ABIMELECH - THE WORTHLESS THORN BUSH - PART 1 (Judges 8:29-9:21)
INTRODUCTION:
We all know good parents whose children have turned out bad, they did not follow in the footsteps of their parents. Jesus told a parable about a son that turned out bad, it is the parable of the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-32). Everything that we read concerning the father in this parable tells us that the father is generous, humble, loving and forgiving. The son on the other hand was ungrateful, disrespectful, selfish, willful, and immoral. The ending of that parable is a good ending as the son comes to his senses and repents of his sin against his father and is forgiven. The Old Testament is full of examples of fathers whose children turned out bad. In the first pages of the Bible Adam had Cain who killed his brother, the high priest Eli during the days of Samuel had sons that shamed him and acted shamefully before the LORD in their role as priests. Samuel also had sons that turned out bad, not walking in the way of their father. King David had Amnon and Absalom, Hezekiah had Manasseh, and Josiah had Jehoahaz. In some of these cases the father can be held at least partly to blame for how their children turned out. But can Samuel be blamed for how his sons turned out; can Hezekiah be blamed for how Manasseh turned out? In the end it is the responsibility of the sons to own up to the choices they made, and for some the choices and the actions that followed them were utterly evil. It is sad when good fathers have sons that turn out badly. We are going to begin to look at a son of Gideon that turned out badly this morning and sadly Gideon is one of those fathers who is partly to blame for how his son turned out. Let’s pray and then get into our passage.
--PRAY--
SCRIPTURE:
Turn in your Bibles again this morning to Judges 8:29, we read to the end of chapter 8 last week, but I did not comment much on the last seven verses of this chapter as they really tie into what takes place in chapter 9. So, our passage for this morning is Judges 8:29-9:21. Please, if you are able, stand in honor of the reading of God’s Word and follow along as I read.
Judges 8:29-9:21,
“Then Jerubbaal the son of Joash went and lived in his own house. Now Gideon had seventy sons who were his direct descendants, for he had many wives. His concubine who was in Shechem also bore him a son, and he named him Abimelech. And Gideon the son of Joash died at a ripe old age and was buried in the tomb of his father Joash, in Ophrah of the Abiezrites. Then it came about, as soon as Gideon was dead, that the sons of Israel again played the harlot with the Baals, and made Baal-berith their god. Thus the sons of Israel did not remember the Lord their God, who had delivered them from the hands of all their enemies on every side; nor did they show kindness to the household of Jerubbaal (that is, Gideon) in accord with all the good that he had done to Israel. And Abimelech the son of Jerubbaal went to Shechem to his mother’s relatives, and spoke to them and to the whole clan of the household of his mother’s father, saying, ‘Speak, now, in the hearing of all the leaders of Shechem, “Which is better for you, that seventy men, all the sons of Jerubbaal, rule over you, or that one man rule over you?” Also, remember that I am your bone and your flesh.’ And his mother’s relatives spoke all these words on his behalf in the hearing of all the leaders of Shechem; and they were inclined to follow Abimelech, for they said, ‘He is our relative.’ They gave him seventy pieces of silver from the house of Baal-berith with which Abimelech hired worthless and reckless fellows, and they followed him. Then he went to his father’s house at Ophrah and killed his brothers the sons of Jerubbaal, seventy men, on one stone. But Jotham the youngest son of Jerubbaal was left, for he hid himself. All the men of Shechem and all Beth-millo assembled together, and they went and made Abimelech king, by the oak of the pillar which was in Shechem. Now when they told Jotham, he went and stood on the top of Mount Gerizim, and lifted his voice and called out. Thus he said to them, ‘Listen to me, O men of Shechem, that God may listen to you. Once the trees went forth to anoint a king over them, and they said to the olive tree, “Reign over us!” But the olive tree said to them, “Shall I leave my fatness with which God and men are honored, and go to wave over the trees?” Then the trees said to the fig tree, “You come, reign over us!” But the fig tree said to them, “Shall I leave my sweetness and my good fruit, and go to wave over the trees?” Then the trees said to the vine, “You come, reign over us!” But the vine said to them, “Shall I leave my new wine, which cheers God and men, and go to wave over the trees?” Finally all the trees said to the bramble, “You come, reign over us!” The bramble said to the trees, “If in truth you are anointing me as king over you, come and take refuge in my shade; but if not, may fire come out from the bramble and consume the cedars of Lebanon.” Now therefore, if you have dealt in truth and integrity in making Abimelech king, and if you have dealt well with Jerubbaal and his house, and have dealt with him as he deserved— for my father fought for you and risked his life and delivered you from the hand of Midian; but you have risen against my father’s house today and have killed his sons, seventy men, on one stone, and have made Abimelech, the son of his maidservant, king over the men of Shechem, because he is your relative— if then you have dealt in truth and integrity with Jerubbaal and his house this day, rejoice in Abimelech, and let him also rejoice in you. But if not, let fire come out from Abimelech and consume the men of Shechem and Beth-millo; and let fire come out from the men of Shechem and from Beth-millo, and consume Abimelech.’ Then Jotham escaped and fled, and went to Beer and remained there because of Abimelech his brother.” (Judges 8:29–9:21, NASB95)[1]
THE LEGACY OF GIDEON (Judges 8:29-35)
As I said in my introduction, Gideon is one of those fathers who must be held partly to blame for the way his son behaved. It all began with the naming of this son of his concubine, and we are told in verse 31 that it was Gideon who named him. The name Abimelech means “my father is king,” which provides us with some clues to why this child turned out as he did. This name given to this son was going to cause problems sooner or later. The fact that trouble would come is increased by the way Gideon behaved and chose to live in his later years. After he had publicly turned down the offer of kingship, we read that Gideon went to live in his own house in Ophrah, retiring into private life after driving Midian from the land. Surprisingly, even though he declined the kingship, Gideon’s lifestyle after moving into his own house as we have described in the final verses of chapter 8 looks far more like the lifestyle of a ruler than that of a private citizen. We read that he had “many wives” and “a concubine.” In Canaanite culture this was typically kinglike behavior, but something that the would-be kings of Israel were not to imitate. Moses had commanded the sons of Israel concerning the setting up of an earthly king to rule them, he said in Deuteronomy 17:14-17, “When you enter the land which the Lord your God gives you, and you possess it and live in it, and you say, ‘I will set a king over me like all the nations who are around me,’ you shall surely set a king over you whom the Lord your God chooses, one from among your countrymen you shall set as king over yourselves; you may not put a foreigner over yourselves who is not your countryman. Moreover, he shall not multiply horses for himself, nor shall he cause the people to return to Egypt to multiply horses, since the Lord has said to you, ‘You shall never again return that way.’ He shall not multiply wives for himself, or else his heart will turn away; nor shall he greatly increase silver and gold for himself.” (Deuteronomy 17:14–17, NASB95)[2] Gideon had seventy sons from these many wives, but Abimelech was not the son of one of his many wives, he was a son of Gideon’s concubine and he and his mother were not from Ophrah but were citizens of Shechem. Because of this, he was different, which would make conflict with his half-brothers almost inevitable. The fact that his name meant “my father is king” meant that the conflict would come to a head with the issue of succession. Even though Gideon had turned down the kingship, by naming his son Abimelech showed that Gideon secretly thought of himself as a king. His name also gave Abimelech grounds for thinking he would be justified in claiming to be his father’s rightful successor and the founder of a dynasty his father had refused but seemed to quietly approve. Gideon had lived like a king; Abimelech would claim the kingship directly without giving it a second thought about whether it was right or not. We also learn in the end of chapter 8 that it seems that the people were just waiting for Gideon to die because as soon as he did, they again turned to idol worship and played the harlot again with the Baals and made Baal-berith their god. Interestingly, this Baal is Baal of the covenant or lord of the covenant. The Israelites forsook the LORD and broke His covenant with them to make a covenant with an idol. Not only did they forsake the LORD, but they also turn their back on Gideon’s household quickly forgetting the good that he had done in driving out the Midianites from their land, instead it seems they only remember the end of his life. Gideon has left a legacy that will be the undoing of his family.
THE KINGSHIP OF ABIMELECH (Judges 9:1-6)
As we enter into chapter nine, we learn the how Israel did not show kindness to the household of Jerubbaal, or Gideon. Abimelech is quick to make his bid for the throne, but he does not pitch that bid to his half-brothers because he knows that they will not agree. Instead, he goes to Shechem and to his mother’s family to make his appeal to be king in his father’s place. After all these are his blood relatives and because they are citizens of Shechem they can take his cause to the leaders of Shechem. If he can persuade his family to support him, they can persuade the city to support him, and he will have a strong power base in the city before confronting his brothers.
