And he sent it to Jithur, his firstborn, up and slay them.
But the youth drew not his sword, for he feared, because he was yet a youth.
Then Zebed's almanah said, "Rise thou and fall upon us, for as the man is, so is his
strength."
And Gideon arose and slew Zebed's almanah and took away the ornaments that were on their
camel's necks.
So Gideon has a young son, and the Bible tells us he's his firstborn son, because other
sons of Gideon are going to come into play, especially over the next chapter.
But here we see he has this son, Jether, and he's still a youth.
He's young and it's his oldest son, because this is many, many years before the events
in chapter 9 that we're going to get to.
And so he says to Jether in verse 20, "Up and slay them."
So he's basically telling his son, he's like, "Hey, son, kill these guys," right?
Because you know, they've chased after these guys.
These are the kings of Midian, Zeban's al-Munna, and they've got them, they're captured, and
he's, you know, somebody needs to execute these guys.
And so he tells his son to do it, but his son is afraid to do it.
He feared to do it, and the Bible says he feared because he was yet a youth.
You know, he's young, he's scared, he doesn't do it.
So then Zeban's al-Munna say to Gideon, "Hey, why don't you just do it yourself?"
And Gideon says, "Okay," and he does it himself, and Gideon ends up killing them.
Now, here's the significance of this.
Right after this, look what it says right after this in verse 22, "Then the men of Israel
said to Gideon, 'Rule thou over us, both thou and thy son, and thy son's son also, for
thou hast delivered us from the hand of Midian.'"
Now, has Jether, his son, shown himself to be the kind of leader that they need?
He's a youth.
He is feared to draw the sword.
He's certainly not any kind of a warrior because he's not even willing to just execute these
guys, let alone actually go out and fight where people are fighting back, okay?
And this just goes to show you how wrong it is to have this type of hereditary thing where
basically regardless of merits, regardless of achievements, regardless of character, the
son just automatically takes over.
You know, rule over us and your son.
It's like, well did you just see my son five minutes ago because he didn't really seem
like he's ready to take you into battle and defeat the Midianites and do great exploits
for you.
And here's what you have to understand.
If you think about in history events like the French Revolution, okay, why did the French
Revolution happen?
Why is everybody so mad?
Because you have this noble class, you have the nobility and they own everything and they
have all kinds of money and land and they're the bosses.
And then you have everybody else.
And this system is known as feudalism.
But here's the thing about feudalism, it's feudalism when it fell in the French Revolution
and at other times and other places, had degenerated into something that it didn't really start
out as.
Because it's not really as bad as how it got before the French Revolution.
Because here's what you have in the French Revolution, a bunch of just lazy fat cat landlords
abusing the serfs who do all the hard manual labor and they don't have rights and they
don't get to live the high life like the nobles.
And they're just born into it.
You know, you're either born a noble or you're born a commoner.
But that's not where that system comes from.
Here's where the system actually came from.
Where the system actually came from is that men would go out and do great exploits in
battle.
They'd be sort of like David's mighty men.
You know, he had his 30 mighty men.
Guys would go out and do great exploits in battle.
And for their exploits in battle, the king would give them weapons and he would give
them armor and he would give them land and these different privileges because of the
fact that they're his retainers.
And when things go bad, when the country needs to be defended, these are the guys that we're
going to turn to, these mighty warriors.
And they're going to show up and they've got the gear and they've got the servants and
they've got the armor and they've got the swords and they know how to fight.
And they had a purpose in society.
They're not just these fat cat landlords.
That's not what was the intent of giving these people titles.
Look, they weren't giving Elton John the title of nobility.
Sir Paul McCartney.
Back then, the people who got these titles of nobility, it's because they're out there
risking their lives.
They're great warriors that are defending the nation and they're earning respect.
They're earning titles.
They're earning status and financial reward for these works that they're doing.
