In the Beginning Were Kings

So today's sermon is, In the Beginning There Were Kings. As I mentioned even this morning, there were, in this Bible that we all read, there are 108 different kings scattered out through the Bible. Stories, tales, adventures and misadventures of 108 different kings, 42 over the tribes of Israel. They're not in there by happenstance. We get a chance to learn from other people's mistakes. I would prefer to learn from others' mistakes rather than from my own. Maybe that's selfish. Maybe that's a little cowardly in my own way, but that's one of the reasons I have always been a voracious reader. I've read a lot of books and I continue to because I have learned a lot what to do and what not to do. In my life, mistakes I made were because I didn't follow the instructions that were in books for me and the right decisions were given by people who came before me. This book, our book, is written for us in case you didn't know. It's written for mankind, but mankind says, I don't need this. I'll write my own book. Or how about Fly By the Seat of My Pants as I go? Isn't that a better title for what most people do? So I want to look at today the beginning and the background on the story of kings, because in the beginning were kings. It goes all the way from Genesis to Revelation, and we're told about kings that were and kings that will be. And we should be excited about the kings that will be. So let's go back and look now at the first mention of kings in the Bible, because it's actually called the law of first mention in the theological world. In case you've never heard me say that before, which I have said it more than a few times, being I have referenced it many times, the law of first mention says the first use of a word in the scriptures sets the tone for the way that word is used through the rest of the scripture. Kind of lays a little bit of foundation. It kind of helps you to see where that word comes from and possibly even its meaning. Does anybody here know the first reference to a king in the Bible? Very first one. You know it's in Genesis. Would you have a guess where?

That's a good answer. Ah, who said that? Look at all Nimrod. Nimrod. Let's go back and look at that very first time, the very first time that it's mentioned, but Jeff, I must say, couldn't really can't you wrong because it doesn't say king. It does not say king. Well, let's go to Genesis 10 and verse 8. Genesis 10 and verse 8. It said, Cush begot Nimrod. He began to be a mighty one on the earth. He was a mighty hunter before the Lord. Therefore it is said like Nimrod the mighty hunter before the Lord. And the beginning of his kingdom. For him to have a kingdom, the reference is he was a king. Was he a good king? What? No! No! All you have to do is go in secular history. You can even go all the way back to those great philosophers of three stooges who actually mentioned Nimrod quite a few times when they were referencing somebody not good. I found that interesting when I saw on the plane one of their things. Yes, but he was a king. He was a tyrant. He was a ruler. He was a conqueror. He wanted to take over the world and he did it with force.

He was vicious and he did whatever he wanted to do. Not exactly a prime example, but the law of first mention leads us to see where that first mention carries on through. The Scripture, because if he had the first kingdom, he kind of set the tone for other kingdoms that came after that. Where was he a king? The beginning of his kingdom was where? Babel! Now, isn't that a religious center?

Wasn't Babel a godly place? Or according to Josephus, they said they built this tower so that God could do anything they wanted to do, Nimrod being their leader, and he couldn't bring a flood on the earth and kill him. So they were going to fix God, make sure he didn't have control over them.

As they soon found out, their communications were cut. The Internet was cut and they couldn't communicate. And he was a mighty hunter before the Lord. I have a story on that I'll go towards later on this year, because he was a mighty hunter of not only animals but of men. Next reference. Go over with me to Genesis 12. Genesis 12, it doesn't say a king, but it says Genesis 12 a pharaoh. Well, what was a pharaoh? Like a king. Just another name for a king. And they had a lot of power, didn't they? So let's look at this, because Abraham comes into contact with a king. Genesis 12, verse 15. The princes of Pharaoh also saw her. Who was her? And commended her to the pharaoh, which is a nice way to say, hey babe, you're going to the king. It's like she didn't have any say-so in the matter. Because why? He was king! What he said went. He said, you live, you live. He says, you die, you die. That was the kings at the time. You're my woman.