Abimelech’s message to the city leaders is that a power struggle is already taking place and they are going to have to make a choice, either they submit and come under the rule of the 70 sons of Jerubbaal or they come under the rule of one and make him their king. As he delivers this message to his family they too will have to choose, but in making his appeal to them he reminds them that he is their flesh and their bone. In other words, he was one of them, but his 70 other brothers were not related to them by blood. This appeal to his family and the leaders of Shechem was a telling argument in the society of the day where faithfulness to the LORD was on the decline and tribalism in the worst sense was increasing. Abimelech’s family make their choice and immediately act by taking this appeal to the leaders of Shechem. The leaders of Shechem are persuaded to choose Abimelech as their king and declare that because he is related to citizens of Shechem he is their brother as well. If there is to be a power struggle, the leaders will stand with and back Abimelech. To show their support and their intention to make him their king they give him seventy pieces of silver to finance his attempt to succeed his father as ruler. The silver they gave him was bad money in every way, the very place it came from was tainted, it came from the treasury of Baal-berith, whose shrine or temple was in Shechem where Baal was worshiped instead of the LORD. The source of this money was evil, and the purpose of this money was evil. It was blood money. The match between the number of the pieces of silver and the number of Gideon’s sons is no coincident. Those who gave the silver to Abimelech clearly understood and condoned the purpose for which Abimelech would use it. This was not a large sum of silver but enough to hire a group of worthless and reckless mercenaries who would follow Abimelech and do his bidding.
Once Abimelech has this group in hand, he wastes no time in carrying out his plan. He and his men go to Ophrah and kill the seventy sons of Gideon on one stone. While this is happening one of the seventy, the youngest of Gideon’s sons hides and avoids execution. This is the first sign that not everything is going according to plan for Abimelech. Both the one stone and the one brother will come back to haunt Abimelech before the history of him is finished. This slaughter apparently impresses the leaders of Shechem because on his return they formally make Abimelech their king. Interestingly, this is done by what is called the oak of the pillar. I want to read you some other verses that speak of an oak and a pillar at Shechem. Listen to these words in Joshua 24:24-27, “The people said to Joshua, ‘We will serve the Lord our God and we will obey His voice.’ So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day, and made for them a statute and an ordinance in Shechem. And Joshua wrote these words in the book of the law of God; and he took a large stone and set it up there under the oak that was by the sanctuary of the Lord. Joshua said to all the people, ‘Behold, this stone shall be for a witness against us, for it has heard all the words of the Lord which He spoke to us; thus it shall be for a witness against you, so that you do not deny your God.’” (Joshua 24:24–27, NASB95)[3] Here at the oak of the pillar which to me speaks of this stone which Joshua sets up that was to be a witness against the people of Israel so that they would not deny their God, at this very place they deny God by crowning Abimelech king, a king not chosen by God as Moses had commanded the people. This pillar at the oak was a witness against them. Abimelech has gotten his wish, but it is one thing to be crowned king, and quite another to rule, and Abimelech is about to find this out.
THE FABLE OF JOTHAM (Judges 9:7-21)
It takes someone with a lot of courage to go against the crowd, to be the minority voice that speaks out against a crowd especially one that has a strong and ruthless leader. Remember that youngest son of Gideon or Jerubbaal, as he is called exclusively in this chapter, had escaped Abimelech’s slaughter of his brothers. This youngest son is Jotham and when he hears that Shechem and Beth-millo have crowned Abimelech king, he becomes the courageous voice that speaks out against what has been done. What he does is an incredibly brave act. He climbs up on Mount Gerizim which overlooks the valley where the city of Shechem was located. This mountain and the one on the other side of the valley were important mountains when Israel came into the land. Half of the tribes of Israel stood on Mount Gerizim and half stood on Mount Ebal. Mount Gerizim was the mount of blessing and Mount Ebal the mount of cursing. The people on Mount Gerizim proclaimed the blessings of God on the nation if they were obedient to keep the covenant God had made with them. The people on Mount Ebal pronounced the curses of God on the nation if they were disobedient and broke the covenant. The mountains were situated in such a way that the voices from one mountain could be heard on the other and down in the valley. Mount Gerizim offered a superb vantage point from which Jotham could be seen and heard but not easily reached before he had a chance to escape. This mount of blessing was about to become a mountain of cursing for the leaders of Shechem.
