There are many kings in the Old Testament. Ever since the Israelites first requested a king in 1 Samuel 8, one has been in charge over the land. These kings have been both bad and good; some do the will of the Lord, and others do not. In Deuteronomy 17, the Lord tells Israel that they will request a king when they enter the Promised Land and He therefore declares that He will decide who that king should be. He determines that the Deuteronomic ideal (named for the book it is found in) is that the king shall not be a foreigner of the land, shall not collect horses, shall not have many wives, and shall not greatly increase gold and silver for himself. In the Old Testament, there was not a single king who came close to accomplishing the Deuteronomic ideal, so who is the king that God has chosen? The king who God has promised is himself and he came as Jesus, the fulfiller of the Deuteronomic ideal. 

The Israelites made a mistake when they asked for an earthly king like the rest of the nations because they already had one. In Leviticus 26:12 God tells the Israelites that “[He] will walk among [them] and be [their] God, and  [they] will be [His] people.”¹ In other words, the Supreme Ruler of all told them that He would be with them. They had no need for a king because the God of the universe was already with them, guiding them, and even “walk[ing] among them” (Leviticus 26:12). This was the grave mistake that the Israelites made when they chose a king for themselves: they forgot God, Who was and continued to be their true King. However, God in his great mercy still gave them what they asked for in order to accomplish His will. He gave them Saul. 

God and the nation chose Saul as king. Saul started off ruling the nation well, but eventually he made several mistakes that cost him the throne. He offered a sacrifice in the place of the priest in a desperate situation of war and he denied his troops the right to eat, disobeying God in the acts of his kingship (1 Sam. 13, 14). The true King was not king at all for Saul. Saul became haughty and did not do the thing that a king should do: recognize and follow a greater King. Saul’s mistakes and pride led to God replacing him as king. The next king was David. 

David, the greatest king of the Old Testament was chosen by God to be king and a type for Christ for a certain time. He was a man after God’s own heart (1 Sam. 13:14) and served the Lord for many years as king. However, David was not perfect and made horrible mistakes concerning his sin of adultery with Bathsheba and his attempted murder of Uriah (2 Sam. 11). Even still, David greatly reflected the kingship God had planned for, but he was not the ultimate King. The true King was yet to come.  

After David, his son, Solomon, ruled the nation. Solomon's rule went well until he “did not observe what the Lord had commanded” (1 Kgs. 11:10). Because of Solomon’s disobedience, God divided the nation into two: the Northern kingdom, Israel or Ephraim, and the Southern Kingdom, Judah. Israel had ten dynasties and twenty different kings, all of whom were wicked. Judah, on the other hand, had one dynasty of twenty kings, of which two of them were holy. They were the kings Josiah and Hezekiah. The two good kings were considered to rule well because they recognized that they were truly not the ones in charge. God was in charge. They took care of worship of God in the temple and condemned the worship of any other gods in the nation. However, the true King was yet to come. 

In 723 B.C. Israel fell to the Assyrians and in 586 B.C. Judah fell to the Babylonians. Until 538 B.C the Israelites were in exile in Babylon, and once Cyrus made a decree to release them, they returned to Israel as a united nation. However, they never chose a king again. Where was this King that God promised would be holy and hold the Deuteronomic ideal? He was finally coming bodily. 

Around 4 B.C. The birth of Jesus took place. He was born in Bethlehem from a virgin as the prophets had predicted (Mic. 5:2, Isa. 7:14, Matt. 1:22-23). Isaiah the prophet even attributed titles of God to Jesus, saying, “to us a child is born; to us a son is given. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” (Isa. 9:6-7). God, Who was the true King and Orchestrator of all in the Old Testament came bodily as an earthly King, because Jesus was descended from the line of David (Matt. 1). The King that God had promised was himself and he had finally come, but the nation did not recognize him. Perhaps this is due to the humility of Jesus. During his life, Jesus did not experience wealth in the sense that kings generally do. He did not acquire wives, nor horses, nor large amounts of gold. He was humble and came for a purpose. He came to fulfill the Deuteronomic ideal of the perfect King. Moreover, he came to die for the sins of his kingdom. However, Israel did not recognize this lowly King and His mission and chose to  crucify Him. Now, Christianity is the largest religion in the world and Christians follow the true King who accomplished all of the prophecies concerning himself and lived out the Deuteronomic ideal that kings of the Old Testament were supposed to follow.