But then what happens is, then their son just grows up with a silver spoon in his mouth,
doesn't do any of the fighting, but he's just Duke so-and-so or Count so-and-so or whatever
because he's the son of that guy.
And then pretty soon, it's just generations go by of peace and you just have a bunch of
kids who just hereditary title is given unto them that they didn't earn, that they didn't
do anything for.
And so that's what you see.
I hope that helps you to understand a little bit of that history.
But biblically, what do we need to understand?
Just because you have a good king doesn't mean his son's going to be a good king.
Just because you have a good prophet doesn't mean his son's going to be a good prophet.
Just because you have a good judge doesn't mean his son's going to be a good judge.
And so you're supposed to pick leadership based on the quality of that individual, based
on their achievements, based on their merits, based on their character.
And look, it might not even be that his son is a bad guy.
I'm not saying that Jethro's a bad guy.
For all I know, Jethro was a great kid, wonderful kid who loved the Lord, loved his parents,
you know, and had a lot of great qualities.
I'm not saying anything about him, but he's not cut out to be the next Gideon.
Gideon is surprised that he won't draw the sword and do what he needs to do.
And here's the thing.
In order to be a leader of God's people, you have to have that killer instinct.
And let me tell you what I mean by that, is that there are some people who are just too
nice so they never want to fight any battles.
Now look, people that are too nice, you know, they're nice people.
And so, you know, you like having them around, you like to hang around with them, but you
can't put somebody who is a total bleeding heart, nice guy, all the time, unwilling to
ever fight, unwilling to ever draw the sword.
You know, you might want to have that guy around, but it doesn't necessarily mean that
you want to put that guy in charge.
Because if you have a leader like that who's not willing to stand, not willing to fight,
doesn't have the ability to execute judgment, wicked people are going to run over him rough
shot.
He's not going to be able to withstand the tide of evil.
Because there's a constant pressure on leaders to compromise the Word of God, to change,
to be liberal, to back down, to change the doctrine, to change the church.
And you've got to have a leader that's willing to say no.
And when I say killer instinct, you know, you think about the image that people have
of justice, where justice is often pictured as a woman who is blindfolded with balances
in one hand and a sword in the other hand.
And the idea there is that the scales represent the punishment matching the crime.
The blindfold represents the fact that you're not going to respect persons in judgment,
but you're not going to go by the outward appearance, but you're going to judge righteous
judgment, and you're not going to prefer one above another, but you're going to be impartial
in judgment.
And the sword represents the fact that if someone's guilty, you will punish them.
And here's what the Bible says over and over again in the Old Testament when he talks about
the death penalty for kidnappers, murderers, rapists, etc.
You know what he often says?
"Thine eye shall not pity," "Thine eye shall not pity him," because he knows that there's
a tendency to say, "Oh, come on, man, you know, do we really have to do this?"
He says, "Look, there's certain situations where people have done something where the
death penalty's gotta be carried out."
And I mean, look, there are people today who are totally against the death penalty, even
for someone like John Wayne Gacy, even for someone like Charles Manson, even for someone
like Jeffrey Dahmer, there are people who tell you, "No death penalty for him."
Who here thinks there's right to give Jeffrey Dahmer the death penalty?
Yeah, I mean, so we're like all day long.
But there are some people out there who are just like, "Well, no, you know."
And they would even back off from someone who does that.
I'm not even going to say what he did, but you know what he did.
Horrific things.
If anybody deserved the death penalty, it's someone like that.
But there are people out there who say, "No, it's cruel."
Do you want those people to be in charge?
You want those people running society?
Do you want those kind of people running a home, running a church?
I mean, you've got, look, you've got to have the ability to judge.
Now obviously the death penalty is extreme, but that's what we're dealing with here.
We're dealing with two men that are being put to death for what they've done, you know.
And in many cases there are situations where people deserve to be put to death, okay.
But typically we, you know, as a pastor of a church, as a father in the home, as a manager
in your company, you're not going to be putting people to death, obviously.
