Established by Blood

It plays out in gangster movies.  It plays out in North Korea.  It plays out in our history books.  Copious amounts of bloodshed in the establishing of a kingdom.

Political dynasties, whether legal or illicit, throughout history have rarely changed without violence in the absence of a very strong and well organized government i.e. the United States.  Most of the time a new kingdom means blood.

The book of 1 Kings opens with bloodshed.  Read it for yourself.  Solomon is one of two sons of King David that wants to be the next king.  Political maneuvers are made in chapter one until Solomon is declared Israel's third king by his father.  Then in chapter two David gives Solomon a charge that includes a hit list.  Solomon kills rivals to his throne and political enemies of his father. 

It's all rather bloody and more like Game of Thrones or The Godfather than we expect the Bible to be.  People are dead in the midst of a fatal game of ancient politics.

Chapter two ends like this:

"Then the king gave the order to Benaiah son of Jehoiada, and he went and struck Shimei down and killed him.  

The kingdom was now firmly established in Solomon's hands." 1 Kings 2:46

As I read this with my Bible study partner Noah Dodd, I wondered where the Gospel was.  I try to read every part of the Bible with my "Gospel glasses" on, but I'll be honest and say that I wasn't seeing it in these two chapters very much at all.

Then Noah saw it for me when he said (and I may be paraphrasing) this wonderful sentence:

"Solomon's kingdom was established by the blood of other people; Jesus' Kingdom was established by His own blood."

Yes! 

Jesus' Kingdom was established by His own blood.  Solomon ended the threat of rebels and potential rebels by shedding their own blood.  Jesus ended the threat of rebels by shedding His own blood to transform rebels into sons (Romans 5:10).  The blood of others established Solomon's throne for Solomon's brief lifetime and after his death the kingdom split.  Jesus' blood established His throne for His eternal lifetime and His Kingdom will never end.

Christ could have established His throne like Solomon, but instead He graciously died to make rebels into sons of the Father and brothers of the King.  Thank God that Jesus' throne was established by His blood today.