Two Houses of Death
Notes
Transcript
Abimelech
Abimelech
Gideon’s legacy
Gideon’s legacy
Jerubaal = let Baal contend
Therefore on that day Gideon was called Jerubbaal, that is to say, “Let Baal contend against him,” because he broke down his altar.
Jerubbaal the son of Joash went and lived in his own house.
Now Gideon had seventy sons, his own offspring, for he had many wives.
And his concubine who was in Shechem also bore him a son, and he called his name Abimelech.
And Gideon the son of Joash died in a good old age and was buried in the tomb of Joash his father, at Ophrah of the Abiezrites.
As soon as Gideon died, the people of Israel turned again and whored after the Baals and made Baal-berith their god.
And the people of Israel did not remember the Lord their God, who had delivered them from the hand of all their enemies on every side,
and they did not show steadfast love to the family of Jerubbaal (that is, Gideon) in return for all the good that he had done to Israel.
judg 8:
The failure of Gideon in his final days
The failure of the people to honor Gideon
Abimelech’s triumphs
Abimelech’s triumphs
Abimelech comes to power
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.”
And his mother’s relatives spoke all these words on his behalf in the ears of all the leaders of Shechem, and their hearts inclined to follow Abimelech, for they said, “He is our brother.”
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.
And all the leaders of Shechem came together, and all Beth-millo, and they went and made Abimelech king, by the oak of the pillar at Shechem.
Jotham’s prophectic parable
Jotham’s prophectic parable
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.
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.”
This is an ‘iff’
Jotham’s prophectic parable
In logic and related fields such as mathematics and philosophy, if and only if (shortened as iff) is a biconditional logical connective between statements, where either both statements are true or both are false.
Abimelech’s defeat
Abimelech’s defeat
The same leaders who supported his rise to power now are turned against him
And God sent an evil spirit between Abimelech and the leaders of Shechem, and the leaders of Shechem dealt treacherously with Abimelech,
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.
How could this be?
Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.
judg
It could be that the people are just terrible, but more so:
The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord; he turns it wherever he will.
Abimelech reaped what he sowed
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.
Jepthah
Jepthah
Jepthah
Jepthah
same old story...
same old story...
The people of Israel again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and served the Baals and the Ashtaroth, the gods of Syria, the gods of Sidon, the gods of Moab, the gods of the Ammonites, and the gods of the Philistines. And they forsook the Lord and did not serve him.
So the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he sold them into the hand of the Philistines and into the hand of the Ammonites,
and they crushed and oppressed the people of Israel that year. For eighteen years they oppressed all the people of Israel who were beyond the Jordan in the land of the Amorites, which is in Gilead.
judg 10:6
You made your bed...
You made your bed...
And the people of Israel cried out to the Lord, saying, “We have sinned against you, because we have forsaken our God and have served the Baals.”
And the Lord said to the people of Israel, “Did I not save you from the Egyptians and from the Amorites, from the Ammonites and from the Philistines?
The Sidonians also, and the Amalekites and the Maonites oppressed you, and you cried out to me, and I saved you out of their hand.
Yet you have forsaken me and served other gods; therefore I will save you no more.
Go and cry out to the gods whom you have chosen; let them save you in the time of your distress.”
They repented
They repented
And the people of Israel said to the Lord, “We have sinned; do to us whatever seems good to you. Only please deliver us this day.”
So they put away the foreign gods from among them and served the Lord, and he became impatient over the misery of Israel.
Choices and their consequences
Choices and their consequences
Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty warrior, but he was the son of a prostitute. Gilead was the father of Jephthah.
And Gilead’s wife also bore him sons. And when his wife’s sons grew up, they drove Jephthah out and said to him, “You shall not have an inheritance in our father’s house, for you are the son of another woman.”
Then Jephthah fled from his brothers and lived in the land of Tob, and worthless fellows collected around Jephthah and went out with him.
There is no direct connection betwen the foolish, careless, and even sinful circumstances of conception and the value of the life created, because it is GOD and GOD alone who sovereignly grants the gift of life, not the parents, even when they are fools and sinners.
Intimate acts can be mistakes. Children never are.
Jephthah’s bold faith
Jephthah’s bold faith
I therefore have not sinned against you, and you do me wrong by making war on me. The Lord, the Judge, decide this day between the people of Israel and the people of Ammon.”
But the king of the Ammonites did not listen to the words of Jephthah that he sent to him.
Jephthah’s Vow
Jephthah’s Vow
judg 11:29-
Then the Spirit of the Lord was upon Jephthah, and he passed through Gilead and Manasseh and passed on to Mizpah of Gilead, and from Mizpah of Gilead he passed on to the Ammonites.
And Jephthah made a vow to the Lord and said, “If you will give the Ammonites into my hand,
then whatever comes out from the doors of my house to meet me when I return in peace from the Ammonites shall be the Lord’s, and I will offer it up for a burnt offering.”
If? Really?
this was unnecesary
this was NOT commanded by God
choices have consequences
choices have consequences
Then Jephthah came to his home at Mizpah. And behold, his daughter came out to meet him with tambourines and with dances. She was his only child; besides her he had neither son nor daughter.
judg 11:
And at the end of two months, she returned to her father, who did with her according to his vow that he had made. She had never known a man, and it became a custom in Israel
that the daughters of Israel went year by year to lament the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite four days in the year.
God never required this sacrifice
And Samuel said, “Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams.
NOT like Abraham
Then Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey; I and the boy will go over there and worship and come again to you.”
He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back.
This may be the saddest, most pitiful act in scripture apart from slaying Christ Jesus
What was God doing?
What was God doing?
In Abimelech? In Jepthah?
In Abimelech? In Jepthah?
In Jepthah?
In Jepthah?
God was continuing to drive out the Canaanites where Israel failed; accomplishing Himself what they could not and would not do on their own.
Using seriously flawed sinners to accomplish holy purposes yet without taking on their sinfulness
For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, who march through the breadth of the earth, to seize dwellings not their own.
this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.
In the face of abject human failure, of pointless prideful rebellions, and of repeated and willful disobedience by the people of God, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob was remaining faithful generation after generation to accomplish what he promised; ultimately protecting His people and bringing into the world the promised messiah from among them.
In the face of abject human failure, of pointless prideful rebellions, and of repeated and willful disobedience by the people of God, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob was remaining faithful generation after generation to accomplish what he promised; ultimately protecting His people and bringing into the world the promised messiah from among them.
God does not need the right culture, the right king, or even the right president or congress to accomplish His purposes:
The Lord of hosts has sworn: “As I have planned, so shall it be, and as I have purposed, so shall it stand,
declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose,’
calling a bird of prey from the east, the man of my counsel from a far country. I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass; I have purposed, and I will do it.
Today?
Today?
God is saving all who seek Him
Every instance of repentance is met with rescue
God still providing for His people, for His churches who do not forget Him
the calamities only come about in consequence of their rebellion and idolatry
God is using the faithful and faithless alike; yet their ends differ greatly
for the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.
May God help us to consistently call out to Him and not to another. May God keep us from the choices and ways that lead only to death and suffering for ourselves and our loved ones.