Thoughts on Psalm 110

Today’s reading: Psalms 110-113; Luke 21

Reading Psalm 110 this morning just makes me wonder if Israel would have fared any better spiritually if Moses had listened when God first called him and the priesthood had never been split out from the throne.

When God first appeared to Moses, in the burning bush, He called Moses to go lead His people out of slavery, and Moses refused to go. God answered multiple of Moses’ excuses, and when Moses finally dropped all pretense and just refused, God brought Moses’ brother Aaron into the picture; Moses would lead the people and Aaron would act as priest. But this split of the leadership and priesthood only came about when Moses refused to go.

And what was the result of this split? As soon as the people were out of Egypt, while Moses was on the mountain speaking with God, Aaron made a golden calf for the people to worship instead of Yahweh. But what might it have looked like if the spiritual and governmental leadership in Israel had never been divided? Throughout the books of Kings and Chronicles we read of multiple times in the country’s history where there was a good priest or prophet and a bad king, or where there was a good king and a less than faithful high priest. Maybe it wouldn’t have gone any better, but it is one of those “what if” scenarios that I somewhat regularly wonder about.

This was God’s design from the beginning, and it will be the design again in the end. Adam and Eve were commissioned to fill and subdue the earth, expanding God’s rule until all the world was like Eden. Melchizedek was both king and priest of God most high. And the Messiah, according to Psalm 110, will be a king, whose scepter extends forth from Zion and who rules in the midst of his enemies, as well as a perpetual priest after the order of Melchizedek.

Clearly, God’s design and intention was that there should be no distinction between the governmental and spiritual leadership of His people. There is a part of me that thinks it was maybe better to have the roles spilt out so that there is a better chance that at least one of the people in the two roles is godly, but I also fully admit that it looking at it according to my own wisdom. How often do we hear what God says is best and think we know better, only to find, when we go our own way, that His way was actually the better way to go all along? So it makes me wonder if things would have gone any differently for them if this concession had never been made for Moses.