Judges 9:56 Thus God rendered the wickedness of Abimelech, which he did unto his father, in slaying his seventy brethren
Are you ambitious? What do we mean by that? Is it wrong to be ambitious? It is right to be ambitious? When I was in college, I remember the President complaining that we forgive Abraham Lincoln for his ambitions but almost no one else. I felt like it was a complaint and that he had a complex about the naked ambitions that he had. I may be right or wrong, but the point is that some people view ambition as suspect while other people seem to think it is very good. Ambition means “an ardent desire for rank, fame, or power.” It can also mean “to achieve an end.” So, theoretically someone could have ambitions to do good for others, ambitions that are not self-oriented, but more often it refers to someone who has a desire for rank, fame, or power.
When you look at the people whom God greatly used in the Old Testament up to this point, in almost every case, God’s ambitions were clearly greater than those of the person He commissioned. Almost to the person, those being commissioned objected to God’s commissioning saying, “I am not able, not eloquent, not rich, not powerful. You’ve got the wrong person.” Yet, when they obeyed, God intervened, overruled, and used them.
Let me give you some examples. Abraham, the father of many nations, didn’t have ambitions to be the father of a great nation. God told Abraham what His plan was for him. In contrast to that, you have his nephew Lot who saw the well-watered plain of Jordan and wanted it, not because he thought it would please God but because he just wanted it. Think about Joseph who did not have an ambition to be second-in-command in all the land of Egypt, but God had sent him a dream and fulfilled it. What about Moses bringing God’s people out of Egypt? He did not want to be stuck with those people, but God put him leading their ranks. God says over and again to Joshua, “Fear not, fear not…fear not.” Gideon was a judge in Israel, but when you first find him, he was hiding. God said, “Gideon, thou mighty man of valour,” and God commissions Gideon to lead His forces.
So, were any of these people ambitious? I would say not by the definition of having a desire for rank, fame, or power. These people were not ambitious but were obedient to God. Now, when you get to chapter 9, you find Abimelech, who did amazing things, had great influence, and exercised and wielded great power, yet he was not commissioned by God. He was driven by this own personal ambitions.
Abimelech was one of many sons of Gideon. In some ways, Gideon, though he was a good man, set up the problems that followed his life. Abimelech was the son of Gideon and a concubine. That was not a good deal. The context of Abimelech’s story is, first of all, a vacuum. There was no king in Israel and every man did that which was right in his own eyes. Someone has said, “Responsibility ignored is vacuumed up by tyrants.” In other words, authority abhors a vacuum. This was not a man who wanted to do good to his people. This was a man who wanted what he wanted. There was a scheme. Abimelech killed all of his brothers, save one who escaped, because he wanted power not competition. Perhaps he also had a complex because his mother was a concubine.
Gideon had a complex because he was the least of his poor family, but there is a contrast between Gideon and what he did and Abimelech and what he did. When we meet Gideon, he was hiding from the enemy and his own brethren. When we meet Abimelech, he was killing his brothers because he wanted power. Gideon was a reluctant warrior. Abimelech was eager and selfishly grasped for whatever he could get. Gideon was a great man because of obedience. Abimelech was a powerful man because of ambition. In other words, it was simply a matter of survival of the fittest, a bunch of beasts being ruled by the most powerful of them.
There is a lesson here, especially when you think about Abimelech, who forced himself into power, and Gideon, who simply obeyed God and was given influence and authority. The lesson here is that obedience will get you further than ambition. I’m not saying you should not have any desires. If you did not desire food or water, then you would die. What I am saying is that if there really is a God, then obedience to God will get you further than ambition of self.
The Bible says in I Timothy that “if a man desire the office of a bishop [an overseer, a leadership position], he desireth a good work.” The Bible doesn’t say, “If a man is called to be a pastor.” It says, “If a man desire the office of a bishop.” But your calling is evidenced by your gifting. Sometimes we surrender to a call first, then find out we are gifted, but the bottom line is that God made and designed you for a reason. God has given you gifts and a calling, and ultimately obedience is what gets you further.
Why does obedience get you further? Well, whose ambitions do you think are greater, yours or God’s? Do you think the God of the universe has inferior ambitions to your own? God knows whom He made and how that fits in with the other parts of the universe. God knows everything, past present, and future in ways you could never know. If you have some great ambition for yourself, do you honestly think that is more noble or in any way greater than God’s ambitions for you? No! So, you don’t need to know everything and be able to do everything. You need to be obedient to God at the moment, because God has the big picture in mind. God’s ambitions are greater than mine or yours.
How would you know what God’s ambitions are? The answer is a step at a time by acting in obedience to what you know to be right, right now. That is what Gideon largely did. He had many flaws and God used him to the extent of his obedience. Abimelech was going it on his own and had raw power, grasping for what he could get without any regard to God. Someone has said that leadership is courage, wisdom, and great carelessness of self. So, wherever you are and wherever you go, remember, if there really is a God, and indeed there is, obedience will get you further than ambition.