Why Our Torah Suppresses The Image Of God’s Kingship – OpEd

Professor Israel Knohl points out that several biblical passages imply that God was ritually enthroned as king during the Jewish new year celebrations. In the Torah itself, however, this view is suppressed. God as king appears only in three ancient poetic passages, never in the Torah's prose or laws, including in its description of the Jewish New Year Festival Rosh Hashanah.

The Torah takes a skeptical perspective on the institution of the monarchy. The collections of laws that precede the Book of Deuteronomy make no mention of future kings, preferring to speak of the leader of a tribe. Thus, in Exodus' Covenant Collection, the law cautions that one must not "put a curse upon a leader among your people" (Exodus 22:27).

Similarly, in the Priestly laws of Leviticus, the law of the sin offering does not discuss the sin of a king, but instead says, "in case it is a leader who incurs guilt" (Leviticus 4:22).

Deuteronomy does dedicate a law to the king, but the central aim of this law is to reduce the authority of the king and to constrain him in terms of his economic resources and military power.

Professor Israel Knohl states "In contrast to ancient Near Eastern monarchs, nowhere does Deuteronomy hint that the king is involved in judicial affairs. Instead, the most difficult decisions are brought "before the priests, or the magistrate in charge at the time" Deuteronomy 17:9).Deuteronomy also gives no indication that the king would have any role in the Temple cult.

The Torah's reservations about a monarchy's power are not only about human kingship, but even divine kingship. The Torah uses parent-child imagery to describe YHWH's relationship with Israel: Deuteronomy 14:1You are children of YHWH your God...Deut 32:6Is not He the Father who created you, fashioned you and made you endure!Deut 8:5Bear in mind that YHWH your God disciplines you just as a man disciplines his son.

God is also described as a lover who desires the Israelites:Deut 7:7It is not because you are the most numerous of peoples that YHWH set His heart on you and chose you — indeed, you are the smallest of peoples;7:8but it was because YHWH favored you and kept the oath He made to your fathers...Deut 10:15Yet it was to your fathers that YHWH was drawn in His love for them, so that He chose you, their lineal descendants, from among all peoples as is now the case.

Moreover, YHWH is a jealous lover when Israel betrays Him and worships other gods (Deut 4:24; 6:14-15). In no part of the prose or laws of the Torah, however, is God called a king. This is particularly surprising because it is commonly accepted that the model of the scriptural covenant is drawn from the political reality of the ancient East, where the sovereign party to a covenant was the king.

Thus from very early in Jewish history and religious literature there has been a strong current of criticism of those who are powerful and how they use their power; and even more radical, of the self-justification of powerful institutions. The clearest example of this opposition to institutional power occurred at the end of the eleventh century BCE at a time when many of the People of Israel said they wanted to be ruled by a hereditary monarchy just like all the other nations around them.

According to the first Book of Samuel chapter 8: "In his old age Samuel appointed his sons as judges over Israel. The name of his firstborn son was Joel, and the name of his second son was Abijah. They were judges in Beer Sheba. But his sons did not follow Samuel's ways. Instead, they made money dishonestly, accepted bribes, and perverted justice.

"So all the elders of Israel gathered together and approached Samuel at Ramah. They said to him, "Look, you are old, and your sons don't follow your ways. So now appoint over us a king to lead us, just like all the other nations have.

"But this request displeased Samuel, for they said, "Give us a king to lead us." So Samuel prayed to the Lord. The Lord said to Samuel, "Do everything the people request of you. For it is not you that they have rejected, but it is me that they have rejected as their king. Just as they have done from the day that I brought them up from Egypt until this very day, they have rejected me and have served other gods. This is what they are also doing to you. So now do as they say.

"But seriously warn them and make them aware of the policies of the king who will rule over them." So Samuel spoke all the words of the Lord to the people who were asking him for a king. He said, "Here are the policies of the king who will rule over you: He will conscript your sons and put them in his chariot forces and in his cavalry; they will run in front of his chariot. He will appoint for himself leaders of thousands and leaders of fifties, as well as those who plow his ground, reap his harvest, and make his weapons of war and his chariot equipment.

"He will take your daughters to be ointment makers, cooks, and bakers. 14 He will take your best fields and vineyards and give them to his own servants. He will demand a tenth of your seed and of the produce of your vineyards and give it to his administrators and his servants. He will take your male and female servants, as well as your best cattle and your donkeys, and assign them for his own use. He will demand a tenth of your flocks, and you yourselves will be his servants. In that day you will cry out because of your king whom you have chosen for yourselves, but the Lord won't answer you in that day."

