No King In Israel

There was no king in Israel.

As I listened to one of my pastors preach from this section, I'm afraid I didn't hear everything he said (it was Wednesday evening, after a long day, and I had just sat down after a hectic day--okay I think you got the drift).

But later after I took the time to read through this book and put together what I did hear, I was struck by this phrase which is found three times in the book of Judges. Ever since I jettisoned my dispensational beliefs, I have been blessed with the personal discovery of redemptive history. It's not that I never heard the phrase when I was in Bible college, but now I embrace the concept as part and parcel of my reformation.

This phrase is found in the latter part of Judges: after all the cyclical apostasy, repentance, and salvation of the nation, and as you meditate upon this book's place in the canon, and upon the redemptive historical context of the events, you remember that there is a reason for these accounts.

The events of the judges happen after the admonition of Joshua to keep the law and to obey it because the result will be that the LORD will be their God and they will be His people. Then on the other side of this book begins the story of Ruth which happens in the days of the judges which is the story of the origin of the kingly line of David and, ultimately, the King of Kings, Jesus Christ.
There was no king in Israel says the author of Judges. Yet, as my pastor reminded me, there were previous injunctions regarding the king in the Law, and there was the promise that "the sceptre shall not pass from Judah."

Finally, let us take warning from the fact that there was a King in Israel, but He was rejected. He manifested his presence in the Tabernacle, but the people would not obey Him, nor worship Him. To me this is the most frightening aspect of the statement, "There was no king in Israel." Let us beware that in the New Israel, the Church of God, we do not idolized self and dethrone our King Jesus who is our Lord.