God Is King: Why His Kingship Is Rooted in Israel’s Story

2026 Elizabeth Shulam

Rosh Hashanah arrives with a strong and serious message.

God is King.

That sounds simple enough until we remember how much human beings enjoy being in charge. We like God as helper, comforter, healer, and provider. We are less enthusiastic when Scripture speaks of God as ruler, judge, commander, and King. That is where the Bible, with its usual lack of concern for our personal comfort, begins pressing on us.

The kingship of God is rooted in Israel’s story.

From the beginning, the God of Israel reveals Himself as the One who creates, calls, commands, rescues, judges, forgives, and reigns. He calls Abraham. He delivers Israel from Egypt. He gives Torah at Sinai. He leads His people through the wilderness. He brings them into the land. He sends prophets to confront kings, priests, and people when they forget who truly rules.

Israel’s story teaches us that God’s authority reaches into real life. It shapes worship, justice, family, money, mercy, speech, work, rest, and community.

When Israel asked for a king in the days of Samuel, the request exposed a deeper struggle. The people wanted to be like the nations around them. They wanted visible power, military security, and a ruler they could point to. Samuel was troubled, but the Lord told him,

“they have rejected me from being king over them” (1 Samuel 8:7).

The issue was larger than government structure. Israel was struggling with trust. Would they live as the covenant people of the living God, or would they measure safety and success by the standards of the nations? Would they receive God’s rule as life, or treat it as a limitation?

That question still concerns us today.

Psalm 47 gives us the language of worship and allegiance:

“God is king over the nations; God sits on his holy throne” (Psalm 47:8).

Psalm 47 announces that the God of Israel reigns over all nations. His throne is holy. His rule is not temporary. His authority is not up for election, negotiation, revision, or branding.

That is good news, though it may not always feel easy.

If God is King, then the world does not belong to chaos. If God is King, then evil does not get the final word. If God is King, then human rulers, empires, systems, and movements are all limited. If God is King, then worship calls us to allegiance.

In Jewish life, the season of Rosh Hashanah is marked by reflection, repentance, prayer, and the recognition of God’s reign. It invites our hearts to wake up. Return. Examine. Listen. We humble ourselves before our King.

Yeshua came proclaiming the kingdom of God. He did not invent that language out of nowhere. He stood within the story of Israel, the words of the prophets, and the hope of God’s reign being made known in the earth.

When Yeshua teaches about the kingdom, He is speaking from Israel’s Scriptures. The King has come near. God’s rule is breaking into human life. The call to repent is a call to turn back under the authority of God.

That means the kingdom is not merely future. It begins shaping us now.

We live under God’s kingship.

God’s kingship is revealed through His faithfulness. His faithfulness is displayed in His covenant story. That story includes Israel, the nations, and the promised redemption of the world.

Rosh Hashanah gives us a timely invitation.

Crown Him again.

Not with religious words only. Crown Him in the hidden places. Crown Him in the decision you have been avoiding. Crown Him in the attitude you keep excusing. Crown Him in the place where you want control more than obedience.

God is King.

That truth is meant to comfort us, confront us, and reorder us. The throne is not empty. The world is not abandoned. Our lives are not our own little kingdoms, no matter how impressively we decorate them.

The God of Israel reigns.

And the faithful response is worship, repentance, and allegiance.