It must be remembered that in Deuteronomy, Jesus does not appear or speak in a theophany, but, instead, delegates authority to Moses to not only speak what He has revealed, but also to go beyond it in order to give further penitential and symbolic laws to the people in order to, again, keep them quarantined from idolatry. Think of it this way, the golden calf incident prevented every firstborn father and son from serving as priestly assistants within the Temple, and, therefore, gave us the Book of Leviticus with many symbolic laws. The rebellion of Korah and the later sins of the spies and the idolatry of Baal Peor only made things worse. God, therefore, no longer appeared to them. According to Ezekiel, he gave Moses permission to give them “laws that were not good,” such as collecting interest from gentiles only and herem warfare.
With this background, we could say that Deureronomy was given to establish Israel, for the most part, as a secular nation state, just like the other nations around them…no longer as a royal priestly one for sake of bringing the gentiles into relationship with God (this vocation they lost after the calf). Now, if we keep in mind that everything after the calf was to quarantine any threat or temptation to idolatry, it may seem odd that Jesus would accept Moses’ decision to accommodate the Israelite interest in having a king, especially since God alone is King whom they now serve, and no longer is pharaoh king. Earthly kings were considered to be “living images,” aka sons of the gods, bearers of their authority, and this also has a connection to idols being considered “images” of gods. But it must also be remembered that the Israelites could not avoid all possible contact with their gentile neighbours, and, without a king of their own, they would have been tempted to accept gentile kings, and the idolatry that would accompany this, just like they did within Egypt. Interestingly, however, God promised long before in Genesis that “the seed of the woman” (the concept of the true Son of Adam to come, who was later revealed, within Daniel, to be Divine) would crush the serpent’s head, that God would establish a kingly dynasty through Abraham, as well as a promise, through the true Son of Abraham, to establish a world wide, international blessing (contrast this to the Tower of Babel kingly idolatry incident), and that the “scepter would not depart from Judah” until this King comes. Solomon, called the small “m” messiah, or anointed one, in his own role and person, brought back everything that the Israelites lost because of the calf…he is priestly and offers up actual sacrifices, he is royal, he transforms the nation of Israel into an international covenant with the gentiles, he welcomes the gentiles to teach them the truth and wisdom of the true God. God even promises to “raise up,” when David is long dead, one of his sons with a Kingdom that will be forever (leading to the conclusion that this King to come must be Divine and Immortal, even Eternal). But what happened to the fulfilment of the Torah that was the Davidic Covenant? What happened to the covenant promises? Such a longing formed the basis of the eschatological hopes within the prophets, as well as within the apocalyptic literature of Second Temple Judaism for the coming of the true and capital “M” Messiah.
In light of all of this, it only makes sense that there is an tension between Samuel and Moses’ understanding and approach. The people, after all, were hard-hearted in idolatry and disobedient. Jesus, the same God within the Old Testament, comes and truly fulfils the understanding that God alone is King and as well as the fact that Davidic Kings were the “Sons of God.” This is perfectly understood in light of the Christological teaching that Christ is a Divine Person with our one shared human nature and the One Shared Divine Nature (shared with the Father and the Holy Spirit).
