Last time, we looked at early Israel’s charismatic theocracy, in which Israel was a loose confederation of tribes united by faith, language, and heritage, but who were largely left to their own local governance. In times of national crisis, God would raise up a leader who could rally the tribes to the cause. But, as nostalgic as the editors of the Old Testament were about this period, it wasn’t to last. As so often is the case, the appeal of ‘what everyone else is doing’ was strong, and the people of Israel wanted in on the then state-of-the-art political and social technology known as monarchy.
Already in the story we see some weakening in faith in the tribe-and-Judge system. The judge Samuel apparently distrusted the unpredictability of the system, and appointed his two sons to follow in his footsteps. And the people noticed the advantages their rivals had over them — and centralized government definitely presents many advantages in planning, efficiency, to say nothing of the prestige of royal office. Both Samuel and the people show a lack of trust in the system, and therein a lack of faith in YHWH’s provision. As YHWH himself tells Samuel: “they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them” (1 Samuel 8.7).
The people want to renegotiate their covenant with God. Samuel goes to great lengths to ensure they know what they’re getting themselves into. In a telling statement about what ancient peoples saw as the problems of autocracy, he lists all of monarchy’s drawbacks:
He said, “These will be the ways of the king who will reign over you: he will take your sons and appoint them to his chariots and to be his horsemen, and to run before his chariots and he will appoint for himself commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and some to plow his ground and to reap his harvest, and to make his implements of war and the equipment of his chariots. He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive orchards and give them to his courtiers. He will take one-tenth of your grain and of your vineyards and give it to his officers and his courtiers. He will take your male and female slaves, and the best of your cattle and donkeys, and put them to his work. He will take one-tenth of your flocks, and you shall be his slaves. And in that day you will cry out because of your king, whom you have chosen for yourselves; but YHWH will not answer you in that day. (8.11-18)
In other words, centralized government means military and civil conscription, heavy taxation, and the centre getting wealthy at the margins’ expense. But the people are adamant and God gives them what they want.
One American theologian, Verna Dozier, has compellingly labeled Israel’s rejection of charismatic theocracy as the Second Fall: In the first, “we human beings succumb to the temptation to be God, to know absolutely what is good and what is evil. Then [in the second] we decide that the kingdoms of the world have more to offer than the kingdom of God” (The Dream of God, 60). That’s ultimately the point here. In rejecting the tribal system, the people are effectively re-writing their relationship with YHWH, pushing him more to the margins of their life as a nation.
While the shift to monarchy places a human leader at the centre of national life instead of YHWH, YHWH does not withdraw entirely. He is still shown to pick and anoint Israel’s rulers. And, perhaps most importantly, the development of a royal ideology goes hand in hand with theological development. For it’s here that we see the first overt signs of YHWH not just as a mighty warrior, but also as incorporating mature characteristics, like wisdom, good governance, and justice:
YHWH is king, he is robed in majesty;
YHWH is robed, he is girded with strength.
He has established the world; it shall never be moved;
your throne is established from of old;
you are from everlasting.
The floods have lifted up, O YHWH,
the floods have lifted up their voice;
the floods lift up their roaring.
More majestic than the thunders of mighty waters,
more majestic than the waves of the sea,
majestic on high is YHWH!
Your decrees are very sure;
holiness befits your house,
O YHWH, for evermore. (Psalm 93)
As part of this royal ideology, the king’s success is tied to his adherence to YHWH’s Law:
They confronted me in the day of my calamity;
but YHWH was my support.
He brought me out into a broad place;
he delivered me, because he delighted in me.
YHWH rewarded me according to my righteousness;
according to the cleanness of my hands he recompensed me.
For I have kept the ways of YHWH,
and have not wickedly departed from my God.
For all his ordinances were before me,
and his statutes I did not put away from me.
I was blameless before him,
and I kept myself from guilt.
Therefore YHWH has recompensed me according to my righteousness,
according to the cleanness of my hands in his sight. (Psalm 18.18-24)
The demands of kingship also required improved education, at least for the royal family. And indeed it’s widely believed that the Wisdom Literature tradition originated as paedagogical material for Judah’s court. As the prologue to the Book of Proverbs puts it:
For learning about wisdom and instruction,
for understanding words of insight,
for gaining instruction in wise dealing,
righteousness, justice, and equity;
to teach shrewdness to the simple,
knowledge and prudence to the young—
let the wise also hear and gain in learning,
and the discerning acquire skill,
to understand a proverb and a figure,
the words of the wise and their riddles.
The fear of YHWH is the beginning of knowledge;
fools despise wisdom and instruction. (Proverbs 1.1-7)
What we see in the development of royal ideology and the Wisdom tradition is how a shift in Israel’s national experience required and entailed a shift in their religious consciousness too. No longer could a strong sword hand solve the problems of the day. A good ruler also needed good planning, wisdom, unbiased reasoning and judgment, and a firm sense of right and wrong. And this in turn made them reassess what their God was like. Someone who created and governed a world as orderly and predictable as ours had to be more than just a ‘dumb jock’. And so, the people’s understanding of YHWH evolved and grew, becoming more mature, even as they pushed him away.
As it happens, the Israelite monarchy was a disaster. The first king, Saul, ranged between moody and murderously paranoid. David’s reign was marked by civil war, to say nothing of the conspiracy, rape, and murder that marked his personal life. And, while Solomon was a notoriously wise king, he also failed to prevent Northern resentments over centralized government from the South from breaking up his kingdom once and for all. The rump states of Israel (aka Samaria, Ephraim) and Judah would fare little better with their own monarchies before they were both swept up by the unrelenting pressures of the Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian Empires and erased from the map.
But it remains that this period of their history left an indelible mark on their relationship with God, and one that would set the stage for the next big shift, towards ethical monotheism.
Matthew Root 