Okay, the repeated cycle, God sends a saviour.
We have a period of peace with God.
Then the people abandon God when that judge dies.
Then they're punished by God for their abandoning him.
And then they cry out to God for help.
This cycle reflects what judges is about
and it kind of forces us to ask the question,
well, who can save us?
It keeps going over and over again.
Who can save us?
But what actually drives that judges cycle?
What drives it?
Well, from God's perspective, the cycle is driven by God's mercy.
His willingness to save his people is what actually keeps it going
because the people are unfaithful over and over again.
So from God's perspective, it's God's willingness to provide that saviour.
But from a human perspective,
what drives the people of God to move on to the next stage?
From a human perspective, the judges cycle,
is driven by their punishment.
When Israel is punished, they start to look around for relief.
When they suffer loss, that's when they begin to experience regret.
It's when they lose the things that they really value
that they start looking to God for help.
Not straight away.
They try everything else first.
But God is so merciful that even though in a roundabout way they come back to him,
he still saves them.
The story of Abimelech is about the detail of this big picture of the judges cycle.
The detail.
It's what happens, we kind of zoom in now,
what happens when the judge dies.
It's the only example we have of this really,
of the judge dying and then things descending into chaos.
This is the only part of judges that actually gives us a glimpse
into the kinds of things that might have been happening all along,
but we see them in real detail here.
It zooms in on the detail of what happens
when Israel turns its back on God.
It's about that abandoned God face.
But it all starts with Abimelech and his father Gideon.
You see, Gideon was the last judge.
He left a legacy as a last judge as well.
He was offered and refused a dynastic kingship in chapter 8, verses 22 to 23.
They offer him the kingship and Gideon says to them,
I will not rule over you and my son will not rule over you.
The Lord will rule over you.
He declared that the Lord alone should rule Israel.
And yet, here's his legacy.
Gideon lived like a king.
He had many wives.
Many sons.
Seventy sons.
That wasn't one wife.
He had many wives.
You imagine how many wives that would have taken,
particularly with the kind of death rate amongst babies at that point in time.
Seventy sons.
Even a concubine.
Abimelech.
And not only that, but Gideon called his son by that concubine Abimelech.
Or, what was the other pronunciation?
That's how I'm saying it.
So, who knows?
I'm not sure which one's right.
But he called that.
He called his son by his concubine Abimelech, which means literally,
my father is king.
I will not be king, says Abimelech.
And then calls his son, my father is king.
Gideon's legacy was that he ruled in everything but name.
And he wasn't even subtle about that.
So, we have on the one hand, Gideon's legacy.
On the other hand, we have Abimelech's inheritance.
Abimelech inherited this legacy.
He bore the name that told the story.
He was the son of Gideon's concubine.
A concubine was, at best, a second-class wife.
At worst, a woman kept for pleasure in those times.
So, he was kind of bottom of the heap.
Abimelech was last in the line to inherit,
just like his father had been, the least of his tribe.
Seventy sons all the way down the line, and then Abimelech.
And if things weren't bad enough for him at that point,
we read in verse 33 of chapter 8.
As soon as Gideon died, the people of Israel turned again
and whored after the Baals and made Baal-barit their god.
And the people of Israel did not remember the Lord their god,
who would deliver them from the hand of all of 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.
When Gideon died, the people of Israel did exactly
what they'd always done.
They abandoned faithfulness to the Lord their god.
For Baal-barit, of all things.
Baal-barit actually means, literally,
Lord of the Covenant.
So they had a Lord, and they had a covenant with that Lord.
And they abandoned it for an idol.
Not only did they abandon faithfulness to the Lord their god,
but they abandoned faithfulness to Gideon and his family.
And Abimelech was the bottom of the pile of that family
that was abandoned.
That pile had come crashing down around his ears.
So what could he do?
Well, what the heart wants?
The heart wants.
Abimelech's world was falling apart around him.
He had a choice to make.
He had two choices, really.
He had the choice that every Israelite had.
The choice we all have.
He could choose to be faithful to the Lord,
regardless of what was going on around him.
Regardless of that.
He could choose to trust the Lord.
Trust the Lord to act.
Trust the Lord with his future.
But if he did, this future would be uncertain.
He wouldn't know how that would turn out.
It's certainly up to this point,
he was at the bottom of the pile.
What would happen next?
So he could choose to be faithful to the Lord
and trust him.
