Elisha the Baldhead, the Two She Bears, and the Forty-Two Boys - Part 2
A Kingdom of Priests and a Holy Nation
Exodus 19:4 - ‘You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself. 5 Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; 6 and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel.”
God’s rescue plan for the type of evil that had corrupted all of the nations of the earth, which we discussed in Part 1 of this series, was to create a new nation state in the midst of the evil nations of the earth, comprised of new laws and new leadership. All of that was to be revealed to Moses and recorded in the first five books of the Bible, otherwise known as the Pentateuch or Torah.
God describes his plan as “a kingdom of priests and a holy nation”. It is interesting to note that the New Testament calls the church the exact same thing, which ought to be noted by the reader, but that is a digression. A kingdom requires three key things in order for it to be a kingdom. It requires a determined region with established boundaries, it requires people over whom to rule and govern, and it requires a king. You don’t get a vote.
In describing Israel as a nation of priests that are holy, God is saying that the people are to be set apart, both from the other nations and to God himself. They are to be set apart for learning and training themselves in God’s ways. As they relate to God, growing in their understanding of him, they also relate to the other nations of the earth on God’s behalf. That’s what a priest does. This is how Abraham’s descendants were promised to “be a blessing to all nations”. The nations would be beautified with truth, justice, righteousness and love from God mediated through humans beings functioning as proxies on his behalf. Might I remind you, this is still the plan.
Originally God organized the nation in the land he had promised as a loosely organized collection of tribes. Even though God had made provisions for a king in what is called the second giving of the law, the book of Deuteronomy, he resisted implementing that provision because he knew it would be a breeding ground for corruption.
Deuteronomy 17:14 - “When you come to the land that the Lord your God is giving you, and you possess it and dwell in it and then say, ‘I will set a king over me, like all the nations that are around me,’ 15 you may indeed set a king over you whom the Lord your God will choose. One from among your brothers you shall set as king over you. You may not put a foreigner over you, who is not your brother. 16 Only he must not acquire many horses for himself or cause the people to return to Egypt in order to acquire many horses, since the Lord has said to you, ‘You shall never return that way again.’ 17 And he shall not acquire many wives for himself, lest his heart turn away, nor shall he acquire for himself excessive silver and gold.
18 “And when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself in a book a copy of this law, approved by[a] the Levitical priests. 19 And it shall be with him, and he shall read in it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God by keeping all the words of this law and these statutes, and doing them, 20 that his heart may not be lifted up above his brothers, and that he may not turn aside from the commandment, either to the right hand or to the left, so that he may continue long in his kingdom, he and his children, in Israel.
You see, while God had always intended to produce a line of kings from the family of Abraham (Gen 17:6 “I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make you into nations, and kings shall come from you”), he also knew that only one particular king could carry the power of that position without becoming corrupted. Humans are not capable of obtaining and wielding that type of power in a wise and righteous fashion (Revelation 5:1-5). Period. The best that could be done was to attempt to slow that corruption via a lifelong dedication to training in the knowledge of God.
But there was one more thing God could provide for to help slow the cancerous growth of corruption taking over the hearts of men who wielded political, economic and military power. He could raise up great men of loyalty and courage who accepted the risk of speaking truth to power. These men were called prophets, and while they didn’t necessarily wield power like the king, they were mighty in the knowledge of God and the things of the spirit, and they were greatly feared and respected because of it.
They were also greatly hated.
Matthew 23:37 “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! 38 See, your house is left to you desolate. 39 For I tell you, you will not see me again, until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’”
Hebrews 11: 37 They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated
Accepting the role of a prophet was a very high-risk career choice. Powerful people do not like for their corruption to be pointed out and exposed. They will ruthlessly guard their privileged position. You see, in the kingship of ancient nations, you had the great trifecta of life: 1) Power 2) Status 3) Wealth, all wrapped into one position. And it was permanent, there was no getting voted out of office. You were above the law, because when you have ultimate power, status and wealth . . . and if you didn’t like it, you just had to wait it out. We don’t really have anything to compare it with in modern times, and that much privilege invested in one office destroyed men. And destroyed men make for a destroyable nation. Which is the story of the Old Testament.
It is for this purpose that God raised up the office of the prophet in the Old Testament, to function as a check and a balance to the corruptibility of the office of king. Which brings us to the prophet Elijah, which is the story of a man called to confront just such a king and his wife, and he had to pay a heavy price for it. We will turn to that discussion in Part 3 of our series.