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Judges
9:1-57 “And
Abimelech the son of Jerubbaal went to Shechem unto his mother’s brethren, and
communed with them, and with all the family of the house of his mother’s
father, saying, 2 Speak,
I pray you, in the ears of all Shechem, Whether is better for you,
either that all the sons of Jerubbaal, which are threescore and ten
persons, reign over you, or that one reign over you? remember also that I am your bone and
your flesh. 3 And
his mother’s brethren spake of him in the ears of all the men of Shechem all
these words: and their hearts inclined
to follow Abimelech; for they said, He is our brother. 4
And they gave him threescore and ten pieces
of silver out of the house of Baal-berith, wherewith Abimelech hired vain
and light persons, which followed him. 5
And he went unto his father’s house at
Ophrah, and slew his brethren the sons of Jerubbaal, being threescore
and ten persons, upon one stone:
notwithstanding yet Jotham the youngest son of Jerubbaal was left; for
he hid himself. 6 And
all the men of Shechem gathered together, and all the house of Millo, and went,
and made Abimelech king, by the plain of the pillar that was in Shechem.
7 And
when they told it to Jotham, he went and stood in the top of mount
Gerizim, and lifted up his voice, and cried, and said unto them, Hearken unto
me, ye men of Shechem, that God may hearken unto you. 8
The trees went forth on a time to
anoint a king over them; and they said unto the olive tree, Reign thou over us.
9 But
the olive tree said unto them, Should I leave my fatness, wherewith by me they
honour God and man, and go to be promoted over the trees? 10
And the trees said to the fig tree, Come
thou, and reign over us. 11
But the fig tree said unto them, Should
I forsake my sweetness, and my good fruit, and go to be promoted over the
trees? 12 Then
said the trees unto the vine, Come thou, and reign over us. 13
And the vine said unto them, Should I
leave my wine, which cheereth God and man, and go to be promoted over the
trees? 14 Then
said all the trees unto the bramble, Come thou, and reign over us. 15
And the bramble said unto the trees, If
in truth ye anoint me king over you, then come and put your trust
in my shadow: and if not, let fire come
out of the bramble, and devour the cedars of Lebanon. 16
Now therefore, if ye have done truly and
sincerely, in that ye have made Abimelech king, and if you have dealt well with
Jerubbaal and his house, and have done unto him according to the deserving of
his hands; 17 (For
my father fought for you, and adventured his life far, and delivered you out of
the hand of Midian: 18 and
ye are risen up against my father’s house this day, and have slain his sons,
threescore and ten persons, upon one stone, and have made Abimelech, the son of
his maidservant, king over the men of Shechem, because he is your
brother;) 19 If ye then have dealt truly and sincerely
with Jerubbaal and with his house this day, then rejoice ye in
Abimelech, and let him also rejoice in you: 20
but if not, let fire come out from
Abimelech, and devour the men of Shechem, and the house of Millo, and let fire
come out from the men of Shechem, and from the house of Millo, and devour
Abimelech. 21 And
Jotham ran away, and fled, and went to Beer, and dwelt there, for fear of
Abimelech his brother. 22 When
Abimelech had reigned three years over Israel, 23
then God sent an evil spirit between
Abimelech and the men of Shechem; and the men of Shechem dealt treacherously
with Abimelech: 24 that
the cruelty done to the threescore and ten sons of Jerubbaal might come,
and their blood be laid upon Abimelech their brother, which slew them; and upon
the men of Shechem, which aided him in the killing of his brethren. 25
And the men of Shechem set liers in wait
for him in the top of the mountains, and they robbed all that came along that
way by them: and it was told Abimelech. 26
And Gaal the son of Ebed came with his
brethren, and went over to Shechem: and
the men of Shechem put their confidence in him. 27
And they went out into the fields, and
gathered their vineyards, and trode the grapes, and made merry, and went
into the house of their god, and did eat and drink, and cursed Abimelech. 28
And Gaal the son of Ebed said, Who is
Abimelech, and who is Shechem, that we should serve him? is not he
the son of Jerubbaal? and Zebal his officer? serve the men of Hamor the
father of Shechem: for why should we
serve him? 29 And
would to God this people were under my hand! then would I remove
Abimelech. And he said to Abimelech,
Increase thine army, and come out. 30
And when Zebul the ruler of the city
heard the words of Gaal the son of Ebed, his anger was kindled. 31
And he sent messengers unto Abimelech
privily, saying, Behold, Gaal the son of Ebed and his brethren be come to
Shechem; and, behold, they fortify the city against thee. 32
Now therefore up by night, thou and the
people that is with thee, and lie in wait in the field: 33
and it shall be, that in the
morning, as soon as the sun is up, thou shalt rise early, and set upon the
city: and, behold, when he and
the people that is with him come out against thee, then mayest thou do
to them as thou shalt find occasion. 34
And Abimelech rose up, and all the
people that were with him, by night, and they laid wait against Shechem
in four companies [400 men]. 35 And
Gaal the son of Ebed went out, and stood in the entering of the gate of the
city: and Abimelech rose up, and the
people that were with him, from lying in wait. 36
And when Gaal saw the people, he said to
Zebal, Behold, there come people down from the top of the mountains. And Zebal said unto him, Thou seest the
shadow of the mountains as if they were men. 37
And Gaal spake again and said, See there
come people down by the middle of the land, and another company come along by
the plain of Meonenim. 38 Then
said Zebul unto him, Where is now thy mouth, wherewith thou saidst, Who is
Abimelech, that we should serve him? is not this the people that thou
hast despised? go out, I pray now, and fight with them. 39
And Gaal went out before the men of
Shechem, and fought with Abimelech. 40
And Abimelech chased him, and he fled
before him, and many were overthrown and wounded, even unto the
entering of the gate. 41 And
Abimelech dwelt at Arumah: and Zebul
thrust out Gaal and his brethren, that they should not dwell in Shechem. 42
And it came to pass on the morrow, that
the people went out into the field; and they told Abimelech. 43
And he took the people, and divided them
into three companies, and laid in wait in the field, and looked, and, behold,
the people were come forth out of the city; and he rose up against them,
and smote them. 44 And
Abimelech, and the company that was with him, rushed forward, and stood
in the entering of the gate of the city:
and the two other companies ran upon all the people that were
in the fields, and slew them. 45
And Abimelech fought against the city
all that day; and he took the city, and slew the people that was
therein, and beat down the city, and sowed it with salt.
46 And when all the men of the tower of
Shechem heard that, they entered into an hold of the house of the god Berith.