But what you will be doing though is sometimes having to mete out punishments.
You know, some parents won't even spank their children.
It's just like, "Well, I love them too much.
I can't spank my children."
It's like, "Whoa, buddy.
He that sparreth his rod hateth his son, he that loveth them chasteth them betimes."
Or what about management at the company that just lets the employees do whatever they want
and never comes down on them, never writes anybody up, never docks anybody's pay or enforces
any rules?
I mean, what eventually happens?
The company's going to go downhill fast.
You've got to have some discipline in a company.
You've got to have discipline in the military.
You've got to have discipline in the home when you have, especially like my house.
You know, we have 13 people under one roof.
You think everybody can just kind of do whatever they want?
Obviously, you've got to have some structure.
You've got to have some rules.
And so, the point that I'm making here is that someone is not automatically qualified
to lead because they're the son of someone.
And this is often referred to as nepotism.
Comes from the Latin word nepos, which means nephew.
And it has to do with the idea of, you know, the nephew getting hired, even though he doesn't
have the skills, he just gets hired because he's the boss's nephew or whatever.
So we don't want to have nepotism in the local church, okay.
And this is why none of my sons will ever preach in Faithful Word Baptist Church or
pastor the church or be on staff here.
Now look, if any of my children want to go into the ministry, great.
I don't encourage them to do that or push them to do that because I don't want them
to feel like, "Oh, well I'm Pastor Anderson's kid so maybe I should be a pastor."
You know, because that's based on the individual.
You know, if one of my sons is a pastor, fine.
But you know what, it should be because he meets the qualifications, because he desires
the office of a bishop, because God is working in his heart, not just because he's mama called
and papa sent.
And the thing is, he needs to be ordained and evaluated somewhere else.
This is why I say, like, I'm not going to put him behind the pulpit.
I'm not going to ordain him.
He's not going to pastor this church, because you know what?
I'm not going to be an impartial judge of my sons, am I?
They need to go to some other church where they're not the pastor's son, where they have
to prove themselves to another boss and to other people and be evaluated by other people
that are impartial.
And look, there are some good pastors who have been ordained by their dad, but I could
give you a lot of bad examples.
You know what I mean?
So I don't want you to go out of here and condemn, "Oh, you know, your dad is the one
who ordained you.
That's nepotism.
You're a phony."
That's not what I'm saying.
I'm just saying a lot of times it goes bad.
A lot.
I've personally been in churches that were destroyed because the pastor's kid, soon as
he turns 18, he's on staff.
Next kid turns 18, he's on staff, and they're making more money than anybody else on staff.
They're not qualified.
They're not cut out for the ministry, but they're just automatically put on staff, automatically
paid, automatically giving respect, automatically put behind the pulpit, preaching to hundreds
of people.
When they didn't earn that, they didn't get there the right way, but it was handed on
to them.
So this thing of, "Oh, rule over us, and your son, and your son's son."
Gideon's like, "I don't even have a grandson."
And you already want him to rule over you, and you don't even know what he's like.
You'd be the biggest idiot ever.
How do you know?
Does everybody see what I'm saying?
And so this thing of just a hereditary leader, this is not good.
And you say, "Well, you know, there were some hereditary leaders in the Bible."
Okay, so we've got King Saul, who was obviously, you know, not hereditary.
He, you know, was chosen by God, and he had the achievements, and he fought the battles,
and got there himself.
Okay, but then he's replaced by David, who's not the hereditary leader.
But when it comes to David, God hand-picked one of his sons to be the leader.
Notice that it didn't just go to the oldest son.
You know, Adonijah was the older brother, and he thought he should be in charge.
Adonijah was the wrong guy to put in charge.
God hand-picked, so even that wasn't just an automatic, you know, like in England they
have some chart, some complicated chart to tell you who's going to be king next, right?
Who's in line, Jujah?