Get over here. And he saw Sarah. Let's look at that. Verse 15. Verse 14, it said, oh, 15. And the woman was taken to Pharaoh's house. She's going to be a kept woman now. She's going to be his, because he's king. And that's the way kings of the world did things and sad to say, have done things for thousands of years. Just read your history books. Right, Frank? And why did he do that? Well, verse 14 said, so it was when Abraham came into Egypt that the Egyptians saw the woman, saw Sarah, and said, she was very beautiful. How old was she? 70, 75 years old. Maybe couldn't be 80. And she was a very beautiful woman. You say, well, how could that be? This woman's 80 years old. Anybody know who she is? Oh. I expected Bill to know Kathy, but I expect you to write a letter to her. Well, beautiful woman, 80 years old. Very beautiful. Yes, she is. Didn't she? Wasn't that 80 that you pulled? 73 in that picture. Okay. So she was somewhere near where Sarah's age, because Sarah remember God married to Abraham when she was 65. They left when she was 65. They left their country.

So it's possible, beautiful woman. In today's world, if you're powerful and in certain countries where there are still kings, there are harems of women. You remember the story of Esther? Did she have a choice? No. No. King Xerxes was not only just a king, but a world-ruling power at the time. And that's how kings were.

Let's go over to Genesis 14 as we jump ahead. And how did the Raquel Welch of her day, Sarah, get away from all this? God. God took care of it.

And God took care of it today, and he's had to do that. But that's why he is who he is. But we come on down to really the very first mention of a king. And in Genesis 14, verse 1, it came to pass in the days of Amoraphale, king of where? Shinar. Very first king mentioned here. Where was Shinar?

Plains outside of Babylon. Right! According to historians here, this guy took over after Nimrod.

What was he doing? He joined up with some other kings and said, what? The world is mine, and I'm going to take it. And he just started marching, capturing, destroying, taking as we see the story. He was the very first king. Matter of fact, I don't know that I agree with this, but one historian actually said, or speculated, the time-deadly does it, that some speculate that it was Hammurabi himself. I don't know that. That's hard because the timing of their lives don't seem to match up. But, hey, he was a king and not a good one. Wasn't anything good about this king? And you'll see.

So, as you know from a story, we don't need to read through it. In chapter 14, they go and they take everything they want, which basically in a nice way means that they raped and pillaged their way all the way through the Middle East. And no one was going to stop them. They stole. They were vicious. They were pagans. Sadistic kings. Because think about it. If you were your own law, if you created your own law, and you didn't care about any consequences, as we heard about earlier, because nobody was going to do anything to you because you were king, where would that lead you? Where would that lead you? Very, very bad people. We see it today where people say we don't need law. We don't need God. Don't need the Ten Commandments. Don't need you Bible thumpers telling us what to do. And we'll look at the world around us. I think it's going to get any better. It's going to get worse. As a matter of fact, I thought it was funny because I was reading this week an article that asked the head of J.P. Morgan and also Chase, CEO, what he thought of the economy and where it was going. And I like this comment. He said, this country better hope that it's just a recession that we're going into because it looks worse. And that's a rich man. So this world won't get any better. Look at the crime. I mean, once money gets tight, people steal. I just saw where they just did a flash mob, where they used to do a flash mob and they would sing. Here they got a new thing now, the flash mob where 30 people pop up in a 7-11 and just take everything.

Stole everything. It's going to get worse because people don't want law. They don't want law and order. They don't want anybody telling them what to do. They don't want anybody especially saying that's a sin. So we get caught in the middle of this thing because we know what God wants. We know what peace comes from. We know what the world is going to be. And here you've got this one. And we're kind of the hanging in between because we have to live in this world, but we know that what the next one is going to bring us. And we want this one, but we still have to live in this one.