"But the people refused to heed Samuel's warning. Instead they said, "No! There will be a king over us! We will be like all the other nations. Our king will judge us and lead us and fight our battles."

"So Samuel listened to everything the people said and then reported it to the Lord. The Lord said to Samuel, "Do as they say and install a king over them."

Samuel's objections to a monarchy is not that some, or even most, of the kings will be corrupt and unjust. As can be seen from the list of the king's demands, these are just the normal demands that a government makes of the people it rules. Samuel the prophet was not alone in his view that powerful institutions and organizations demand what they and many others think of as appropriate support and therefore people would be better off without them.

Three or four generations prior to Samuel's opposition to the people's desire for a king, a Jewish military hero named Gideon refused to become a king when the crown was offered to him. "The men of Israel said to Gideon, "Rule over us—you, your son, and your grandson. For you have delivered us from Midian's power." Gideon said to them, "I will not rule over you, nor will my son rule over you. The Lord will rule over you. (Judges 8:22-3)

But one of Gideon's many sons did want to become a king and rule over Israel or at least a part of Israel so he convinced the leaders of his mother's clan in the city of Shechem to support him: "Now Abimelech son of Jerub-Baal (Gideon) went to Shechem to see his mother's relatives. He said to them and to his mother's entire extended family, "Tell all the leaders of Shechem this: 'Why would you want to have seventy men, all Jerub-Baal's sons, ruling over you, when you can have just one ruler? Recall that I am your own flesh and blood.'

"His mother's relatives spoke on his behalf to all the leaders of Shechem and reported his proposal. The leaders were drawn to Abimelech; they said, "He is our close relative." They paid him seventy silver shekels out of the temple of Baal-Berith and Abimelech then used the silver to hire some lawless, dangerous men as his followers. He went to his father's home in Ophrah and murdered his half-brothers, the seventy legitimate sons of Jerub-Baal, on one stone.

"Only Jotham, Jerub-Baal's youngest son, escaped, because he hid. 6 All the leaders of Shechem and Beth Millo assembled and then went and made Abimelech king by the oak near the pillar in Shechem.

"When Jotham heard the news, he went and stood on the top of Mount Gerizim. He spoke loudly to the people below, "Listen to me, leaders of Shechem, so that God may listen to you!

"The trees were determined to go out and choose a king for themselves. They said to the olive tree, 'Be our king!' But the olive tree said to them, 'I am not going to stop producing my oil, which is used to honor gods and men, just to sway above the other trees!'

"So the trees said to the fig tree, 'You come and be our king!' But the fig tree said to them, 'I am not going to stop producing my sweet figs, my excellent fruit, just to sway above the other trees!'

"So the trees said to the grapevine, 'You come and be our king!' But the grapevine said to them, 'I am not going to stop producing my wine, which makes gods and men so happy, just to sway above the other trees!'

"So all the trees said to the thornbush, 'You come and be our king!' The thornbush said to the trees, 'If you really want to choose me as your king, then come along, find safety under my branches! Otherwise may fire blaze from the thornbush and consume the cedars of Lebanon!'

"Now, if you have shown loyalty and integrity when you made Abimelech king, if you have done right to Jerub-Baal and his family, if you have properly repaid him— my father fought for you; he risked his life and delivered you from Midian's power. But you have attacked my father's family today. You murdered his seventy legitimate sons on one stone and made Abimelech, the son of his female slave, king over the leaders of Shechem, just because he is your close relative.

"So if you have shown loyalty and integrity to Jerub-Baal and his family today, then may Abimelech bring you happiness and may you bring him happiness! But if not, may fire blaze from Abimelech and consume the leaders of Shechem and Beth Millo! May fire also blaze from the leaders of Shechem and Beth Millo and consume Abimelech!"

"Then Jotham ran away to Beer and lived there to escape from Abimelech his half-brother." (Judges 9:1-21).

Jotham's speech appeals to that current in Biblical thought that believed that kingship itself was an unnecessary and unproductive institution. When a military leader was needed, one would arise; and when no longer needed, he could and should fade away. This view was similar to the view that prevailed for most of American history that the United States did not need, and should not have, a large standing army, as was the case in Europe.

Even when a monarchy was established by Samuel's selection of Saul and then David to be the first two kings of Israel, the prophets of Israel and Judea were quick to proclaim God's challenge to the kings of Israel and Judea when they did evil acts either morally or religiously. The arrest of Prophet Jeremiah provides a good example of the political danger to, and divine duty of, a Jewish prophet in ancient Israel.