47 And
it was told Abimelech, that all the men of the tower of Shechem were gathered
together. 48 And
Abimelech gat him up to mount Zalmon, he and all the people that were
with him; and Abimelech took an ax in his hand, and cut down a bough from the
trees, and took it, and laid it on his shoulder, and said unto the
people that were with him, What ye have seen me do, make haste, and do
as I have done. 49 And
all the people likewise cut down every man his bough, and followed Abimelech,
and put them to the hold, and set the hold on fire upon them; so that
all the men of the tower of Shechem died also, about a thousand men and women. 50
Then went Abimelech to Thebez, and
encamped against Thebez, and took it. 51
But there was a strong tower within the
city, and thither fled all the men and women, and all they of the city, and
shut it to them, and gat them up to the top of the tower. 52
And Abimelech came unto the tower, and
fought against it, and went hard unto the door of the tower to burn it with
fire. 53 And
a certain woman cast a piece of a millstone upon Abimelech’s head, and all to
break his skull. 54 Then
he called hastily unto the young man his armourbearer, and said unto him, Draw
thy sword, and slay me, that men say not of me, A woman slew him. And his young man thrust him through, and he
died. 55 And
when the men of Israel saw that Abimelech was dead, they departed every man unto
his place. 56 Thus
God rendered the wickedness of Abimelech, which he did unto his father, in
slaying his seventy brethren: 57 and
all the evil of the men of Shechem did God render upon their heads: and upon them came the curse of Jotham the
son of Jerubbaal.” Introduction [Audio
version: https://resources.ccphilly.org/detail.asp?TopicID=&Teaching=WED635] “Judges
chapter 9, we have come to the end of the life of Gideon, great man, great
warrior, certainly a man with flaws and faults, but a man who genuinely loved
God it seems, and served God. End of his
life, we find sadly with many wives, and on top of the many wives and the 70
sons, a concubine. Ah, I don’t know why
you need the concubine with the many wives and the 70 sons, and who knows how
many daughters. But that’s the condition
we find him in. He refused to be the
king of Israel, they wanted to make him king, and he refused that. But sadly he names this one son from the
concubine Abimelech [which means] “my father is king.” Though he refused to be king he named his son
Abimelech, “my father is king,” it’s interesting. And he had sown some of the seeds of the
trouble that would be in the next generation, he had made an ephod of the gold
he took of the Midianite earrings, and it became a place of idolatrous
worship. The nation was [supposed] to be
going to Shiloh, to the Tabernacle. No
doubt they had turned away from that, and now they’re giving more credence to
Gideon and to this, probably it was a memorial in his heart, meant to
commemorate a great victory of God, but it turned to an idolatrous practice and
was wrong. And sadly it is, and God
tells the truth about his people, it marks in some ways the end of his
life. Verse 33 in chapter 8 says
this, “And it came to pass, as soon as Gideon was dead, that the children of
Israel turned again, and went a whoring after Baalim, and made Baal-berith their
god.” That’s interesting, “lord of
the covenant,” Baal-berith, just like Baal-peor, there are different forms of
Baal in the different areas of Israel. They
went a whoring again, after Baalim and Baal-berith their god. Interesting to see one life, and how
effective one life that’s given over to God can be. Of all the years of Gideon they didn’t do
this, God had granted great victory, he judged Israel for 40 years, it says
that Israel had rest for 40 years, but when Gideon is dead and gone they begin
to turn away again. Now, that is a
picture of what it says ‘That there was no king in Israel in these days.’ We’re going to see his son Abimelech try to
be king, God’s not going to recognize that, because his testimony was ‘There
was no king,’ but Abimelech set himself up, but there was no king. And it’s looking forward to the days of Saul
and finally David the king that God would recognize. But there’s no king in Israel, and because
there was no central ruler, the plague was ‘Every man was doing what was
right in his own eyes.’ Again,
not every man doing what is wrong in his own eyes, sadly, every man was doing
what is right in his own eyes, and what was right in their eyes, it says, was
evil in the sight of the LORD,
and it was destroying the nation, even though it was right in their own
eyes. [Comment: how is that happening right now in the United
States of America, and worldwide too?
see https://unityinchrist.com/topical%20studies/America-ModernRomans6.htm] Verse 34 says “And the children of
Israel remembered not the LORD
their God, who had delivered them out of the hands of all their enemies on
every side: neither shewed they kindness
to the house of Jerubbaal, namely, Gideon, according to all the goodness
which he had shewed unto Israel.” (verses 34-35) Now it goes on to describe that. Abimelech
Runs A Slick Campaign To Become King Of Israel (And
Kills 69 Of His 70 Brothers) “And
Abimelech the son of Jerubbaal went to Shechem unto his mother’s brethren [i.e.
she was a Shechemite] and communed with them, and with all the family of the
house of his mother’s father, saying,” (verse 1) now no doubt he is shunned by his 70 brothers,
because they are, it seems, the sons of legitimate wives, he is the son of a
concubine, so he seems to be shunned by the rest of Gideon’s family, that is in
Ophrah. So he goes to Shechem, to his
mother’s household, and that family, and he says, “Speak, I pray you, in the
ears of all the men of Shechem, Whether is better for you, either that
all the sons of Jerubbaal, which are threescore and ten persons, reign
over you, or that one reign over you? remember also that I am your bone
and your flesh.” (verse 2) Now he’s
a good politician here, he’s reminding them that he’s family, they can trust
him, and he says ‘Isn’t that better than the seventy sons of Jerubbaal,
of Gideon?’ But there’s no
evidence anywhere, there’s no credence, there’s no plan for the 70 sons of
Gideon to do this, there’s not even hint of it in Scripture. So he’s, unlike politicians today, he’s
setting up a straw-man, and then running a campaign in regards to something
that’s not even real, not even going to happen, [I think Pastor Joe is saying
“unlike politicians today” tongue-in-cheek, because our politicians often do
this.] and he persuades them. “And
his mother’s brethren spake of him in the ears of all the men of Shechem all
these words: and their hearts were
inclined to follow Abimelech; for they said, He is our brother.” (verse
3) [now he is a really good
politician, getting his family to campaign for him, because they were
Shechemites, and he was both of Gideon and Shechem. He’d get by just fine in our day and age,
running for office 😊] “And they gave him threescore and ten pieces
of silver out of the house of Baal-berith, wherewith Abimelech hired vain and
light persons, which followed him.” (verse 4) so they give him, sadly,
money out of the house the idol, Baal-berith, and it seems all Israel, it makes
no positive comment about the sons Gideon, we don’t know if they’d fallen into
this worship too, but the very money that pays the price of their death comes
out of the house of the god that Israel’s following now. “And he went unto his father’s house at
Ophrah, and slew his brethren the sons of Jerubbaal, being threescore
and ten persons, upon one stone:” upon a particular rock, maybe the one
that Gideon had sacrificed the oxen and the altar of Baal he had torn down and
so forth, we don’t know. Now this is a
mass public execution, the 70 sons of Gideon. “notwithstanding yet Jotham
the youngest son of Jerubbaal was left; for he hid himself.” (verse 5) One of them named Jotham, which means “the LORD
is upright” slips away, the youngest one.
Abimelech comes with the money from Baal-berith, it’s not a lot of money,
the amount that it tells us here, but it was enough to hire vain and light men,
violent men. No doubt he needs their
help to slaughter 69 other men, and there’s a mass execution here, he
slaughters his half-brothers on one stone, “notwithstanding” it says “yet
Jotham the youngest son of Jerubbaal was left; for he hid himself.” “And all the men of Shechem gathered
together, and all the house of Millo, and went, and made Abimelech king, by the
plain of the pillar that was in Shechem.” (verse 6) “Millo” means a
rampart or a tower, no doubt in Shechem.
Now, they’re initiating a Canaanite practice, of having a king. God tells us, when he comments in Judges,
there was no king in Israel, so he never recognizes Abimelech. But they make this man, this murderer, their
king. God’s
Prophecy Through Jotham “And
when they told it to Jotham, he went and stood in the top of mount
Gerizim, and lifted up his voice, and cried, and said unto them, Hearken unto
me, ye men of Shechem, that God may hearken unto you.” (verse 7) Now Joshua had
stood in this very place, and it says he had set up a rock there, Joshua
24, verse 25 and 26, you don’t have to turn there, ‘Joshua made a
covenant with the people that day, and set them a statute and an ordinance in
Shechem, and Joshua wrote these words in the Book of the Law of God and took a
great stone and set it up under the oak that was by the sanctuary of the LORD.’ It
says they make him king there by this oak, right where Joshua had set up a
stone, and made them swear to worship the True and Living God. Now Shechem is down in the valley between
mount Ebal and mount Gerizim, Gerizim is the mount of Blessing, Ebal was the
mount of Cursing. When they came into
the Land they stood there and reiterated the Law, and all of Israel said “Amen,”
they stood in the valley. Now here
comes Jotham, and he stands up on mount Gerizim, the place of Blessing, and
it’s 800 foot above the valley, and it’s a natural amphitheater there. You can stand on Gerizim or Ebal today, and
I’ve been in the area, and you can hear whatever’s spoken on top of there, it’s
a natural amphitheater. So he stands up
there, where Israel had renewed their Covenant, and he stands up there, and
this is what he says ‘You men of Shechem,’ “Hearken unto me, ye men
of Shechem, that God may hearken unto you.” this is a call to
repentance. The reason that he’s asking
to listen to what he has to say, is because he says if you listen to what I
have to say, then God will hearken unto you.
