Revelation 5:10 reads: “And hath made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth.” That was a revelatory peek into heaven recorded by the apostle John as he saw and heard a great throng of redeemed of every kindred, tongue, people, and nation singing a new song of victory, in which they praised God for their redemption through His being slain, but also for their reclamation for His kingdom in which they are going to serve as kings and priests on earth. (Rev. 5:8-10) If you are reading this and are one of His redeemed, blood-bought believers, this fore-glimpse of the heavenly throng before the Lamb includes you and speaks to your eternal future.
There are noteworthy contrasts between the Old Testament kingdoms of Judah and Israel, with their combined total of 39 kings, plus their myriad priests, and the kings and priests mentioned in Rev. 5:10:
In the kingdom of old, kings reigned; believers of this dispensation look forward to a kingdom in which “we shall reign on earth.” (Rev. 5:10b; Rev. 20:6)
Yet, we have already been made kings: “He hath made us unto our God kings and priests.”
Saul was anointed king before he actually wore the crown and reigned; David was made king long before he actually wore the crown and reigned as king.
Old Testament kings reigned under God and for God; we shall reign under God and with Christ: “…and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.” (Rev. 20:4b) Jesus is said to have “on His vesture and on His thigh a name written— “KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.” (Revelation 19:16)
Old Testament kings reigned on earth and had literal thrones; we shall reign with Christ, and our domain will be literal, physical, and spiritual: “And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them…and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.” (Rev. 20:4). “To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne.” (Rev. 3:21)
What an unspeakable privilege to be called, even now, kings and priests. But, with unspeakable privileges come great responsibilities. We ought to act like kings and priests; to think like kings and priests: “But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of Him who hath called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.” (I Pet. 2:9) Note: it is not that we shall be a holy nation and a royal priesthood; Peter says we “are” that now!
With these thoughts as a basis, I want to look at some of the Old Testament kings, keeping in mind what Paul said: “For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope;” and “Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples; and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.” (Rom. 15:4; I Cor. 10:11) So, we can and should benefit from a study of these monarchs of old—all allowed to fill their place in history through the providential working of a sovereign God—so that, by His grace, we might avoid some of their weaknesses and embrace some of their strengths, as we even now prepare for our future reign as kings on earth in the millennium, with and for the King of kings and Lord of Lords, Jesus Christ.
By way of review, the first King of Israel was Saul, followed by David and then Solomon. Following Solomon’s death, the kingdom was divided into a northern confederacy of 10 tribes; and two tribes in the southern sector, Judah and Benjamin, most often referred to as Judah, the dominant of the two. The capital of the southern kingdom was Jerusalem, and the capital of the northern kingdom, usually referred to as Israel, was Samaria. The division of the kingdom occurred about 975 B.C. with Rehoboam, son of Solomon, acceding to the throne of Judah, and Jeroboam becoming the 1st king of the northern confederacy of Israel.
There were a total of 20 kings of the northern confederacy, beginning with Jeroboam and continuing until 722 B.C. when, because of rank apostasy and total idolatry, God allowed the kingdom of Assyria to carry Israel away captive: “For the children of Israel walked in all the sins of Jeroboam which he did; they departed not from them.” (2 Kings 17:22) “And they rejected his statutes and his covenant that he made with them…and they followed vanity and went after the heathen that were round about them…and they left all the commandments of the Lord their God, and made them molten images.” (2 Kings 17:15,16) Every one of the 20 kings who ruled over Israel from Jeroboam to Hoshea were said to have done “evil in the sight of the Lord.”
Rehoboam led the list of kings of the southern sector of the divided kingdom, ruling from Jerusalem, after the northern ten tribes split off under Jeroboam. 18 kings would follow in procession after him until 605-586 B.C., when Nebuchadnezzar and his Babylonian armies sacked the city and carried off many of the Jews into a 70-year captivity. Of the 19 kings who ruled from Jerusalem, beginning with Rehoboam and continuing until Zedekiah (2 Kings 24:19), all but 8 were said to have “done evil in the sight of the Lord.” The “good” kings of Judah were Asa, Jehoshaphat, Joash, Amaziah, Uzziah, Jotham, Hezekiah, and Josiah. (Most of the deeds of all of these kings are recorded in I & II Kings and II Chronicles.)
Stay tuned for future installments in this series of “Kings and Priests, Then and Now.”
“And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them…and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. (Rev.20:4) “Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.” (Rev. 20:6)
YOU and GOD 