The People Request a King (Judges 8:22-23)

1/19/2010 5:43 AM

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY

 

My Worship Time                                        Focus:  The people request a king

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                        Reference:  Judges 8:22-23

 

            Message of the verses:  “22 ¶  Then the men of Israel said to Gideon, ‘Rule over us, both you and your son, also your son’s son, for you have delivered us from the hand of Midian.’ 23  But Gideon said to them, ‘I will not rule over you, nor shall my son rule over you; the LORD shall rule over you.’”

            This section is a sub-point from the next point in Warren Wiersbe’s book, “Be Available.”  The point is “A puzzling reply for his friends” and this “narrative focuses on two requests, one from the people to Gideon and the other from Gideon to the people.”  The first request will be looked at in today’s SD.

            Gideon is a person that has always been hard for me to figure out because of the way his life was lived out, but because of human nature, that we all have, it should not be a big surprise to me at all. 

            Gideon in these two verses rejected to be king over Israel, and that was a good thing for him to do because God was their king as stated in many other portions of Scripture dating back to when Moses led the people through the Red Sea and the people confirmed that the Lord was their God.

            The puzzling thing here is that after Gideon turned down being a king he then began to act like a king and even named one of his sons by his concubine Abimelech which means “my father is a king.” 

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  One of the things that I have learned from the teaching of Scripture is that a person needs to finish strong in his walk with the Lord.  During my first years as a believer I heard a wonderful album from the Bill Gaither group called “Allehia! A Praise Gathering for Believers,” and there is a song in the album called “The Longer I Serve Him” which is sung by the soloists that worked so long for Billy Graham, whose name I have forgotten.  The song is about an older person who has looked back at his life and is praising the Lord for the sweetness of his life because of his service to the Lord.  Now I know that there has been a lot of trouble in my life and that my life has not always been pleasing to the Lord and if it were not for His wonderful grace I am forgiven for my sins and able to get back on my feet and serve the Lord.  The point in all of this is that it is my hearts desire to finish strong in my service to the Lord and as I look at the life of Gideon, at least his retirement portion I certainly want to do as the Scripture speaks of and that is learn from it and by God’s grace not follow those mistakes, but finish strong!

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:

 

1. I trust the Lord that He will give me both the grace and the strength to finish strong.
2. My prayer is that Pastor Whiting will listen some of the things that I have to say this morning and that the Lord will open his eyes and see what some of the problems and sins that are in his life so that he can be used of God to work out the many problems at GBC.

 

1/19/2010 6:29 AM