Our 8th lecture in a series on the book of Judges:
By Bob Mendelsohn
Given in Moscow, Russia
8 June 2014
All around us here in Moscow are memories of times past. Look at Red
Square and the Kremlin. Look at historical markers like the churches that were
built as far back at the 11th century. Pushkin’s statue,
Mayakovsky’s square, Yesterday we saw the statue of Peter the Great on the ship
near Gorky Park. By comparison, Australia became a white man’s world in the end
of the 18th century, when Captain Cook arrived into Sydney harbor.
So for us, history is about 240 years old. To you in the Former Soviet Union,
that’s almost modern history.
And history should inform us. Remember the great quote by George
Santayana:
“Those who cannot remember the past are
condemned to repeat it.” So that’s why we read the Bible, which itself is thick
with history. That’s why we listen to older people who recount stories from
their past, so that we can learn. So that we don’t have to learn the hard way.
We can learn from the mistakes of others, and not make the same mistakes.
Listen to what the author said:
2Sam. 11.21 ‘Who struck down Abimelech the son of Jerubbesheth?
Did not a woman throw an upper millstone on him from the wall so that he died
at Thebez? Why did you go so near the wall?’
The mockery of the writer of Samuel is
clear. A woman kills a Jewish king, not with a sword but with a big rock. By
the way the word Rechev is almost always translated “chariot” but for this
episode with the millstone of the woman in the tower against the horrible king
Abimelech.
Today we don’t look at a judge, but
rather a king, the son of Gideon named Abimelech. Let’s ponder his name and his life and his
ending and see what we can learn so that we can be better, and we can avoid the
same mistakes he made.
It may be that Gideon named his son Abimelech (“my father is king”) as
witness to his faith in the fact that God himself (as “his father”) was the
true king in Israel. Abimelech apparently chose to interpret the meaning of his
name differently: “my father was (asked to be) king” and now I will take his
place as king. Abimelech like so many madmen in history chose a life of deceit
and evil masquerading as harmony and civility to get his own purposes.
Let’s look at the three stages of this man’s evil life and learn to
guard our hearts. Remember what Solomon said
Watch over your heart with
all diligence, for from it flows the springs of life. (Prov. 4.23)
I. THE KINGDOM TAKEN
Abimelech was a clever politician and devised a plan to secure the
loyalty of his family first, then the people of Israel second. He used his
relationship with Gideon only as suited him.
His ‘selfish ambition’ is
clear. He is the son of Gideon, as we
know, but his mother was the slave woman/ concubine who was not one of Gideon’s
many wives. Maybe he had a 2nd class idea of himself. I’m no
psychologist however. Abimelech’s
ambition is obvious. He mounts a political campaign with the relatives of his
mother’s family. (.1) Not with the relatives of his father. He is an outsider
and lives like one. He uses Shechem as
his location to begin which makes sense since his mother was from there.
Remember what James the apostle says,
For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist,
there is disorder and every evil thing. (James 3.16)
Abimelech invited the Shechemites to consider who should be king,
although I doubt he advised them of the desire of the Almighty that Jews would
not have a king. They thought, “One of
our own should be king.” (.3) That would make sense in their political
world as well. So he had them in his hand.
They were however uninformed about the 10th Commandment “thou
shalt not covet” which Abimelech clearly violated.
The story unfolds with Abimelech hiring hit men from the Baal temple
worship center. (.4) The money is dirty money given to him from evil men and
with it he hires evil men. The Bible calls them RAKA (empty heads). They begin a military campaign to kill his 70
brothers. And with one exception they are successful. One escapes by the name
of Jotham, who was the youngest of the 70.
Finally he seizes control of government and is heralded as king there in Shechem (.6) What a sad day in
Israel’s history as their new leader is anything but a kosher man. He’s a
failed and failing man in direct contrast to his father Gideon and to the
others who have made a difference in the life of Israel.
Jotham tells a parable, and I think it’s the first parable in the
Bible. (.7-15) The trees all talk and invite others to rule over them, but the thorn
bush, the bramble is Abimelech and is useful only to make the fire bigger.
Jotham uses the story to highlight the uselessness of his half-brother. And
like I see all over Australia every summer, the bramble bush would only cause
more fires and not be able to protect the other trees at all. (.15) It’s irony;
it’s laughable; it’s sad!
II. KINGDOM DEFENSE (.22-29)
Abimelech was king for 3 years. (.22) Then God sent an evil spirit on
the situation. The men of Shechem began to be thieves and steal from passing
travelers all their goods or to levy taxes on them, which was the same as
thievery. A man named Gaal came onto the
scene and the men of Shechem put their trust in him, as opposed to
Abimelech. How did he do it? Gaal told
the Shechemites that Abimelech’s father was a Jew. (.28) The very anti-Semitic
Gaal used Abimelech’s history against him.
Gaal and his troops were defeated (.34-41) by some clever almost
Gideon-like strategy thanks to Zebul, his lieutenant, some ambushing, and
Abimelech was king again.
Abimelech had to punish the people of the city, so he set them into a
trap, and blocked the city gate and killed many of the people of the town who
were trapped inside. The king poured
salt over the city after burning it down. This was also done to the Jewish city
of Jerusalem some 800 years later when the Romans kicked us out in 135 AD under
Hadrian
III. KINGDOM LOST (.50-57)
Finally the kingdom is going to be taken from Abimelech in a most
unusual way. He chased some enemies to
Thebez, about 16 kilometres from Shechem. Those people had joined in the
hostility to him as king, and thus they needed to be punished. They, like
almost everyone in those days, went to the ‘strong tower’ in the center of
town, which was a worship center to the false gods. Abimelech set an ambush
against the town as he had done successfully in the past, only this time it
didn’t end so well.
A woman threw a millstone out the tower and it landed on the king,
killing him in an instant. Think about it. A king should die in battle, but he
did not. A king should die by a sword, but he did not. A king should die by a
man, not by a woman. What a sad ending on so many levels. The unnamed woman is
a hero in a certain way and she actually fulfilled the prophecy of Jotham in
her stone throwing.
The story is a history and if that’s all it is, then ok, we have
learned a little today. But if we can learn from it more deeply, we can take
away much more.
What a man sows, that he will also reap.
Ill-gotten gains do not profit.
Abimelech didn’t even know the God of his father.
Pride goes before a fall.
Paradise gained wrongly will lead to paradise lost.
Be like Gideon and live a life of faith in the Almighty, not trusting
yourself, your cleverness, you deception, and your machinery of making things
happen. Honor God and He will honor you in due time.
Today we go again to the park and the streets and we will look for
people who are open to hear from us. Don’t make it happen. Don’t connive and
threaten and coerce. Proclaim the truth of Yeshua, and live for him and He will
draw people to Himself, even through us. We are asking for 100 contacts today.
Many will approach us. Many will be looking at us and wondering…”who are those
people?” Be used by God today. In faith, not in manipulation. Ask and let’s see
what great things the Almighty will do. Amen?
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