Passage

Judges 8:22-23 (ESV)
22 Then the men of Israel said to Gideon, “Rule over us, you and your son and your grandson also, for you have saved us from the hand of Midian.”
23 Gideon said to them, “I will not rule over you, and my son will not rule over you; the LORD will rule over you.”

If you have not read Gideon's story, I encourage you to read Judges 6–8. I will give a brief overview for context. Gideon's story is not the focus of this journal entry so I am going to leave out a lot.

The people of Israel turned away from God and are once again being ruled by another group of people as a result. This time it was the Midianites and once again the people of Israel cried out to the Lord asking for help. To answer their cry for help, the Lord spoke to a man named Gideon and told him that he would free the people of Israel from the Midianites. Gideon eventually submits to God and gathers an army. The army was too big so God cut it from 22,000 men to 300. He then sent them to fight the Midianites which had over 100,000 men. Our passage is the two verses that follow the victory over the Midianites.

The Narrow Way

To learn from this passage I want to break down two sides of the passage. What the people of Israel did and Gideon's response.

For starters the people of Israel ignored God's role in the victory over the Midianites. They attributed all of the success in the battle to Gideon. Then they took that even further and asked Gideon to rule over them. Again, they ignored God who was already the King of Israel.

In contrast, let's review Gideon's response. When the people asked to be ruled by Gideon he redirected the people back to God. He remembered and reminded that God already rules the people of Israel.

There are two main takeaways from this. First, the Lord rules over you; do not look for a man to rule in place of God. Second, if you lead people remember that God is the ultimate ruler and any position you have over men is under God. Similarly, if those people look to you instead of God, it is your responsibility to point them back to the Lord.