Help me out.
What?
Are you acting that way because I should know that?
Because I'm supposed to care?
Because guess what?
I don't!
What?
Yeah, but I haven't been alive that long, so I'm only responsible for 39 of those years.
Okay.
She's like, "Well, he's been in line for, you know, 70 years or something."
It's like, well, you can only count 39 of that as me supposedly having supposed to know
about that, but I don't care.
But anyway, you know, so Charles, right?
So what if Charles dies?
Who's next?
His oldest son?
Yeah, but here's the thing.
You could probably chart this thing out and it's like, if then it goes to this guy, then
it goes to this guy.
Who's somebody that's like low on the list?
Who?
Yeah.
So Charles' sisters, kids, and grandkids, like they would be on their side.
But there's, I mean, it's laid out.
Yeah, it goes down the list and then it goes down another list.
You know, it's just, it's all set.
It's not like, well, let's look at all of the queen's descendants or all of the king's
descendants and let's figure out which one, you know, didn't go to Epstein's Island, you
know, and figure out, you know, let's figure out which one isn't a complete freak and a
weirdo and, you know, that's not what it is at all.
It's just, you're just in line.
It just goes to the next in line.
That's not how it was with David's son because, you know, Solomon's hand-picked.
But then, okay, who's after Solomon?
Adonijah.
Or, I'm not Adonijah.
That's the guy that tried to supplant him.
But Rehoboam is next.
Okay, but how'd that work out?
You know, and you go down that list of guys, and yeah, you have some good guys in there,
but you have a lot of bad guys in there too, don't you?
Did you really, show me where you just have a whole bunch of good kings right in a row
in Judah.
It's a back and forth.
Usually bad, sometimes good, sometimes it's kind of like, eh, they were okay.
So hereditary is not the way to go.
And I've just been so bothered by this in my life, and in my formative years, I had
bad experiences with this, where I watched churches be ripped apart by this, that I've
just said, you know what, I'm not going to put my kids in that position.
I'm not going to put that kind of pressure on them, and I'm not going to also elevate
them to a status that they haven't earned.
And if they want to earn it, they're going to have to earn it somewhere else so that
they can actually do it based on achievements, not just because they're the pastor's sons.
And honestly, I think chances are none of them will go into the ministry because of
the fact that, you know, there aren't really that many pastors in the church.
Am I right?
I mean, think about it.
Look, you know, it was hundreds of people in the church.
How many of them, you know, go into the ministry full-time?
Only a very small percentage.
So statistically, the chances are slim.
But that's okay.
So what?
Because, like we said earlier, it doesn't matter whether you're the ear or the nose
or the hand or the foot.
Hey, I just want my children to grow up and just be godly members of the church.
Godly soul-winning members, laymen, that's great.
And like I said, if one of them goes into the ministry, I'm fine with that.
But it's not like a foregone conclusion at all, okay?
And in fact, I would even be more cautious with them and say, "Hey, are you sure that
this is something that you actually want to do?"
Because of the fact that, you know, you don't want to just, like you're just trying to just
duplicate what I do or something.
You know, you got to live your own life, am I right?
I mean, sure, we follow our parents and we learn things from our parents.
We're going to mimic things from our parents.
We're going to, you know, lots of things about my life.
I can see analogies of that in my mom and in my dad, and obviously I'm like them.
They raised me, and my kids are going to have attributes of myself and my wife, but they're
also going to be their own person that does their own thing.
And so I'm spending a lot of time on this, but I think it just kind of jumps off the page
at you.
Getting in the Bible is there for a reason.
Jethro won't draw the sword.
He's fearful.
He's a youth.
Two verses later, let's put him in charge.
You know, I don't think that's a coincidence that the Bible lays it out that way.
I think he's showing us a mentality that's out there that's a wrong mentality, okay?
And we're going to find out what Gideon's kids are like, by the way, and it's not a
pretty picture.