Who Is To
Rule?
Excerpts
from Judges and Ruth
If a
corporate testimony is to be maintained for God in these days, it must be on
the lines of those principles which are laid down for us in connection with the
parable of Jotham.
Jotham
propounds his parable on rule and government, and shows what human government
always is in the house of God (Judges 9:7-21).
You have
in the parable a picture of what government, or rule, is. The tree itself is a
picture of government. You remember that Nebuchadnezzar was a great tree, head
of the Gentile kingdom. The mustard seed grew into a tree.
The trees
of the wood ask for a ruler, and they naturally turn to those bearing fruit.
First comes the olive; they ask it to be king over them, and the olive's answer
is that of all the other trees, "Shall I leave my fatness, wherewith they
honor God and man, and go to wave over the trees?" In other words, the
olive declares that fruit bearing is its work, and not ruling. When we apply
the parable to the government of God's people, it is beautifully simple.
Who is
going to rule over God's people? Naturally, the saints turn, of course, to
those who are bearing fruit for God. Here is one, for instance, who will
represent the olive. The olive with its oil suggests the energy and
illumination, the power and fruits of the Holy Ghost. They say to those who are
manifesting the fruits of the Spirit in their-lives, “Brethren, do you be
rulers.” Or, singling out one particular brother, who is full of faith and the
Holy Ghost, they say, “You take charge, and be governor of God's people.” He
says, "Ah, brethren, I am too much engaged in the things of God to attempt
to rule His people.” “I am too much engaged in the blessed communion of the
Holy Ghost, in that which refreshes the people of God, that which is an honor
to God (for God is honored and glorified by the fruits of the Spirit in His
people), too much engaged with bearing fruit to be a ruler or a lord.”
The fig
tree represents more particularly all that gracious nourishment and healing
which is ministered through fruitfulness to God. The fig-tree producing sweet,
wholesome fruit, says, “If I am to rule, I must stop being fruitful, and I
would far rather provide food for the people of God, than I would govern them.”
And so if the Spirit of God has empowered one in any way to bear fruit that
nourishes and refreshes, heals and sustains the people of God - suggested in
the pastor and teacher - who would exchange that kind of a place for any
preeminence over them as master or lord?.
The reply
of the vine is only another lesson of the same kind. The vine, perhaps, reminds
us more particularly of the gospel ministry, that ministry which emphasizes the
precious blood of Christ, of which wine is a type. Here is an evangelist, one
whose delight it is to hold up the cross, the finished work of Christ, and the
people say, “He is the right one to rule; give us a good evangelist to rule
over and govern us, to take charge of the saints.” Ah! he says, shall I leave
that which refreshed God, as well as man? Shall I leave that which cheers the
fainting heart of the dying saint, brings peace to the guilty conscience, and
glory to the grace of God? Shall I give up my ministry of the gospel of His
grace for an empty honor of ruling over the people of God?
Who, then,
is to rule over them? If those who are bearing fruit for God will not be rulers
over His people, who really is to be the ruler? Ah, the lesson, dear friends,
of government, is the lesson of service, and he rules best who serves best. He
is really, practically, a head of the people, who is at their feet serving
them; the ones who bring them the precious fruits of God's grace, the olive,
the fig, the vine, these are the ones, and the only ones, by their service, who
rule or lead the saints of God.
The spirit
of rule is the spirit of service. The moment it passes into that of rule
merely, it passes away from that of service and of fruit bearing. The moment
you get away from fruit bearing, you get emptiness, and that is what you have
here. A bramble-bush is elected to be the ruler of the trees, and the bramble's
answer is a very significant one, “If I am to be ruler, then you have either
got to bow to me, or fire will come out and burn up all the trees, from the
cedar of Lebanon, in its height, down to the smallest of them." It is rule
or ruin.
What is a
bramble but a mere fruitless thing that, instead of giving its energy, sap and
vigor to bearing fruit, has shriveled up and turned in upon itself? Just as
the thorn, it is the curse of the earth, an abortive branch. That which might
have, if it had opened out been a branch and borne much fruit, has shrunk up
and centered upon itself. So the bramble, nothing but a thorn-bush, figure of a
self-seeking, self-desiring man, becomes now a ruler. This rule is of that
character which says, You must bow to me, or be burnt, no matter who you may
be.
What a
lesson as to what rule is amongst the people of God! How it searches our
hearts, as we think of it; how it makes us realize how easy it is to become
mere brambles, and to seek a place, not at the feet of the saints, but over
their heads. Beloved brethren, he rules who does as Christ did, ministers
amongst them. “Whether is greater, he that sitteth at meat, or he that serveth?
Is not he that sitteth at meat? But I am among you as He that serveth." Do
you want saints to look up to you? Ah, you are a bramble, if you covet that.
The people who are looked up to are those who do not take the place, but who
are seeking to bear precious fruit for God, and for the blessing of the saints.
Let us be occupied with that fruit bearing in our own souls.
Let us not
be seeking a place. Let us not be like Abimelech, wanting to step into the empty
chair of some predecessor, which his father had actually refused. Let us not
seek to be Abimelechs in any sense of the word. Whether it be one or a dozen,
it makes no difference; the principle is the same: wherever there is a spirit
of succession, wherever there is the thought that there are certain who are
rulers, and who are going to be rulers in spite of anything in themselves or in
the saints, rest assured it is the bramble - simply that which has no fruit for
God.
Rule does
not talk about itself, about its own dignity and its own authority. Rule is
weakness which God takes up, and in its weakness stands for God at whatever
cost. This is a lesson that not one of us can afford to overlook. It is a
lesson which the Church of Christ has failed to learn, and for that reason has
been broken to pieces.
If you
will read the history of God's people from the very beginning, you will find
that it is the man-appointed leaders of the people who have made trouble -
those who have intruded themselves into the place of leadership, not of
fruitfulness, but of leadership. They are the ones who have brought in the
distress and the dishonor to God, and the corruption, alas, that has marred the
history of the Church from the apostles' times.
Why is it
that we ought to be so jealous of any human intrusion into the place of
authority and government? It is because it is displacing Christ's authority. It
is because if one man takes the place of rule, of leadership, of control,
amongst the people of God, he is usurping Christ's place just as really as
Gideon usurped the priest's place, or Abimelech the ruler's place.
Excerpts
from Judges and Ruth, by Ridout