No doubt that means in repentance, ‘that if you listen to what I’m
saying here today, and you understand it, then when you go to God, he will
hearken unto you.’ And it’s
first a call to repentance. And tells
now this picture, it’s an idiom, it’s a soliloquy, it’s symbolism. This is what he says, now you can imagine,
everybody looking up to see this little guy up there, 800 foot up, they’re
hearing what he says. “The trees went
forth on a time to anoint a king over them; and they said unto the olive
tree, Reign thou over us. But the olive
tree said unto them, Should I leave my fatness,” which is always a picture
of the oil produced by the olive tree, “wherewith by me they honour God and
man, and go to be promoted over the trees?” (verses 8-9) he says, ‘Look,
should I leave my calling?’ it’s interesting, Gideon wouldn’t take the
place of king, Othniel had no desire to be king, Deborah had no desire to be
queen, each of them remained in their calling, certainly as a Judge, understood
what God had called them to do, and were not tempted to enter into something
God hadn’t called them to do, or were not tempted to enter into something
higher than God had called them to do in regards to the estimation of men. There’s a carnal temptation there all the time
for anyone to leave the calling that God has on their life, and to get
politically involved, or to get involved in some other thing where you have
accolades of man, and you’ve left off the very thing that God has called you to
do. The olive tree says, ‘no, God’s
designed me, my calling is to produce my fatness, that by me, both God and man
may be honored, the oil from the tree producing the light in the lamps that lit
up the Tabernacle, the lit up the homes, there was light, you know, this olive
tree saying, no my calling is to produce light in Israel, not to be king,
should I leave the calling of God, should I leave what I’m supposed to be
doing?’ “And the trees said to the
fig tree, Come thou, and reign over us.
But the fig tree said unto them, Should I forsake my sweetness, and my
good fruit, and go to be promoted over the trees?” (verses 10-11) is that my calling, to forsake God’s purpose,
to do some other thing? “Then said
the trees to the vine, Come thou, and reign over us. And the vine said unto them, Should I leave
my wine, which cheereth God and man, and go to be promoted over the trees?”
(verses 12-13) Now the olive tree,
the fig tree and the vine are all a picture of Israel, but the point here is,
leaving the calling and the purpose of God to do some other thing. “Then said all the trees unto the bramble,
Come thou, and reign over us.” (verse 14) now they’re listening to
Jotham. The bramble, the thorn, and
Abimelech is listening to this, the thistle, the bramble, is worthless. “Come thou, and reign over us” the
trees say, “And the bramble said unto the trees, If in truth ye anoint me
king over you, then come and put your trust in my shadow: and if not, let fire come out from the
bramble, and devour the cedars of Lebanon.” (verse 15) like politics makes
this claim all the time, here’s a bramble, a thistle that’s saying ‘You can
trust that I can produce shade,’ well that’s true if you’re four inches
tall [I’ve actually seen a 7 foot tall thistle, with beautiful blue flowers,
photographed it at Fort Foster, Kittery Point, Maine, with a blond girl named
Maria, who was about 5 foot, 5 inches tall, standing next to it for height
comparison, so they can get tall]. The
whole idea of this soliloquy is how ridiculous it is, what’s been done, the
sons of Gideon have been slaughtered, and this half-breed as it were, this man
from the concubine of Gideon, a murderer and an outcast now, is trying to usurp
his authority, saying ‘trust in my shadow,’ “and if not, let fire
come out of the bramble, and devour the cedars of Lebanon.” (verse 15b) Now of course, the bramble, the thistle was
used for kindling. One of the problems
we have in our country now is some of the forest fires we see is because of
people care so much about the environment that they don’t want to let the
forest service clear out the underbrush, the undergrowth and the brambles, and
we lose whole segments of our forests.
The idea is, the fire as it begins, often begins in the brush, the
brambles, the thistles that are underneath.
So here’s this thistle saying ‘You come and trust in my shadow,
and if not, then let fire come out of the bramble and devour the cedars of
Lebanon.’ “Now therefore, if ye have
done truly and sincerely,” now he’s challenging them, Jotham, “in that
ye have made Abimelech king, and if ye have dealt well with Jerubbaal and his
house, and have done unto him according to the deserving of his hands; (For my
father fought for you, and adventured his life far, and delivered you out of
the hand of Midian: and ye are risen up
against my father’s house this day, and have slain his sons, threescore and ten
persons, upon one stone, and have made Abimelech, the son of his maidservant,
king over the men of Shechem, because he is your brother;) If ye then have dealt truly and sincerely with
Jerubbaal and with his house this day, then rejoice ye in Abimelech, and
let him also rejoice in you: but if not,
let fire come out from Abimelech, and devour the men of Shechem, and the house
of Millo; and let fire come out from the men of Shechem, and from the house of
Millo, and devour Abimelech.” (verses 16-20) and it says “And Jotham ran
away, and fled, and went to Beer, and dwelt there, for fear of Abimelech his
brother.” (verse 21) not the kind of
Beer people go to when they’re in trouble.
It would take Abimelech a long time to get to the top to get to
him. He’s saying, your alternative at
the end of all of this is joy or fire. Well
that’s the truth in our lives even today, at the end of every human being, joy
or fire. And he says here, ‘If
you’ve done right, and Abimelech’s the right guy, then you rejoice in
Abimelech, and let him rejoice in you, you deserve each other.’ ‘If you’ve done foolishly, then let fire come
out from Abimelech,’ he’s like a bramble, ‘and devour you, and
let fire come out from you and devour him,’ and then Jotham runs away,
we never hear from him again. As we
follow this along, this is a prophetic utterance. Because what we’ll see as we study through,
is in fact, that Abimelech burns Shechem, and he burns Millo, and then he’s
killed, fire, he's struck on the head, we see the exact things that he said
were the things that took place. So, a very
interesting picture, and then it just says he runs away. We have no record of where he goes [he went
to Beer, which to me may be a reference
to Beersheba, which is far to the south, which would have been safety for
Jotham], and we never hear from him again.
After
Three Years God Renders Judgment Through Abimelech With Fire On Shechem It
says, now just time goes by, “When Abimelech had reigned three years over
Israel,” (verse 22) we hear nothing of those three years, “then God sent
an evil spirit between Abimelech and the men of Shechem; and the men of Shechem
dealt treacherously with Abimelech:” (verse 23) now Abimelech is reaping
what he’s sown, he had dealt treacherously with the house of Jerubbaal, now
it’s coming back. Isn’t it interesting,
God waited three years. You know, if I
was God [laughter], you wouldn’t have waited three years, would you? You’d have started that afternoon. Isn’t it interesting, he waits three
years. Because the initial call was, ‘hearken
unto me you men of Shechem,’ the reason being, ‘that God may
hearken unto you.’ There was
time for them to say ‘What we’ve done is foolish, we’ve chosen the bramble,
and we’ve forgotten the purpose and the calling of God, made the foolish
choice, God forgive us,’ time was extended to them, three years. Isn’t it interesting? And after three years, God begins to
work. Now he’s sovereign
throughout. He allows a lying spirit, a
demon or fallen angel to come and to be begin to sow discord, strife,
division. It says “And when Abimelech
had reigned for three years over Israel, then God sent an evil spirit between
Abimelech and the men of Shechem; and the men of Shechem dealt treacherously
with Abimelech:” (verses 22-23)
Something begins to happen behind the scenes in the spirit, God doesn’t
let injustice just go forward, he’s not indifferent about that, God is not
indifferent about the murder of 70 men, he’s certainly is not indifferent about
the abortion of 54,000,000 babies either.
