23 Bible Verses about Theocracy

The Lord said to Samuel, “Listen to the voice of the people in regard to all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me from being King over them.

All the people answered together and said, “We will do everything that the Lord has spoken.” And Moses reported the words of the people to the Lord.

At the Lord’s command the Israelites would journey on, and at His command they would camp. As long as the cloud remained over the tabernacle they remained camped.

so that you may enter into the covenant of the Lord your God, and into His oath and agreement which the Lord your God is making with you today,

But Gideon said to them, “I will not rule over you, and my son will not rule over you; the Lord shall rule over you.”

Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it aloud to the people; and they said, “Everything that the Lord has said we will do, and we will be obedient.”

All the people answered together and said, “We will do everything that the Lord has spoken.” And Moses reported the words of the people to the Lord.

But Gideon said to them, “I will not rule over you, and my son will not rule over you; the Lord shall rule over you.”

But when you saw that Nahash king of the Ammonites had come against you, you said to me, ‘No, but a king shall reign over us’—although the Lord your God was your King.

Then Moses came and told the people everything that the Lord had said and all the ordinances. And all the people answered with one voice, “Everything the Lord has said we will do.”

“And now you intend to assert yourselves against the kingdom of the Lord which is in the hands of the sons of David, since you are a great multitude and have with you the golden calves (idols) which Jeroboam made for you as gods.

The Lord said to Samuel, “Listen to the voice of the people in regard to all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me from being King over them.

But today you have rejected your God, who Himself saves you from all your disasters and distresses; yet you have said, ‘No! Set a king over us.’ Now then, present yourselves before the Lord by your tribes and by your families (clans).”

Nevertheless, the people refused to listen to the voice of Samuel, and they said, “No, but there shall be a king over us,

“Three times a year all your males shall appear before the Lord your God in the place which He chooses, at the Feast of Unleavened Bread (Passover) and at the Feast of Weeks (Pentecost) and at the Feast of Booths (Tabernacles), and they shall not appear before the Lord empty-handed.

‘And all the tithe (tenth part) of the land, whether the seed of the land or the fruit of the tree, is the Lord’s; it is holy to the Lord.

And Moses said to all the congregation of the Israelites, This is what the Lord commanded: Take from among you an offering to the Lord. Whoever is of a willing and generous heart, let him bring the Lord's offering: gold, silver, and bronze; Blue, purple, and scarlet [stuff], fine linen; goats' hair; read more.
And rams' skins tanned red, and skins of dolphins or porpoises; and acacia wood; And oil for the light; and spices for anointing oil and for fragrant incense; And onyx stones and other stones to be set for the ephod and the breastplate. And let every able and wisehearted man among you come and make all that the Lord has commanded: The tabernacle, its tent and its covering, its hooks, its boards, its bars, its pillars, and its sockets or bases; The ark and its poles, with the mercy seat, and the veil of the screen; The table and its poles and all its utensils, and the showbread (the bread of the Presence); The lampstand also for the light, and its utensils and its lamps, and the oil for the light; And the incense altar and its poles, the anointing oil and the fragrant incense, the hanging or screen for the door at the entrance of the tabernacle; The altar of burnt offering, with its bronze grating, its poles and all its utensils, the laver and its base; The court's hangings, its pillars and their sockets or bases, and the hanging or screen for the gate of the court; The pegs of the tabernacle and of the court, and their cords, The finely wrought garments for ministering in the Holy Place, the holy garments for Aaron the [high] priest and for his sons to minister as priests. Then all the congregation of the Israelites left Moses' presence. And they came, each one whose heart stirred him up and whose spirit made him willing, and brought the Lord's offering to be used for the [new] Tent of Meeting, for all its service, and the holy garments. They came, both men and women, all who were willinghearted, and brought brooches, earrings or nose rings, signet rings, and armlets or necklaces, all jewels of gold, everyone bringing an offering of gold to the Lord. And everyone with whom was found blue or purple or scarlet [stuff], or fine linen, or goats' hair, or rams' skins made red [in tanning], or dolphin or porpoise skins brought them. Everyone who could make an offering of silver or bronze brought it as the Lord's offering, and every man with whom was found any acacia wood for any work of the service brought it. All the women who had ability and were wisehearted spun with their hands and brought what they had spun of blue and purple and scarlet [stuff] and fine linen; And all the women who had ability and whose hearts stirred them up in wisdom spun the goats' hair. The leaders brought onyx stones and stones to be set for the ephod and for the breastplate, And spice, and oil for the light and for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense. The Israelites brought a freewill offering to the Lord, all men and women whose hearts made them willing and moved them to bring anything for any of the work which the Lord had commanded by Moses to be done.

When you have come into the land which the Lord your God gives you as an inheritance and possess it and live in it, You shall take some of the first of all the produce of the soil which you harvest from the land the Lord your God gives you and put it in a basket, and go to the place [the sanctuary] which the Lord your God has chosen as the abiding place for His Name [and His Presence]. And you shall go to the priest who is in office in those days, and say to him, I give thanks this day to the Lord your God that I have come to the land which the Lord swore to our fathers to give us. read more.
And the priest shall take the basket from your hand and set it down before the altar of the Lord your God.

and they put him in custody, because it had not been explained [by God] what should be done to him.

And Moses said to them, Stand still, and I will hear what the Lord will command concerning you. And the Lord said to Moses, Say to the Israelites, If any man of you or of your posterity shall be unclean by reason of touching a dead body or is far off on a journey, still he shall keep the Passover to the Lord. read more.
On the fourteenth day of the second month in the evening they shall keep it, and eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.

