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Category: Korach

The Real King

Bamidbar (Numbers) 16:1–18:32 | Sh’muel Alef (1 Samuel) 11:14–12:22

Under the leadership of the last judge, Samuel, a covenant renewal ceremony took place at Gilgal. Israel was led into a new leadership status—they wanted a king. This haftarah, therefore, is the story of what happened at that covenant renewal ceremony and the dynamics of their desire for a king.

Connection to the Parasha

Both our haftarah and its corresponding Torah portion, Parashat Korach, are stories about leadership. In the Torah portion, Korach leads a rebellion against God’s chosen leaders Moshe and Aaron. He challenges, in essence, God’s decision to appoint Moshe and Aaron as the leaders in Israel. In the end, the rebellion was crushed by the Holy One Himself, leaving Moshe and Aaron firmly entrenched as the divinely appointed leaders of His people.

We will find this same type of situation in the haftarah.

...the people displayed ingratitude towards their devoted leader, Samuel, and clamored for a king to take his place. Both Moses and Samuel protest their utter disinterestedness in the service of the people. (Hertz)

In the end, the people’s rejection of both Samuel—and ultimately the Lord—as their God-appointed leaders, proved disastrous. Saul ended up walking away from the Lord and, therefore, created great problems for the people of Israel. The sovereignty of God wins out, however, in that Saul’s demise permitted the rise of David and his godly reign.

The Real King

How do we explain what is happening here? One way that some choose to understand is that God is permitting what is happening. It is being done out of His so-called “permissive will.” That is, it is not what He planned it to be like, but is permitting it to happen anyway. The problem with this understanding is that it gives too much credit to man. It makes the decisions of the universe lay in man’s court. It poses man as the center of the...

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