A Davidic king was promised (by pre-exilic prophets such as Isaiah and Micah). It would seem that when I AM brought Israel back to her land that this king would come. But Judah came back to Judea and no king arose. Instead, the promise of a Davidic king was restated (by prophets like Zechariah). Yet no king came. A question does arise in the silence, will I AM keep his word? He brought back Judah from exile as promised, not to mention the millennia during which I AM promised and then fulfilled that promise. But century upon century passes without a king. Will I AM bring his king?

After four hundred years, he does. But not in the way one would think. He is a carpenter from Nazareth, a region the Judeans usually looked down upon much like the Ozarks today. There is nothing regal about him, nothing that screams “King!” He was no Saul of the days long ago. He was a David in that David being of small stature did not appear to be a king. Yet this carpenter was of the lineage of David to be sure. He did not appear with a great miracle, although his birth was miraculous. Rather he came onto the scene during a time when there were many persons the Judean people believed would be that king. People who would rally the people to take up arms and throw off the shackles of Rome, the third empire to rule over them since I AM’s people had returned to Judea (Medo-Persia, followed by Macedon who feuded with themselves over Judea, followed by Rome after a brief stint of independence and rule by the priests). But this carpenter did not even try to rally an army to overthrow foreign rule. Rather a man who lived in the wilderness had a message that paved the way for this carpenter to arrive.

John the Baptizer preached repentence to be ready for one who would come after him. This coming one would be much greater than John to the point that John did not see himself as worthy of untying the man’s sandals. He was seen as a prophet much like Isaiah and Jeremiah and Ezekiel from the days of the Davidic kings. Yet one was coming greater than he. His message of not only this coming one but a kingdom coming as well caught the Judean people’s attention.

During his preaching to prepare the people to receive this kingdom, or better yet to join this kingdom and the one coming with it, a Nazarite carpenter came to be baptized. John refused knowing this carpenter, named Jesus, was the one he anticipated. He told the people exactly that, this was who he was preaching about. After being persuaded to baptize Jesus, John and his followers witnessed something strange. Upon coming up from the waters of baptism, the sky rolled back to reveal a dove which descended upon Jesus and a voice that said, “This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased.” Jesus then went off into the wilderness and wasn’t seen for some time.

When he returned, he began to preach a message virtually similar to John’s except for one main concept, the kingdom was coming but Jesus didn’t speak of one to come with it. He preached what life is to be like in this kingdom. No murder and adultery because there isn’t any hate or lust, only love for I AM and for neighbor. He also did something else, miracles. Not just any miracles but those that were expected to appear with this coming one. The sick being healed. The blind made to see and the deaf made to hear and the mute made to speak. People oppressed by demonic forces were liberated.

But beyond this, Jesus taught how to return to I AM and have shalom with their God and also to have shalom with each other. Jesus brought forgiveness from I AM to his rebelling people. No more would they have to labor in deeds and sacrifice to please I AM but by trusting in what Jesus was going to do. Not only would there be peace between the people and I AM, everything would be made right again. True shalom would return. Life would return to humanity, eternal life. Life lived as it should be.

As he healed and preached, he gathered together from the people that followed him twelve men. He appointed these men to take his message and his story to the nation of Israel and tot he world. It was to these twelve men that he spoke of what was to happen to him, death by crucifixion and resurrection to new life. And it is here that we see just what people thought shalom meant for them. They wanted Jesus to restore Israel to her former self, not for him to die a shameful death. They swore to prevent his death, not to allow it.

He persisted in his confidence of his end and restoration. And after about three years of preaching and healing and loving the people. Jesus went to Jerusalem, entering the town on a donkey. The crowds welcomed him into the town as a hero and savior. Upon entering the temple, Jesus was disgusted and disrupted the passover “perversions,” people making a profit in the house that was to be for communion with I AM. He then declared that building and all it had become was to be gone. Many were offended by what he had done and said. So they conspired to kill him. They found someone who was one of the twelve to help their plot. When they sprang their trap, Jesus did not resist–even ordering his followers to stand down–and in fact ensured his own demise by uttering what they thought and believed to be blasphemy.

They brought him before the Roman governor and convinced him to crucify Jesus. And Jesus was led out of the city to Golgotha and there was crucified. Hour upon hour of agony until he died, his heart pierced physically to ensure death. His body was taken down and properly buried in a tomb. Roman guards were put at the entrance of the sealed tomb to ensure no one could steal the body. The Judean priests and religious leaders knew that Jesus promised to rise again to new life, to be resurrected.

But the broken body did rise to life. The tomb was rolled away. The guards did not stop Jesus from leaving that tomb. He appeared to his disciples and proved to them that he had indeed been resurrected. And so he commissioned them to go out into the known world, both Jews and Gentiles, and tell them of his life and death and resurrection, commanding them to repent. For Jesus was to be seated at the right hand of I AM for his obedience. His life and death was all part of living that life of peace that I AM had intended for humanity to have. And as such I AM vindicated Jesus, declared him to be righteous and obedient, by raising him from the dead. And as Jesus’ reward he was seated at I AM’s seat of honor as king of this new kingdom that has reintroduced I AM’s “peace.”

The book of Acts tells us that the eleven remaining from that group of twelve, plus many others, did as Jesus commanded, the spread the word to the whole world–as it continues to spread today–that Jesus came as king over a kingdom that has brought the shalom Adam forfeited at the dawn of time. There is a way to remove the curse that I AM placed upon his creation, King Jesus. The question is now, how did Jesus bring back shalom and how do we get it?