Bees fly thousands of miles to gather enough nectar to make a pound of honey. Then, someone comes along and steals it from them! No wonder bees have such lousy dispositions!
How do you handle conflict in your life? How do you react when someone does something mean or rude to you? Do you try to set straight the scales of justice? Is seeking revenge a part of your response?
But the apostle Paul teaches us in Romans 12:19: “Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, (here, Paul quotes Deut. 32:35), ‘Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,’ says the Lord.”
Judges 9 is, by far, the longest chapter in the whole book of Judges. We’re going to spend time going through the details of this event, and then let the author summarize it for us in the last two verses.
SHECHEM MAKES ABIMELECH KING – 9:1-6:
Jacob lived in Shechem. He had a lot of members of his family which had worshiped false gods and Jacob got them to repent of their idolatry and he buried all their idols under a tree in Shechem (35:2-4). But by the time Abimelech is born, the city of Shechem is a haven for idol worshipers, especially worshippers of Baal. The people have made a full circle, in about 400 years.
Verse 4 helps us understand the religious context of the city of Shechem. This “house” was a temple and “Baal-berith” was a designation of the false god, Baal; “berith” is the Hebrew word for “covenant.” The name itself translates “Baal of the Covenant.” Abimelech’s rise to power, then, is financed by donations to a false god.
JOTHAM REBUKES SHECHEM AND ABIMELECH – 9:7-21:
The basic message of Jotham’s fable is that the men of Shechem have chosen a bramble bush to be their king and he will eventually bring about their downfall, their ruin, their destruction. While Jotham is not identified as a prophet, we will see at the end of the story that God makes Jotham’s prediction come true.
GAAL BEGINS A CONSPIRACY – 9:22-49:
God sent an evil spirit between Abimelech and the men of Shechem. In some way, God caused bitterness to spring up between these two. Verse 24 tells us that God did this so He could bring vengeance back around on the head of Abimelech.
So, half of Jotham’s prophecy has been fulfilled. What about the other half? What about Abimelech himself? Well, God sees to it that he dies a very dishonorable death…!
ABIMELECH IS KILLED – 9:50-57:
Apparently there were a lot of the men and women of Shechem, followers of Gaal, who fled to Thebez and sought refuge in a defense tower there. They went up to the roof.
Abimelech decides he is going to do the same thing to Thebez that he did to the temple in Shechem: set it on fire. But, in verse 53, a woman, a random, nameless woman, gets a huge stone used to crush wheat, an upper millstone, and throws it over the wall, crushing Abimelech’s skull. On the verge of death, knowing he is dying, in pain and agony, Abimelech calls on his young armor-bearer to pull out his sword and kill Abimelech so that no one will know Abimelech was killed by a woman! So, the young man pulled his sword, ran Abimelech through with his steel, and nobody to this day has ever heard that Abimelech was killed by a woman! (Tongue in cheek!)
The whole purpose of the story, the reason God put it into the Bible for the sake of the Israelites and the reason why God left the story in the Bible for the sake of Christians is given in verses 56-57.
It doesn’t matter how you say it: “Be sure your sins will find you out” (Num. 32:23).
“Cast your bread on the surface of the waters, for you will find it after many days” (Ecc. 11:1).
“Whatever a man shows, this he will also reap” (Gal. 6:7). Sin ends in punishment. And we don’t need to try to take vengeance into our own hands. That’s a good way to get burned.
Leave vengeance to God. He does not forget sin and He will repay sin and punishment on those who deserve it.
Paul Holland