And Gideon said unto them, I will not rule over you, neither shall my son rule over you: the LORD shall rule over you.
The Lord shall rule over you. Their unbounded admiration and gratitude prompted them, in the enthusiasm of the moment, to raise their deliverer to a throne, and to establish a royal dynasty in his house. But Gideon knew too well, and revered too piously, the principles of the theocracy to entertain the proposal for a moment. Personal and family ambition was cheerfully sacrificed to a sense of duty, and every worldly motive was kept in check by a supreme regard to the divine honour. He would willingly act as judge; but the Lord alone was King of Israel. He saw, not by their wish to transmit the supreme power to his posterity, but even by their proposal to reserve it to himself during life, that they had forgotten God's sovereign right of nominating, and also of setting aside one whom he had pleased to employ for a time. Therefore, he said, "the Lord shall rule over you," 'I will not even take the name of a ruler. If He who has called me to His service please to continue me as His deputy, I am satisfied. If not, let Him set me aside, and appoint whomsoever He will in my stead' (Jamieson's 'Sacred History,' 1:, p. 311).