So let's go down because we know then that Abraham, a Brahm at the time, takes his 318 men, actually 321 with the ones that are involved there, takes his men and goes after because these four kings or these multiple kings took lot, his nephew, and everything in his family and took him and took the whole city. And God said, go get him. Abraham went with his 318 men. And according to historians, the lowest number that these armies put together would have been 10,000 and most say 100,000. So I'm going to take 318 men and I'm going to go desecrate, not just defeat. Desecrate 100,000 men. How are you going to do that?

It's not humanly possible, but some of the things that you and I need done and will need done in the future are not going to be humanly possible. Better have the same source that Abraham had. But we know he got it all back. In fact, nobody died of Lot's family, and the goods were all returned, and so are the other cities. And then we come to a different kind of king. Genesis 14 and verse 18, then Melchizedek, king, king of Salem. King of Salem. Different kind of king, but it says, King of Salem brought out bread and wine, and he was what? A priest, priest of the Most High God. So here we have the introduction of, as I can say, the law of first mention again, because it's a king and a priest. A king and a priest, all in one. The Melchizedek priesthood. Can you find that? All through the Old Testament? After Genesis 14? No! It's not there. It's not there. The first of the Melchizedek priesthood that's introduced to us is in Hebrews, and he's talking about the future priesthood, where we are all part of that priesthood, because that first priest, that law of first mention, was about a king and a priest, a righteous king. The other kings before, they were not righteous. They were evil.

What does that do with us? We're told in this book, I said before you what? Life and death. I said before you, right decisions are wrong decisions. Choose! Choose life, choose the right decision. What greater book could we have to tell us as future kings and priests in the kingdom, in the thousand years, and then some better examples to learn what to do and what not to do. Really, it's the only thing we have that is pure righteousness. Because see, some people, there's righteous over here, but pure righteousness, where it's not righteous on the outside. It's righteous on the outside and the inside, because that's what Christ, the pre-incarnate Christ was, Melchizedek. Let's go and read that. Genesis 14, verse 18. Then Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought out bread and wine. He was the definite article priest of God, Mosiah. And he blessed him and said, Bless be Abram of God, Mosiah, possessor of heaven and earth, and bless be God, Mosiah, who has delivered your enemies into your hands. Reminding him, I don't think he had to, remind him, that ain't you, big boy. You're not the Rambo. You're not the Arnold Schwarzenegger. You're the, oh, that old body of yours didn't defeat all those people. I did. I did. And he, Abram, gave him, Melchizedek, king and priest, a tithe of all. A tithe of all. Why? He recognized who he was. He recognized his authority. He recognized him as king. He also recognized him as priest. This is the first instance of tithing, which is so called tithing. I believe Abel knew what tithing was. But here is the first mention. And that first mention should tell people, hmm, a tenth to God. A tenth. Maybe I should do that.

Well, maybe not. I'll make my own rules. I don't need to do that. No, that's what this, that's what these things are telling us.

But I'd like to look at something definitely as we move forward into this. God gives instructions because as we know, there were kings. 42 kings over Israel and Judah, 19 kings over Israel, 19 kings over Judah, plus one queen named Thalia, who took over his king. So you had 19, 19, or 20. 19 and 20. So there's plenty of stories. And in the next few weeks, we're going to go through those stories of those kings. And then you had three kings, Saul, David, and Solomon, who were over both tribes before they split, all the 12 tribes. But here, God is saying after he rescued them from the king of Egypt, the Pharaoh, took them out there and said, well, you know, you're going into a land. I'm going to deliver you into this land. And you're going to want a king. And let me tell you about what's going to happen here. So if you will, go with me to Deuteronomy 17. Let's start in verse 14. There's plenty. This is a warning of having a king that you choose, which is a telltale sign to us. Beware who you vote for. Okay?

Might be good to know the person personally.

