Burning Bush or Bramble Bush: A Sermon for Christ the King Sunday
Judges 9:1-21
Today is Christ the King Sunday on the Church Calendar. It is the last Sunday of the Christian year. In it we remember the promised eternal reign of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is the hope that the redeemed have longed for. Next week is the beginning of Advent, a season in which we prepare for the Day of Christ the King. We don’t wait for a baby in a manger. This has happened long ago. It isn’t a time in which we prepare to receive the Christ child anew. We do remember that Christ was born of the Virgin Mary in Bethlehem two thousand years ago. This is the Incarnation where the Divine Son of God became flesh. We remember that Christ came at Christmas. We should remember this. But Advent is a season in which we remember that Christ is coming back for us to rule and reign with Him for ever.
It might seem strange that we read this text from the Old Testament Book of Judges this morning. It is one of the gloomiest books in the entire Bible. It begins well enough with the words that Israel served the LORD all the days of Joshua and the elders that outlived Joshua (Judges 2:7). But soon, the book shows the repeated failures of Israel to serve Yahweh. At first they did not obey Him completely, and soon they would worship Baal and other gods. God would then send nations to chastise them and put them into cruel bondage. Then they would repent and the LORD would send a judge to deliver them. They would be restored and serve the LORD for a season. Then they would forget the LORD again. The cycle repeats itself miserably in Judges. The book ends with the miserable verse: “In that day, there was no king in Israel. Everyone did that which was right in their own eyes.” (Judges 21:24)
In this morning’s text, we come to the beginning of yet another apostacy. God had used Gideon (Jerubbaal) to save Israel from the Midianites who had held them in cruel bondage. The Angel of the LORD had appeared to Gideon who was threshing wheat in secret lest the Midianites come up and steal it. The LORD then addresses Gideon as a “mighty man of valor.” There is much humor here, but God calls His saints not for who they are but rather for who they will become. Gideon had memory of the mighty acts which the LORD had done for Israel in the distant past. This was the LORD who had called Moses from the burning bush and had delivered Israel from Egyptian bondage. He had led them through Moses and then Joshua into Canaan. But Gideon did not know why the LORD had forsaken them. But even Gideon’s father had erected a statue of Baal and a grove on his property. This had to go, and Gideon courageously tore it down. When they wanted to kill Gideon, his father defended him. “Let Baal contend with him.” This is what Jerubbaal means.
God used a scaled down army of 300 under Gideon to overcome the multitude of Midian. These men were not even equipped with weapons of war, just clay pots and pitchers. The victory and glory belonged to Yahweh. Gideon understood this. When he was told that Israel wanted him and his sons to rule after him, a hereditary monarchy, he rightly responded that it was Yahweh who was truly Israel’s king. It was the God of the burning bush who was to rule over His people.
We need to add a little more information before revisiting this morning’s text. Gideon was a reluctant leader from the beginning. God uses people such as these. We should always be suspicious of leaders who say that they were born to rule as these tend to become despots. But Gideon was a truly humble man. When asked to obey, he was bold and decisive. But there seemed to be the same reluctance among his many children. The Bible records seventy sons, not including Abimelech who was the son of a concubine. This could only have happened if he had had many wives. When we read Deuteronomy, we are warned that the leader of the people should not multiply wives to himself. Although the context is different here, out of seventy sons, there was not one found who wanted to take up the rigors of leadership. They were happy just to have wealth and enjoy the good life. We also see reluctance when one of Gideon’s sons refused to execute the two princes of Midian.
We also read that the town of Succoth refused to feed Gideon’s army on the way to battle and insulted him. Gideon said that when he returned, he would educate the elders with the briars and thorns, which he did. The thorns and briars were part of God’s curse on Adam and Eve for their disobedience. They would make life hard for humanity. We must remember this here. Adam went from the throne of earth to the thorns. In the book of Judges, God sent a prophet to say to Israel that because they had failed to fully obey God, the nations left behind would serve as a scourge to them.
One of the mistakes that Gideon made was to create a golden ephod from the golden earrings of the dead Ishmaelites. The Israelites of old had asked golden earrings of the Egyptians. They would later use these to make the golden calf. In like matter, the ephod became a snare to Israel. Aaron in Moses’ absence listened to the people and made a golden calf. Gideon, the leader, made a golden ephod.
