King Of The Jews - Part 5"...set up over his head his accusation written, 'THIS IS JESUS THE KING OF THE JEWS'". Matthew 27:37 From early in Israel's history, their desire to be as all the other nations of the world grieved God who had called and chosen them to be set apart unto Himself. God had rescued the children of Israel with a mighty arm, taken them out of bondage in Egypt and shown His absolute power over Pharaoh. After their miraculous deliverance from Egypt's army and while camped at the base of Mt. Sinai, God told Moses to relay the following message in Exodus 19:4,5 Audio feature: Listen to a clip from my song On Wings of Eagles (mp3 clip) "...and tell the children of Israel, ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians and how I bare you on eagles' wings, and brought you unto myself. Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people..." God then provided utterly for all the needs of His people during their sojourn in the wilderness. He sent food from heaven: manna. He provided water from the rock. He led them about as a pillar of fire at night to give them light and warmth in the desert cold and as a pillar of cloud in the day to protect them from the harsh desert sun and lead them. All of the above are foreshadowings of fulfillments of prophecy: Messianic prophecy. Jesus was the bread sent from Heaven, the manna, "The Bread of Life", "The Living Water" from the rock. As a pillar of fire, "The Light of the World". As the cloud which showed them the way, "I am the Way". These were titles He claimed for Himself. But, thousands of years before He came to earth as a man, God ruled Israel as King, the King of the Jews. Samuel was God's man and representative and God spoke through him to Israel. But as Samuel grew old, the elders of Israel gathered together and came to speak with Samuel. "...now make us a king to judge us LIKE ALL THE OTHER NATIONS (my emphasis)". Samuel 8:5 "And the Lord said unto Samuel....they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them". Samuel 8:7 Israel had rejected God as their Spiritual King and broken covenant with Him. They wanted an earthly King so that they could be like the other nations. God, through Samuel told them the tremendous cost of submitting themselves to an earthly King. "He will take your sons...he will take your daughters...he will take your fields, and your vineyards...he will take your servants...your sheep...and ye shall be his servants". 1 Samuel 8:10-17 "And ye shall cry out in that day because of your king which ye shall have chosen you: and the Lord will not hear you in that day". 1 Samuel 8:18 Yet they persisted in their demand. "Nevertheless...they said, Nay, but we will have a king over us; that we also may be like all the nations..." 1 Samuel 8:19-20 Whenever we choose anyone or anything but God to be King over us it costs us dearly. Whenever we choose to be like the world it costs us. Broken fellowship with God, broken lives and broken hearts. God gave them a King, Saul, a man that was just what the people wanted, a man after their own hearts. God ordains the powers that be and he commanded Samuel to anoint Saul "...king over His people Israel". 1 Samuel 9:16 Saul stood head and shoulders above the crowd. He looked the part. Some scholars have seen a connection between Saul and the Anti-Christ. David, by contrast is a picture of the coming Messiah. David was called by God, "A man after His own heart". 1 Samuel 13:14 After Saul disobeyed God greatly and was told by Samuel that he would lose the Kingdom, God sent Samuel to find a new King, saying "...look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature...for the Lord seeth not as man seeth: for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart". 1 Samuel 16:7 When Jesus came the first time, he didn't look the part of a King. Born in a barn, the son of a common laborer, he nevertheless fulfilled manifold Messianic prophecies. He came not to set up an earthly kingdom, but to be the spiritual King of the Jews. But just as they had rejected God as their Spiritual King once before, they would once again reject Him and choose another, an earthly King to make them like all the other nations. "We have no King but Caesar". John 19:15 Saul is a picture of the man that Israel will accept as king (the Anti-Christ) during the coming tribulation. The people's choice, one who is accepted by the vast majority, a man with a mouth speaking great things. Saul feigned humility but was in reality proud to a fault. Daniel 11:21 describes the entrance of the Anti-Christ onto the world stage. "He shall come in peaceably and obtain the kingdom with flatteries". Israel was not yet at war but Saul hid and acted as bashful as a baby when he was presented to the people. When they were at war, Saul took credit and glory for battles won by his son Jonathan. He literally "blew his own horn". At the battle of Michmash his son Jonathan won the victory but Saul blew the trumpet and took credit for it. (1 Samuel 13:1) The Anti-Christ is described as having "...a mouth speaking great things". Daniel 7:8 Saul at one point offers a burnt sacrifice which was expressly forbidden, setting himself up as a religious figure, a priest, for which he was rebuked by God and informed through Samuel "...thy kingdom shall not continue". 1 Samuel 13:13 The Anti-Christ too will set himself up as a religious figure committing the "Abomination of Desolation" by entering the Temple in Jerusalem where only the high-priest should go. The Anti-Christ will solidify his power by sharing the spoils of his political victory, just as Saul distributed the goods of the people of Amalek which he had been commanded to destroy. It was for this great sin that the kingdom was rent from him. "The Lord hath rent the kingdom of Israel from thee this day..." 1 Samuel 15:28 Because Saul did not "...utterly destroy" the nation of Amalek, eventually Haman, one of the survivor's descendants, nearly destroys Israel. Anti-Christ too, will attempt to destroy all of Israel. Finally, his continual deadly opposition to David whom he seeks to destroy shows that he was certainly the Anti-David. And since David is a picture of the Messiah it shows a true picture of Saul as being a type of the Anti-Christ. Ultimately Saul is killed and his body burned. The Anti-Christ will be cast "...into a lake of fire..." Revelation 19:20 But before he is brought to heel the Anti-Christ will cut a wide swath through the Jewish Nation. "And it will come about that two parts in it will be cut off and perish; but the third will be left in it". Zechariah 13:8 Saul, in a picture of this type of Satanic fury against the Jews, commanded the slaughter of 85 priests of God who had unwittingly aided David in his flight from Saul. "And the king (Saul) said to Doeg, turn thou and fall upon the priests. And Doeg the Edomite turned and he fell upon the priests and slew on that day fourscore and five persons..." 1 Samuel 22:18 And in an even more perverse turn he had the entire population of the city of Nob from where the priests came, utterly destroyed. "both men and women, children and sucklings, and oxen, and asses and sheep, with the edge of the sword". It was as if he was mocking God's orders to utterly destroy the wicked Amalek, which he had refused to do and instead destroyed the priestly city of Nob. Saul was by this time, certainly demon-oppressed, probably demon-possessed and perhaps indwelt by Satan himself. That final dubious distinction is a hallmark of the Anti-Christ also. As the enemy of God and His people and the Messiah, Satan has been working tirelessly to destroy the line through which Messiah would ultimately come. No Israel, no Messiah and more specifically no tribe of Judah, no Messiah. Saul worked tirelessly to destroy David, God's chosen man. David bore many of the hallmarks of the Messiah as He will be in his return as the Warrior King. David was a shepherd: Jesus is our Spiritual Shepherd, "The Lord is my Shepherd..." Psalm 23:1. As a shepherd David suffered hardships and protected his flock, killing lions and bears that would have destroyed his charge. Jesus paid the ultimate price for His "little flock". Messiah was born in the "city of David", Bethlehem. In the years he was pursued by Saul a marvelous comparison can be made between David and David's greater Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Saul was wreaking havoc in Israel and as a result many people were in distress, in debt and deeply discontented. |