Or he could choose to take matters into his own hands.
He could act to shape his future.
He could act to provide the stability,
the security, the success that he wanted for himself.
And what the heart wants?
The heart wants.
Abimelech chose to take matters into his own hands.
And the story of Abimelech is the story of this struggle.
The struggle to choose between trusting a God
who has proven to be faithful,
to be good,
versus trusting ourselves with our future.
Taking matters into our own hands.
Seizing control of circumstances
to guarantee a favorable outcome for me.
To secure those things we really miss
when we suffer loss.
Notice in the cycle,
they abandoned God.
They didn't miss the peace they had with God.
They weren't struggling
until things that they did love were taken away.
Abimelech had two choices.
He made the bad choice.
And he was crafty in how he did it, wasn't he?
He appealed to everyone else's desire
to control outcomes.
To get what they want.
Genesis, he appeals to the Genesis.
And there's a lot of parallels
with the Genesis account as well of the fall.
The early chapters of Genesis in these verses.
You see, Abimelech went to his mother's home in Shechem
and he kindled their desire as well
for stability, security and success.
He said to his mother's family,
Say in the ears of all the leaders of Shechem,
Which is better for you?
That all 70 of the sons of Jerubal rule over you?
Or that one rule over you?
Remember that I am your bone
and your flesh.
Verse 2, chapter 9.
Abimelech appealed to his deep connection to them.
He was their flesh and blood.
Do you recognize these words,
these two words, bone and flesh,
where they first appear in the Bible?
Genesis, chapter 2, verse 23.
These are the words that Adam used
to celebrate the bond he felt with Eve
when he first saw her.
This, at last,
is bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh.
He was saying,
I'm not just your friend,
I'm your family,
your intimate family.
Surely, the people of Shechem are thinking,
a ruler from amongst us,
a ruler like this,
with this kind of connection,
surely he is going to favor us.
So they helped him to seize control
in a way that's reminiscent of Genesis 4.
In verse 4 of chapter 9,
we read this,
Genesis 4,
just as Cain killed Abel.
Abimelech sees his brothers in the way
of the thing that he wanted
and lines them up
and kills them.
He took money from the temple
to Baal.
He hired worthless men
and he killed his brothers
in a horrific way.
Must have just lined them up
and slaughtered them
one after the other.
All his brothers, that is,
except for Jotham,
who escaped by hiding.
Then in verse 6, we read,
once this was done,
all the leaders of Shechem
came together
and all Beth Milo
and they went
and made Abimelech king
by the oak
of the pillar at Shechem.
This, friends,
is what life looks like
without God.
It's a brutal scene.
What could possibly
move a person
to do that kind of thing?
Why would you want
someone like this
to be your king?
Well, Abimelech's story
spells out the answer for us.
You see, when we seize control
like this,
we replace God.
Something else,
becomes our first delight.
Paul described this
in Romans 1,
verses 18 and following,
and you can read that later
if you like.
But what he says
in those verses
is as we turn away
from our Creator,
our hearts turn
toward created things
and we pursue them.
And we pursue them
with increasing energy.
And as we do,
Paul describes,
we descend further
and further
into our ignorance
and depravity.
Without God,
whatever we desire most
becomes our God.
And we will do anything
to serve this God.
And we will sacrifice anything
to this God.
but we just don't see
what we're doing.
So God used Jotham
and Abimelech
to show his people
their own hearts.
Each man revealed hearts
in a different way.
Jotham,
well, he exposed hearts
with his speech.
Abimelech expressed his heart,
demonstrated what was
on his heart
with his actions.
So first Jotham,
the hearts exposed by Jotham
in verses 7 to 21.
When it was told Jotham
about the making
of Abimelech king,
he went and stood up
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.
Before Jotham even speaks though,
we have to look at Jotham's name.
You see,
before he even cries out
his message,
his name speaks volumes.
Jotham,
translated from Hebrew,
means Yahweh is perfect.
Even Jotham's name
was a signpost back to God.
Whatever they're choosing
to delight in,
whatever they are worshipping,
Jotham's name says
Yahweh is better.
He is perfect.
God alone is perfect.
So we have Jotham's name,
then we have Jotham's aim
in what he's doing.
Jotham actually had something
really important to say
and he goes on to tell a parable
about a bunch of trees
and I think that,
Matt,
you made really good sense of that.
