The King of Israel: Who is this Man?

By Jeremiah White

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In the days of Samuel the prophet, Israel formally rejected God from being ruler over Israel when they desired a king to rule them after the manner of the nations.

Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah, and said to him, "Look, you are old, and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now make us a king to judge us like all the nations." But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, "Give us a king to judge us." So Samuel prayed to the LORD. And the LORD said to Samuel, "Heed the voice of the people in all that they say to you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me, that I should not reign over them. According to all the works which they have done since the day that I brought them up out of Egypt, even to this day—with which they have forsaken Me and served other gods—so they are doing to you also. Now therefore, heed their voice. However, you shall solemnly forewarn them, and show them the behavior of the king who will reign over them. (1 Samuel 8:4-9)

This wickedness was great in the sight of the Almighty, asking for a king when the Most High was our King.

"Is today not the wheat harvest? I will call to the LORD, and He will send thunder and rain, that you may perceive and see that your wickedness is great, which you have done in the sight of the LORD, in asking a king for yourselves." (1 Samuel 12:17)

Though God gave us Saul and then David and his sons, it is evident that the throne of the sons of David still belonged to God.

"Then Solomon sat on the throne of the LORD as king instead of David his father, and prospered; and all Israel obeyed him." (1 Chronicles 29:23)

David and his sons sat upon God's throne and sat in His place as king. A few kings ruled according to His righteousness, but most were evil. Here God testifies against Zedekiah, the last king to rule in Judah.

"Now to you, O profane, wicked prince of Israel, whose day has come, whose iniquity shall end, thus says the Lord GOD:

'Remove the turban, and take off the crown;
Nothing shall remain the same.
Exalt the humble, and humble the exalted.
Overthrown, overthrown,
I will make it overthrown!
It shall be no longer,
Until He comes whose right it is,
And I will give it to Him."' (Ezekiel 21:25-27)

The right of the throne of David, or more precisely the throne of God, belongs to Messiah. He is the last in the lineage of the sons of David which would take the throne and wear the crown forever. At the end of the 70 year captivity, when the sons of David had ceased to reign in Jerusalem, Zechariah prophesied of the coming of Messiah the king.

"Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!
Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem!
Behold, your King is coming to you;
He is just and having salvation,
Lowly and riding on a donkey,
A colt, the foal of a donkey.
I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim
And the horse from Jerusalem;
The battle bow shall be cut off.
He shall speak peace to the nations;
His dominion shall be ‘from sea to sea,
And from the River to the ends of the earth." (Zechariah 9:9-10)

"And when you saw that Nahash king of the Ammonites came against you, you said to me, 'No, but a king shall reign over us,' when the LORD your God was your king." (1 Samuel 12:12)

"I am the LORD, your Holy One, The Creator of Israel, your King." (Isaiah 43:15)

"Let Israel rejoice in their Maker; Let the children of Zion be joyful in their King." (Psalm 149:2)

"Beautiful in elevation,
The joy of the whole earth,
Is Mount Zion on the sides of the north,
The city of the great King." (Psalm 48:2)

"Present your case," says the LORD.
"Bring forth your strong reasons," says the King of Jacob. (Isaiah 41:21)

"Thus says the LORD, the King of Israel,
And his Redeemer, the LORD of hosts:
I am the First and I am the Last;
Besides Me there is no God." (Isaiah 44:6)

"For the LORD is our shield, and the Holy One of Israel is our King." (Psalm 89:18)

"Consume them in wrath, consume them,
That they may not be;
And let them know that God rules in Jacob
To the ends of the earth. Selah" (Psalm 59:13)

"But cursed be the deceiver
Who has in his flock a male,
And takes a vow,
But sacrifices to the Lord what is blemished—
For I am a great King,"
Says the LORD of hosts,
"And My name is to be feared among the nations." (Malachi 1:14)

Furthermore, who is the King of all the earth?

"For the LORD Most High is awesome;
He is a great King over all the earth." (Psalm 47:2)

"For God is the King of all the earth;
Sing praises with understanding.
God reigns over the nations;
God sits on His holy throne." (Psalm 47:7-8)

So we see then that the Lord alone is King, both over Israel, and also the whole earth. Who then is this man who is called Messiah, to whom the Lord shall give His own throne forever? His throne over Israel and His throne over the heathen?

"For unto us a Child is born,
Unto us a Son is given;
And the government will be upon His shoulder.
And His name will be called
Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Of the increase of His government and peace
There will be no end,
Upon the throne of David and over His kingdom,
To order it and establish it with judgment and justice
From that time forward, even forever.
The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this." (Isaiah 9:6-7)

Messiah shall not be just a man, but the Lord God born into the lineage of David, born a son to inherit His own throne.

"O Israel, you are destroyed,
But your help is from Me.
I will be your King;
Where is any other,
That he may save you in all your cities?
And your judges to whom you said,
'Give me a king and princes'?
I gave you a king in My anger,
And took him away in My wrath." (Hosea 13:9-11)

Rejecting our King was our manner from the beginning.

"And the LORD said to Samuel, 'Heed the voice of the people in all that they say to you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me, that I should not reign over them. According to all the works which they have done since the day that I brought them up out of Egypt, even to this day—with which they have forsaken Me and served other gods—so they are doing to you also.'" (1 Samuel 8:7-8)

The prophets foresaw the same thing happening with Messiah our King, that He would be rejected in the time of His coming. The time of Messiah's coming was foretold during the Babylonian captivity after the destruction of the first temple. It was said that our Messiah would come after the decree to rebuild Jerusalem, which decree came forth in the days of Nehemiah and Ezra, and before the destruction of the 2nd temple, which took place in the year 70 A.D. by the Romans.

"Know therefore and understand,
That from the going forth of the command
To restore and build Jerusalem
Until Messiah the Prince,
There shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks;
The street[a] shall be built again, and the wall,
Even in troublesome times.
And after the sixty-two weeks
Messiah shall be cut off, but not for Himself;
And the people of the prince who is to come
Shall destroy the city and the sanctuary.
The end of it shall be with a flood,
And till the end of the war desolations are determined." (Daniel 9:25-26)

Here Daniel went so far as to say that Messiah will be cut off.

David also prophesied of those who would be against our Messiah.

"Why do the nations rage,
And the people plot a vain thing?
The kings of the earth set themselves,
And the rulers take counsel together,
Against the LORD and against His Messiah (anointed)," (Psalm 2:1-2)

Isaiah spoke of the despised and rejected Messiah.

"He is despised and rejected by men,
A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.
And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him;
He was despised, and we did not esteem Him." (Isaiah 53:3)

Not only would Messiah be despised, rejected, and raged against; and not only was He to have vain things imagined about Him, have kings set against Him, and have rulers counsel against Him, but He was to be killed. (See Isaiah 53:8-9) As for Israel, "We hid as it were our faces from Him."

Israel has long rejected the Lord from ruling over them, and when He came as our Messiah He was rejected unto being killed. Nevertheless He rose from the dead, ascended to His rightful place as King of Israel and King of nations, and now rules upon His throne, having accomplished through His death and resurrection salvation for all mankind.

"Look to Me, and be saved, All you ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other." (Isaiah 45:22)

"For God is my King from of old, Working salvation in the midst of the earth." (Psalm 74:12)

"And the LORD shall be King over all the earth.
In that day it shall be—
The LORD is one,'
And His name one." (Zechariah 14:9)

"Your throne, O God, is forever and ever; A scepter of righteousness is the scepter of Your kingdom." (Psalm 45:6)

Let it be known, therefore, unto all the house of Israel that Jesus the Messiah is the King over all the earth.

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