And look, again, when I say that, if you’re here this evening and you’ve
had an abortion, and if you’ve repented of that, God sees you as clean, as
Jesus Christ, and you have a reunion in heaven, waiting for you. And many of us have done so many things,
particularly before we came to Christ, we’re so thankful for the blood of
Jesus, we’re forgiven, we’re cleansed.
But God takes note of one big mouth, Abimelech, who is a murderer, he’s
not getting away with anything, he’s not protected. You know, he can have walls of a castle
around him, but God sends a spirit that can go right through the walls and
begin to do the work that will be his dismembering and downfall of his little
self-setup kingdom here. “the men of
Shechem dealt treacherously with Abimelech:
that the cruelty done to the threescore and ten sons of Jerubbaal
might come, and their blood be laid upon Abimelech their brother, which slew
them; and upon the men of Shechem, which aided him in the killing of his
brethren. And the men of Shechem set
liers in wait for him in the top of the mountains, and they robbed all that
came along that way by them: and it was
told Abimelech.” (verses 23c-25) So
they’re herding the trade route here, no doubt Abimelech was taking tribute,
taxes, and these groups of bandits now go in the mountains, they’re lying in
wait, they’re watching, they’re scrutinizing the territory, they’re waiting for
a chance to kill Abimelech, and in the meantime they’re raiding these people in
trade, no doubt, the caravans in the trade route and so forth. “And Gaal the son of Ebed came with his
brethren, and went over to Shechem: and
the men of Shechem put their confidence in him.
And they went out into the
fields, and gathered their vineyards, and trode the grapes,” probably
in June, July then, it seems they’re gathering grapes, “and made merry, and
went into the house of their god, and did eat and drink, and curse
Abimelech. And Gaal the son of Ebed
said, Who is this Abimelech, and who is Shechem, that we should
serve him? is he not the son of Jerubbaal?” now he’s pickled, now it
seems, “and Zebul his officer? serve
the men of Hamor” who had been a Canaanite “the father of Shechem: for why should we serve him?” the son of
Jerubbaal, “and would to God this people were under my hand! then I would
remove Abimelech. And he said to
Abimelech, Increase thine army, and come out.” (verses 26-29) ‘Tough guy, get your guys and come
out!’ so this guy’s got Beer-muscle right now, he fled to Beer too, so
he’s been drinking. You know, when you
drink you get much bigger, get much stronger, you get much more fearsome,
everybody else gets smaller [in your own eyes, is what he’s saying], and that’s
happening to him here. So he says ‘Abimelech,
get your army and come on out here and I’ll face you down.’ “And when Zebul the ruler of the city
heard the words of Gaal the son of Ebed, his anger was kindled. And he sent messengers unto Abimelech
privily, saying, Behold, Gaal the son of Ebed and his brethren be come to Shechem;
and, behold, they fortify the city against thee. Now therefore up by night, thou and thy
people that is with thee, and lie in wait in the field:” surround
the city and hide yourself, “and it shall be, that in the morning, as
soon as the sun is up, thou shalt rise early,” because he knows all these
guys are going to have a hangover, “and set upon the city: and, behold, when he and the people
that is with him come out against thee, then mayest thou do to them as
thou shalt find occasion.” (30-33) So
he helps him set the ambush. Now behind
the scene, remember, there is this spirit that the LORD
sent to manage all of this. “And
Abimelech rose up, and all the people that were with him, by night, and
they laid wait against Shechem in four companies.” (verse 34) [and
Israelite company was 100 men, so this is 400 men.] they surrounded, they came
into the area in four companies. “And
Gaal the son of Ebed went out, and stood in the entrance of the gate of the
city: and Abimelech rose up, and the
people that were with him, from lying in wait.” (verse 35) so he
rose up in the morning, one of those mornings, I remember them from before I
was saved, and you know, you’re drinking tomato juice, all kinds of strong
coffee. He went out and stood in the
entering of the gate, he’s rubbing his eyes, strong coffee, “and Abimelech
rose up, and the people that were with him, from lying in wait. And when Gaal saw the people, he said to
Zebul, Behold, there come people down from the top of the mountains. And Zebul said unto him, Thou seest the
shadow of the mountains as if they were men.” (verses 35b-36) Zebul said ‘Naw, you’re seeing the
shadows of the mountains as if they were men,’ Gaal had a hangover,
said ‘What’s all that gray stuff coming down the side of the mountains?’ Zebul
says ‘You got a hangover, that’s the shadow of the clouds coming down the
side of the mountain.’ you know, it’s just getting light. “And Gaal spake again and said, See there
come people down by the middle of the land, and another company come along by
the plain of Meonenim. Then said Zebul
unto him, Where is now thy mouth, wherewith thou sadist, Who is
Abimelech, that we should serve him? is not this the people that thou
hast despised? go out, I pray now, and
fight with them.” (verses 37-38) that’s
a terrible feeling, isn’t it? ‘Where
is thy mouth?’ the fear of all sinners on the day of judgment. You know, I’ve got a relative on the West
Coast, I remember one time witnessing to him, and he said ‘Yaa, someday I’ll
stand in front of him, I’ll give him a piece of my mind,’ I’m thinking ‘oh
man.’ Somebody’s going to say ‘Where
is thy mouth?’ A lot of people say
that, don’t they, they’re going to give God a piece of their mind, ‘Man,
he’s not fair,’ and they’re going to stand there, they’re going to tell
him, and when God brings judgment, and this is God’s judgment, because there’s
a spirit working behind the scenes, Abimelech is coming, God orchestrated this,
and Zebul now says to Gaal “Where is now thy mouth, wherewith thou saidst,
Who is Abimelech, that we should
serve him?” ‘now you’re going to find out who Abimelech is.’ “is not this the people that thou
hast despised? go out, I pray now, and fight with them. And Gaal went out before the men of Shechem,
and fought with Abimelech. And Abimelech chased him, and he fled before him,
and many were overthrown and wounded, even unto the entering of
the gate.” (verses 38-40) Daniel
tells us that God sets up one man over a nation, takes another down, and
sometimes God in his purposes even sets up the basest of men, and Abimelech is
no-good, God’s allowing him now, Jotham’s prophecy was fire will come out from
Abimelech and destroy you [you, the city of Shechem], and fire will come out
from you and destroy him. “And
Abimelech dwelt at Arumah: and Zebul
thrust out Gaal and his brethren, that they should not dwell in Shechem.”
