The Need for Leadership
Today I began my orientation to my new role as a Fort Collins City Councilman. This will be a challenging and I trust rewarding arena of service. I covet your prayers. Here is my official “City Council picture.”
BIBLE VERSE FOR TODAY…. “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.” Gideon said to them, “I will not rule over you, and my son will not rule over you; the Lord will rule over you.” Judges 8:22,23 ESV
The victory that Gideon won over the oppressors of Israel was impressive. With 300 chosen men, a great victory is won. The people asked Gideon and his family to become their leaders. Gideon refuses and reminds them that the “Lord will rule over you.”
But then Gideon asks for gold from the plunder and makes an ephod. Perhaps it was to serve as a reminder of the great victory won with God’s help, but we read, “Gideon made an ephod…and put it in his city…And all Israel whored after it there, and it became a snare to Gideon and to his family.” (Judges 8:27 ESV)
This memorial turned into an idol. That which was to remind them of God’s power and faithfulness was viewed as holding power and deserving of worship. Even though Gideon knew that God was to be the leader of His people that same commitment was not held by his son Abimelech.
He sought the sole power of ruler over God’s people that had been shared by Gideon’s 70 sons after Gideon’s death. He orchestrates a take over, killing his brothers and naming himself, “King” as it were.
After three years the tables are turned on Abimelech, “And God sent an evil spirit between Abimelech and the leaders of Shechem, and the leaders of Shechem dealt treacherously with Abimelech, that the violence done to the seventy sons of Jerubbaal might come, and their blood be laid on Abimelech their brother, who killed them, and on the men of Shechem, who strengthened his hands to kill his brothers.” (Judges 9:23-24 ESV)
Abimelech was ruthless, power-hungry and manipulative. But the power he sought to grab for himself, ended up coming back to be his demise.
What we can observe is…..When people seek to fill their own perceived needs outside of trust in the Lord it opens them to all kinds of temptation and evil. Abimelech took advantage of the people’s desire for human leadership and ascended to power with the help of “ruthless men” and the deaths of his own brothers. But in the end he met his own demise when a woman threw a millstone from the window of a tower of the city he was attacking. The type of death he experienced is what marked him in history.
Over 100 years later, when David was King and planned the death Uriah, wife of Bathsheba, the anticipated response from David, from the report from battle lines was this, “….‘Why did you go so near the city to fight? Did you not know that they would shoot from the wall? Who killed Abimelech the son of Jerubbesheth? Did not a woman cast an upper millstone on him from the wall, so that he died at Thebez? Why did you go so near the wall?’ then you shall say, ‘Your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also.’” (2 Samuel 11:20-21 NIV)
We can try to leave “our mark” on history through our own efforts and in our own way. But when it is outside of God’s direction and timing, and trusting in Him, it doesn’t end up the way we plan.
Prayer for today…. Lord, first of all help us not to look to human leadership for the role that You are to fill in our lives. Human leaders come and go and will succeed or fail, but You are the One we can always trust on and in to help us. Then Lord, help us to follow You and allow You to use us when, where and in the way that You have ordained.