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Tag: princes

a Failure of Kings Advent 4 of Christ
What do you think about Kings?
- Do you have a Sovereign?
- Would you like to follow one?
Who is your King?

Perhaps your gut response would be no different than that of the high priests of Jerusalem at the capital trial of Jesus.

The chief priests answered, We have no king but Caesar.

Gospel of John 19:15b King James Version

You may say that WE have no religious leaders in charge of a nation. But look closer at leadership titles where you will discover priests in politics. And don’t miss some presidents, premiers, prime ministers and even kings governing as Caesars.

Descendants of Abraham did not always have kings, nor did the kings of Israel, Judah and Judea always have power.

a reminder of Roger@TalkofJesus.com

a glance at kings of the Promised Land

Previously we witnessed pre-history as a timeline, essentially beginning again from the restoration of life at the time of NOAH.

Now is the Time Christmas Advent 3

Which kings in history have been successful and which kings were a failure?

TODAY, before we proceed to the recognized historical kings of Israel let’s also consider others from the Mosaic record.

kings and princes mentioned by Moses

mālaḵ verb, מָלַךְ

Strong’s H4427 in the following manner: reign (289x), king (46x), made (4x), queen (2x).. more

And Bela the son of Beor reigned^H4427 in Edom: and the name of his city was Dinhabah.
- KINGS of cities (or later City-States in places such as Greece)
- Perhaps Prince would fit better.
- Or maybe, Mayor? (But they were military generals as well.)
meleḵ מֶלֶךְ

The KJV translates Strong’s H4428 in the following manner: king (2,518x), misc..

That these made war with Bera king^H4428 of Sodom, and with Birsha king^H4428 of Gomorrah, Shinab king^H4428 of Admah, and Shemeber king^H4428 of Zeboiim, and the king^H4428 of Bela, which is Zoar.

Genesis 14:2 King James Version

These are just a few of the kings who made war. (That’s what Kings tend to do.) Therefore, Abraham (a Prince without a city. So like these kings and generals he was treated as a king when he helped them win a battle.

And Melchizedek king H4428 of Salem brought forth bread and wine: and he was the priest of the most high God.

14:18 וּמַלְכִּי־צֶדֶק מֶלֶךְ שָׁלֵם הוֹצִיא לֶחֶם וָיָיִן וְהוּא כֹהֵן לְאֵל עֶלְיוֹן׃

Melchizedek NOT just the mayor of Jerusalem or a mere Prime Minister or even Prince (as Abraham was generally treated) — the כֹּהֵן – kōhēn – Priest of ʿelyôn ‘ēl –

THE MOST HIGH GOD לְאֵל עֶלְיוֹן׃

IF in this 21st century of the Common Era WE independent evangelists (who know nothing of kings) attempt to compare Abraham, Melchizedek, David or Solomon to any common Caesar of this day,

or

IF WE anoint JESUS with simply the same royal title of any King (such as Charles),

THEN WE miss many overlapping roles of Sovereignty the Lord God gave to these men

AS WELL AS equally important roles of the Christ our High Priest and our Prophet dismissed and diminished by the common Caesar’s of these last days.

Roger@TalkofJesus.com

Kings of the Promised People

From a promise of the LORD to Abraham, a king without a country,

to David conquering King uniting twelve tribes, Solomon son of David built the Temple and an Empire.

You will be as familiar with the Dan to Beersheba borders as me.

Additionally you may have discerned that Solomon conquered to the north beyond Damascus as far as Tiphsah on the Euphrates River [1 Kings 4:24].

Solomon a distant memory of success

The Jews of Jesus’ incarnate days had visualized their glorious past in the empire of Solomon. These contemporaries of Jesus nostalgically recalled Solomon as a Caesar of Israel in his time.

From ~989 B.C. until his death in ~931 B.C. Solomon’s influence extended even into all the nearby world.

Centuries of Failed Kings Before Christ
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We still have not reached the center of all history and the Advent of the Messiah of Israel now to be predicted by the Prophets. 

Keep in mind that now Israel and Judah will have separate kings eventually overruled by conquering kings.
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King Solomon, however, loved many foreign women along with the daughter of Pharaoh [king of Egypt]—women of Moab, Ammon, Edom, and Sidon, as well as Hittite women.

2 These women were from the nations about which the LORD had told the Israelites, “You must not intermarry with them, for surely they will turn your hearts after their gods.”

1 Kings 11:1-2 BSB

Christian preaching makes much of monogamy here while ignoring common customs of marriage alliances between political rulers of nations through intermarriage. Yet the LORD had forbidden it.

And incentives inviting our cultural bias against the True God of Israel continue as a leaven diluting a Common Era Church to this day.