By the time Gideon died, Israel was well on the road to backsliding and worshiping Baal again. This time, the LORD would raise up a scourge internally. Abimelech, whose name means “my father the king” was an illegitimate son of Gideon. But Gideon never called himself “king.” Abimelech’s mother came out of Shechem, another city of ill repute for Israel. He got his mother’s family to stage a coup against his half brothers and had all but one slain upon a rock and ruled over Israel. When the one son who escaped found out what had happened, he issued this prophetic parable against Israel. If the LORD was in this, then all would be well. But if not, then he pronounced a curse upon Abimelech. His downfall would come from Shechem itself. When we read further, this was the case. Israel had rejected the kingship of the LORD who spoke to Moses from the burning bush. They even rejected the rule of Gideon’s comparatively better sons. They chose a bramble bush to rule over them. And indeed, Israel was chastised by the actions of this evil man.
If we think that things improved after the time of the Judges, we are in for even more disappointment. The election of one city in Israel of a leader had proven to be a disaster. Perhaps if all Israel had elected a king, things would have turned out better. They had seventy that were better than Abimelech to have chosen from. Surely, one of them would have been better. The problem was that the LORD was not their king. We see in the election of all the people of King Saul, that things were not better. Saul proved to scourge Israel with briars. The LORD permitted the people to choose him. But at the same time, the LORD lamented to Samuel the Prophet that they had rejected the LORD as king. Even David, whom the LORD elected as King of Israel was a mixed blessing. We do know now that the LORD had a better David in mind all along.
In our world today, the nations face the same dilemma of leadership. This is because they have rejected Christ the King. They feel that they can choose better for themselves. Or others choose themselves as king. Yet others are empowered by elites. The result is the same. Without Christ, they become scourges. Yes, some of them might be worse than others. But even the best of them fall well short of God’s ideal. Even good and godly leaders die, only to be replaced all too often by bramble bushes. From this, comes the hope for a better leader. This leader cannot be limited by death or anything else. And this is who God provides in Jesus Christ.
Let us now consider Christ the King. According to Old Testament prophecies, Christ was to be born of a virgin in the little town of Bethlehem. This He did. The word became flesh in Jesus of Nazareth. This child grew up as any child. He was both Son of God and Son of Man. He lived among us and taught us. He did the great works which Yahweh had done for the Children of Israel of old. He called Himself by the I AM which the LORD of the burning bush had identified Himself. It is this Jesus who shall someday rule with a rod of iron. But not yet, as everything has yet to be subjected under His feet.
Let us consider this miracle of the Incarnation. Even though He was the LORD of the burning bush, he was rejected as King of Israel by His own people. They decided to serve the bramble bush called Caesar. The very Caesar whom they elected would someday come and burn the Holy City of Jerusalem to the ground. This would be the chastisement by the Lord Jesus for this rejection. But we see also the mercy of Christ the King. He was bruised and chastised for our iniquity. The scourge laid deep furrows into His back. Then a crown made of a bramble bush was placed upon his head. He was subjected to mock worship as King of the Jews. Christ the King would suffer the cross as His royal throne. Yet this terrible act of rejection on our part became the very means by which we can now be saved.
The story does not end with his death and burial. He conquered death by rising from it on the third day. The marks of the briars and nails which had marred His body has become the means of our healing from the curse. He ascended into glory where He waits until the day of His return as our faithful High Priest. The day is coming that we shall be fully free from the wounds of our thorns. For a season we suffer these, but as children of God for our good. But then there shall be no more being tutored by them. Christ the King invites us to come to his heavenly banquet. As we prepare for this day, as symbolized by Advent, let us remember that for us, this is our final state. This is entirely the gift of grace through Christ Jesus our Lord and King.
But for those who do not believe, let us consider that the end for the Midianites was even worse than that of apostate Israel. Christ the King shall rule with a rod of iron. Those who refuse to embrace Him face His eternal wrath. So it is far better to embrace Him, even if we have to suffer chastisement along the way. These stripes are for our betterment. Instead of looking at the dreadful circumstances the world finds itself in today because it has rejected Christ the King, we see a better day is coming. Even though we wail at our own failings and at the less than optimal choices of our earthly leaders, whether they be the leaders of nations or leaders of the church, we know that all shall be well. The one who bore the bramble crown now wears the royal diadem.