(verse 41) [I think Zebul was trying
to save the city from Abimelech by getting rid of the trouble-maker, but it’s
not gonna work, as we’ll see.] “And
it came to pass on the morrow, that the people went out into the field; and
they told Abimelech. And he took the
people, and divided them into three companies,” because he knows where Gaal
is, and this is his dad’s old trick, isn’t it, Gideon had divided his 300 into
three different companies, “and laid in wait in the field, and looked, and,
behold, the people were come forth out of the city; and he rose up
against them, and smote them. And
Abimelech, and the company that was with him, rushed forward, and stood
in the entering of the gate of the city:
and the two other companies ran upon all the people that were
in the fields, and slew them.” (verses 42-44) so Abimelech gets to the
gates so the people can’t get back into the city, the other two companies flank
them and come in and destroy them, “And Abimelech fought against the city
all that day; and he took the city, and slew the people that was
therein, and beat down the city, and sowed it with salt.” (verse 45) so
they could never grow any crops again or anything. “And when all the men of the tower of
Shechem heard that, they entered into the hold of the house of the god
of Berith. And it was told Abimelech,
that all the men of the tower of Shechem were gathered together. And Abimelech gat him up to mount Zalmon, he
and all the people that were with him; and Abimelech took an ax in his
hand, and cut down a bough from the trees, and took it, and laid it on
his shoulder, and said unto the people that were with him, What ye have
seen me do, make haste, and do as I have done. And all the people likewise cut down every
man his bough, and followed Abimelech, and put them to the hold, and set
the hold on fire upon them; so that all the men of the tower of Shechem died
also, about a thousand men and women.” (verses 46-49) the prophecy of
Jotham. He goes into the woods, cuts
down somewhat of a branch or a tree, begins to drag it towards the tower, says ‘I
want everybody to do the same thing I’m doing,’ so they’re going to
gather all this foliage against the tower there in Shechem. Now the fortresses in those days,
particularly in Israel, many of them were made of limestone. The Romans used to do this, they would come
in and pile branches, logs against the walls of the city, set it on fire, and
limestone maintains an enormous amount of moisture. Well when the fire would dry out the
limestone it would begin to crack and fracture, and the walls would actually
come down. And here, no doubt, this
tower comes down in the midst of these flames and all of those men die there at
Shechem, and it says a thousand men and women.
Baal-berith wasn’t much of a help.
Now
God Renders Judgment Down Upon Abimelech “Then
went Abimelech Thebez, and encamped against Thebez, and took it. But there was a strong tower within the city,
and thither fled all the men and women, and all the city, and shut it to
them, and gat them up to the top of the tower.
And Abimelech came unto the tower, and fought against it, and went hard
unto the door of the tower to burn it with fire.” (verses 50-52) so
he’s doing the same thing, he fights his way in, he’s going to put the branches
around it and so forth, no doubt his men are pushing in behind him, and verse
53 just says, “And a certain woman cast a piece of a millstone upon
Abimelech’s head, and all to brake his skull.” come on, what’s her
name? It’s a certain woman, maybe we’ll
meet her in heaven. She cast a piece of
a millstone upon his head, and it broke his skull. “Then he called hastily unto the young man
his armourbearer, and said unto him, Draw thy sword, and slay me, that men say
not of me, A woman slew him. And his
young man thrust him through, and he died.” (verse 54) this guy’s more
concerned about his reputation than his soul.
[They didn’t have any concept of soul back then, the Old Covenant only
promised good crops and physical blessings for obedience, never eternal life as
the New Testament describes it. Again,
as Numbers 11:13-39 points out, Moses states that he wishes all Israel
would have God’s Holy Spirit put upon and into them, whereas it was only a
special 70 men receiving it at that time, to be of assistance to Moses, who
received God’s Holy Spirit. As Ezekiel
37:1-14 makes clear, and the Jews understand this, there will come a time when
all Israel (and the world) will be brought back to life and be offered God’s
Holy Spirit as well as being given a time to live on farms, etc.] ‘You know,
I may go to hell, but I don’t want on my statue, memorial, I don’t want it to
say some woman killed me.’ And the
Hebrew indicates the upper part of the millstone, which was held by hand, it
was about 27lbs. So you could imagine
somebody up in a tower dropping a 27lb frozen turkey on your head, you get an
idea what that would do, not a pleasant experience at all. Here’s Abimelech, cruel, ruthless, sinning,
God had waited three years, he refused to turn, refused to turn, he refused to
turn, and what happens, as always happens, his sin finally put him into a
situation he couldn’t get out of. No
doubt he saw the woman, I don’t know if he looked up, I don’t know if she said ‘Abimelech,
hello,’ there was this millstone in her hand, ‘see how this feels.’ So he must have looked up and seen her,
and he couldn’t back out because everybody was pushing against, and his sin had
put him in that place, he was unable to escape from it. And you know what, if the Lord deals with
this, and deals with this, and deals with it, and he’s patient, sometimes he’ll
wait for years, sometimes we look at someone whose compromised in sin and
think, ‘God, why aren’t you dealing with this?’ And God is merciful and he waits, and he
waits, and he waits, and he waits. But
ultimately if we don’t repent, our sin gets us into a place we can’t escape
from, and the lesson is learned the hard way then, the hard way. And that’s the position here that Abimelech
gets himself into. This woman, he’s
thinking ‘This is an embarrassing thing to have on my tombstone as a
warrior, here lies Abimelech with a crushed skull from a woman on top of the
tower.’ He didn’t want anybody to know, so God put it in a Best-Seller
and sent it around the world in all different languages [chuckles]. ‘He called to his armourbearer and says
Do me a favour, kill me, I just don’t want anybody to say a woman did it.’ “And his young man thrust him through,
and he died. And when the men of Israel
saw that Abimelech was dead, they departed every man unto his place.” (verses
54c-55) Listen, verse 56 is
monumental, “Thus God rendered the wickedness of Abimelech, which he did
unto his father, in slaying his seventy brethren: and all the evil of the men
of Shechem did God render upon their heads:
and upon them came the curse of Jotham the son of Jerubbaal.” (verses
56-57) Thus God rendered, and he
always does. Look, we just went through
this long chapter. What it’s telling us
here, is all of the details are just facts, it’s just giving us the story. God
was merciful at the beginning because Jotham said, “hearken unto me, men of
Israel, that God may hearken unto you.” He had challenged them and called them to
repentance, in the beginning, and told them this parable, this soliloquy, and
told them, and they understood exactly what he was talking about, and he had
given them a chance. And God then had
waited three years after Abimelech had taken the throne before he sent this
evil spirit and started this process.
All of those things were under the sovereignty of God. There’s never an Abimelech whose getting away
with injustice. There’s never a wicked
man (or woman) anywhere in the world that’s getting away with anything. There’s never a righteous man that goes
unnoticed. There is never a son or
daughter of God who has repented, you may live in obscurity and no one may ever
know who you are or know your name, but God notices everything. God notices everything. And there is no child of God whose living in
compromise and sin, whose getting away with anything, because he chastens the
sons that he loves. It is unpleasant,
but it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness. Look, there is in the process, a sovereign
God. And he’s not like he’s busy with
somebody else, you know Makmud-Aminijab is so crazy and so dangerous that God
can’t really watch us. You know, if
you’ve raised kids, you know it’s like that, you have a bad one, you just do,
there’s lessons in that, God gives you one of those, little Charlie Manson, if
you don’t watch him every minute he’s gonna do something to the rest of the
kids. And the other kids know, your
attention’s on him, they can get away with stuff. We had one of those. When my wife would get on the phone, she’d be
talking, and all of a sudden she’d say ‘Wait a minute,’ whoever she was
on the phone with her, ‘the house is quiet, he’s into something.’ I remember one time she got off the phone
looking for him, she found him in front of the refrigerator, he had taken out
all of the eggs, they were broken all over the floor, he’s standing in the
middle of a puddle, he’d taken all of the grapes, they were all over the floor,
all around, tomatoes, everything, he’s standing in this big lake of goo, taking
stuff out, and she comes and looks and says ‘What are you doing!?!’ and
he spun around, put his hands over his rear end and said ‘I didn’t do it,’ already
protecting his proboscis, he turns around, and of course he slipped in the
eggs, ‘Boom!’ right on the floor.