Deuteronomy 17 in verse 14 says, When you come into the land which the Lord your God is giving you and possess it and dwell and say, I will set up a king over me like all the nations that are around me. You shall surely set a king over you whom the Lord your God chooses. Okay. Sets one thing out right there, right? Now, we're going to read down through verse 20. But I want you to look at this as we read this. And we'll go back and just look at some of these individual things. Okay. Because look what God says. Whom he chooses. One from among your brethren you shall set as king over you. You may not set a foreigner over you who is not your brother. What else? But he who this king shall not multiply horses for himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt to multiply horses, for the Lord has said to you, you shall not return by that way again. Neither shall you multiply wives for yourself, lest your heart turn away, nor shall he greatly multiply silver and gold for himself. Also it shall be when he sets on the throne of his kingdom that he shall write for himself a copy of this law in the book from the one before the priests, the Levites. It shall be with him, and he shall read it all the days of his life that he may learn to fear the Lord is God, and be careful to observe all the words of this law and statute, that his heart may not be lifted up above his brethren, that he may not turn aside from the commandments to the right, to the left, and that he may prolong his days of his kingdom, he and his children in the midst of Israel. Okay, you know what he just said in those verses? Seven things. Amazing. God had seven. Seven. Not eight. Not six. Seven instructions here. Okay? Let's get this. First one. The Lord chooses.

You don't choose. No foreigners. Why? Because they didn't have the instruction. The second. Multiply horses, which meant no dealing with Egypt.

Third. Don't multiply wives. And gold and silver. Because every guy knows. You get the money. You get the women. Right? First you get the money, then you get the power, then you get the women, I believe. Scarface said that. Yep. Knew it somewhere in there. And my bad ears watching stuff. So he said, don't do it, but your kings don't want to do this. Don't let them do it. And then the king is to write for himself. Okay. Here, I've got a scribe. Scribe. Write this down. No, write it yourself. Write the book of the law. That's the fourth. But the fifth is, you got the book of the law. Now read it.

All the days of your life. What does God require of us? Read the book, all the days of our lives. It's that plane. Why? Because we're going to be kings. Do what? Yes, you're going to forget it. Oh yeah, what was that? Oh, somebody remind me. How many commandments? Oh, just two? That's good. And six. What is this done for? That is, heart is not lifted up. Humble. Doesn't want a king that says, I'm king, and you're not. Serve me. You servants. And yet we had the king of kings come on this earth in his three and a half year ministry and said, what? What can I do? I'm serving. That's the king that God wants. And finally, what is it? The seventh? Something that he tells us. Very simple. Give the commandments. All of them, not just nine. Okay, because I had a neighbor, he was a preacher, and he had a house on the hill, and he would set this sign out there that said, the commandments are kept here. And I wanted to write nine of the commandments are kept here because he was a Sunday preacher, because he didn't keep them. And he was a good neighbor and a good person, but he didn't. He tried his best on the nine, but the one? No. This is what was given to the kings. A warning for the kings. Is it a warning to us as future kings? Oh, yes. Yes. This is not some, oh, well, that's the old law. Matter of fact, that's the Torah. That's for the Jews. This is for the Melchizedek priesthood. This is how we will reign in the thousand-year millennial reign of Christ. And then some. You've got to remember, Revelation 22 says forever and ever and ever.

Now let's go and see what happened. If you go, we'll go with me to 1 Samuel. 1 Samuel. Israel gets their king. You wanted something all your life, and then it finally, you get it.

See, I remember when I was six years old, I wanted a train set. Lionel. Not some cheap imitation, but the real Lionel. I told my dad, I want a Lionel. He said, what do you want for your birthday? It's your sixth birthday. Hey, you know, I want a Lionel train set. He got me that Lionel train set. This was just a simple one. Went around and around, built a little table, and it went around and around.

Man, that was neat. It had a little horn. You know, and it just went around in circles. I could back it up. Yeah, we could go backwards. A kid six years old does that for two days. It's like, what? It's going in circles. I could have taken a pencil and drawn circles. So it lost its beauty. It lost its value. Well, guess what? So did the first king of Israel.

