The Lord Shall Rule Over You
In Numbers chapter thirteen the children of Israel have been led to the border of the Promise Land of Canaan. Twelve spies have been sent out to scout out the land. Two of the twelve (Joshua and Caleb) returned and said “We should by all means go up and take possession of it, for we shall surely overcome it” (Numbers 13:30). Yet the other ten said that there was no way that they could defeat the people of the land and take possession of it. They saw the people as giants and themselves as “grasshoppers” (vv 31-33).
In chapter fourteen the people grumbled and complained and said, “Let us appoint a leader and return to Egypt” (vv 1-4). Who would that leader have been? Not Joshua, because when he and Caleb tried to convince them to move into and take it, that surely the Lord was with them, all the congregation sought to stone them to death (vv 6-10). Forty years later the only men still alive to cross over into the Promise Land were these two brave men whose council the children of Israel rejected.
Joshua would lead the people in their conquest of Canaan and they said to Joshua, “All that you have commanded us we will do, and wherever you send us we will go” (Joshua 1:16). And they did, but the very next generation did evil in the sight of the Lord (Judges 2:10-11). No less than seven times through the period of the Judges the children of Israel would go through a process of sin, servitude, sorrow and supplication, and salvation.
One such cycle occurs and the people restored under the leadership of Gideon. After the victory of Gideon and his 300 over Midian the men of Israel said to Gideon, “Rule over us” but Gideon said to them, “I will not rule over you, nor shall my son rule over you; the Lord shall rule over you.” Yet the children of Israel would not listen and following the fifteenth and final judge Samuel the people got what they wanted. “Appoint a king for us to judge us like all the nations,” the people cried. God told 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” (1 Samuel 8:7).
Now before we are too hard on the children of Israel and their foolishness let us take a moment and look at our own lives. We want leaders who will give us what we want. What we “need” is for the Lord to rule over us and submit to his leadership! We want leaders who will make us comfortable and give us what we want. The problem is that neither those human leaders we elect, nor we ourselves, apart from the Lord’s guidance, know what is truly good for us (Jeremiah 10:23).
We want someone to rule over us but on our own terms. Jesus addressed this attitude in His day by asking those who claimed to be allowing God to rule over their lives by asking “And why do you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?” And He is still asking us the same question today. See for far too many we “want what we want” and reject that which we need.
May God help us to submit to His Word and His will, with the proper heart of humility and gratitude; and let us serve Him and each other faithfully till we take possession of the spiritual Canaan Land of Heaven. Oh how sweet it will be to hear Him say, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant.”