But when you have one of those, they get your attention. And sometimes we think God is like that. No, the truth is, his attention is equally
divided between over 6 billion [now around 7.8 billion] people on the planet,
saved and unsaved. His sons, his
daughters, those whom he’s drawing by his Spirit, those who have turned away,
the wicked, God is completely cognizant of all, there is no wicked man getting
away with anything, there is no righteous person who is suffering that God
doesn’t take notice of. “Thus
God Rendered” -- You Reap What You Sow And
all this whole chapter is the small details, the momentous thing is here, “thus
God rendered,” that’s the whole story of the whole chapter, everything else
is just details, “thus God rendered the wickedness of Abimelech.” We’re told in the New Testament, ‘Be
not deceived, God is not mocked, as a man sows, that’s how he reaps.’ [so be careful what you sow, and pull
up those weeds and burn them.] You sow
one thing, that’s what you reap, it’s a law, it’s a law of nature, go watch it.
If you plant apple seeds, you’re not gonna get oranges, it’s never gonna
happen. It’s a law in nature to speak to
us, you’ll always reap the same thing you’ve sown. Now I thought it was interesting, years ago,
when Princess Dianna died, and Mother Theresa, they died the same week, I mean,
Mother Theresa should have died long before that. She was in bad shape, God kept her alive, you
have these two renowned personalities held in front of the world in one
week. One had everything and died with
nothing, one had nothing and died with everything. You know, people want to live like Princess
Dianna and die like Mother Theresa, it ain’t gonna happen, it ain’t gonna
happen. As a man sows, that’s how he’s
gonna reap. First law, unavoidable. Secondly, you always reap later than you sow,
there’s a season of sowing [and then a season of growing], and there’s a season
of harvest. Somehow we lose track of
that, Abimelech lost track of that. You
know, we’re used to instant on televisions, instant breakfast, instant cameras,
instant whatever we want these days. And
we’re not used to duration of time. A
hundred years ago, in an agricultural society everybody understood these
processes, they watched. Jesus said ‘the
husbandman goes out and he looks at the seed he’s planted, he watches day and
night, and first it puts forth the shoot, then the ear, he watches, he knoweth
not how, he sees the miracle of it,’ but the harvest always comes
afterwards, so no one, not Abimelech, no one’s getting away with anything. People feel they’re getting away with
something because the hammer’s not coming down.
Paul says ‘Men misinterpret the mercy of God, because God’s not
judging, but his longsuffering is there to bring people to repentance,’ his
tenderness and his longsuffering are extended not so we can sin, but so we can
wake up and come to repentance. Because
the last rule of the harvest is, you always reap more than you sow, you sow to
the wind, you reap the whirlwind, you put one seed in, you get a whole
tree. Now look, by the way, we say two
things about that. Put that on the good
side, ‘I try to do my devotions [prayer & Bible study for us normal
Christians], I get up and I read the Word a half hour every morning, I’m not
sure if I’m growing.’ You do that,
and this is what’s unavoidable, you will reap what you’ve sown. If you sow to the Spirit, you will reap life,
that’s what the Bible says. You just
want it right now. You read a half hour
every day, and five years from now your life will be different. And ten years from now it will be vastly
different. And I’m gonna want to know
you 50 years from now if you read the Bible a half hour every day of your life,
you’re going to be rich for everybody.
The problem is, that harvest comes later, but it also comes in greater
measure than you sow it. Listen, those
of you who feel like your marriage is hopeless [it was], or a relationship [it
is, two of my adoptive daughters deserted me], or some other thing you feel you
can’t make any progress or a ministry, if you sow to the Spirit, the law is,
you can only reap what’s good, you’re not gonna reap bad. You know, that’s why we do, we’re doing
[can’t figure out the word he’s using] series in church here, it’s so Biblical
about what to do in our marriages [see https://unityinchrist.com/topical%20studies/HowMarriageWorks.html],
if you sow good in, your spouse may be offended or whatever, you’re going to
get good out, it’s the only thing that can come back, if you sow good in. It takes time. It’s not easy. We don’t like waiting. I have observed over many years in ministry
three things that usually bear good fruit, time, prayer and unconditional
love. We hate waiting, we fall asleep
while we’re praying, and we’d rather choke somebody than give them
unconditional love, but I’m telling ya, time, prayer and unconditional love bear
remarkable fruit. Let’s go back to the
negative side, for the sinner, here’s the wonderful thing for you and I,
because we’re under the New Covenant in Christ [see https://unityinchrist.com/newcovenant/TheNEWCOVENANT.htm],
we may sin, we may go AWOL, we may become a prodigal, we may do things that are
completely wrong, but if we go to God in genuine repentance, he is able to
shorten this process, because Christ bore it all on the cross for us. It doesn’t mean this, if I go out on a Friday
night, I get drunk and I get in a fist fight, and I go to club somebody, and I
hit ‘em on the back of the head and I break my wrist, and I get a cast, and I’m
walking around with a cast, it’s not like ‘Oh God, I’m so stupid,’ and
then God’s going to heal my wrist, it doesn’t say that. God’s going to let me wear that cast and it’s
going to tell me how stupid I am for weeks, because he wants me to learn,
too. But in the spiritual realm, I’m
forgiven, if my repentance is real. But
God renders, wonderfully he renders unto us on behalf of Christ, who completed
and bore it all on the cross for us. And
it says ‘he made him who knew no sin to be sin, that you and I, that he
might render to us the very righteousness of Jesus Christ.’ ‘Thus God rendered,’ that’s the story
for every Abimelech, everything else is just details. Chapter 10… Judges
10:1-18 “And
after Abimelech there arose to defend Israel Tola the son of Puah, the son of
Dodo, a man of Issachar; and he dwelt in Shamir in mount Ephraim.
2 And he judged Israel twenty and three
years, and died, and was buried in Shamir. 3
And after him arose Jair, a Gileadite,
and judged Israel twenty and two years. 4
And he had thirty sons that rode on
thirty ass colts, and they had thirty cities, which are called Havoth-jair unto
this day, which are in the land of Gilead. 5
And Jair died, and was buried in Camon. 6
And the children of Israel did evil
again in the sight of the LORD,
and served Baalim, and Ashtaroth, and the gods of Syria, and the gods of Zidon,
and the gods of Moab, and the gods of the children of Ammon, and the gods of
the Philistines, and forsook the LORD,
and served him not. 7 And
the anger of the LORD
was hot against Israel, and he sold them into the hands of the Philistines, and
into the hands of the children of Ammon. 8
And that year they vexed and oppressed
the children of Israel: eighteen years,
all the children of Israel that were on the other side of Jordan in the
land of the Amorites, which is in Gilead. 9
Moreover the children of Ammon passed
over Jordan to fight also against Judah, and against Benjamin, and against the
house of Ephraim; so that Israel was
sore distressed. 10 And
the children of Israel cried unto the LORD,
saying, We have sinned against thee, both because we have forsaken our God, and
also served Baalim. 11 And
the LORD
said unto the children of Israel, Did not I deliver you from the
Egyptians, and from the Amorites, from the children of Ammon, and from the
Philistines? 12 The
Zidonians also, and the Amalekites, and the Maonites, did oppress you; and ye
cried to me, and I delivered you out of their hand. 13
Yet ye have forsaken me, and served
other gods: wherefore I will deliver you
no more. 14 Go
and cry unto the gods which ye have chosen:
let them deliver you in the time of your tribulation. 15
And the children of Israel said unto the
LORD,
We have sinned: do thou unto us
whatsoever seemeth good unto thee; deliver us only, we pray thee, this day. 16
And they put away the strange gods from
among them, and served the LORD: and his soul was grieved for the misery of
Israel. 17 Then
the children of Ammon were gathered together, and encamped in Gilead. And the children of Israel assembled
themselves together, and encamped in Mizpeh. 18
And the people and princes of
Gilead said one to another, What man is he that will begin to fight
against the children of Ammon? he shall be head over all the inhabitants of
Gilead.” Next
Judge, Tola, With The Hidden Meaning In His Name “And
after Abimelech” I know you were wondering what
happened after Abimelech, “there arose to defend Israel Tola the son of
Puah, the son of Dodo, a man of Issachar; and he dwelt in Shamir in mount
Ephraim. And he judged Israel twenty and
three years, and died, and was buried in Shamir” (verses 1-2) I know if you were wondering if that
happened after Abimelech. We’re going to
have several of these, let me read the next one, “And after him arose Jair,
a Gileadite, and judged Israel twenty and two years. And he had thirty sons that rode on thirty
ass colts, and they had thirty cities, which are called Havoth-jair unto this
day, which are in the land of Gilead.