Moses brought their case before the Lord. And the Lord said to Moses, The daughters of Zelophehad are justified and speak correctly. You shall surely give them an inheritance among their father's brethren, and you shall cause their father's inheritance to pass to them. read more.
And say to the Israelites, If a man dies and has no son, you shall cause his inheritance to pass to his daughter. If he has no daughter, you shall give his inheritance to his brethren. If he has no brethren, give his inheritance to his father's brethren. And if his father has no brethren, then give his inheritance to his next of kin, and he shall possess it. It shall be to the Israelites a statute and ordinance, as the Lord commanded Moses.

Therefore, come now, and I will send you to Pharaoh, and then bring My people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.”

The Lord said to Moses, “Take Joshua the son of Nun, a man in whom is the Spirit, and lay your hand on him;

You shall put some of your authority and honor on him, so that all the congregation of the Israelites will obey him.

“For I am the Lord your God,
The Holy One of Israel, your Savior;
I have given Egypt [to the Babylonians] as your ransom,
Cush (ancient Ethiopia) and Seba [its province] in exchange for you.

What one nation on earth is like Your people Israel, whom God went to redeem for Himself as a people and to make a name for Himself, and to do great and awesome things for Yourself and for Your land, before Your people whom You have redeemed for Yourself from Egypt, from nations and their gods?

Accordingly, say to the Israelites, I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will free you from their bondage, and I will rescue you with an outstretched arm [with special and vigorous action] and by mighty acts of judgment. And I will take you to Me for a people, and I will be to you a God; and you shall know that it is I, the Lord your God, Who brings you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.

Then I fell down before the Lord as before, for forty days and forty nights; I neither ate food nor drank water, because of all the sin you had committed in doing wickedly in the sight of the Lord, to provoke Him to anger. For I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure which the Lord held against you, enough to destroy you. But the Lord listened to me that time also. And the Lord was very angry with Aaron, angry enough to have destroyed him, and I prayed for Aaron also at the same time.

So the Lord said, “I have pardoned them according to your word;

These words the Lord spoke to all your assembly at the mountain out of the midst of the fire, the cloud, and the thick darkness, with a loud voice; and He spoke not again [added no more]. He wrote them on two tables of stone and gave them to me [Moses]. And when you heard the voice out of the midst of the darkness, while the mountain was burning with fire, you came near me, all the heads of your tribes and your elders;

And the Lord said to Moses, Write this for a memorial in the book and rehearse it in the ears of Joshua, that I will utterly blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under the heavens. And Moses built an altar and called the name of it, The Lord is my Banner; And he said, Because [theirs] is a hand against the throne of the Lord, the Lord will have war with Amalek from generation to generation.

The Lord said to Moses, Avenge the Israelites on the Midianites; afterward you shall be gathered to your [departed] people.

Have them build a sanctuary for Me, so that I may dwell among them.

I will set My dwelling in and among you, and My soul shall not despise or reject or separate itself from you. And I will walk in and with and among you and will be your God, and you shall be My people.

“Now bring your brother Aaron near, and his sons with him from among the sons of Israel, so that he may serve as priest to Me—Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar, Aaron’s sons.

You shall bring Aaron and his sons to the door of the Tent of Meeting and wash them with water. You shall put on Aaron the holy garments, and anoint and consecrate him, so he may serve Me as priest. And you shall bring his sons and put long and sleeved tunics on them, read more.
And you shall anoint them as you anointed their father, that they may minister to Me as priests; for their anointing shall be to them for an everlasting priesthood throughout their generations.

The Lord said to Samuel, “Listen to the voice of the people in regard to all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me from being King over them.

You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles' wings and brought you to Myself. Now therefore, if you will obey My voice in truth and keep My covenant, then you shall be My own peculiar possession and treasure from among and above all peoples; for all the earth is Mine. And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests, a holy nation [consecrated, set apart to the worship of God]. These are the words you shall speak to the Israelites.

You have [openly] declared the Lord this day to be your God, [pledging] to walk in His ways, to keep His statutes and His commandments and His precepts, and to hearken to His voice. And the Lord has declared this day that you are His peculiar people as He promised you, and you are to keep all His commandments; And He will make you high above all nations which He has made, in praise and in fame and in honor, and that you shall be a holy people to the Lord your God, as He has spoken.

In all their journeys, whenever the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the Israelites went onward; But if the cloud was not taken up, they did not journey on till the day that it was taken up.

And on the day that the tabernacle was erected, the cloud [of God's presence] covered the tabernacle, that is, the Tent of the Testimony; and at evening it was over the tabernacle, having the appearance of [a pillar of] fire until the morning. So it was constantly; the cloud covered it by day, and the appearance of fire by night.

Now Joshua was old and gone far in years [over 100], and the Lord said to him, You have grown old and are gone far in years, and very much of the land still remains to be possessed. This is the land that remains: all the regions of the Philistines and all those of the Geshurites: From the Shihor [River] which is east of Egypt, northward to the boundary of Ekron, all of it counted as Canaanite; there are five rulers of the Philistines, those of Gaza, Ashdod, Ashkelon, Gath, and Ekron, and those of the Avvites; read more.
In the south, all the land of the Canaanites, and Mearah, which belongs to the Sidonians, to Aphek, to the boundary of the Amorites, And the land of the Gebalites; and all Lebanon toward the east, from Baal-gad below Mount Hermon to the gate of Hamath. As for all the inhabitants of the hill country from Lebanon to Misrephoth-maim, even all the Sidonians, I will Myself drive them out from before the Israelites; only allot the land to Israel for an inheritance, as I have commanded you. So now divide this land for an inheritance to the nine tribes and the half-tribe of Manasseh.

So the sin of the [two] young men [Hophni and Phinehas] was very great before the Lord, for the men treated the offering of the Lord disrespectfully.