August 5th, 2011 by Kristi Stephens

In the midst of the interesting yet often disturbing stories in the book of Judges we find one man who (for the most part) seemed to get it. One particular pair of verses stands out to me in bold relief against the rest of its surroundings:

The Israelites said to Gideon, “Rule over us—you, your son and your grandson—because you have saved us out of the hand of Midian.”  But Gideon told them, “I will not rule over you, nor will my son rule over you. The LORD will rule over you.” [Judges 8:22-23]

Gideon had his own issues, but he was clear on this point: Israel didn’t need a human king. God was king.

God had made those three promises to Abraham – promises of vast numbers of descendents who would form a great nation, a land for this nation to call their own, and ultimately a “Leader” – a future redeemer who would fulfill the seed promise given in the Garden and set everything right once again. At this point in Israel’s history, Abraham’s family indeed had increased greatly, was purchased out of Egypt by God’s miraculous intervention, had been formed into a nation with God’s directly given “constitution” and law for them, and victoriously marched into the promised land under God’s providential hand. God was a faithful promise-keeper. He was trustworthy. He was the King, ruling over them for their good, guiding their every step. He was their God, the one who had chosen them and purchased them and called them His own, even dwelling among His people in an amazing way. He dwelt in their midst. He revealed Himself to them. He opened an utterly unique way for them to know and interact with Him.

But still, their hearts were divided. They longed for something else. Something more. They wanted to worship the gods other peoples worshiped, and they wanted a king like the other nations. They did not understand what Gideon understood – having an unseen but very present God as King was far superior than having a flawed and limited human being in power over you. Hadn’t they learned from their days in Egypt?

So all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah. They said to him, “You are old, and your sons do not walk in your ways; now appoint a king to lead us, such as all the other nations have.” But when they said, “Give us a king to lead us,” this displeased Samuel; so he prayed to the LORD. And the LORD told him: “Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king. As they have done from the day I brought them up out of Egypt until this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are doing to you.

1 Samuel 8:4-8

They have rejected me as their king. As we continue on in our overview of Israel’s history, we find time and time and time again where flawed and even evil men in power over God’s people set them on a clear path of destruction. But it wasn’t just about those men – the people themselves had rejected God as their King and chosen flawed human wisdom and custom instead.

I think human nature has a tendency to default to the limited and familiar, even when it is flawed. God’s bigness, His holiness, His other-ness makes us uncomfortable. We cannot completely wrap our minds around Him, and so we push away. The Israelites turned to idolatrous religion time and time again – I wonder if it just felt more… familiar? More tame? Predictable? Because God is not familiar, He is certainly not tame, He is never predictable. He is grand and glorious and His holiness is consuming and frightening!

How often do we reject God as our king for the same reasons? His call on our lives seems wild and consuming and untamed. We balk in fright – and turn to human wisdom rather than submitting to His rule in our hearts. Why aren’t we living radically differently than the world in our marriages, with our finances, with our time and purposes and energy? Have we rejected God as king and clung to the idolatrous wisdom of the world – choosing the sinfully familiar over the wild holy?

We’re continuing our One Summer, One Story series – a fast-paced overview of the “big story” of the Bible! Missed anything? Find all the past posts here. Just a reminder, also, that we have two different “blog ministry projects” going on right now – please consider joining us for Got Milk? and the SOS Project – because although the problems are overwhelming, our God really IS BIGGER!