And Jair died, and was buried in Camon.” (verses 3-5) Just in case you’re wondering about those two
guys. This is what happened after
Abimelech. Isn’t it interesting? Listen, after Abimelech there arose to defend
Israel Tola, his name means “worm,” I don’t know either. ‘Honey, you know what I think we should
name him, worm.’ ‘I don’t know, you
know, what about Mosquito? No, I like
worm.’ “There arose to defend
Israel Tola the son of Puah,” Puah means “splendor.” You know, as you listen to him, it seems like
Puah should mean “worm” and Tola should mean “splendor” the way they sound, but
Puah means “splendor,” the son of Dodo, which means “loving” or “loved of
God.” You know, we toured Israel with
David Asiel for years, he’s a friend, Orthodox Jew in Israel, you hear people
who know him say ‘Dodo, dodo,’ it’s an endearing term. Doesn’t sound like it in English, I
understand that. Now look, Tola judges
Israel for 23 years, and he dies, he’s gone, buried in Shamir, we’re not even
sure where that is. Two sentences, he
judges Israel three years longer than Samson, we’re going to have chapters on
Samson. Samson judges Israel for 20
years, Tola judges Israel for 23 years, and delivers them. We have two sentences, and he’s gone, and his
name means “worm.” We have a very
interesting usage, I’ll read it to you, you don’t have to turn there, Psalm
22 says this, ‘My God, my God, why haste thou forsaken me, why
art thou so far from helping me and the words of my roaring. O my God, I cry in the day time, but thou
hearest not, and in the night season, and am not silent. But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the
praises of Israel, our fathers trusted in thee, they did trust and thou didst
deliver them, they cried unto thee and were delivered, they trusted in thee,
and they were not confounded, but I am a worm’ “Toleth”
here, same word, ‘and no man, a reproach of man, despised of the
people.’ It’s going to say here ‘They
divided my garments, they pierced my hands and feet,’ it’s Christ
describing his experience on the cross, and he says ‘I am toleth, a
worm.’ Now, Tola, “little
worm,” diminutive, same word, some places it’s translated “scarlet,”
because the animal, this little worm was famous for the die that would come
out. When this animal, this little worm
was going to lay eggs, it would crawl up a tree and attached itself to a tree,
and the eggs would hatch inside of it, and the young would feed on it, and
that’s where they would receive their life from, and the mother then would die,
and split open, and this red colour would run down the tree, and the offspring
were given life by the sacrifice of the mother.
Jesus said ‘I am a toleth, I’ll give my life on the tree, and the
scarlet colour can run down so that my offspring can have life.’ There was a judge, his name was Tola,
he was the son of Splendor, the son of Loved of God, and he dealt in Shamir in
mount Ephraim and he judged Israel 23 years. God knows exactly who he was. He has two sentences, and he had a more
profound ministry than Samson. Look, I
say that because most of us, you serve the Lord, you think nobody knows, I know
Christians that have that wonderful self-image, I’m a worm, ‘Lord, what
could you ever do with me?’ You’re
not a worm, you’re a son of God or a daughter of God, Jesus Christ became the
worm that we are, he bore all of our sin on the tree, paid the price in
full. And we can have an impact on our
culture and on our family, on the people around us. One man, Gideon, the whole nation was
influenced by him for 40 years. One man,
Tola, we know nothing about, steps on and off the page, a beautiful picture of
Christ, he judged Israel for 23 years, longer than Samson. Next
Judge Is Jair, Which Means “To Enlighten” After
him arose Jair, which means “to enlighten.”
“And after him arose Jair, a Gileadite, and judged Israel twenty and
two years.” (verse 3) two years longer than Samson. “And he had thirty sons” not sure why
we’re told that “that rode on thirty ass colts, and they had thirty cities,
which are called Havoth-jair unto this day, which are in the land of
Gilead. And Jair died, and was buried in
Camon.” (verses 4-5) Now not one
conspicuous act is recorded about either one of them, interesting, God takes
note. He deals with the Abimelech’s of
this world, he takes note of them, he renders, and he will render to the Tola’s
and the Jair’s among us, of us also [Genesis 12:3 goes both ways]. (we really have to travel at light-speed to
finish this up) after these 22 and 23 year periods The
Stage Is Being Set For The Next Two Judges: Jephthah & Samson (After
These Two Judges Are Gone, 45 Years Later, The Children Of Israel Go Back To
Worshipping False gods, Idols) “And
the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the LORD,
and served Baalim, and Ashtaroth, and the gods of Syria, and the gods of Zidon,
and the gods of Moab, and the gods of the children of Ammon, and the gods of
the Philistines, and forsook the LORD,
and served not him.” (verse 6) this is where
the writer wants to bring us, “and the gods of the children” more specifically
“of Ammon,” Molech, “and the gods of the Philistines” Dagon. Now we’re going to move to two major judges,
Jephthah, whose going to set Israel free from Ammon, that’s why it tells us
they served the gods of the children of Ammon, that will set the backdrop for
chapter 11, and two chapters looking at Jephthah, “and they served the gods of
the Philistines,” that will set the stage for chapters 13 to 16, the life of Samson. So that’s being put in front of us here, and
in serving those other gods, they “forsook the LORD,
and served him not.” “And the anger of the LORD
was hot against Israel, and he sold them into the hands of the Philistines, and
into the hands of the children of Ammon.” (verse 7) We’re going to set the stages now for the
deliverance from those two servitudes. “And
that year they vexed and oppressed the children of Israel: eighteen years, all the children of Israel
that were on the other side of Jordan in the land of the Amorites, which
is Gilead. Moreover the children
of Ammon passed over Jordan to fight also against Judah, and against Benjamin,
and against the house of Ephraim; so that Israel was sore distressed.” (verses
8-9) that’s always bad, when you’re sore distressed. “And the children of Israel cried unto the
LORD,
saying, We have sinned against thee, both because we have forsaken our God, and
also served Baalim.” (verse 10) ‘Eh,
we’ve waited 18 years, maybe we should try crying unto the LORD,’
I’m always amazed at that, I at least,
I’d be crying, I’m crying in no time. 18
years, amazing. They cried unto the LORD,
“saying, We have sinned against thee, both because we have forsaken our God,
and also served Baalim.” We’ll pick up here next time we get together, “And
the LORD
said unto the children of Israel, Did not I deliver you from the
Egyptians, and from the Amorites, from the children of Ammon, and from the
Philistines? the Zidonians also, and the Amalekites, and the Maonites, did
oppress you; and ye cried to me, and I delivered you out of their hand.”
(verses 11-12) how did the LORD
say that unto the children of Israel?
What do you mean “the Lord said”?