That was really helpful.
An olive tree,
a fig tree,
a grapevine
and a bramble.
This parable takes aim
at the people
and Abimelech
as Jotham tells this.
You see,
the people have chosen
a bramble
to take shade under.
You guys have seen a bramble,
haven't you?
You know what a bramble's like.
It's a low-growing plant.
It's the most impractical choice
for shade you could possibly imagine.
It's got thorns all over it.
It doesn't even fruit.
Its only use
was for gathering up
and burning as kindling
and that's what they used it for
in those times.
Getting under a bramble
for shade
means abasing yourself.
It means getting onto your stomach
and crawling into its shade
through thorns.
It means taking refuge
in a fuel dump.
This is what the people chose
over Yahweh,
their perfect God.
And Abimelech,
it tells us about him too
because Abimelech
is that bramble.
He's the thorny bush
no one in their right mind
would seek to shade under.
He's the one incapable
of bearing fruit.
He's the fire starter.
He is the fuel dump
ready to go up in flames.
Jotham is saying,
why in the world
would you choose him
over God?
Why in the world
would you?
But we do,
don't we?
We do.
I was chatting with Matt
at the men's camp
this weekend
and he made this observation
about this period in history.
He's been reading Chronicles
and noticing just how
things just keep going
in cycles
even through the kings.
People turn away from God,
set up their idols
and then turn back to God.
They worshipped everything
other than God
then they return to God.
They build altars,
they tore them down again.
And Matt confessed to me,
I'm outing him here,
he said,
he felt like it was a daily pattern
in his life
that that's what it was like.
I agreed with him.
It is a daily pattern
like that in his life
and my life
and your life.
If we're honest,
it's true, isn't it?
Daily pattern for us
to actually continue
to treasure God
as that perfect saviour.
To treasure God
for who he is.
To recognise him
as the only perfect God.
We choose good things
over our perfect God
every day.
And what we're seeing here
is a call back
to choose God.
The final thing
to say about this,
what happens
with Jotham's speech
is this.
He says all of this
in a particularly
significant place.
When Jotham
has climbed up
onto Mount Gerizim,
it's not actually
the top of Mount Gerizim.
Apparently the mountain's
too big.
If he was at the top,
no one would see him
let alone hear him.
He was at a promontory
but it was a promontory
that was actually
used previously.
It was used
by Israel before.
You see,
in Deuteronomy 27,
Moses instructed
the people
when they went
to the promised lands
to gather at Shechem
and to basically
do this,
to have half the tribes
gather on Mount Gerizim
and half the tribes
gather on Mount Ebal.
two mountains
opposite each other.
And what they were
to do was
one group of tribes
on Mount Gerizim
were to read out
the blessings
that God longs
to just pour out
on his people,
Israel.
And the group
on Mount Ebal
were then to shout back
the curses
that would happen
if they abandoned God.
So they gathered
at this place
in the past
to read out
to each other
the blessings
and the curses,
to shout them
across this very valley.
all the good things
that God would
pour out on his people
if he kept their covenant
with him,
all the bad things
that would happen
if they didn't.
And Jotham says
these words
now in verse 16,
now therefore,
if you acted
in good faith
and integrity
when you made
Abimelech king
and if you have
dealt with Jerubal
and his house
and have done him
as his deeds deserved,
well,
there's a possibility
of blessing.
He's standing
on Gerizim,
the mountain
of blessing.
The only other place
that this phrase,
good faith
and integrity
appears in the whole Bible
is in Joshua 24.
This is the famous passage
where Joshua
nails his colors
to the mast
and says,
as for me,
choose this day
whom you will serve Israel,
but as for me
and my house,
we will serve the Lord.
So only the time
this verse is used,
this phrase is used,
and Joshua said
those words
at Shechem 2.
This place,
the geography
of this place
has so much history
for Israel,
so much history
that points them
towards choosing
a good and perfect God
over feeble substitutes.
Jotham is trying
to call the nation
of Israel
back from the brink.
He's trying to expose
the path
that they're treading
and he does that
quite graphically.
He said,
you've made Abimelech
a worthless man king.
You've risen up
against Gideon,
a faithful servant.
You've slaughtered
his 70 sons.
He exposes their path,
but he still lays out
a choice
in how he does it.
It's a choice
that calls the people
back to Yahweh,
their perfect God.
They ignore Jotham.
