Abimelech
Notes
Transcript
Exegetical Point:
Homiletic Point: Abimilech leaves us hungering for a good King, who has a rightful claim to the throne, who uses might to protect people, who’s “shameful” death is actually a self-sacrificial deliverance of God’s people. David, then David’s descendant Jesus answer that longing.
Intro
Intro
Making our way through judges. Progressively worse.
Israel was given the Promised Land as part of the inheritance fro God’s people. God saved them out of Egypt, and then entered into a Covenant with the people at Sinai.
They were told that if they were loyal, God would bless them, but if they were not, he would curse them. The people accepted this.
The land was full of evil tribes of Canaanites. God was disposessing them of their land and bringing down his judgement on them because of their rebellious and wicked ways. These were not innocent idillic societies. They were cruel terrible people.
There was some initial success with the conquest of Canaan under Joshua - great campaigns l
Othniel, Ehud, Shamgar, Deborah-Barak, last couple weeks we did Gideon.
Gideon’s Legacy: Murderous Usurper
Gideon’s Legacy: Murderous Usurper
Gideon
A mixed Legacy, defeated the Midianite oppressors with the Spirit of God, pulled down altars to false Gods, brought peace to the country, but also set up an improper worship centre, acted like a king while saying he wouldn’t be king, and had a bunch of kids by different women, including a “concubine” in another city.
He was called Jerrubaal - “let Baal contend against him” - Baal didn’t get to contend against him, because the Lord gave him a long life. Baal is defenseless against a man doing God’s will.
Left behind 70 sons, including Abimilech who is the main focus of this chapter.
Abimelech from Shechem - unclear if they are Israelite or not. Suspected not based on the way that Abimelech pits Shechem against Gideon’s other sons shortly. If they are not Israelites, we have to ask the question, what was Gideon doing having a concubine from there? God specifically told them not to intermarry with people who belong to other gods. Maybe he was skirting the issue by only having a “concubine” which is just a farce. An exclusive relationship between a man and a woman that involves sexual intimacy - that’s God’s idea of marriage. Yet here it is perverted so that wealthy men would take these women to enjoy the physical benefits of marriage, but these poor women would not be given the same status or privileges as wives. They were kind of second-class wives. Taking a concubine, and one from a possibly non-Israelite family was a sinful way to try and wiggle out of God’s law. Kind of like Amish who get taxi-driver to drive them around. May not be breaking the letter of their law, but certainly the spirit!
Although Abimelech is the focus of this chapter, he is not a judge and has no redeeming features. The judges are raised up by God to deliver people from oppression, whereas he usurps power and uses for to get his way. First time in Judges we get such a disgusting figure among God’s people, but it won’t be the last.
Claiming the throne - that ambiguity around Gideon as king has led Abimelek (“My Father is King”) to think there is a kingship position up for grabs.
He knows his brothers could all be contenders fro the “throne” and so he hatches a plan to turn things his own way. This reads like the plot of just about any period piece drama, the underdog heir will hatch a plan with the help of a devious relative to take out the other heirs and insert them-self in the place of power. Unfortunately this isn’t just a matter of killing an older brother or two, he needs to get rid of 70 brothers!
Now Abimelech the son of Jerubbaal went to Shechem to his mother’s relatives and said to them and to the whole clan of his mother’s family, “Say in the ears of all the leaders of Shechem, ‘Which is better for you, that all seventy of the sons of Jerubbaal rule over you, or that one rule over you?’ Remember also that I am your bone and your flesh.”
So Abim. plays the “I’m your flesh and blood” card to try and get their support against his own flesh and blood! How ironic. If he treats his own brothers that way, why would he treat them any different?
If Shechem isn’t Israelite this shows a fellow of uncertain identity - half Isaraelite through Gideon, half not. If they are an israelite town at this stage in history, then this shows inter-tribal strife. Pitting brother against brother among God’s people.
They follow through with Abim. request, and convince the city to back him. They give him some money to hire thugs:
And they gave him seventy pieces of silver out of the house of Baal-berith with which Abimelech hired worthless and reckless fellows, who followed him. And 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.
The money came from the temple of the Lord of the Covenant - the false God Israel was worshiping. They should be worshiping YHWH who has entered into a covenant with them at Sinai, but now they are sidetracked. At Shechem, where Israel renewed their covenant with God (lead by Joshua, the famous “Choose this day whom you will serve”), now the people are in covenant with a different god. They may have thought that they could mix and match between their God and this god, but God is jealous for his people, he will not let them be taken by another.
Killed 70 sons on one stone. A massacre. For no other reason than who they are related to!
Jotham escaped.
Adding up the numbers, 70 + 2? 70 is obviously a round number.
Abimilech crowned king in Shechem & Beth Milo - Probably not accepted all over Israel, but there was influence.
So here we have a man
who’s loyalty to YHWH is questionable
Who has no right to the throne, but who made himself king by scheming and murder
This leaves us hungering for a better leader, one who doesn’t kill innocents to gain power, one who is loyal to God all the way through, one who has the right to rule.
That desire would be partially answered in a man named David in a few years time, but even King David would be a shadow of an even great king to come.
Who is that King?
Jotham’s Parable: Curse or Blessing?
Jotham’s Parable: Curse or Blessing?
So Jotham escaped, but he heard that Abim. had been made king
When it was told to Jotham, he went and stood on top of Mount Gerizim and cried aloud and said to them, “Listen to me, you leaders of Shechem, that God may listen to you.
Mt Gerazim - the Mt of Blessing from their entry into the land.