Frequently forced alliances led to the fall of Israel [722 BC] and decline through gradual apostasy compromised Judah just a century later [606 BC].

606 B.C. Some captives taken to Babylon. (Daniel included)

597 B.C. More captives taken to Babylon. (Ezekiel included)

586 B.C. Jerusalem is destroyed by fire.

Kings of Chosen Captives

Without dwelling on all the kings of both Israel and Judah who ‘did evil in the sight of the LORD,’ we’ll move forward to those left powerless by defeat and the refining of the Lord our God.

2 Kings 17 – Failure of Israel

3 Against him came up Shalmaneser king of Assyria.

And Hoshea became his vassal and paid him tribute. But the king of Assyria found treachery 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 shut him up and bound him in prison.
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Egypt's king (not so much a god and Pharoah to an Assyrian king) wouldn't help Hoshea out of his political servitude to Shalmaneser king of Assyria. 

Does this king's representative vassal relationship sound somewhat prophetic of a later Herodian whoredom with Rome?
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Then the king of Assyria invaded all the land and came to Samaria, and for three years he besieged it.

In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria captured Samaria, and he carried the Israelites away to Assyria…

2 Kings 17:5-6a ESV ~724BC -722 BC

Meanwhile, back in Judah

Hezekiah trusted in the LORD, the God of Israel. No king of Judah was like him, either before him or after him. He remained faithful to the LORD and did not turn from following Him; he kept the commandments that the LORD had given Moses.

7And the LORD was with Hezekiah, and he prospered wherever he went. He rebelled against the king of Assyria and refused to serve him. 8He defeated the Philistines as far as Gaza and its borders, from watchtower to fortified city.

2 Kings 18:5-8 BSB
- 701 B.C. 200,000 of the inhabitants of Judah captured by Sennacherib
- 621 B.C. Nineveh, Assyria falls to Babylon and Media (the Medes)
- 586 B.C Judah falls to Babylon, the rebuilt Temple destroyed and captured families of the leading Jews led captive to Babylonia
Flight of the Prisoners, Artist: Tissot, Photographer: John Parnell, Photo © The Jewish Museum, New York

600 years Before Christ, No more Kings of Israel;

No King of the Jews in Jerusalem!

Hope only for a few

Biblical Foundations of Freedom

The Prophesy of Isaiah, with some familiar to Christians as prophesy foreseeing the Messiah born in Bethlehem of Judea (formerly Judah), is set earlier than what we have just read in the context of the divided kingdom.

Isaiah 10:

Here in part is Isaiah’s and the LORD’s lament:

11 ” ‘..shall I not deal with Jerusalem and her images

as I dealt with Samaria and her idols?’ ”

19 And the remaining trees of his forests will be so few

that a child could write them down.

22 For though your people Israel be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will return. Destruction is decreed, overflowing with righteousness.

Two mote Empires (Before Christ & Rome)
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For those who like me may have occasionally fallen asleep in history class I'll make this rise and fall of three Empires brief.
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- a remnant does return to Jerusalem and rebuilds its wall and Temple
  - 536 B.C. Cyrus the Great permitted the return. 49,897 Jews returned from Babylon to Jerusalem.
- 516 B.C. The temple was completed. source
  - (Jerusalem will later get a Governor, Nehemiah and a Priest, Ezra),
  - But still no King since they are subjects of Persia.
If not a king, how about a Queen?

And the king loved Esther above all the women, and she obtained grace and favour in his sight more than all the virgins; so that he set the royal crown upon her head, and made her queen instead of Vashti.

Esther 2:17 KJV

Yet Esther becomes co-regent of the Medes and Persians [~478 B.E.] not simply a small remote city of Jerusalem.
- Malachi’s prophecy likely came sometime after the ministry of Nehemiah around BC 458-445.
- Malachi is the last prophet to speak before Christ.
  - source
Before Caesars, Greeks

The advent of Christ takes place in Judea and beyond, documented in Greek texts as was the whole New Testament. Persia.

It’s a period of some 400 years Before Christ.

Jews from Persia in the east, in Samaria to the north and even west as far as Rome became divided in their interest in the Bible given by Moses and the Prophets.

Thanks to Alexander the Great, the nearby world of the Herod’s and Jews spoke Greek (not Hebrew or certainly not the Latin of Rome).

In the timeline of all history Rome’s consequent defeat of other kings, princes and generals after Alexander’s death and division of yet another Empire would set the stage for the birth of a King from before all time born into it in a little Judean town unnoticed by a vassal King appointed by Caesar, a king of a captive Israel actually raised in distant Rome.

These centuries of ADVENT lead up to a glorious day central to all of history and all of mankind.