Let's go and read the story. 1 Samuel 8. Jeff doesn't have these, but I wanted to do this. Let's go to verse 6 first, because we know what happened. Samuel goes, oh, they don't like me. They don't want to follow me. Wow, God, I'm sorry. But they said they want a king. Verse 6, 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 they say to you.

How many years has it been since Deuteronomy? A lot. Hundreds of years, yes. 250 to 400 years estimated that He had told them. It was written down. They had it. But here it comes. For they have not rejected you, Samuel, but they have rejected him. And they rejected him. And they rejected him. They rejected him. That I should not reign over them. Now let's go up to 10.

So Samuel told all the words of the Lord to the people who asked him for a king. You're going to get your train set. And he said, This will be the behavior of the king who will reign over you.

He will take your sons and appoint them for his own chariots, and to be his horsemen, and some will run before his chariots. What? Military. You're going to fight in his army. That's what this king's going to do. He will appoint captains over the thousands and captains over the fifties. He will set some to plow his ground and to reap his harvest, and some will make his weapons of war and equipment for his chariots. He will take your daughters to be perfumers, cooks, and bakers.

He will take what? The best! He will take the best! I wonder if he yelled that. I would have. Because they still wanted this king. He's going to take the best of your fields, your vineyards, your olive groves, and give them to his servants. And they're going to eat in front of you. And he will take a tenth of your grain and your vintage and give it to his officers and servants. Tax dollars, baby! And he will take your men servants and your maid servants and your finest young men and your donkeys and put them to his work.

They're going to work the fields. They're going to carry the wagons. They're going to do everything we tell them to do. And he will take a tenth of your sheep and you will be his servants. And they're going to soon find out it's like slaves. Right? Remember what Rehoboam said when he took over from his father? You think you think my father was strict? You ain't seen nothing yet. Yes. Verse 18, And you will cry out in the day because of your king, whom you have chosen for yourselves. And the Lord will not hear you in that day.

You're breaking off communications with God. Because you said, I don't need you. I don't want you. You're not going to be the boss of me now. Right? And so guess what? I can't hear you. That's what God was telling. Why should I listen to you now? You don't want to listen to me. That we also may be like all the nations that our king may judge us, and go out before us and fight our battles. And that's something.

Anything change today? Look around. Look around at our world today. He may be called a president, but he's king. And what about our military? What about our military? Well, we had a draft before. Many of you have served in the military, right?

What else is happening? The food? Everything, everything that he says here is taking place today. What about your tax dollars? How about the IRS? Okay. What do we hear? Don't you have a slide for that? Jeff. How about that? That's your tax dollars of work? Okay. I remember 40 years ago when I started working, they were talking about the military, and we were laughing because here I had to buy a 22-ounce east wing hammer, and it cost me like $11 in. I'm telling you what it costs now. And I thought that was bad, and the guy goes, well, you didn't see where the military just paid $500 for a hammer. Remember those stories? That's true! Who gets to drink the best wine? Who gets to eat the best food? On you! On me! We just got 85,000 new agents! Woo-hoo! They get to check through something. They're paid because we have turned from God. Just like they did in Israel. They wanted a king. We want a king. And, brethren, think about it. We have no one to blame but ourselves.

So, what have you learned from this lesson? What will you take from this? What will you take from studying the kings? Because it's not going to be that way in the kingdom of God. No king is going to take Sarah or Raquel Welch. It's not going to happen. All these things are not going to happen. We don't need an army! How much the budget? I didn't forget. How many billions are we in for that? I know we just sent 800 million, what was the day before yesterday, to Ukraine. I think we already sent them 400 million. Okay, but we got to have this. Jeff, you were on a battle. How much does those things cost? How many billions? I would say no less than 80. There's a lot that goes into that area. Yeah, plus the planes, plus our air force. How much do they get? They get to serve two terms and they get a retirement. Yes, forever!

We learn these lessons as God's way works. I'm just setting the tone for the next week's Bible study, because all you have to do is go look at Scripture and how. What would you do?

