Judges 9
At the end of chapter
8 we read of Gideon having a concubine who lived in Shechem. She bore a son called Abimelech whose name is
thought to mean my father is king. This
was another sign that Gideon lived like a king even although he wasn’t crowned
king.
In the first verses we
see Abimelech heading to Shechem where his uncles lived and brought them a
proposal that was for all the people of Shechem. We can read this in verse 2. He was promoting himself to them as being
their best possible option for ruling them.
The people of Shechem accepted his proposal because “He is our brother”
in v3. This is not a good enough reason
to put someone in a position of leadership just because you are related. I heard a story recently whereby someone was
fired for not doing their job properly and the person who was hired to take
over the job was a family member….makes you think was this all planned or just
a coincidence. Just because they are
family or a friend doesn’t always mean it’s the best choice.
Abimelech was given 70
shekels of silver from the temple and Abimelech shows his true colours from the
start. He hires reckless men which
become his followers and together they murder Abimelech’s brothers except one,
Jotham who was able to escape. This
eliminated any competition for the leadership of Israel. Already Abimelech was going against God’s
desire for His people. God‘s desire was
they would follow Him as leader and not an earthly leader. Nowhere do we see that God chose Abimelech to
take over.
After the competition
of leadership was dealt with Abimelech is crowned king over the people. It is interesting to note he is crowned king
in exactly the same place where Joshua had placed a copy of God’s law. This is found in Joshua 24:25-26. In Joshua 24:27 it says that this stone,
where the Book of the Law was placed, will be a witness against you if you are
untrue to your God. Some years later we now
read of a people who are willing to be lead by an ungodly leader. It shows the hearts of the people of Shechem
that they willingly accepted Abimelech as their leader. We see this in our world today with rebel
groups, terrorist groups being led by people who are out to do nothing but harm
to innocent people. We also see
countries choosing leaders out of apathy…they just don’t care who is the leader
of their country.
Then we come to an
interesting part in this chapter whereby Jotham, the brother who escaped death, gives a
warning to the people of Shechem. Jotham
speaks to the people from Mount Gerizim.
In Deuteronomy 11:26-32 we read that it was at this place that the
blessings were to be proclaimed. He
wanted them to turn from their disobedience and listen to God. He tells them a parable about trees. The good trees, the olive, the fig and the
vine don’t want to be king but they were content to make the bramble king. The good trees were warned that there would
be consequences if they didn’t agree with the bramble and would be
destroyed. Sounds a lot like some
dictators we have had in this world both in the past and now. Disagree with me and you will be taken care
of.
Jotham tells the
people of Shechem that if they had acted honourably in how they went about
getting a king then they had nothing to worry about but if they had acted
dishonourably then in the words of 9:20 may fire consume all of you. After Jotham said all of this he ran for his
life. He wasn’t a bringer of encouraging
news for the people and probably knew that his life was now on the line from
his brother Abimelech. It is noted that
he was afraid of his brother Abimelech but even so still shared the truth with
the people of Shechem. He could easily
have kept his distance from Abimelech and not confronted him or the people of
Shechem. Sometimes we take the easy road
when it comes to confrontation and don’t do it.
Maybe there are times where we should have.
Avoiding
conflict isn’t peacemaking. Avoiding conflict means running away from the mess
while peacemaking means running into the middle of it.
Peacemaking means addressing those issues that caused conflict in the first place.
Peacemaking means addressing those issues that caused conflict in the first place.
Peacemaking can never be separated from doing
justice. They go hand in hand. Peacemaking means having to stir the waters
on the way to peace. Peacemaking means
speaking the truth in love, but speaking the truth nonetheless. Peggy
Haymes
It is amazing how
unpredictable people can be. One minute
you think they have your back and the next they have turned on you. Abimelech was their King but we see in v27
that the people were now cursing Abimelech.
They had chosen a new leader, Gaal.
Gaal spoke some bold words in v29 which the Governor of the city,
Zebul, heard. He sent a message to Abimelech saying that
Gaal was stirring up trouble and that Abimelech should organize a surprise
attack on the city. Abimelech followed
the plan and won the battle against Gaal thanks to Zebul’s deceiving
conversation in v36ff. Zebul taunted
Gaal about his big talk of defeating Abimelech earlier and so Gaal went out to
fight Abimelech and the people of Shechem.
Gaal was defeated and driven out of Shechem.
The people of Shechem
probably thought that it was business as usual again (v42) but Abimelech had
other plans. Abimelech destroyed the
city and those in it and then sowed salt over it. Abimelech may not have had enough salt to
cover a whole city but the act of scattering salt over it would be a sign of
punishment and in some customs a sign of desolation that was meant to be
permanent. Salt according to Barnes (commentator)
is an emblem of barrenness. The city of
Shechem wasn’t rebuilt until the reign of King Jeroboam 1 in 1 Kings 12:25.
This destruction was
not enough for Abimelech. He started out
his reign with destroying his family and the annihilation continues and doesn’t
stop till his death. The people who were
not destroyed sought refuge in the tower of Shechem. Abimelech set fire to the tower and killed
all those who were seeking refuge in it.
Abimelech then went to Thebez and captured it. The people locked themselves in the tower and
went to the roof. Just as Abimelech was
about to storm it and set fire to it a woman dropped an upper millstone on his
head and cracked his skull according to v53.
Abimelech realized that he was going to die at
the hands of a woman. Notice that this
was his main worry not that he had disobeyed God throughout his life. He asked his armour bearer to kill him so
that he wouldn’t have the reputation of being killed by a woman. Abimelech’s sin was dealt with by God. When we see injustice in this world and
wonder where God is in it all we can turn to this chapter and know that God will
make it right in His timing, maybe not always in our lifetime but in God’s
timing. Not only did Abimelech pay for his sin but
also the people of Shechem. The people
were even warned by God through Jotham but they paid no heed to it. Is God warning us regarding disobedience or
sin? If so we should pay attention to it
as there are consequences to pay when we reject the warnings of God. We see this very clearly in the stories of
the book of Judges.
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