A King Is Coming

One of the uses of the Shofar in the Old Testament is that it was used to coronate Kings. To be more precise, it was used to coronate A KING, Solomon.

In 1^st Kings 1:39 Solomon was the first and, as far as I have found, only king to be coronated with the sound of a trumpet as recorded in the Bible. Let’s look at that.

“Zadok the priest then took the horn of oil from the tent and anointed Solomon. Then they blew the trumpet and all  the people said, “Long live King Solomon!” 1^st Kings 1:39 (NASB95 emphasis is my own)

If we look closely, Zadok the High Priest took a horn of oil, which was a ram’s horn of oil (a symbol of God provision), and anointed Solomon. It was just as Samuel had anointed a sheep herder, David, to be king. But THEN they blew the trumpet, and coronated Solomon with a shofar blast. THEN the people said, “Long live King Solomon!” As for my study and research has found, Solomon is the only king recorded to be coronated with the trumpet blast. Mind you, Solomon was the first in David’s line to be made king and he was anointed king and coronated with the sound of a trumpet. What does that mean?

It means that God’s sovereignty was declared in that David had made Solomon King in his place instead of Adonijah, Solomon’s elder brother. In Hebrew and Jewish culture, historically, that was a big deal.

David’s charge to Solomon was a heavy one.

“Keep the charge of the LORD your God, to walk in His ways, to keep His statutes, His commandments, His  ordinances, and His testimonies, according to what is written in the Law of Moses, that you may succeed in all that you do and wherever you turn, so that the LORD may carry out His promise which He spoke concerning me, saying, ‘If your sons are careful of their way, to walk before Me in truth with all their heart and with all their soul, you will not  lack a man on the throne of Israel.’”  1^st Kings 2:3-4 (NASB95 emphasis is my own)

Now, that’s a tall order to fill! Notice that David lists statutes, commandments, ordinances, and testimonies, separately, according the what is written in the Law of Moses. Why would David separate these things? Because they are NOT the same thing! By the way, in case you didn’t catch it, the charge David issued to Solomon is an ancient path as I discussed yesterday!

His “ways” is a manner of conduct. A statute is a law or regulatory entity. A commandment is just that, a command. It’s an order. It’s not law and it’s not an ordinance. It’s a command. An ordinance is a judgment or determination that is final. Testimonies are a testament, or a remembrance of what God has done. Have you ever wondered why the Bible is separated into the Old Testament and New Testament. The Old Testament is a “testimony” of the forefathers of Israel. It is a remembrance of what God has done for Israel. It points to and leads to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Yeshua Ha-Mashiach. The New Testament is the testimony of Jesus. The Old is simply a precursor to the New Testament and how to conduct ourselves.

Why should Solomon follow these instructions, these “ancient paths”? So that God can carry out the Davidic Covenant, the promise that God made concerning David that IF his sons would do these things, THEN David would not be lacking a man on the throne of Israel.

But Solomon and the kings of Israel forth coming did not observe these criteria, these ancient paths that were not ancient at the time, with steadfastness.

In Ezekiel 34 God admonishes the Shepherds of Israel. It seems that had the same problem that a lot of preachers today are having. They benefited from the giving of the flock, but they did not feed the flock. They weren’t feeding the flock they were fleecing the flock! Same as today. But God said that He would make His servant David the Shepherd over God’s flock. Did He mean David himself? No, God meant one from the House of David. That would be Jesus Christ, Yeshua Ha-Mashiach.  Jesus is the Shepherd. Preachers and pastors are under shepherds supposedly working for Jesus in tending the flocks of the Lord.

Who kept the charge that David issued to Solomon? Jesus did. Again, the ancient paths lead to Jesus. Solomon was the first in David’s line to be coronated King with the sound of the shofar. Man sounded the shofar to coronate Solomon. It was an earthly blast of the shofar. Jesus will be the last in David’s line and He will be coronated King of Kings with a heavenly blast of the shofar.

“For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of  God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the  clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord.”  1 Thessalonians 4:16-17

I don’t care how you look at it, that’s a beautiful picture. There is a shout! There is a voice of the archangel to make an announcement. What’s the archangel announcing? The KING has come! The trumpet will raise the dead, call those who are living up, and coronate Jesus as King of all Kings as His Kingdom is established.

But it is not the first time the shofar was sounded for Jesus.

“God has ascended with a shout, The Lord, with the sound of a trumpet.”  Psalm 47:5

“Kinda gives you something to think about, doesn’t it?

Another thing about the month of Elul or the sixth month is that it was a time, historically, that the king would come out of the castle, so to speak, and mingle with the common people. It was a time that he would make himself available to the people to hear their problems and their complaints. Of course, we always have access to the Father, as Jesus advocates for us. But this month of Elul is a preparation for the “High Holy Days” of Yom Teruah (Day of the Great Shout or Rosh Hoshana), The Feast of Trumpets, Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement), The Feast of Tabernacles. Those events held meaning for Israel and, believe it or not, they hold meaning for us today. I’ll cover what it all means as we progress and are closer to the seventh month.

It is a time for drawing nearer to God. And it all cycles around the sounding of a trumpet from the first day of Elul through the tenth day of Tishri.

 

I am The Old Watchman, Ezekiel. Be blessed. Shalom!