Parable of the Trees

What do you know about parables? (2-3m)

-Who told parables?

-What are some examples of parables?

-Which Testament are these examples from?

The parable: (3m)

Judges 9:1–21 NKJV

1 Then Abimelech the son of Jerubbaal went to Shechem, to his mother’s brothers, and spoke with them and with all the family of the house of his mother’s father, saying, 2 “Please speak in the hearing of all the men of Shechem: ‘Which is better for you, that all seventy of the sons of Jerubbaal reign over you, or that one reign over you?’ Remember that I am your own flesh and bone.” 3 And his mother’s brothers spoke all these words concerning him in the hearing of all the men of Shechem; and their heart was inclined to follow Abimelech, for they said, “He is our brother.” 4 So they gave him seventy shekels of silver from the temple of Baal-Berith, with which Abimelech hired worthless and reckless men; and they followed him. 5 Then he went to his father’s house at Ophrah and killed his brothers, the seventy sons of Jerubbaal, on one stone. But Jotham the youngest son of Jerubbaal was left, because he hid himself. 6 And all the men of Shechem gathered together, all of Beth Millo, and they went and made Abimelech king beside the terebinth tree at the pillar that was in Shechem. 7 Now when they told Jotham, he went and stood on top of Mount Gerizim, and lifted his voice and cried out. And he said to them: “Listen to me, you men of Shechem, That God may listen to you! 8 “The trees once went forth to anoint a king over them. And they said to the olive tree, ‘Reign over us!’ 9 But the olive tree said to them, ‘Should I cease giving my oil, With which they honor God and men, And go to sway over trees?’ 10 “Then the trees said to the fig tree, ‘You come and reign over us!’ 11 But the fig tree said to them, ‘Should I cease my sweetness and my good fruit, And go to sway over trees?’ 12 “Then the trees said to the vine, ‘You come and reign over us!’ 13 But the vine said to them, ‘Should I cease my new wine, Which cheers both God and men, And go to sway over trees?’ 14 “Then all the trees said to the bramble, ‘You come and reign over us!’ 15 And the bramble said to the trees, ‘If in truth you anoint me as king over you, Then come and take shelter in my shade; But if not, let fire come out of the bramble And devour the cedars of Lebanon!’ 16 “Now therefore, if you have acted in truth and sincerity in making Abimelech king, and if you have dealt well with Jerubbaal and his house, and have done to him as he deserves—17 for my father fought for you, risked his life, and delivered you out of the hand of Midian; 18 but you have risen up against my father’s house this day, and killed his seventy sons on one stone, and made Abimelech, the son of his female servant, king over the men of Shechem, because he is your brother—19 if then you have acted in truth and sincerity with Jerubbaal and with his house this day, then rejoice in Abimelech, and let him also rejoice in you. 20 But if not, let fire come from Abimelech and devour the men of Shechem and Beth Millo; and let fire come from the men of Shechem and from Beth Millo and devour Abimelech!” 21 And Jotham ran away and fled; and he went to Beer and dwelt there, for fear of Abimelech his brother.

Initial Observations: (5m)

I hope this doesn’t start sounding like English class, but let’s ask ourselves a few questions about what we have before us. To be fully transparent, this is part of me trying to engage you guys with the content here as much as I can, since I know you said you enjoyed the John 8 teaching while viewing the Trinity. We’re going to answer these questions quickly (how would we answer these following a quick reading in 2 sentences or less?)

-Who is telling this parable, and to whom?

-What does the bramble represent?

-Why do the other trees decline to be made king?

-What does being a king have to do with the context of this part of Judges, or with the book of Judges as a whole?

-Why does Jotham run away?

“Deep” Dive (7-10m):

The context of this part of Judges is that Gideon’s [also known as Jerubaal’s] son Abimelech, in accordance with his goal to become king, does some messed-up stuff. His (seemingly uncontested) battle to the top begins by essentially campaigning for support from the children of Israel. This goes well, but then, everything goes upside-down. First, he accepts a payment from an idol’s temple. Even though he made bank off of a violation of God’s commands, since seventy shekels of silver was worth 6 years’ worth of wages, he used it for more disobedient acts: he hired “worthless and reckless men; and they followed him”. Then, he attempts to murder his entire family, and gets pretty close to it. We can already see that Abimelech was an evil king, but his ascendancy was made possible by a people who wanted a ruler like Abimelech, who committed idolatry and murder (which, if you’ll remember, are both part of the Ten Commandments). To do so, let’s look more into the wider context of the book of Judges and the history of Israel.

Judges 2:18–19 NKJV

18 And when the Lord raised up judges for them, the Lord was with the judge and delivered them out of the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge; for the Lord was moved to pity by their groaning because of those who oppressed them and harassed them. 19 And it came to pass, when the judge was dead, that they reverted and behaved more corruptly than their fathers, by following other gods, to serve them and bow down to them. They did not cease from their own doings nor from their stubborn way.