Next thing we read
in verse 22
is that Abimelech
ruled over Israel
for three years.
Abimelech ruled Israel.
Remember,
Gideon refused to rule
because they already
had a God.
Abimelech wasn't even
appointed by God.
He wasn't even a judge.
He was self-appointed.
He wasn't a saviour.
He was a bramble.
And he didn't have
the spirit of God.
Although God did send
a spirit.
God sent a spirit
which characterised
Abimelech's reign.
An evil spirit.
In verse 23,
we read this,
and God sent
an evil spirit
between Abimelech
and the leaders
of Shechem.
And the leaders
of Shechem
dealt treacherously
with Abimelech.
God sent an evil spirit
among them.
Note that God
didn't set them
on their path,
though.
What God does
is he gives them
over to this path.
They've already
chosen the path
of evil.
God says,
okay,
here you go.
On your way.
God punished them
by giving them
over toward their
inclination toward evil.
They had betrayed
Gideon's family.
Now they were going
to act treacherously
toward each other.
What we see in this
is that that treachery
stimulates
and motivates
Abimelech
to actually seek
revenge.
Gal conspired
with the leaders
of Shechem,
we read,
against Abimelech.
They got drunk
at a grape harvest,
apparently,
and started to slander
him and plot.
Zebel was there.
That's how you say
his name.
He conspired
with Abimelech.
He was a friend
of Abimelech.
He was there,
heard the plot,
conspired with Abimelech
against Gal.
They heard the plans.
They set a trap.
The short version
is everyone dies.
He was there
tragically,
by fire,
as God's punishment
for sin.
Even Abimelech's revenge
serves God's justice.
And Abimelech's death,
still his death,
reflects God's mercy.
You see,
as much as we see
the hearts of the people
and perhaps even
a glimpse into our own hearts
through the choices
that were being made,
through the actions
that followed,
we also see
the heart of our God
on display here.
The heart of God
is revealed
in the events
of Abimelech's life.
God's heart
is to end suffering,
even as God's people
rebel against him,
even as God
hands out justice.
And we get a glimpse
of this in verses
50 to 55.
You see,
Abimelech is rampant
in his wrath.
He launches wave
after wave
of attacks.
He destroys
his enemies.
And he doesn't stop.
Shechem and Beth Milo
are destroyed.
They were complicit
in what went on.
But in verse 50
we read this.
Then Abimelech
went to Thebes
and encamped
against Thebes
and captured it.
Why did he do that?
There is no evidence
in this story
that Thebes
had anything to do
with the trouble
against Abimelech.
So it appears
that Abimelech
is burning
like brambles do.
Hot
and fast.
In his anger
Abimelech
was consuming
anything
in his path.
Until
a certain woman
who just happened
to be carrying
a millstone
at the top
of a castle
tossed it over
onto his head.
A random event?
Well the conclusion
of the right of the judges
is anything but
that it's random.
The conclusion
of the right of the judges
is that God
is in control.
God limited
Abimelech's rampage
to mete out
the justice
that God desired,
that God demanded.
But no more
than that.
God acted
surgically
to establish
justice
and to end
suffering.
This is how we
see some of the
nature of God
in wanting
to end
suffering.
But beyond
that,
you see Abimelech's
reign began
with the desire
to control
the outcome
of his life.
to avoid
the suffering
in his life,
he rejected
God's rule
for his own.
Then ironically,
his reign
was characterized
by violence
and suffering
for everyone
around him.
He was the
king in name,
but he couldn't
lead his people
to the safety,
stability
and success
that he desired.
If anything,
the book of Judges
teaches us
that if our
blessing is left
to our choice,
then we are
sunk.
Time and time
again we see
those choices
fail and the
people of God
moving away
from God
himself.
This book
doesn't point
us to the
next big act
that we need
to do to
save ourselves.
It points
us to the
only Savior
who could
break the
judge's cycle.
Nothing
else
but a
Savior
from God
could do
that.
And that
Savior
didn't do
it by
seizing
control.
He did
it by
completely
submitting
to the
will
of Yahweh,
our
Heavenly
Father,
in a way
that we
couldn't.
Our Savior
didn't save
us from a
position of
power,
exerting
his influence
and authority
over the
things that
exist.
He saved
us by
emptying
himself
from absolute
power.
He had
the power.
He emptied
himself from it.
He gave
it up.