The sad part is, the people today in this country, they don't want God, so what would it take? The dictator. What is Christ going to have to be when he returns? A dictator, a benevolent one, but he's going to have to be a dictator. There's not going to be an argument. Well, wait a minute. You don't. DNA and XX is, wait a minute, Y, X, X, Y. Wait a minute. I'm not sure. Christ, are you sure? We need to talk about this transgender thing. It ain't going to be that. Not going to happen. XX is XX. XY is XY.

There was a man. His name was Edward Everett Hale. Edward Everett Hale, the chaplain of the U.S. Senate in 1903. So as I wrap this sermon up today, I just thought, because he was there over 100 years ago.

Was there a corruptness 100 years ago? Yes. Is there more corruption today? Well, yes. There's more money, and there's more politicians, and there's more religions, and there's more everything to do than there was.

Mr. Hale was a child prodigy. We had a couple of things in common. That isn't one of them.

One thing we did have in common, I started the seventh grade when I was 13. He started Harvard when he was 13. Quite a bit of difference there. He became a minister, a historian, and a writer, but he was well known as a moral man. In 1903, he became chaplain of the Senate, and he was asked back in 1903, 1904, 1905, someone wanted during his term, he was asked, Dr. Hale, do you pray for the senators? You know what his answer was? No. I pray for the people.

How profound. I pray for the people, because by being in the belly of the beast, by being up there, he knew how corrupt people were.

We once had a president who said, bigger government isn't the answer, it's the problem.

God's government's pretty simple if you go back and look at it. One God, 10% and some offerings. You want to fight a battle. Don't fight any war. And you're going to have so much food that it's going to be just laying in the fields, ready for anybody to pick it up. How beautiful is that? That we get to be a part of that kingdom. That is why you should be at the Feast of Tabernacles. That is why you should hear those words. That is so we can have that glorious picture of what our destiny is. Go with me now. Now, back to Proverbs.

I pulled these out of the New Living Translation. I would like for you to look at this because I'm reading from the New Living Translation in Proverbs 11 and verse 14. Next week I'd like to go through a little bit of this because there are loads and loads of instructions just for us in the book of Proverbs from a former king who had it all and who corrupted everything he had. There are line upon line. You can say, precept upon precept of instructions laid out for leaders and for kings. That's for us. Read it in Proverbs and read it in Ecclesiastes. Proverbs 11 verse 14 from the New Living Translation. Without wise leadership, a nation falls. There is safety in having many advisors. Brother, we learned that now that we don't know it all. I have I listen to you guys. I get advice from you guys. Well, services. I use the deacons. They're my advisors because I've learned from here. You get in trouble when you make all the decisions and you think you're right. It's that humility that starts. Okay.

Proverbs 17. Proverbs 17, 26. It is wrong to punish the godly for being good and to flog leaders for being honest. This is a New Living Translation. Uh-oh. They don't necessarily flog. But, boy, are you punished if you come out as a leader and say, that's wrong. That's morally wrong. That is wrong for the youth. That is wrong for women. That is wrong. You're castigated.

And they'll beat you down. If you bring up anything that has anything to do with religious. In Canada, United Church of God cannot put messages out if, because they're deemed offensive, if they have anything to do with same-sex marriage. Is it coming? I said it's here in different areas, just not as strong. Proverbs 28, verse 2. When there is moral rot. You like that one? I do. When there is moral rot. Do we have rot yet? When there is moral rot within a nation, its government topples easily, but the wise and knowledgeable leaders bring what? Stability. They don't go up and say, let's have a poll. Better run a poll and see what the people think. No. That's not how the government of God is going to be run. Brethren, we're going to look at being kings. We're going to look at being prepared to be kings and ruling a world under the King of Kings. That's what we're going to be doing during the next few weeks is we prepare for that feast of trumpets, which, whether you realize it or not, that's the day of your ordination. That's the day of your crowning. We should look forward. Whether you're dead or whether you're alive, that day is a day. We all become kings.