Our Need for a Righteous King

By Nick Batzig

In the Old Testament, God placed David as His king over His people. David was, as the rest of Scripture reveals, a type of Christ, the King of kings and Lord of lords. In the Davidic covenant God promised He would set one of David’s sons on the throne and over the kingdom forever. The promise of a “forever” King is fulfilled in Jesus, the Son of God and the son of David.

The great requirement of the kings who ruled the monarchy in Israel was that whoever ascended to the throne was supposed to rule in righteousness according to the Word of God. The long, sad story of the old covenant people of God is that they had a litany of kings who ruled in unrighteousness. In the line of kings were men who practiced and promoted wickedness before the people of God. Very early in the history of the monarchy, the kingdom split in two. Both Israel and Judah had kings who practiced and promoted extreme evil among the people.

These unrighteous kings practiced divination, set up high places for the worship of other gods, and led the people into the practices of the pagan nations around them. Throughout Israel’s history, there was no righteous king who could change the hearts of the people and lead them into the pure worship of God.

But the Lord made this promise to King David: “I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever” (2 Samuel 7:13). One day, God would place a righteous king over His people, uniting them through His righteous rule. Jesus came into the world, and it was evident that He is the righteous King Israel needed.

Scripture tells us Pontius Pilate “also had a sign made and put on [that] cross. It said: JESUS OF NAZARETH, the KING of the JEWS” (John 19:19), written in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin. Through a simple sign, God was superintending that title, intimating that Jesus, the righteous King of the true Israel, had come to establish His rule among His people from every nation, tribe, people, and tongue (Revelation 7:9). He is “the true one, the one who has the key of David, who opens and no one will close, and who closes and no one opens” (3:7).

Jesus has power over sin and death and all unrighteousness. He lived a perfectly sinless life and died an atoning death to establish His rule in the hearts of all those who trust Him. No longer slaves to our flesh, now those of us who put our hope in Him can live our lives freely, under the rule of the righteous King of kings and Lord of lords.

Written by Nick Batzig