May 2025

A Commentary on Isaiah, Part 30: The Righteous Ruler

Only Yahweh God may justly rule over the children of Israel, and only He can truly be a righteous ruler. When Israel had demanded an earthly king, as it is described in 1 Samuel chapter 8, they had actually rejected the rule of Yahweh their God. There we read, in part: “4 Then all the elders of Israel gathered themselves together, and came to Samuel unto Ramah, 5 And said unto him, Behold, thou art old, and thy sons walk not in thy ways: now make us a king to judge us like all the nations. 6 But the thing displeased Samuel, when they said, Give us a king to judge us. And Samuel prayed unto the LORD. 7 And the LORD said unto Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee: for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them.” 

Of course, Samuel had not yet died, that his sinful sons might become their judges, so the elders and the people should have instead prayed to God for a righteous judge, and not for a king. They had sought an earthly solution to a problem that only God could have been expected to resolve. However a sinful people have the government that they deserve, and men shall have a tyrannical government when they deserve to be punished, as Paul of Tarsus had explained in Romans chapter 13. This is certainly a signal example of the truth of the adage, Be careful what you ask for, as the descendants of those ancient children of Israel continue to suffer on account of their demands. So today men must come to the realization, that if demanding an earthly king was a national sin, then subjecting oneself to Christ and rejecting all earthly kings, or presidents, or whatever else such a ruler may be called, must be an element of national repentance.