Parable of The trees - read it
Silliness of the request - if it’s in “good faith” come into my shade. There is no shade! So it’s impossible for them to demonstrate good faith!
The arrogance - may fire come out and consume the greatest trees they knew. Bramble’s pride.
Jotham Pronounces a parable with curse or blessing
If in good faith? We know it wasn’t, but Jotham points out that there is a righteous way to act, holding it up as a mirror to their deeds.
What shall it be? Curse or Blessing?
if you then have acted in good faith and integrity with Jerubbaal and with his house this day, then rejoice in Abimelech, and let him also rejoice in you. But if not, let fire come out from Abimelech and devour the leaders of Shechem and Beth-millo; and let fire come out from the leaders of Shechem and from Beth-millo and devour Abimelech.”
Jotham’s curse is for strife and division among these two tratiorous parties to cause their own downfall.
As we looked at last week: Proverbs 13:15
Good sense wins favor, but the way of the treacherous is their ruin.
In a snese, Jotham is predicting that the normal order of God’s world will come to pass. If you build your house on a floodplain, then we can expect it to be flooded! If you build a relationship on violence and coniving, then it will be undone on violence and coniving.
This curse is not a magic spell - in some sense it is a prayer, just like blessings.
Jotham legs it, goes into hiding.
Jotham reminds us of another, greater man who followed him.
A son, whom the powers of the day drove into hiding because their rule was threatened (Herod killed the baby boys and Jesus went down into Egypt)
A faithful son who would stand up and boldly proclaim the truth
A Faithful Son of God who would stand on a Mountain and pronounce blessings and curses (Luke 6:20-26). “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. … “But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.”
This was a Son who did not only proclaim the truth of the wickedness of the leaders of the day, but He was a Son who had the power to bring about salvation for those oppressed people.
God’s Intervention: Sending an Evil Spirit
God’s Intervention: Sending an Evil Spirit
You may be doing some re-calibration at this point. Yes you did read the Bible verse right. God sent and evil spirit:
Abimelech ruled over Israel three years. And God sent an evil spirit between Abimelech and the leaders of Shechem, and the leaders of Shechem dealt treacherously with Abimelech,
God was not “doing evil”. In the OT Evil is a contextual word, so somtimes it means moral evil, as something opposed to God and all that is good. But sometimes it means “bad”, as it an “evil day” is not morally corrupt in and of itself, but it is a bad day. We can talk about natural disasters like this.
This happens a few times in the bible. Sometimes it is not God’s idea, but rather his allowance of what another spirit suggested.
God sent a spirit - could be literal like a spiritual being causing strife, or in the metaphorical sense causing ill-will and division between them.
Either way, this is God acting to bring about Jotham’s curse (the proof that the curse side of the parable was the right one!)
What is God doing?
that the violence done to the seventy sons of Jerubbaal might come, and their blood be laid on Abimelech their brother, who killed them, and on the men of Shechem, who strengthened his hands to kill his brothers.
God is “rewarding” Abim. and Shechem for their evil.
God is just, and repays us fro what we have done, in th elife to come, but also in this world. The world runs on God’s order, and so eventually evil is undone.
God works through providence - including strife in the hearts of people to establish his order.
The Bible is full of examples of the wicked getting their comeuppance, but even if they escape justice in this life, there is justice in the life to come.
for the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.
We must trust this, trust God, and not our own ability to bring about the downfall of wickedness.
Abimilech ruled for three years - it may have seemed like the curse was ineffectual. But God was at work. Same for us, it may seem like God is slow to fulfill his promises, but he never fails!
You and I are wicked in the eyes of God, all have sinned and fallen short. Yet God made a way fro Justice to be done, and His people to escape death. Our comeuppance is laid on Jesus who suffered in our place.
God’s Repayment: A Shameful End
God’s Repayment: A Shameful End
And Gaal the son of Ebed moved into Shechem with his relatives, and the leaders of Shechem put confidence in him. And they went out into the field and gathered the grapes from their vineyards and trod them and held a festival; and they went into the house of their god and ate and drank and reviled Abimelech.
So Abimelech and all the men who were with him rose up by night and set an ambush against Shechem in four companies.
And Gaal went out at the head of the leaders of Shechem and fought with Abimelech. And Abimelech chased him, and he fled before him. And many fell wounded, up to the entrance of the gate.
Abim. look like he’s avoiding the curse and God’s will.
So every one of the people cut down his bundle and following Abimelech put it against the stronghold, and they set the stronghold on fire over them, so that all the people of the Tower of Shechem also died, about 1,000 men and women.
Then Abimelech went to Thebez and encamped against Thebez and captured it. But there was a strong tower within the city, and all the men and women and all the leaders of the city fled to it and shut themselves in, and they went up to the roof of the tower. And Abimelech came to the tower and fought against it and drew near to the door of the tower to burn it with fire.
And a certain woman threw an upper millstone on Abimelech’s head and crushed his skull. Then he called quickly to the young man his armor-bearer and said to him, “Draw your sword and kill me, lest they say of me, ‘A woman killed him.’ ” And his young man thrust him through, and he died.
Thus God returned the evil of Abimelech, which he committed against his father in killing his seventy brothers. And God also made all the evil of the men of Shechem return on their heads, and upon them came the curse of Jotham the son of Jerubbaal.
Even Abimelech is not too far from the grace of God - had he repented he would have been redeemed.
So what?
So what?
Abimilech leaves us hungering for a good King, who has a rightful claim to the throne, who uses might to protect people, who’s “shameful” death is actually a self-sacrificial deliverance of God’s people. David, then David’s descendant Jesus answer that longing.