WCS Judges and Ruth: Even in Darkness (Welwyn Commentary Series Book 7) by Keddie Gordon J

Author:Keddie, Gordon J [Keddie, Gordon J]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Evangelical Press
Published: 2016-09-26T16:00:00+00:00

9.

A thorny problem

Please read Judges 8:29–10:5

‘Finally all the trees said to the thorn-bush, “Come and be our king.” The thorn-bush said to the trees, “If you really want to anoint me king over you, come and take refuge in my shade; but if not, then let fire come out of the thorn-bush and consume the cedars of Lebanon!” ’ (Judges 9:14, 15.)

The final words of Judges 8 give an ominous sense of incompleteness to the account of the revival under Gideon. Israel, we are told, ‘failed to show gratitude to the family of Jerub-Baal (that is, Gideon) for all the good things he had done for them’. What that failure to show gratitude meant in practical terms is soon revealed, for the ninth chapter of Judges records what happened to the sons of Gideon. It is an ugly story of murder and conspiracy over which arches the wrath of God against sin. In the process, the family of Gideon vanished from the stage of history and again a new judge, named Tola, was raised up to save Israel, not from a foreign oppressor, but from herself. Israel could well have said, in the words of a character from a modern American cartoon series, ‘We have met the enemy, and he is us!’

It is clear that a number of factors alluded to in the account of Gideon’s life as a judge came to produce their evil fruit only after that good man’s death. Shakespeare was acutely perceptive when he wrote, ‘The evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones.’ This was certainly the case with Gideon with respect to Israel’s history in the three years immediately following his death. In the first place, Gideon’s kingly life-style had not been consistent with his refusal of the kingship and it is clear enough that the desire of the people for a king, other than the Lord, had not abated. This was to result in the ready acceptance of the usurper Abimelech as king. In the second place, the immorality of Gideon in accumulating a harem and raising seventy-one sons made for an unhealthy intra-dynastic struggle. The fact that it was the one illegitimate son, Abimelech, who was the most ambitious is hardly surprising; the bastard sons of princes have always made the best usurpers! In the third place, the return of Israel to false religion, helped along by Gideon’s golden ephod, removed the theological and spiritual barriers to making a king and, indeed, provided the very means of carrying out Abimelech’s scheme! (9:4.) This would not be the last time in world history that organized religion financed revolution and terrorism!

The rise and fall of Abimelech

The ninth chapter of Judges records five distinct phases in the disastrous career of Abimelech. These may be outlined as follows:

Abimelech kills his brothers and gains the crown (9:1–6).

Jotham, his only surviving brother, foretells Abimelech’s fall in a parable (9:7–21).

Abimelech quarrels with the Shechemites (9:22–29).

The Shechemites are utterly destroyed by Abimelech (9:30–49).

Abimelech meets his own end at Thebez (9:50–57).

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