NEXT: Christmas 2024 of the Common Era, God-willing
December 22, 2024
Balaam – Inauguration of a Politician’s Prophet – 2

Previously

For those of you who missed Part 1 of our story of Balaam, we began by noting Balaam’s best inaugural speech in Numbers 24, to which we will return chronologically in Part 3. Now turning back to some background and the beginning of our story, King Balak of Moab sent diplomats to Balaam to urge him to prophesy against Israel, whose tribes have invaded nearby Canaan.

Numbers 22:

… Moab was overcome with fear of the people of Israel. 4 And Moab said to the elders of Midian, “This horde will now lick up all that is around us, as the ox licks up the grass of the field.” So Balak the son of Zippor, who was king of Moab at that time, 5 sent messengers to Balaam the son of Beor at Pethor, which is near the River in the land of the people of Amaw, to call him, saying,

“Behold, a people has come out of Egypt. They cover the face of the earth, and they are dwelling opposite me. 6 Come now, curse this people for me, since they are too mighty for me. Perhaps I shall be able to defeat them and drive them from the land, for I know that he whom you bless is blessed, and he whom you curse is cursed.”

Some beckoning!

This foreign king gives great compliment to a prophet living miles away in another land (modern day, Iraq). We may be familiar with a western perspective from Egypt of the Hebrew people crossing of the Sea of Reeds. Perhaps we recall the fall of the major Canaanite city, Jericho. But let’s look at these events as reported to a Prophet living by the Euphrates River. The invasion of Canaan by the Hebrews coming into Canaan looks different from the west beyond Moab.

… 9 And God came to Balaam…

What happens next, of course, is that Balaam listens to God and tells Balak’s ambassadors, “Go to your own land, for the Lord has refused to let me go with you.”

Later they return with a more money for Balak’s campaign.

20 And God came to Balaam at night and said to him, “If the men have come to call you, rise, go with them; but only do what I tell you.” 21 So Balaam rose in the morning and saddled his donkey and went with the princes of Moab.

Seems fairly simple for a man to whom God speaks – a man who princes and kings know hear, a mere mortal who speaks the word of the Lord.

So Balaam joins the entourage of important men for their long return journey to Moab. King Balak believes inviting Balaam will be the inauguration (under good omens) of a new era in his land near the Jordan.

22 But God’s anger was kindled because he went, and the angel of the Lord took his stand in the way as his adversary.

Wait just a minute

Something’s wrong here. Why would God be angry with Balaam; for the Lord had said, “go with them?”

Balaam’s attitude at a second return of more men with more political promises of riches in Moab must have swayed his original steadfastness to just send these politicians of Balak back home empty-handed. Look closely at some of the detail leading to Balaam’s return on this second journey of the Moabites and Midianites.

Prior to the first diplomatic mission to Balaam:

7 So the elders of Moab and the elders of Midian departed with the fees for divination in their hand… 13 So Balaam rose in the morning and said to the princes of Balak, “Go to your own land, for the Lord has refused to let me go with you.”

I see no mention of acceptance of their ‘fees for divination.’

Second Diplomatic Junket

Take a look at Balaam’s challenge of the second mission of these diplomats from the Jordan River valley, a land promised to Israel by the Lord.

15 Once again Balak sent princes, more in number and more honorable than these. 16 And they came to Balaam and said to him, “Thus says Balak the son of Zippor: ‘Let nothing hinder you from coming to me, 17 for I will surely do you great honor, and whatever you say to me I will do. Come, curse this people for me.’”

Hear once more Balaam’s reply the first time: “Go to your own land, for the Lord has refused to let me go with you.” (No room for negotiation in his words.)

Listen to the subtlety of his second reply:

“Though Balak were to give me his house full of silver and gold, I could not go beyond the command of the Lord my God to do less or more. 19 So you, too, please stay here tonight, that I may know what more the Lord will say to me.”

If I’m a negotiator in the middle east, it sure sounds like an opening to me.

‘I’ll sleep on it. I’ll ask the Lord again. (Maybe God will change His mind.)

Do you ask the Lord to command you twice?

In response to these high officials coming again to him with promises of power and influence, after already having received the Lord’s answer, Balaam went to the Lord once more. “Are you sure.” he asked?

Do we ask the Lord, “Are you sure?” Of course we do (even though the Lord’s command to us is clear).

Pethor on the Euphrates – 400 miles from Moab

Now comes the familiar story of Balaam’s journey with the princes and diplomats to the powerful capitals of their kings. It could be (if the Lord would allow) a great career move for Balaam.

Now the prophet, distracted by men of influence and dreams of earthly riches, misses the Lord’s message for him. In fact, Balaam’s procession to this inauguration puts him in great danger.