Jotham uses a fable to catch the attention of the citizens of Shechem. His fable is about the trees trying to find one of their own to reign over them as king. Given what the leaders of Shechem had just done, it is pretty obvious what this fable is referring to, the relevance of the fable is clear, but this story has a moral that will not be easy for the men of Shechem to hear. In this fable all the trees with good qualities—the olive, the fig, the vine—reject the kingship, until only the bramble is left. This is generally believed to be the buckthorn which is a bush or small tree with thorns, and it produces small black berries and on some species they are toxic. Unlike the olive, the fig, and the vine, the buckthorn is wild, not cultivated and in Jotham’s fable the things associated with it are shade and fire. But how can a bramble produce much shade and why is it prone to burst into flame? Whatever the answers may be to these questions the essential point is that the bramble is a dangerous plant and a worthless plant that should be gotten rid of because of its unpredictability, it can provide shelter of sorts, but it can also destroy. Unlike the other more worthy trees, the bramble does not turn down the offer to reign over the trees. Just the opposite it excepts but it does so with a command and a threat. If you really mean to make me king, shelter in my shade or I will destroy you. The burning of the cedars of Lebanon which are famously tall are used by Jotham to symbolically represent the proud leaders of Shechem.
By the end of the fable, it would have been obvious to Jotham’s audience that this fable was about them, and Abimelech is the worthless bramble that they have chosen as their king. Jotham’s point though is not just that they have acted foolishly in selecting Abimelech, but that they have acted unfaithfully. In the fable the bramble itself uses this expression “in good faith,” the ESV translates it like this in verse 15, “And the bramble said to the trees, ‘If in good faith you are anointing me king over you, then come and take refuge in my shade, but if not, let fire come out of the bramble and devour the cedars of Lebanon.’” (Judges 9:15, ESV)[4] In the moral to his fable Jotham uses this same phrase against the leaders of Shechem. These leaders have not acted in good faith but have conspired with Abimelech against Gideon, who had risked his life to deliver them from the hands of the Midianites. Gideon had not deserved this and to make the murderer of his sons their king was an act of outright treachery and utter unfaithfulness, and this act will have the most dire consequences. Jotham predicts that fire will come from Abimelech and destroy the leaders of Shechem, and fire will come from them and destroy Abimelech, and by implication it will be nothing less than they deserve for their unfaithfulness. With the curse pronounced upon them, Jotham flees, while the audience is still in shock. We are told that he fled to Beer, there is a place called this on the edge of Moab where Moses and the children of Israel camped. If this is where he fled he was far away and out of the reach of his brother Abimelech.
CONCLUSION:
As we will learn next week, the rest of chapter nine will show how true Jotham’s words were. What follows is no fable, but the true-life history of terrible retribution on unfaithful people.
What can we learn from this passage of Scripture? Most importantly we can learn that our lives and the legacy that we leave will have an influence on our children. Did Gideon envision Abimelech murdering his other sons when he named him “my father is king?” Did he imagine that his life would influence his son to claim succession and try to build a dynasty? I am sure that he did not believe this could happen. We must be careful how we live so that we leave a godly legacy for our children.
What can we learn from Shechem’s unfaithfulness? They had forgotten the God who they had promised to serve even though the “oak of the pillar” was still there to remind them that it was a witness of the renewing of the covenant they had made there. The mountains of blessing and cursing were on either side of them and because of their unfaithfulness they both became mountains of cursing. They had forgotten their God, they had forgotten the covenant, they had been unfaithful and made a covenant with a false god, even though all around them were things that should have reminded them of their promises to God. We must be careful to be faithful to our God, we have an empty cross that stands as a witness against us, we have an empty stone tomb that stands as a witness against us. If we are faithful that empty cross will remind us of the blessing of salvation, and the empty stone tomb will remind us of the blessed hope we have for the future. Let these two always remind you that you are forgiven, and that Jesus Christ is coming again to take us home to be with Him forever.
[1]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[2]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[3]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[4]The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016.