He embraced
our weakness.
Jesus' death
on the cross
satisfies God's
justice and
mercy.
Jesus is the
one that
judges points
to.
Where time
and time
again human
saviors
failed.
Jesus,
God the
Son,
took on the
role for us.
His death
on the
cross
satisfies
God's
justice
and
provides
God's
mercy.
And it
does it in
the opposite
way to the
one we
would choose.
Paul describes
the message of
the gospel as
foolishness rather
than wisdom,
weakness rather
than strength,
a display of
weakness rather
than strength,
a display of
submission rather
than exerting
influence or
authority over.
And it's a
wonderful message
for us too,
because that's
a message
that as we
experience
suffering,
we can know
that our
saviour has
entered into
suffering and
has conquered
it on our
behalf.
But to
finish up,
it's important
to actually
address how
this blessing
and curse
kind of play
out for us
now.
Because what
I want to
suggest to you
here is this,
that the
saviour who
suffered on
our behalf
calls us
to a path
of suffering.
For the
Israelites,
the suffering
followed
disobedience,
followed
abandoning
God,
finding other
things to
delight in
above God.
But it's
different,
it's very
different for
us.
Jesus,
the suffering
servant who
saved us,
entered into
suffering in
our behalf
and then
invited us to
follow him on
his path.
life.
In Matthew
16, he
says,
take up
your cross
and follow
me.
Later in
Matthew, he
showed us
exactly what
that looks
like.
Now, don't
get me wrong,
there's an
undeniable
goodness in
making the
good choice to
honour God
and to live
for him.
There's deep
intrinsic blessing
in obeying God's
commands and in
living his way.
His way is
fullness of
life.
But that
equation to
obey God,
to delight in
him, to
worship him
alone, and
then you'll be
blessed with
land, offspring,
blessing and
so on,
prosperity and
health, that's
not quite how
God calls us
to now.
He calls us
to pursue him
directly.
Our reward,
our delight,
our joy is
living in close
relationship with
our God.
our heavenly
Father, without
fear and
certain of his
fatherly affection
for us.
I can remember
a few years
ago, one of
our children
was going
to chapel at
their school,
and at chapel
at school, the
repeated message,
the repeated
refrain was,
you can do
anything if
you try.
In God's
strength, you
can do
anything, you
just have to
apply yourself,
you just have
to work hard
enough.
Now both of
my boys have
had chronic
fatigue syndrome
for several
years.
What kind
of thing
that does
to someone
who has
chronic
fatigue?
things like
that
thing?
It says,
you're the
failure.
That son
asked me,
can I stop
going to
chapel?
I said to
him, you
can go and
ask the
chaplain if
he can give
you a good
explanation for
why you're not
able to do
what he's asking
you to do,
and if he
can't, then
I'll write a
letter and
say you no
longer have
to go to
chapel.
He stopped
going to
chapel because
we don't have
an answer to
this issue.
Friends,
this is a hard
word, so if
you're not yet a
Christian and
you're thinking
about becoming
a Christian,
I want to
tell you this,
the path of
the Christian
life is a
difficult path.
Not always,
there's so much
joy that fills
our lives, but
there are
difficult choices
to make day
in and day
out, and we
don't always
succeed at that,
as the
conversation that
Matt and I
had related to
you.
We don't
always succeed
at that.
But in
Christ, we
have a God
who loves us
so much that
he's rescued us
from our
failed attempts.
He's rescued us
from our inability
to achieve what
he rightfully
deserves, and
he's granted it
to us as a
gift.
So yes,
the path of
suffering,
and yes,
the guarantee
of our good
God is that
one day he
will call us
home.
Let me pray.
Father God,
we look at this
story and we
can see so much
of ourselves in
so many ways.
perhaps we're
thinking in some
ways, well,
we haven't
succumbed to the
excesses of
Abimelech.
But Lord, we
know in our
hearts that we
don't treasure
you as we
should in
every aspect of
our lives.
We know that
there are aspects
of our lives that
we allow to get
bigger, more
important, more
valuable, more
precious to us
than you.
So Lord, we
thank you for
saving us even
from that,
even from our
willfulness, our
willingness to
turn away from
you.
Thank you for
bearing the
cost of our
rebellion so
that justice is
served and we
can just receive
your mercy,
your love,
uninhibitedly from
you.
We thank you,
Lord, and praise
you for that.
Amen.