Balaam and his Donkey

You probably know this story and like many, smirk at its absurdity.

Now he was riding on the donkey, and his two servants were with him. 23 And the donkey saw the angel of the Lord standing in the road, with a drawn sword in his hand. And the donkey turned aside out of the road and went into the field.

And Balaam struck the donkey, to turn her into the road. 24 Then the angel of the Lord stood in a narrow path between the vineyards, with a wall on either side. 25 And when the donkey saw the angel of the Lord, she pushed against the wall and pressed Balaam’s foot against the wall.

So he struck her again. 26 Then the angel of the Lord went ahead and stood in a narrow place, where there was no way to turn either to the right or to the left. 27 When the donkey saw the angel of the Lord, she lay down under Balaam.

And Balaam’s anger was kindled, and he struck the donkey with his staff.

Balaam’s hopes for the inauguration

Balaam certainly expected a reward at the end the journey of about 400 miles. rather than trouble at the beginning. Perhaps this new year will offer us opportunity to consider Balaam’s failure to go forward without listening to God.

[ctt title=”Do your New Year\’s goals include God?” tweet=”What path does the LORD lead you to follow this year?” coverup=”6Gmbd”]

28 Then the Lord opened the mouth of the donkey, and she said to Balaam, “What have I done to you, that you have struck me these three times?” 29 And Balaam said to the donkey, “Because you have made a fool of me. I wish I had a sword in my hand, for then I would kill you.”

Again, let’s overlook the humor for a moment of an ass rebuking a prophet of God. And while we are at it, let’s not be so quick to miss that God can make an ass speak that is obedient to His will, when a man will not speak God’s will (as a prophet is expected to do).

30 And the donkey said to Balaam, “Am I not your donkey, on which you have ridden all your life long to this day? Is it my habit to treat you this way?” And he said, “No.”

31 Then the Lord opened the eyes of Balaam, and he saw the angel of the Lord standing in the way, with his drawn sword in his hand. And he bowed down and fell on his face. 32 And the angel of the Lord said to him, “Why have you struck your donkey these three times? Behold, I have come out to oppose you because your way is perverse before me.

Are your ways contrary to the Lord?

The leaders of Midian and the leaders of Moab led lives in opposition to the Lord. Their sacrifices to idol gods offended the Lord. (Surely Balaam knew of this.)

Like Abraham he was willing to travel this great distance. Unlike Abraham, Balaam traveled because he refused to listen to command of the Lord. Even so, the Lord was merciful here and spared Balaam’s life.

Balaam – Inauguration of a Politician’s Prophet – To be continued…

January 13, 2017
Shin
Psalm 119

English Standard Version (ESV)

Your Word Is a Lamp to My Feet

Sin and Shin [Schin]
161 Princes persecute me without cause,
but my heart stands in awe of your words.

Consider for a moment, authority; both legitimate and illegitimate. Government: leaders and those with power over other people. Explanation of “Princes,” used here holds complexity that could include many men and women of the world of many positions even in this day.

שַׂר – sar –

prince, ruler, leader, chief, chieftain, official, captain

from the root: From שָׂרַר (H8323)
1. chieftain, leader
2. vassal, noble, official (under king)
3. captain, general, commander (military)
4. chief, head, overseer (of other official classes)
5. heads, princes (of religious office)
6. elders (of representative leaders of people)
7. merchant-princes (of rank and dignity)
8. patron-angel
9. Ruler of rulers (of God)
10. warden
Consider how many rule (lord it over) other men. What is the basis of their authority?

Is it God, our Creator and LORD of all? Or have they no legitimate cause to lord it over anyone, least of all a righteous man?

Further, consider the humility by which for your sin a righteous man would give the Princes and powers the authority to hang above His crucified body a sign proclaiming Him:

Jesus, King of the Jews

162 I rejoice at your word
like one who finds great spoil.
163 I hate and abhor falsehood,
but I love your law.

Surly the Princes are liars! Leaders who lie in wait to snare the righteous that they might reap the spoil of their meager wages.

The Lord God will avenge the faithful, those who love His law.

164 Seven times a day I praise you
for your righteous rules.
165 Great peace have those who love your law;
nothing can make them stumble.

Ezekiel 3:20 Again, if a righteous person turns from his righteousness and commits injustice, and I lay a stumbling block before him, he shall die.

The Hand of God shall place before the evil ones the stumbling block of their fall and the snare of their demise.

166 I hope for your salvation, O Lord,
and I do your commandments.

Yĕhovah sabar yĕshuw`ah

KJV – LORD, I have hoped for thy salvation

167 My soul keeps your testimonies;
I love them exceedingly.
168 I keep your precepts and testimonies,
for all my ways are before you.
February 6, 2014