Shadowed Gospel: The Death of the Lord of Righteousness
Here is something you probably did not know about the story of the Bible.
Jesus was not the first king of Jerusalem who was killed by his enemies, who was hung on a tree, who was taken down from that tree at sunset and buried in an unused tomb.
The name of that king was Adonai-Zedek and you find his story in Joshua 10.
It was the practice of Joshua —the successor to Moses— during his conquest of the Promised Land to kill the kings of the peoples he was conquering, to hang their corpses on a tree —probably impaling them on a stake— and then to bury them outside the city under a pile of stones before the sun had set.
It was a brutal act and an offensive display meant to strike fear in the hearts of the kings who had yet to face Joshua in battle. And it was Joshua's way of putting the kings of his enemies to open shame and triumphing over them by impaling them and then marking their graves with a pile of stones outside of their city gates. He did this to the king of Jericho, the king of Ai, and four other kings besides Adonai-Zedek.
Of the kings that Joshua did this too, the story of the death of King Adonai-Zedek is an interesting one because of its obvious parallels to the story of King Jesus and his crucifixion.
The first, which has already been mentioned is that Adonai-Zedek was the king of Jerusalem. While Jesus was the King of the Jews and not simply the king of Jerusalem, Jerusalem is the capital city of Judah.
The second remarkable parallel here is Adonai-Zedek's name. His name in English would be "Lord of Righteousness". Immediately we think of Jesus when we hear that name, and rightly so. In Jeremiah 23:5-6 Jeremiah tells us that the name of the Messiah will be "LORD of Righteousness".
“Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name by which he will be called: ‘The LORD is our righteousness.”
The third parallel is that the defeat of Adonai-Zedek's army comes after Joshua commands the sun and moon to stand still while he pursues his enemies. While the sun and moon did not stand still the day that Jesus hung outside of Jerusalem, the sun did not give its light for three hours, from noon until 3 PM.
And finally, Adonai-Zedek was buried in a cave and giant stones were placed in front of the cave to seal them inside. This is exactly what we find in the story of Jesus' burial. After his body was removed from the cross, he was laid in a tomb and a large stone was rolled in front of the tomb to seal it shut.
JESUS IS BETTER
It is so interesting to me that Jesus was killed just like these kings who Joshua killed, not simply for the striking parallels that exist between the two stories but because of what is upside-down. In the story of the conquest, Joshua was on a mission to liberate the land that was promised to Abraham from the sinful people who were polluting it with their idol worship and sinful behavior. They were not victims of meaningless violence —although theirs was certainly a violent end— they were objects of God’s anger at rebellious people who were befouling his covenant land. Jesus was neither rebellious nor polluting the land. He was the opposite of that. Not only did he not sin, he only did what is good and right all of the time. Despite Jesus being the suffering king who was hung on a tree, he seems to be a bit more like Joshua in his story than he was Adonai-Zedek.
Jesus may not have traveled around killing his enemies as Joshua had but he was nonetheless on the mission of God to liberate the land. He did not vanquish his enemies by killing them with his sword, he conquered them by rescuing them from the sin that would ultimately lead to their judgment. To all who would believe, he forgave them their sin, he healed their diseases, and cast out demons everywhere he went. Jesus was a lot more like Joshua than he was Adonai-Zedek in his story. I guess that is why it should not surprise us to find that the name Jesus is the Hellenized (or Greek) pronunciation of the Hebrew name Yehoshua, or Joshua.
“Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree’.”
Jesus is also unlike Adonai-Zedek because rather than killing his enemies he gave himself over to be scourged and crucified by them, such that the punishment he received from his enemies on the cross would absorb God’s righteous anger against his people and their sin, and satisfy the justice that was coming for them, for their worship of idols and rebellious behavior (all the stuff for which Adonai-Zedek and his people were killed).
Jesus willingly laid down his life for his enemies to forgive us of our sins, and he disarmed the rulers and authorities of this world by putting them to open shame, triumphing over them on the hanging tree. But unlike Adonai-Zedek, who remains sealed in his tomb to this day, Jesus is not.
“And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.”
While the story of Adonai-Zedek and his death at the hands of Joshua is similar to the story of Jesus’ death, Jesus is greater than Joshua and his death accomplished far more for Israel than the death of Adonai-Zedek. Jesus is greater than Joshua because when Joshua executed Adonai-Zedek it only removed the sins of Adonai-Zedek from the land. But when Jesus lays down his life on the cross it expunges the sin and guilt of his people throughout human history, forever.