The Messiah Complex
Deuteronomy 17:14-15
“When you come to the land that the LORD your God is giving you, and you possess it and dwell in it and then say, ‘I will set a king over me, like all the nations that are around me; you may indeed set a king over you whom the LORD your God will choose.”
This entire paragraph is glistening in the hues of Providence, every word a prophetic utterance, every noun and verb a promise in the making, every clause another glimpse into the wondrous mystery of God’s sovereign design for human history and of the coming of our Savior-King.
“When you come into the land that the LORD your God is giving you, “Moses writes. Not if, but when. Not ‘might give’ but is giving. “And (when) you possess it and dwell in it and then say, ‘I will set a king over me … you may indeed set a king over you whom the LORD your God will choose.” In other words, everything Moses just said will happen as a matter of fact. Every jot and tittle of it. From the overcoming of enemies to the possession of the land to the desire for monarchial rule over theocratic rule to their motivation for the shift to God choosing a king for them. Another reminder that the Bible is the one miracle of literature where every prophetic word has past, present, and future applications, because every word is a revelation of the King of glory Who was and is and is to come.
Isn’t it magnificent how God put the idea of a Messiah into the hearts and minds of pagans before He ultimately fulfilled and fleshed out that longing through Jesus Christ generations later? Marvel at the thought that men of all tribes, tongues, and nations have always longed for that once and future king. The Greeks had their shrines to Odysseus and the Romans to Julius Caesar and the Britons to Arthur and the Egyptians to Tutankhamun and the Gauls to Vercingetorix and the Aztecs to Montezuma because God has written His gospel on our very hearts.
The longing for a Messiah who’s one of us, who rises from low estate to win the battle and defeat the enemy and remove the shackles and lead as a shepherd rather than as a tyrant is a God-given desire. And it’s one only He can fulfill.