,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam8-king-604x1024.png","medium_large-width":604,"medium_large-height":1024,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam8-king-604x1024.png","large-width":604,"large-height":1024,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam8-king.png","1536x1536-width":755,"1536x1536-height":1280,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam8-king.png","2048x2048-width":755,"2048x2048-height":1280,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam8-king-708x1200.png","post_full_size-width":708,"post_full_size-height":1200,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/isam8-king-248x420.png","home_baner-width":248,"home_baner-height":420}},"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"The Kingly Compromise?","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"If God is King - 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