Where? It doesn’t tell us. Some voice is raised, we’re not sure how the
LORD speaks to the children
of Israel. Earlier in the Book it says
“and a prophet showed up,” don’t know his name, don’t know where he came from,
he disappeared. Here is says somehow the
LORD spake to them, and the
LORD does, never has a
problem. Tola may be gone, Jair may be
gone, Gideon may be gone, but the LORD
has no problem speaking. And the LORD
spoke to them, “Did not I deliver you from the Egyptians, and
from the Amorites, from the children of Ammon, and from the Philistines? the
Zidonians also, and the Amalekites, and the Maonites, did oppress you; and ye
cried to me, and I delivered you out of their hand. Yet ye have forsaken me, and served other
gods: wherefore I will deliver you no
more. Go and cry unto the gods which ye
have chosen: let them deliver you in the time of your tribulation.” (verses
11-14) Now he's going to produce
real repentance. ‘You’ve served
these gods, now you’re in a mess, go cry to them, see if they deliver
you.’ You know it tells us in
Ezekiel that sometimes God bound the nation up to her adulterous affair, God
said ‘You like idols, he sent Nebuchadnezzar, let me give you a free ride
to the land of idols. You want to
worship idols, I’m gonna send you to the capitol of idols, and you can have a
party there until you’re sick of it, 70 years.’
And there are times, we’re told, when God binds someone over to
their adulterous affair, to the situation they want, gives them over to it, in
his mercy, and lets them reap what they’ve sown so that they become sick of
it. What we’re going to see is after
this, the children of Israel, their repentance is real. It says they put away the gods, they followed
the LORD,
you could see their repentance, it wasn’t just mouthing ‘I’m sorry, I’m
sorry, I’m sorry,’ it was a change in their life that lined up with what
they were saying, and then it says ‘God was merciful, God was grieved for
their misery, God is always merciful.’ But
sometimes he’ll let that happen in our lives.
I had an uncle in New Jersey, Marine, he was at Iwo Jima, World War II,
great guy, had a farm, had a gentleman’s farm there, raised some goats, raised
some stuff, had some chickens. He had
this dog, and the dog started to kill the chickens, for some reason once the
dog killed the first chicken, this dog loved chickens, and my uncle would beat
the dog, and just the dog was a slow learner.
So one day my uncle caught the dog with a chicken in his mouth, and he
took that chicken and wrapped it up with duct tape to his neck, tied it there,
that chicken was there for a month on that dog.
Ah, he’s dead, you can’t report him to the SPCA, just listen, this is a
story, you’re supposed to learn something.
He tied the chicken there, of course that dog wasn’t allowed in the
house, that chicken stunk, that dog was walking around going Whif!, trying
to get that chicken off. When my uncle
took that chicken off there, that dog never went near a chicken again for the
rest of his life. Sometimes God will do
that. He’ll tie the chicken to our neck,
he's say ‘OK, have it now, call out on your chicken,…’ and we finally
say ‘Uncle,’ he loves us, the chastening of the Lord is not pleasant,
but it yields the peaceable fruit of
righteousness, you know, sometimes we can be so stubborn, so rebellious that
God finally says ‘Alright, go on, have it,’ and when we’re sick of it,
and we will be, and when we’re broken, and we will be, and more repentant, and
we will be, and when it’s real, and we’re willing to bring our life in line
with our words, that’s the fruit of repentance, he’s there, and he’s merciful,
and he’s waiting. And his wisdom is very
evident…Judges chapter 11, we’ve got to back up a few verses, ah chapter 10 set
the stage for the last two judges for us, for Samson, because it tells us that
they’re subjugated to the Philistines in the south [the southwest], and for
Jephthah, because we’re hearing that they’re subjugated to the Ammonites, verse
8 in chapter 10 says for eighteen years, and then they start to cry out to the
LORD, and again, and I’m
amazed, it would not take me eighteen years.
Ah, we are an interestingly stubborn lot, 18 years in subjugation before
they start to cry out to the LORD,
and the LORD
basically tells them ‘Let the gods that you’ve given your lives to bail
you out,’ he says in verse 14, “Go and cry unto the gods which ye
have chosen; let them deliver you in the time of your tribulation. And the children of Israel said unto the LORD,
We have sinned: do thou unto us
whatsoever seemeth good unto thee; deliver us only, we pray thee, this day.”
(verses 14-15)
And again, there must be a prophet here, we’re not given anything
particular, it’s not the role of a judge to be speaking like this. Reality seems to be setting in, and notice verse
16, it says “And they put away the strange gods from among them, and
served the LORD: and his soul was grieved for the misery of
Israel.”
Repentance should always have arms and legs on it. John the Baptist, remember, he said to the
Pharisees and scribes, ‘Bring forth therefore fruits worthy of
repentance, don’t think to say in your hearts you have Abraham as our father,
he’s able to raise up children from these stones,’ but he told them
that they should bring forth fruits worthy of repentance, he said it should be
seen. Here, you know, ‘I’m sorry I’m
doing, I can’t believe I got into this, I should be doing this,’ then if it
just goes on, but if there’s real
repentance and there’s real confession, it’s agreeing with the Lord, homolagao,
saying the same thing, then there should be a change in the way we live, it
should be visible, it should be evident.
And it says here, in their repentance “they put away the strange gods
from among them,” it took them 18 years, “and they served the LORD: and his soul was grieved for the misery of
Israel.” (verse 16) if you can imagine
that, a loving Father, the LORD’s
soul was grieved with the misery of his people.
They had turned from him for 18 years, they had done abominable things
worshipping Molech the god of the Ammonites, and now turning back to him and
crying out, it says his soul is grieved, broken, God’s broken heart for the
misery of Israel. Look, again, remember,
the only reason that we can have a relationship with a son and a daughter, is
because we’re created in his image and likeness, and before the worlds were
formed, his Son was offered. The only
reason we can love a son, a daughter, a spouse, is because we have in being
created in his image and likeness, we have the capacity for relationship (cf. 1st
Corinthians 2:9-13). And to him that is
highest of all capacities, because therein lies the love of God. The fact that we can have a kid whose a
prodigal, who goes out, and we don’t know what they’re doing, we get mad at
them, and when they come back years later, and they’re coming back with the
right attitude, and we start to see ‘Man, they’ve really changed,’ how our
hearts can break, how we can be grieved for the pain and the difficulties
they’ve had, and we see that here, it’s because we’re created in his image and
likeness, he’s grieved for the misery of Israel. “Then the children of Ammon were gathered
together, and encamped in Gilead. And
the children of Israel assembled themselves together, and encamped in
Mizpeh. And the people and princes
of Gilead said one to another, What man is he that will begin to fight
against the children of Ammon? he shall
be head over all the inhabitants of Gilead.” (verses 17-18) [This is where they are, there were many “Mizpah’s”
in Israel, Mizpeh just meaning “a fortress, tower.”]
That
sets the stage, they lack a leader. The
children of Ammon have gathered now against
them, because the children of Israel are pulling away to some degree, and now
they say ‘where are we going to get a leader?’ “Now Jephthah” there was no chapter
break when it was written, and we’ll begin next week… [transcript of a connective expository sermon
on Judges 9:1-57 and Judges 10:1-18, given by Pastor Joe Focht, Calvary Chapel
of Philadelphia, 13500 Philmont Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19116]
related
links: Audio
version: https://resources.ccphilly.org/detail.asp?TopicID=&Teaching=WED635 We’re
in the New Covenant. What is that? see https://unityinchrist.com/newcovenant/TheNEWCOVENANT.htm We
shouldn’t be involved in politics, why? see https://unityinchrist.com/topical%20studies/America-ModernRomans6.htm
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