Among biblical scholars, there is this idea of a “Judges cycle”, which takes place several times in the book, detailed in the two verses I just read. Throughout the book, Israel goes into a downward spiral of doing evil against the Lord; reaching the point where the last three chapters of Judges are very difficult to read, and basically require reader discretion. By that, I mean: don’t read this book in isolation; understand it within the context of Israel’s history.

And the author helps us with this, repeating a certain refrain throughout the book:

Judges 17:6 NKJV

6 In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.

Judges 18:1 NKJV

1 In those days there was no king in Israel. And in those days the tribe of the Danites was seeking an inheritance for itself to dwell in; for until that day their inheritance among the tribes of Israel had not fallen to them.

Judges 19:1 NKJV

1 And it came to pass in those days, when there was no king in Israel, that there was a certain Levite staying in the remote mountains of Ephraim. He took for himself a concubine from Bethlehem in Judah.

Judges 21:25 NKJV

25 In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.

So, why does it say that Abimelech was king? In fact, this was the only attempt at installing a king in the whole book of Judges, and clearly, Abimelech was not a good king.

So here’s where this parable comes in: It gives a perspective on the nature of a king for Israel. Clearly, the parable is not against making a king. Look at the premise of the parable: the trees want to make a king. Seemingly, nothing wrong comes out of it. In fact, the bramble says, “If in truth you anoint me as king over you, Then come and take shelter in my shade”. So, there’s a benefit to anointing a truthful king. Clearly, though, that’s not what happens. In fact, Jotham applies this to Abimelech:

Judges 9:16–19 NKJV

16 “Now therefore, if you have acted in truth and sincerity in making Abimelech king, and if you have dealt well with Jerubbaal and his house, and have done to him as he deserves—17 for my father fought for you, risked his life, and delivered you out of the hand of Midian; 18 but you have risen up against my father’s house this day, and killed his seventy sons on one stone, and made Abimelech, the son of his female servant, king over the men of Shechem, because he is your brother—19 if then you have acted in truth and sincerity with Jerubbaal and with his house this day, then rejoice in Abimelech, and let him also rejoice in you.

BUT...

Judges 9:20 NKJV

20 But if not, let fire come from Abimelech and devour the men of Shechem and Beth Millo; and let fire come from the men of Shechem and from Beth Millo and devour Abimelech!”

God had actually expected Israel to desire a king one day:

Deuteronomy 17:14–15 NKJV

14 “When you come to the land which the Lord your God is giving you, and possess it and dwell in it, and say, ‘I will set a king over me like all the nations that are around me,’ 15 you shall surely set a king over you whom the Lord your God chooses; one from among your brethren you shall set as king over you; you may not set a foreigner over you, who is not your brother.

and if you want to read 1 Samuel 8 on your own time, Israel selects Saul as their first true king…but not for the right reasons. Saul eventually turns against the Lord, and you know the rest of the story when David comes in.

So, why do the other trees decline to be king? Let’s look at their motivations:

Judges 9:9 NKJV

9 But the olive tree said to them, ‘Should I cease giving my oil, With which they honor God and men, And go to sway over trees?’

Judges 9:11 NKJV

11 But the fig tree said to them, ‘Should I cease my sweetness and my good fruit, And go to sway over trees?’

Judges 9:13 NKJV

13 But the vine said to them, ‘Should I cease my new wine, Which cheers both God and men, And go to sway over trees?’

The key in this is that they serve a greater purpose. In other words, they don’t see becoming king as the greatest thing they could ever achieve.

Here, I’ll turn towards our lives: How badly do we want to be king? Every day, we constitute ourselves as kings; this happens every time we sin. We bite the fruit again and again, saying that “we will be like God.” But becoming king is not for us to do: we already have a king, who in truth has been anointed by God (if you remember, Hebrews 1 mentions that because Christ loved righteousness and hated wickedness, God has anointed him with the oil of gladness more than his companions).

Our place is to take shelter in his shade. Think about what Psalms 91 says:

Psalm 91:1 NKJV

1 He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.

As for Abimelech, he was taking a city in battle one day. As he was walking by…he died. A woman dropped a millstone on his head, and crushed his skull. And because he didn’t want to be known as the guy who died from a woman’s good aim, he asked his armorbearer to kill him instead.

Notice how the chapter ends:

Judges 9:55–57 NKJV

55 And when the men of Israel saw that Abimelech was dead, they departed, every man to his place. 56 Thus God repaid the wickedness of Abimelech, which he had done to his father by killing his seventy brothers. 57 And all the evil of the men of Shechem God returned on their own heads, and on them came the curse of Jotham the son of Jerubbaal.

So, Jotham’s words came to pass, and the parable he told tells us a lot more than you see on the surface.

I hope you learned something from this, and from the next parables we will cover in this series.